“‘Something else! What do you want?’ I inquired.
“‘Something that ought to grow about yar, else I’m mightily mistaken in the sign. Let me try down yonder,’—and Dick pointed to a piece of low swampy ground that lay to one side of our course.
“I assented, and followed him to the place.
“We had hardly reached the border of the wet ground, when an exclamation from my companion told me that the ‘something’ he wanted was in sight.
“‘Yonder, master; the very weed: see yonder.’
“Dick pointed to a tall herbaceous plant that grew near the edge of the swamp. Its stem was fully eight feet in height, with large lobed leaves, and a wide-spreading umbel of pretty white flowers. I knew the plant well. It was that which is known in some places as master-wort, but more commonly by the name of cow parsnip. Its botanical name is Heracleum lanatum. I knew that its roots possessed stimulant and carminative properties; but that the plant had anything to do with deer-hunting, I was ignorant.
“Dick, however, was better acquainted with its uses in that respect; and his hunter-craft soon manifested itself.
“Drawing his knife from its sheath, he cut one of the joints from the stem of the heracleum, about six inches in length. This he commenced fashioning somewhat after the manner of a penny-trumpet.
“In a few minutes he had whittled it to the proper form and dimensions, after which he put up his knife, and applying the pipe to his lips, blew into it. The sound produced was so exactly like that which I had already heard to proceed from the deer, that I was startled by the resemblance.
“Not having followed his manoeuvres, I fancied for a moment that we had got into close proximity with one of the long-tails. My companion laughed, as he pointed triumphantly to his new made ‘call.’