CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 65 



believe 15 or 18 dollars. Talking of guns do you still retain your 

 proposed idea of having the old gun new stocked & Breeched. If 

 you do, suppose you have it done now; as it is the only gun I can 

 shoot with; as I am alone here I ought to have a very good one. 

 Keller would do it well & perhaps trust us some weeks or so. I 

 suppose it would not cost more than 8 or 10 dollars, including a new 

 heel piece. The old one is so small that it would not do for a new 

 stock. The heel piece is the iron against which the right shoulder 

 rests on the end of the stock. 



Try and get me heads of all the birds which cannot be procured 

 here; by pulling off the skin, taking out the eyes, and extracting 

 the brain or some of it, and putting them in the sun, they would 

 dry and I would clean them when I get them. I will write more 

 fully hereafter; as I want to stuff a cowbird before going to bed, and 

 it is late now. Give my love to Aunt Blanie & Penrose and Believe me 



Your aff. Brother 



S. F. BAIRD. 



Miss Lucy Baird records the following: 

 "Mrs. Blaney, my father's aunt, came to Carlisle in 

 April, 1842, with her children. Her husband Major 

 Blaney of the U. S. Engineer Corps, was stationed at 

 Smithville, North Carolina, at the mouth of the Cape 

 Fear river, engaged in superintending the construction 

 of Fort Johnson, during a portion of the seven years 

 that my grandfather Churchill was in command at Fort 

 Caswell. Major Blaney and his family resided in the 

 garrison or very near it, and an intimacy sprang up be- 

 tween my grandmother Churchill and Mrs. Blaney which 

 lasted throughout their lives. Major Blaney died quite 

 suddenly in 1842, and the fact that the Churchill's were 

 the friends who were with Mrs. Blaney at the time of 

 her great affliction, made the friendship still stronger. 

 My great grandmother Biddle and her son Edward went 

 to Smithville (now Southport) and brought Mrs. Blaney 

 and her children back to Carlisle where they remained. 

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