nough to frighten into a gallop any wild animal that
might be within a quarter of a mile of me.

It was very disagreeable, very annoying, and _very_ cold; and my clothes
beginning to freeze on me, I started for camp at a brisk walk.

Just as the sun was going down I passed near to where the turkeys had
flown off to roost. It struck me that by watching there a short time I
might see them return to the same or a neighboring roost, knowing they
often do so. This, however, was very cold work, my clothes being in a
half-dried, half-frozen condition; and I was just going to give it up,
when I heard the faint distant report of a rifle. The sound redoubled my
attention, since I supposed that game was stirring.

In a few minutes I heard the quick sharp alarm call of the turkey, the
unmistakable pit-pit, and saw four of them sail off from the edge of the
cliff, at about sixty yards' distance from me, into the top branches of
the trees forming one of the groups in the valley below. Drawing gently
back, and keeping as much as possible under cover, I made my way down
into the valley, and started in the direction of the grove of trees in
which the turkeys had settled.

It was getting dark, and I had gone but a short way, when, at a distance
of about two hundred yards in front, a most extraordinary-looking object
presented itself to my view. It looked like a haycock on legs with the
handle of a pitchfork sticking out of it; it was steadily advancing
through the gloom to where I stood, and arrived quite close to me before
I could quite make out what it was. It proved to be my companion, with
two turkeys tied together by the legs and slung over his shoulder across
his rifle. The wind coming up the valley and blowing the feathers out in
all directions had given the turkeys in the gloaming the extraordinary
appearance that had astonished me so much. I gave a low whistle, and he
joined me; I pointed to the turkeys in the trees. He dropped those he
already had, hung them up out of wolf reach, and together we cautiously
crept under the four roosting turkeys.

The light was very bad for rifle-shooting, but our front sights were of
ivory, and our birds were skyed; so drawing the best beads we could, we
fired simultaneously, and with great success, two fine birds dropping
dead at our feet,--the others making off.

We congratulated each other, and started for camp with four fat
turkeys,--and fat indeed they were, for they had been feeding a