d off in triumph. His
return to the house was greeted with exclamations of joy; and a rail
penn was immediately built for the birds, similar to the trap in which
they had been caught, but, of course, without the funnel or entrance.
The only regret we had was, that the three were all cocks--regular `old
gobblers.'

"Next day, however, Frank remedied this by making a still more important
capture. On returning to visit his trap before sunrise, he saw from a
distance that there was a live turkey inside, with a number of smaller
birds, which in the grey light appeared like so many partridges. On
getting nearer, to his surprise and delight, he found that what he had
taken for partridges was a large brood of young turkeys, and that which
he had first seen was their mother. The little ones were running out
and in, for they could easily pass between the rails, while the mother
ran around, thrusting her head out of the penn, and occasionally
spreading her wings and flapping upwards, endeavouring to escape in that
direction. The young were all making a great ado, and evidently aware
that their mother was `in the trap.'

"Frank, fearing that the youngsters might get off if he attempted to
approach them alone, came back to the house, and summoned Harry, Cudjo,
and myself, to his assistance. To make sure of them, we took with us
the long canvass tilt of the wagon with a couple of blankets fastened to
it at the end. We adopted every precaution, as we looked upon capturing
this young brood as a thing of great importance--since we could bring
them up quite domesticated, and from them should breed as many more as
we pleased. We approached the penn with all due caution; and when near
we separated, each of us taking a side. We then advanced upon the trap,
completely surrounding it; and, while the birds ran confusedly from side
to side, we stretched the tilt and blankets all around the penn, thus
cutting off their retreat. In a few moments we had secured both the old
hen and her chicks--amounting, in all, to no less than eighteen of them!
This was a capture, indeed; and we immediately hurried back to the
house with them, not forgetting to take along with us the `decoy
turkey'--which, being a fine fat fellow, and killed only the day before,
served us for a very good dinner. For the turkey hen and young we built
another penn, near to that where we had imprisoned the three `old
gobblers.' The one last constructed was made with mor