SQUIRRELS AND SQUIRREL HUNTING. 211 



he and some fellow Ximrods took part, in the days 

 when squirrels were as thick as flies, and deer as thick 

 as squirrels are now, sir. They took the old muzzle- 

 loader and went out for the day, when work was slack, 

 to see which one could kill the most squirrels, in a kind 

 of contest. No rabbits were to be taken under any 

 consideration. Now it chanced that the lot fell to 

 him to begin the contest; and he went at it leisurely, 

 he said, picking off one or two occasionally as he came 

 to them, and shooting them each one, as the rule was, 

 in the head, a miss of any sort (it was understood) 

 at once forfeiting the old cap and ball to the next in 

 line. The victims began to pile up by the dozen with 

 his unerring aim, and finally by scores, until he had at 

 last shot sixty-two, and all in the head. Just at that 

 moment a squirrel was seen at a short distance and he 

 leveled and took aim, but, the sunlight or some other 

 objectionable object striking his eye at the time, he 

 pulled trigger just a bit too soon, to see the squirrel 

 fall, of course, but alas, this time, shot in the neck ! 

 Disgraceful ! And so he was barred out, and the gun 

 passed to the next competitor. How long the contest 

 lasted, or how many he might have killed, if he had 

 only hit that last one in the head, or how many squir- 

 rels they actually brought home, deponent sayeth not, 

 although there was doubtless some foundation to the 

 story. I think he once said that the number might 

 have been forty-two, instead of sixty-two, that he got; 

 he could n't exactly remember, it was such a common 

 occurrence in those days. 



In Franklin County, Ohio, whose population at 

 present is nearly one hundred thousand and whose 



