puzzled Ben. "She surely would
not say what she does without reason. Linna, teach Ben how to get a wild
turkey; we want one for supper, for if we don't have it, we shall all
have to go without food."

"Me hungry," she ventured; "so be Alice--so be you."

"You are right. Come, sister, show me how to catch a turkey."

She gravely rose from the ground. Her face appeared serious, but those
who looked at her closely detected a sparkle of the black eyes, for all
the world as if she meditated some prank upon her confiding friends. Ben
was suspicious. She added--

"Go wid me--me show you." Then he was sure she was up to something.

He rose from where he was sitting, and, rifle in hand, walked a little
way in the wood. She looked round once or twice, and continued advancing
a few minutes after they were out of sight of Alice and her mother.

She held the hand of the youth, who acted as if he was a bad boy being
led to punishment. He started to ask a question, but she checked him by
raising her forefinger and a "S--h!" and he did not presume again.

Finally she stopped among a number of trees where several trunks were
two or three feet in diameter. Stepping behind one, she motioned him to
do the same with another a few yards off. Surveying him a moment, as
if to make sure he was doing right, she suddenly emitted a sound from
between her lips, which caused Ben Ripley to utter the exclamation under
his breath--"Well, by gracious! If that doesn't beat everything!"

"Why don't shoot?" she abruptly asked.

The call made by Linna was the exact imitation of a wild turkey when
lost in the woods. Perhaps you may know that the body of every one of
those birds contains a bone which a hunter can so use as to make the
same signal; but it is hard to produce the sound without such help,
though it has been done.

Linna had succeeded to perfection.

"Who would have thought it possible for one so young as she to learn
the trick?" Ben asked himself. "I have tried it many a time without the
bone, but never could do it."

He looked at her admiringly, and was certain she was the smartest girl
he had ever seen.

"If there are any turkeys within hearing, that is bound to fetch them,
but I have seen no signs of them."

Linna continued the signalling at intervals for fifteen minutes or
more, peeping meanwhile from behind the tree and around her in every
direction. Ben did the same, and saw nothing.

"Why don't shoot?" she abruptly asked.