(Brass is (Sreen 



he set up a yell that made things ring. Just as he 

 did that the old folks got home. 



"Just then there came another yell, and the 

 folks thought of bears, British, and a panther out 

 of the backwoods. They did n't dare answer back, 

 not knowing what the trouble was, and my grand- 

 father said he would go on a still hunt. He took 

 his flintlock and pitchfork and followed the sound. 

 He heard the yell and started, saying to grand- 

 mother, ' You stay with the boy and keep the door 

 barred.' The frogs and owls and other night 

 things kept up the noise, so that what grandfather 

 heard did not come quite clear, but he followed 

 on, and pretty soon got a loud screech in his ear 

 that made him shake. He got his gun ready and 

 moved mighty slow, and when the scream came 

 again he fired right at the spot. The flash of the 

 old flintlock showed him his own boy, and he had 

 put a ball in one of his legs. That 's how father got 

 to be a cripple, and that is why the little marsh to 

 the east of your house is called the ' cripple,' or 

 was in my day." 



I have played in this " cripple " many a day, 

 and walk through it often in these later years, but 

 all this was news to me. Still the old man was 

 mistaken about the name. It was with him a 

 mere coincidence, and had his father never been 

 hurt the little swamp would have been called a 

 " cripple " just the same. It was not necessary to 

 set him right on that matter, however. It is folly 



