uld follow hurriedly along,
like the gluttons they are, with the idea of coming upon a larger
hoard, and thus pass through into the pen. Once inside they were trapped
securely, for the wild turkey holds his head so high that he can never
see the way out through a hole which is at a level with his feet.

It was a most ingenious contrivance, and on the first morning after it
had been set at night, we had fifty plump fellows securely caged, when
it was only necessary to enter the trap by crawling through the top, and
kill them at our leisure.

It may be asked how we made shift to cook such a thing as a turkey,
other than by boiling it in a kettle, and this can be told in very few
words, for it was a simple matter after once you had become accustomed
to it.

A CRUDE KIND OF CHIMNEY

First you must know, however, that when our houses of logs had been
built, we had nothing with which to make a chimney such as one finds in
London. We had no bricks, and although, mayhap, flat rocks might have
been found enough for two or three, there was no mortar in the whole
land of Virginia with which to fasten them together.

Therefore it was we were forced to build a chimney of logs, laying it up
on the outside much as we had the house, but plentifully besmearing it
with mud on the inside, and chinking the crevices with moss and clay.

When this had been done, a hole was cut for the smoke, directly through
the side of the house. The danger of setting the building on fire
was great; but we strove to guard against it so much as possible by
plastering a layer of mud over the wood, and by keeping careful watch
when we had a roaring fire. Oftentimes were we forced to stop in the
task of cooking, take all the vessels from the coals, and throw water
upon the blazing logs.

The chimney was a rude affair, of course, and perhaps if we had had
women among us, they would have claimed that no cooking could be done,
when all the utensils were placed directly on the burning wood, or hung
above it with chains fastened to the top of the fireplace; but when lads
like Nathaniel and me, who had never had any experience in cooking with
proper tools, set about the task, it did not seem difficult, for we were
accustomed to nothing else.

COOKING A TURKEY

And this is how we could roast a turkey: after drawing the entrails from
the bird, we filled him full of chinquapin nuts, which grow profusely in
this land, and are, perhaps, of some