"We've got more than a dozen, I know!" Having stopped up the ends of the trenches so that the quails could not escape, Don thrust his arm through the opening in the top of the trap and began passing out the birds to his brother and David, who carried them to the wagon and put them into the coop.

He counted them as he took them out, and found that there were nearer two dozen than one, twenty being the exact number.

One, however, escaped from Bert, who, through fear of injuring it, handled it too tenderly.
"Never mind," said Don, when his brother told him of the loss.

"He'll go off and join some other flock, so we are bound to catch him anyhow.

I call this a good beginning, don't you, Dave?
It looks now as though you were going to earn your money in spite of Lester and Dan." After re-setting the trap the boys got into the wagon and drove on.
They found some of their traps just as they had left them; a few had been thrown by ground squirrels or red-birds; and from the others they took enough quails to make their day's catch amount to a little over four dozen.