Evening star., 1897-05-08
DIDN'T KNOW TURKEYS

Old Man Nubbins sat listening to the
''boardin'- n'-men" swapping yarns about
| their prowess as hunters. He was in his
favorite attitude-right leg crossed over the
left: right elbow in left palrn the back of
which rested on right knee: chin in palm
| of right hand-and, as usual, he was Wig
orously masucating a huge chunk of to-
| bacco. He remained silent until the stylish
youth remarked that he was something of
wild turkey killer himself, when the old
| man fairly snorted.
"Humph! I've heer'd that kind o. talk
| from city fellers before. The fac is, they
don't know wild turkey when they see
one."
"Oh! Mr.. Nubbins," mildly demonstrated
the youth, Il assure you I do. But why
| do you speak SO positively? Did you ever
nave any experience in this line with city
hunters?"
Experience" echoed the Smokers Gap
oracle contemptuously.
That means a story" put in the army
veteran. Lets have it, Nubbins"
Depositing his ever-present cud in a con-
venient spot on the window sill, the pop
ular boniface said:
well, 1t amt much of a warn. but a
few summers back there wus a lot of fei-
lers stoppin' at my house, and they talked
SO big bout their shootin and their know
come up in the fall and I'd try to round
| up some wild turkeys that 1 knowed was
somewheres in the Blue Ridge. They talk
ed 1t over and accepted the invite, and a
Few weeks later three of 'em did come
Humph! You ought to've seen the outfit
they fetched. Enough guns and dogs tove
| got ev'ything for twenty mile around
The old man paused a smile broke over
MS honest old face, and he shook his head
approvingly as he continued:
But the ticker they brung along! Well
Wen; 1t Wus fine. and no mistake, an they
didn't put no limit on it. nuther. 1 amt
had no such Ticker as that sence they
left and there was a suspicion of injury
| In the tone of the last utterance that made
his hearers feel trif1e uncomfortable at
their neglect of SO important a matter.
| So the veteran hastened to ask:
How about the turkey hunt, Nubbins?"
"As l wus sayin'," resumed the narrator
when l got to thinkin about that Ticker,
them three fellers had huff guns and stuff
| TO hunt all winter with, and the way they
| talked bout wild turkeys wus a caution
They knowed all bout 'em-where they
| wus. what they 'et and how to git 'em and
called EN- by some outlandish names L
| never heer'd tell on. l asst one of the chaps
VINO done most of the talkin'- where he
| larnt all that, and he said out of books
| on aWn-ing-the-olo-gy or some such crazy
name Howsonever, when they writ me
| tney Wus a-comin, l put in some time
our plans to start the mornin' after they
arrived, ard all hands turned in early
| The mex morLin' woke 'em at 3 O clock
| ana, after heap of yawnin' and stretch
y,
tne dogs at home made for a place
| bout two mile up the ridge on the other
| side. l foun' the wind warn't right for q
! location there, and we made a trim a long
| way round. so as the birds wouldn't kctch
our scent, an, after a heap of stumbl;n
through the dark woods, l finally got the
| hunters placed at the end of little valley
| where was to drive the turkeys down.
1t was chilly, and many a nip O. that good
| Ticker went to where it done the mos
good After fxin the fellers and givin'
all the necessary directions l then had q
long and hard trip to git the birds between
me an the ambush. Well after a while
| they commenced to git oneasy and the
punch OF EN-. there wus six, as remem-
! Der, started In the direction of the valley
| and when they reached it they fell to eatin'
the stuff we had dropped along there and
gradually moved to where the shooters wus
| in hidn'. 1t wus good daybreak when thai I
| bunch passed right by them city hunters.
! within twenty yards of 'em, and moved on
| down the ridge. Well, l wus a-wonderin'
why in thunder l didn't hear no shootin',
! and when 1 got to the place 1 asst eff the
| birds hadn't passed there"
| Even the embrance seemed to disgust
| the old man, but he continued:
The answer they Civ me proved what L
sed just now bout city chaps not KNOWN
! Wild turkey, for the man who had read
| all about 'em in them books and who
! claimed to know all about 'em. anyway
| OF domestic turkeys had just passed cIost
| to them, but they didn't shoot them. as
| they wus waitin' for the wild ones Well.
trey wus sfeepish-lookn' lot O hunters
| when 1 tole 'em how s'prised l wus that
along O. all their. talk and readin. they
didn't know wild turkey when they seen
him, and how they'd lost their chance
after our hard work to git it. They wus
| 100 ashamed to stay any longer, so they
| went right back home the same day An
1 never hear you city fellers talk bout
| what you en- do with guns without thinkin'
| or how them chaps let bunch of wild
| turkeys ainoS' scratch dirt in their faces
| and git away cause they thought they wus
| the Kind that belonged in somebody's barn
| yard"
| AND the old man resumed his cud and
| attitude. while the conversation was skin
fully shifted to other subjects