“Yes; what is it?”
“It is one of Charlie’s partridges drumming. They have taken to the woods. Uncle Isaac said they would, but I didn’t believe it. It’s all the better; they will breed, and fill the island full in a few years, and get their own living. Charlie will be glad of it, for he will have them to shoot.”
“But won’t they fly away?”
“No; it’s too far from the main land. They can’t fly but a little way before they have to light. Thus we shall have coons, partridges, and gray squirrels grow at our own door.”
“How nice it will be for Charlie to have all these things right on the island! He loves dearly, after supper, when he has done a good day’s work, to go shooting. How much better it would be, when he was tired and had not much time, to be able to find game here, instead of pulling three or four miles to some ledge or island!”
“Yes, this island is so large, we might have almost anything, except wolves, bears, and foxes; we shouldn’t want them.”
“Ben, what are you going to do with the corn-house that Charlie made? You don’t want two corn-houses.”
“I thought, when I was able, I would cut off the legs, and make a pigsty of it. ’Twould make a capital one. He needn’t have set it up on posts. There are no mice here; but I suppose he thought he must make it just like Uncle Isaac’s.”
“I never would make a pigsty of it in this world, it is so handsome. Charlie took so much pains with it, and was so proud of it when he got it done. Give it to me.”
“What do you want of it?”