of manners, and Uncle Denis was a gentleman
in every sense of the word; at the same time that he had as much spirit
and daring as any Kentuckian born.

It must be understood of course, that at the time I speak of, I was too
young to understand these matters, but I heard of them afterwards from
my mother, and am thus able to introduce them in their proper place in
my history.

Uncle Denis took great delight in showing us his various traps and
snares, as well as other means he employed for capturing birds or
animals.

The traps had been greatly neglected during his illness. I remember
being especially delighted with what he called his "pens," which he had
erected for the capture of wild turkeys, with which the neighbouring
woods abounded. The two first we came to contained birds lately caught;
the third was empty, and the fourth had been broken into by a hungry
wolf, which had carried off the captive.

"There is another I built the day before I was taken ill, further away
in the forest. No one but myself knows of it," observed Uncle Denis;
"we'll pay a visit to it, though I am much afraid if a bird has been
caught, it must have starved to death by this time."

The pens Uncle Denis was speaking of were simple structures formed like
a huge cage by poles stuck in the ground sufficiently close together to
prevent a bird from getting out. They were roofed over by boughs and
leaves, and were without doors or windows. It will then be asked, how
can a bird get in? The trap is entered in this way.

A passage or trench is cut in the ground twelve or fourteen feet in
length, passing under the wall of the hut and rising again in its
centre. Inside the wall and over the trench, a bridge is thrown. To
induce the bird to enter, grain is strewn along the trench and scattered
about its neighbourhood, while a larger quantity is placed on the floor
inside the hut. The unwary turkey, on seeing the grains of corn, picks
them up, and not suspecting treachery follows the train until it finds
itself inside the pen; instead however of endeavouring to escape by the
way it entered, it, like other wild birds, runs round and round the
walls of the hut, peeping through the interstices and endeavouring to
force its way out, each time crossing over the bridge without attempting
to escape by the only practicable outlet. In this way Uncle Denis said
that he had caught numbers of birds, one and all having acted in the
same foolish manner.