116 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
searched, my eyes nearly strained to bursting, till at length 
I was compelled to give up the chase. On looking round 
to find out as nearly as possible my situation, the better 
and more directly to return to my horse, I espied a splen- 
did wild turkey busy feeding not over thirty yards off, and 
still unaware of my presence. Sheltering myself behind a 
fallen log, I took sight along my barrel, determining inward- 
ly to have some reward for my labor; but although this 
time I worked the trigger correctly, nothing but the explo- 
sion of the cap took place; in fact, the rifle had missed fire. 
The turkey, frightened at the noise, lowered his head, ran 
about twenty yards, then stopped, and looked around, still 
ignorant of the cause of his alarm. Substituting a new cap 
and again taking sight was but the work of afew moments, 
but still the gun refused to explode. I now sprung my 
ramrod and placed on the nipple another cap, but the result 
was as before; and the turkey having become conscious 
that he was in a dangerous neighborhood, sought safety in 
flight. How often a day’s shooting is one tissue of blun- 
ders from morning till night! and so it was in this case. 
First, the game had passed too far from my stand; second- 
ly, changing guns had lost me the deer; and, thirdly, the 
carelessness of my friend in not sheltering his gun from the 
damp was the reason of my not having turkey for a future 
day’s dinner. 
Tired, hungry, and bad-tempered, I struck off direct for 
my horse, expecting to have little more than a milé to walk; 
but with surprise, after having traveled that distance, I 
found I was turned round and lost. Already it was sunset; 
half an hour more would make it dark, and the bottom-land 
which I was now wandering through was as intricate, dense- 
ly covered a swamp as ever was inhabited by wild-cat. The 
season of the year, moreover, was not exactly the one to se-. 
lect for making your couch on the surface of mother earth, 
