trenches, having been packed away
in the vehicle, the boys got in and drove off. They directed their
course along the fence, which ran around the plantation, and wherever
they found a clump of bushes or a little thicket of briers and cane,
there they stopped long enough to set one of their traps.

The traps were made of slats split from oak boards, and were a little
less than four feet square and a little more than a foot in height.
In the top was a slide covering a hole large enough to admit one's
arm, and it was through this hole that the captured birds were to be
taken out. The undergrowth was first cut away with the axe and the
trap put down in the clear space, a narrow board being placed under
two sides of it, to give it a solid foundation. A trench just large
enough to admit a single quail was dug under each of these boards,
one end of the trench being on the outside of the trap and the other
on the inside. A small ear of corn was tied firmly to the trigger,
the trap set with the "figure four," a few kernels were scattered
about in the immediate neighborhood, and the trap was ready for the
first flock of quails that might come that way. When they came, they
would, of course, find the corn, and while they were eating it they
would be sure to find the trap. One or more of them would go in and
spring it by pecking at the ear that was tied to the trigger, and the
others, no matter if there were a hundred in the flock, would all go
in to him through the trenches before spoken of. After they had eaten
the corn, they would look _up_ instead of down for a way of escape,
and, although the trenches at which they came in were still open to
them, they would not know enough to make use of them. If the trap was
once sprung, the capture of the entire flock was certain, provided
those outside were not frightened away before they had time to go in
to their imprisoned companions.

In two hours' time the traps had all been set and the boys were at
home again. They had done a good day's work, but they wanted to do
a better; so as soon as the mule was unharnessed and the wagon put
under the shed where it belonged, they set to work in the shop again,
and before dark a large coop, which would just fit into the wagon
box, was completed. This was to be used to bring home the captured
quails. After that one of the unoccupied negro cabins was selected to
confine the birds in until the required number had been trapped. It
received a thoro