CHRISTMAS BIRD-CATCHING.
"Merry Christmas!"
It was the Captain's voice, who felt it a part of his duty to be the
first "on deck" in the morning, but had a rival in his sister, who was
quite as active as he.
"_Merry_ Christmas! this what you call merry?" inquired Jim,
fretfully, as with his finger he traced figures in the frost on the
under side of the canvas.
"Well, let's try to make it as merry as we can," Katy cried,
cheerfully, from the starboard corner of the stern-sheets.
"I know what I'm going to do," said Tug--"make bird-traps. I lay awake
a long time in the night planning them."
"While you fellows talkee-talkee I'll build a fire;" and Aleck's tall
form was soon bent over the heap of wood, where a blaze was quickly
crackling. Tug and Jim followed, and all went out of doors, as was
their custom, leaving Katy the whole igloo to herself for a little
while.
Immediately after breakfast Tug began on his traps.
He had brought along with him as a part of his baggage what he
sometimes called his gunsmith shop. It consisted of a square tin box
that would hold about two quarts of chestnuts--if he had had any
chestnuts to put in it, which he hadn't. Besides a bag of No. 6 shot,
this box contained one of the strangest and most worthless collections
of odds and ends of boyish hardware that could be imagined. A
catalogue of it would be useless. Among other articles were a
knife-blade that long ago had parted from its handle, a brad-awl in
the same condition, and a broken bullet-mould bound together by a long
winding of fine wire.
These three things the lad picked out and laid aside. Then he turned
over the rest of the contents of the box until he had secured several
tacks and brads of varied sizes, and a round piece of tin with holes
in it. Next he discovered something which made him shout with a joy
almost equal to his delight at finding the tree trunk. This best of
all the finds, this forgotten treasure in the tin box, was a small
coil of horse-hairs. They were the relics of a preparation he had made
for a short camping trip into the woods three months before, while the
October haze and bright cool air were playing among the rustling
autumn leaves. How the scene came back to him! Now these hairs would
serve him for a better use than mere amusement. He was carefully
unwinding them when Jim rushed in to say that the snow-birds were
around again.
"Good!" cried Tug. "Take some crumbs out of the cracker box, and
quietly throw them down where the snow-birds can get them. Put 'em on
the top of the hummock first, then we'll gradually toll 'em down
below. I'll be out in a minute."
Jim got his crackers and vanished. Aleck was chopping wood, and Katy
was with him. It was a cold day, but sunny, and there were no signs of
the snow melting. Tug, alone in the house, looked fondly at his tools,
and having nobody else to speak to, talked to himself.
"We're like the boy and the ground-hog. 'We ain't got no meat for the
supper, and the preacher's comin'.' So I guess I'd better leave the
twitch-ups and make some common box traps that Kate and the kid can
watch. Come here--you!"
This last was addressed to a wooden box about twelve inches square, in
which Katy had been wont to pack the small articles of table use. Tug
turned them all out, and pulled off the leather hinges that held the
cover. Then, taking an oak splinter from the firewood, he cut it to
the size of a lead-pencil, and notched it in the middle. In this notch
he tied the end of the ball of twine which formed a part of the boat's
stores, and cut off a length of about fifteen feet. Next, he drew the
locker out of the bearings upon which it rested, emptied it of its
contents, and made a stick and length of twine to fit it in the same
way. Lastly, he tore two pieces a foot or so square from their one
strong sheet of white paper. He had been at work scarcely ten minutes,
but had ready two simple traps. Then he went outside and called to
Katy, who came quickly.
"Katy," he said, "I have something for you to do. Please get a blanket
and come out on top of the hummock, where you'll find me."
While the girl went inside for the blanket Tug climbed up to the icy
hill-top, where a small flock of snow-birds were pecking away at the
crumbs Jim had thrown out. The lad crept stealthily towards them, and
though the birds moved away, they were not greatly frightened, and did
not go far. As quietly and rapidly as possible he spread down his
pieces of paper on the highest part of the hummock, at a little
distance apart, and not far from the edge of the ice table. Then,
setting his boxes bottom upward, he perched each one slantwise upon
one of his sticks, and stretched the strings away to the hummock's
edge. On the paper underneath the boxes, and somewhat on the snow
about them, he spread his bait of crumbs. Then showing Katy, who had
now come out, where she could hide herself behind the edge of the
upheaved ice cakes, he told her to wrap herself up well in the
blanket, and to keep perfectly still till the birds came back. They
would pick at the crumbs until by and by one or two of them would be
sure to step under the boxes.
"Then," said he, "you jerk your string, the box falls, and Mr.
Snow-flake is a prisoner."
So Katy took her position, and Tug, asking Jim to help him, went off
to make some other traps.
"Youngster," he directed, "I want you to cut me eight square pieces of
ice, each one about as big as a brick, and after that two slabs about
eighteen inches square and two or three inches thick. You can take the
axe and cut 'em out in big chunks from the hummock, and then saw 'em
into shape--here's the saw--and mind you keep away from where Katy
is."
"What do you want them for?"
"For traps--never you mind why: you'll see presently," was the lofty
reply.
Jim thought it a little unfair, but he good-naturedly took the axe and
saw and went to work.
In half an hour he came to say he was done, and was quickly followed
by his sister, whose face was beaming.
"I've caught three!" she cried.
"Three? Good!"
"Yes, they came, a big flock--about forty, I should think--and
chattered and twittered about over the house."
"I heard 'em," Tug exclaimed.
[Illustration: KATY TRAPPING THE SNOW-BUNTINGS.]
"Yes? Well, they seemed to enjoy warming their wings in the smoke, for
they flew through it lots of times. Then pretty soon one spied a
crumb, and I suppose he called his fellows, for in a minute they came
all hopping about on the snow, and getting nearer and nearer the
boxes. I got so nervous I could hardly hold the strings still, but I
kept as quiet as a mouse--"
"Or as a cat after a mouse!" interrupted Aleck, who had come in with
an armful of wood.
"--and pretty soon one little bird went right under the locker. There
was another close behind him, but I was too anxious to wait, and I
pulled the string, catching one and knocking the other over. It made
so little noise that the rest of the flock were not alarmed, and I
suppose they didn't miss the lost one, for pretty soon they began to
go around the locker, and one flew right on top of it. I was afraid he
would tumble it down, but he didn't, and in a minute another had gone
under. But there was a third hopping right towards the paper, and so I
just waited till he had run under, when--piff!--I had them both!"
"Good for you, Katy!" cried the delighted boys. "You'll make a
sportsman yet!"