MISCELLANEOUS. 247 



fields, I found a nest of yellow-jackets near the fence at one 

 side of the field. I would throw clubs at the nest until I got 

 the occupants well stirred up, and then go and drive some of 

 the colts or cattle over the nest. The yellow-jackets would 

 of course get their work in lively, and then it was fun to see 

 those animals run. I had a little dog that I didn't like very 

 well, an ugly, mangy cur. I used to stir up the yellow- 

 jackets, and then carry this dog and throw him over the fence 

 into the nest. He would make a bee-line for a spring about 

 a hundred yards away, jump into the water and lie there until 

 his persecutors had left him. But the poor animals soon 

 learned to shun this particular fence corner, and after a day 

 or two I couldn't get any of them near it. 



I was what the neighbors called a bad boy not, I must 

 contend, from any vicious motives, but from mere reckless- 

 ness, thoughtlessness and love of fun. 



In my rambles through the woods and over the farm, I al- 

 ways carried a bow and arrow, before I got large enough to 

 be trusted with a gun. I acquired considerable skill in the 

 use of the former, and used to make it warm for the squirrels, 

 chipmunks, woodpeckers, etc. I was as fond of fishing then 

 as now, and in order to procure my tackle used to dig gin- 

 seng in these woods and sell it. It usually brought thirty 

 cents a pound green, or sixty cents dry. I have dug and 

 sold many a pound of it. After I commenced shooting, I 

 used to buy my powder and shot in this way. 



Emerging at last from the woods, I reach the site of our 

 old schoolhouse. Alas ! how changed is the scene now ! 

 The schoolhouse that dear old log-cabin, wherein I have 

 spent so many happy days is gone ! Not a vestige of it re- 

 mains not even the foundation-stones. I seek a history of 

 its taking off, and from an old neighbor I learn that the logs 

 of which it was built decayed and fell away, until it was no 



