e old war times."

Nicholas Gregory paused on the verge of the great cliff and cast a
sidelong glance at Barney Pratt, who was beating about among the red
sumach bushes in the woods close at hand, and now and then stooping to
search the heaps of pine needles and dead leaves where they had been
blown together on the ground.

"Conscripts!" Barney ejaculated, with a chuckle. "That's precisely what
them men war determinated _not_ ter be! They war a-hidin' in the
mountings ter git shet o' the conscription."

"Waal, I don't keer ef _ye_ names 'em 'conscripts' or no," Nicholas
retorted loftily. "That's what other folks calls 'em. I'm goin' down ter
the hollow, whar they built thar fire, ter see ef that old missin'
tur-r-key-hen o' our'n hain't hid her nest off 'mongst them dead chunks,
an' sech."

"A tur-r-key ain't sech a powerful fool ez that," said Barney, coming to
the edge of the precipice and looking over at the ledge, which ran along
the face of the cliff twenty feet below. "How'd she make out ter fotch
the little tur-r-keys up hyar, when they war hatched? They'd fall off'n
the bluff."

"A tur-r-key what hev stole her nest away from the folks air fool enough
fur ennything," Nicholas declared.

Perhaps he did not really expect to find the missing fowl in such an
out-of-the-way place as this, but being an adventurous fellow, the sight
of the crag was a temptation. He had often before clambered down to the
ledge, which led to a great niche in the solid rock, where one night
during the war some men who were hiding from the conscription had
kindled their fire and cooked their scanty food. The charred remnants of
logs were still here, but no one ever thought about them now, except the
two boys, who regarded them as a sort of curiosity.

Sometimes they came and stared at them, and speculated about them, and
declared to each other that _they_ would not consider it a hardship to
go a-soldiering.

Then Nick would tell Barney of a wonderful day when he had driven to the
county town in his uncle's wagon. There was a parade of militia there,
and how grand the drum had sounded! And as he told it he would shoulder
a smoke-blackened stick, and stride about in the Conscripts' Hollow, and
feel very brave.

He had no idea in those days how close at hand was the time when his own
courage should be tried.

"Kem on, Barney!" he urged. "Let's go down an' sarch fur the tur-r-key."

But Barney had thrown himself down upon the crag