The latter spent very little time at home now. He was
sometimes absent for two days and nights, and David and his mother
did not know what to make of it. He had built a camp near the field
in which the traps were set, and there he lived by himself,
subsisting upon the squirrels and wild turkeys that fell to his
rifle.
Things went on smoothly for a week, and during this time David and
his friends were as busy as they could be. Quails were more abundant
than they had ever known them to be before. They seemed to flock into
the General's fields on purpose to be caught, and before many days
had passed, it became necessary to fit up another cabin for the
reception of the prisoners. In the meantime the General's timber and
nails were used up rapidly. The boys had the hardest part of their
work to do now, and that was to build a sufficient number of coops to
hold all the birds. Silas Jones said that the Emma Deane was expected
down every day, and Don declared that the birds must be shipped on
her when she came back from New Orleans, if it took every man and
woman on the plantation to get them ready. She came at last, and Don
was at the landing to meet her. He held a short interview with her
captain and Silas Jones, who was freight agent as well as express
agent and post-master, and when it was ended he jumped on his pony
and rode homeward as if his life depended upon the speed he made.
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