The Cave by the Beech Fork: A Story of Kentucky-1815

ted an old stump and gave a shrill whistle. No answer came but the distant echo. So he sat down upon the stump and began to mend a wide-mouthed sack, which

ratory bird. It is true that a few can be found in the thicket and barnyard during the winter months, but by far the greater number follow the swallow and blue-bird to warmer climes. Toward the latter part of autumn they pass t

rips of elm bark, he again mounted the stump and gave another whistle. Soon Martin Cooper issued

feet up the trees and opening their sacks, Owen and Martin commenced to capture the affrighted robins. Many of the birds were so dazed by the light that they sat perfectly quiet, and were thrust into th

d of the fire alarm. Old robins were demanding silence, and young robins were asking advice. Captured robins were fluttering in their prisons, and affrighted robins, dropping suddenly among the branches aroun

the rice-fields and orange-groves of the tropic zone. And still an hour later not less than four hundred captured robins, though imprisoned in a coop, dreamed

?" said Owen as Martin entered the f

n a box which he carried on his shoulder. "Here is the trap which I promised to make for you," he continued. "I

as Martin touched the tri

id you bring along

ut f

we can use. Now let

ance, while Martin put a robin

en, stepping up to the m

six feet into the air, and then darted off directly in

said Martin; "you di

hem when they fly directly away. But let them go off one s

" and Martin put the se

Owen, as his rifle cracked and

aried success until it was so dar

e first few days Owen failed in many shots, but toward the end of the thir

ns did you kill? How many did you miss? Do you think you will win? Oh, I hope you will! Don't you?" Thus she continued to ply question after question, and to interlard them with exclamations and surmises until she was forced to stop for want of breath. But Bertha did not content herself

from the wheat fields, and at evening from bush and fence and swaying tree-tops caroling to the glories of the setting sun. They still sought their favorite haunts among the everg