MY FIRST BOAT RIDE 



hunting boat then as well as he did when he 

 gave me my first boat ride. Among the earliest 

 recollections of my boyhood hunting with a gun 

 are a few of my first shots. In 1869 Fathes 

 bought a new heavy number ten double-barrel 

 muzzle-loading shot gun. Breach-loaders were 

 not so numerous then as now. It was so heavy 

 that 1 could not hold it to load or shoot. Yet I 

 was anxious to shoot it once. One day I was 

 out in the woods near the house gsthering hick- 

 ory nuts and the dog treed a black squirrel. 

 Father was home and I got him to let me shoot 

 it. He put in a light load as the squirrel was on 

 a small tree and not very high up. Then put- 

 ting his thumb around a small bush and letting 

 his fingers open, lying the gun on his fingers 

 against the bush, which made a good rest, he 

 soon initiated me in the mysteries of handling a 

 gun. He told me to look along the barrel until 

 I saw the squirrel, then to pull the trigger, This 

 I did. Bang! The recoil knocked me down. 

 When I got up my nose was bleeding quite free- 



65 



