1002 
855 
henhouse for a roost. They want plenty 
of air, you know.” 
“Did you sell the calf, Joe?” I in¬ 
quired as he stopped to catch his breath. 
“There, I declare! 1 forgot all about 
sayin’ anything about the calf,” replied 
Joe; “I got so interested in the turkeys; 
but don’t make any difference, I’m going 
over again to-morrer and the calf’s 
growin’ all the time.” 
It’s strange how quickly the trend of 
one’s mind will change, and even while 
Joe was talking I was calculating how 
the profits from those turkeys might 
not only bring me that set of china, but 
the silk and other things. My heart 
was light as a feather as I went to see 
Joe’s turkeys, and we were happy as 
children fixing up and locating them in 
their new home. Of course I had to stay 
until they were settled; I knew that was 
what Joe wanted me to come out for. 
I visited them every day; they were 
tame as could be, had plainly been do¬ 
mesticated for several generations—I 
mean their ancestors had. 
’Long toward Spring Joe started out 
to find a gobbler. We had talked it over 
and made a list of turkey raisers with¬ 
in driving distance. The list was dread¬ 
fully short; didn’t include more than 
three names, but though we made in¬ 
quiries we couldn’t discover any more. 
Joe said turkey raising must be profit¬ 
able with so few in the business; 
couldn’t be much competition. The 
butcher was always telling how scarce 
they were; made them come high. It 
blew up real cold toward noon. I was 
glad to see Joe drive in soon after din¬ 
ner. While I set his dinner on the table 
he told the result of his ride, At the 
first place they had one gobbler to spare, 
but he was bargained for. At the second 
they had sold all excepting those they 
wanted to keep, and at the last and 
third place they had sold off those of 
their own raising, and sent to Vermont 
and bought a new gobbler. But they 
gave glowing accounts of the money 
they had made on their turkeys the year 
before. That evening Joe and I looked 
over the turkey advertisements in the 
agricultural papers. The gobblers seem¬ 
ed to cost high. Joe rather wanted to 
send $10 for one of the big 20 -pound 
bronze turkeys; but I told him we didn’t 
want any 20 -pound turkeys. I would 
rather have them common-sized and 
more of them. We selected two adver¬ 
tisements and wrote at once. It seemed 
quite a while before we got an answer, 
and the first one wrote that he had sev¬ 
eral gobblers of different weights. He 
usually sold none less than $5, but as 
they had all been sick, but were get¬ 
ting better, and thought they would 
come out all right, he would send us 
one of the best for $4.50. Joe said he 
didn’t want to buy any sick turkeys. So 
we waited for the reply to a second ad¬ 
vertiser. He wrote that he had two 
which he would sell, and we decided to 
send for a young gobbler weighing 14 
pounds, price $4. The freight was 75 
cents, so it made it nearly a $5 bird, but 
he was a fine one, so we were satisfied. 
He was homesick or carsick for a day 
or two, and would not eat anything. He 
didn’t seem to like the shed roost either, 
but insisted on roosting on the ridgepole 
of the barn, or the highest branch of 
the tallest tree nearby. After a few days 
he consented to come down from his 
lofty perch, and soon became quite do¬ 
mesticated. Finally the lady birds be¬ 
gan to make their nests, and one day 
Joe came in, his face radiant with joy, 
exclaiming: “We’ve got one turkey, 
Maria! They’ve laid a golden egg!” I 
packed it in cotton and the basket filled 
up fast. 
It was an eventful hour when we set 
the first 12 eggs under a hen, for Joe 
said he wanted the turkeys to lay as 
long as possible. One hen turkey laid 
right along, but the other did not get 
a good location for her nest, and after 
she had been disturbed several times, 
she migrated to a distant meadow. Joe 
rHE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
watched for days to discover where she 
went and fallowed her several times, 
missing his dinner once, but every time 
she would manage to elude him before 
reaching her nest. We feared the foxes 
would get her, and shut her in the hen¬ 
house for a few days until after she laid, 
hoping she would forget her nest in the 
meadow, but as soon as she was free and 
we stopped watching she would be gone. 
She would watch us closely and start off 
in the very hottest part of the day. Joe 
would creep along, skulking behind trees 
and stone walls. Once he followed her 
a mile or more, and then lost track of 
her. But she was only fooling him. One 
day he came up triumphantly driving 
her before him, with five eggs tied up 
in his handkerchief. He had found her 
nest in a clump of laurel bushes in the 
middle of the meadow, not so very far 
away after all. He broke up the nest 
and she concluded to bide at home there¬ 
after. 
Before any eggs hatched we had sev¬ 
eral hens and both turkeys setting. The 
first hen hatched out seven nice little 
turkeys. I had forgotten they were so 
pretty; with their soft brown heads and 
bright eyes they looked like young part¬ 
ridges. Joe fixed a nice coop, and as 
soon as he could he built a regular log 
cabin with open front closed by wire 
doors. We had been having a dry spell 
of weather, but from the day those tur¬ 
keys came out of the shell it began to 
rain, and from that time on when it did 
not shower (and some days it showered 
six or eight times) it was a steady rain 
nearly all Summer. In fact, the weather 
bureau reported it to be the cloudiest, 
wettest Summer we had had for many 
years. Why, I got wet through more 
times chasing those turkeys than I had 
in all my life before, and Joe wasn’t far 
behind me. We both knew that young 
turkeys could not stand wet weather if 
we could, so as soon as a shower or 
cloud came in sight we would start to 
drive those turkeys in. Even when we 
had the mother hen safe in the cood, 
those foolish little turkeys would sit 
outside under a pigweed until they were 
wet through, unless we fastened them. 
By the time the second sitting of eggs 
hatched several of the first brood had 
died, and by the time the third sitting 
hatched they had nearly all passed 
away. Joe made more turkey houses; 
the last one even had a veranda to shel¬ 
ter the little ones from sun and rain. 
The neighbors suggested that while he 
was about it he would better build it 
high enough to shelter us, so we could 
stay right there when it rained. At one 
time we had 30, in spite of death and 
accident, and I began to reckon that 
even at $2 each we should make some¬ 
thing. But alas, for human hopes! Just 
as I believed the largest tough enough 
to stand the weather they began to die 
off worse than ever, and one morning 
after a rainy night I found three which 
would weigh two pounds each dead in 
the coop. I could have cried, and who 
knows but I’did a little on the sly? One 
day we were invited to the city to meet 
friends at Brother John’s. At first we 
did not know how we could possibly go, 
and leave those turkeys over night. 
They were worse than babies. But Joe’s 
niece offered to stay and keep house (we 
had a man to do the barn chores), and 
she promised to look after the turkeys 
and see that they were all fastened in 
their coops at night. So with many 
cautions and some misgivings we start¬ 
ed. We had only just reached John’s 
when the wind began to blow and soon 
after noon it was blowing a perfect 
hurricane, and began to rain. I won¬ 
dered where my poor little turks were, 
and although we had a good visit I 
dreamed of dead and dying turkeys all 
night. When it came time for us to 
start for home we were both ready. Lila 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs.Wins- 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.—Adi;. 
met us at the depot, and her face bore 
no trace of the tragedy I feared. Her 
first words were words of comfort. As 
she spoke of the terrible storm they had, 
she added: “You know I was always 
forehanded, Aunt Maria, so when I went 
out to feed the turkeys after dinner the 
wind blew so I knew something was 
coming, though I did not think of its 
raining so quickly. I found the turkeys 
all clustered together in a frightened 
way, and I just drove them all into their 
coops and fastened them in. It began 
to rain before I was through, and you 
cannot imagine how thankful I was 
when the storm roared and raged all the 
afternoon with the rain coming in 
sheets. The hired man fed them at 
night, and put boards in front of the 
coops, and every turkey is alive and 
well, Aunt Maria.” 
“Thanks to your forehandedness, 
Lila,” replied Joe and I together laugh¬ 
ing. But the best of care and unlimited 
perseverance counted for little with 
those turkeys. More little ones came, 
but we could not raise the number above 
20 again, and now there are only 13. Joe 
says there is one thing certain; we are 
going to have turkey for dinner Christ¬ 
mas Day if we have to kill the old 
gobbler and eat a $5 one. 
ALICE E. FINNEY. 
SCHOOL GIRLS. 
The coffee habit is quickly over¬ 
come by those who let Grain-O 
take its place. If properly made 
it tastes like the best of coffee. No 
grain coffee compares with it in 
flavor or healthful ness. 
TRY IT TO-DAY. 
At grocers everywhere ; 15c. and 25c. per package. 
•STEAM''?, 
aerating 
DOME 
Harrison Mfg. Co., 
SALESMEN AND 
AGENTS WANTD. 
BIC WACES —Our Famous Pur¬ 
itan Water Still, a wonderful inven¬ 
tion—beats Filters. 7^5,000 already sold. 
Demand enormous. Everybody buys. 
Over the kitchen stove it furnishes 
plenty of distilled, aerated, delicious. 
Pure Water. Only method—saves 
lives and I>r. bills; prevents typhoid, 
malaria fevers, cures disease. Write 
for Booklet, New Plum, Terms, 
Etc. FREE. Address, 
15 Harrison Bldg., Cincinnati, 0. 
WATER CLOSET COMBINATIONS, 
Porcelain Bowl. Hardwood Seat and Tank, 
Nickel Plated Hush and supply pipes, com¬ 
plete, each 5 ( 111 .OO. 
Cast Iron Roll Rim Bath Tubs. 
length 5 ft. Complete 
with lull set of nickel 
plated fittings, each, 
Ill.OO. 
hey are new goods, 
ask for free catalogue 
No. 57 on plumbing 
and building material. 
Chicago House Wrecking Co., W. 35th and Iron Sts., Chicago 
’Tis ajirettv age—that time 
in a girl’s life when she has all 
the beauties of womanhood 
without the later lines of care 
and worry. 
But here and there even 
among school girls appear pale 
and drawn faces. 
Pale blood is at the bottom 
of the trouble and Scott’s 
Emulsion can cure it. 
Scott’s Emulsion brings 
back the beauty to pale girls 
because it is blood food. 
Send for Free Sample. 
SCOTT & BOWNF,, Chemists, 409 Pearl St., N. Y 
WRINGERS 
as they should he are illustrated in the line cata¬ 
logue of the AMERICAN WRINGER CO., 
99 Chambers St., New York. 
Write them before you buy. 
No Smoke House. Smoke meat with 
KRAUSERS.’ LIQUID EXTRACT OF SMOKE. 
Made from hickory wood. Gives delicions flavor. 
Cheaper, cleaner than old way. Send for cir¬ 
cular. E. Krauscr & Bro., .Hilton, Pa. 
ON 30 DAYS FREE TRIAL 
Space under arm I ,^ Our NEW PEERLESS 
7Yi5^ in. stsSjPlv 3) strictly high-grade. 
A 20 year guarantee!! I t |rr drop-head. ball-Bear- 
with each machine. 
We will 
return your 
money after 
80 days free *= 
trial if not en. 
tlrrly 8» llsfnelory 14, 
and pay trans-l”: 
portation both 
ways. Thousands 
sold and have 
never been asked _ 
to take one back. Price $19.50’ 
CASH SUPPLY A- MFG. CO. 
\l 
easy runtime 
noiseless, sel: 
setting needle, 
self - threading, 
shuttle full 
sized, simplest 
made and best 
Sewing Machine 
on the I O Cfl 
market v • fc ■ O U 
up to $24.GO for the 
.finest Cabinet case, 
all attachments free, 
’iitnlog of everything free. 
Dept. Q,Kalamazoo, Mich. 
STEEL ROOFING 
J FREIGHT CHARGES PAID BY US 
Strictly new, perfect. Semi - Hardened 
Steel Sheets, 2 teet wide, tj feet long. The 
host Roofing, Siding or felling you can use. 
No experience necessary to lay it. An 
ordinary hammer or hatchet the only 
tools you need. We furnish nails free 
and paint roofing two sides. Comes 
either fiat, corrugated or “V” crimped. 
Delivered free of all eliarges to all points 
in the U. S.. east ot the Mississippi River 
and North of the Ohio River 
$2.25 PER SQUARE 
Prices to other points on application. A square mc-aUS 100 
square feet. Write for free Catalogue Iso. 57 
CHICAGO HOUSE WRECKING CO., W. 35th and Iron Sts., Chic^o 
T he Handy Little Lantern | 
With a Great Big Light. J 
This is the ideal lantern for going about 
nights. It is neat, small in size, light 
and sheds a strong, pure white, penetrating 
light. Like the “Blizzard” this new 
JUNIOR 
LANTERN 
DIETZ 
is "cold blast”—takes in only pure cold air, which produces perfect 
combustion and consequent strong light. It’s the cheapest, handiest, 
safest little lantern ever made. Ask your dealer for it. If he does 
not have it, write to us; we will send it to you, express prepaid, on 
receipt of One Dollar. Write us for free catalogue. 
R. E. DIETZ COMPANY. 87LA3GHT ST., NEW YORK, 
Established, 18UO. 
Do You Want a Shot Gun? 
If you do you want a good one, but you need not pay fancy prices for it. 
There is none better made than the Stevens No. 1 has top snap, low rebounding 
hammer, special “ electro steel” choke bored 
for nitro powder, walnut stock, rubber butt 
plate case-hardened frame. Forearm attached 
to barrel, and fitted with metal joint. Price, 
$5.50, or with a year’s subscription to The 
R. N.-7., $6.25. No. 2 , in addition to No. 1 , has automatic shell ejector, checked 
pistol grip and forearm. Price, $6.50, or 
with one year’s subscription to The R. N.-Y., 
$7.25. These guns are 12 , 16 or 20-gage, 28, 
30 and 32-inch barrel, and weigh about 6 
pounds. We will send No. 1 free for a club 
10 new subscriptions; or No. 2 for a club of 12. 
No boy or man need be without a good shot gun, when he can get one on these 
terms. A few hours’ time among his neighbors will do it. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, New York. 
