To her call he had often listened as he
lay for hours on a mossy bed in the far depths of the forest, learning
to interpret the language of every woodland creature.
Unsheathing his hunting-knife, and selecting a sound white-birch tree,
Herb carefully removed from it a piece of bark about eighteen inches in
length and six in width. This he carefully trimmed, and rolled into a
horn as a child would twist paper into a cornucopia package for sweets,
tying it with the twine-like roots of the ground juniper. The tapering
end of the trumpet, which would be applied to the caller's lips,
measured about one inch across; its mouth measured five.
Returning to camp, Herb dipped the horn in warm water and then let it
dry, saying that this would produce a mellow ring. He stoutly refused
all appeals from the boys to give them a few illustrations of
moose-calling there and then, with a lesson in the art, declaring that
it would spoil the night's sport, and that they must first hear the call
amid proper surroundings. From time to time he impressed upon them that
they were going to engage in an expedition which required absolute
silence and clever stratagem to make it successful.
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