Motherless Babies 33 



about the old smooth bore rifle with which his 

 grandfather had killed a whole tribe of Indians, 

 single-handed, up in Canada, not to mention a 

 thousand elk, a thousand bear, a thousand caribou 

 and buffalo, lynx, and wolves, more numerous 

 than the stars in the sky. Swans, geese, ducks, 

 partridges, pigeons, squirrels, and rabbits, he him- 

 self had gathered in, in numbers beyond the drops 

 of water in the ocean. Wonder of wonders, it 

 was with this almost sacred gun that Adolph 

 taught him to shoot. The instruction was very 

 excellent, "Hold ze gun down, bring ze gun up, 

 shoot ze quick. 1 ' The world nearly went topsy- 

 turvy when one day, meeting the little French- 

 man with a load of wood, beneath which his old 

 wagon had gone to pieces like the " wonderful 

 shay," he said to him, 



"Ze tell father, I trade ze rifle for ze green 

 wagon. I even trade quick." 



He never knew what he said in reply, but study- 

 ing a Sunday school lesson that night, that hap- 

 pened to be about Jacob and Esau, he had a clear 

 vision of what Adolph had offered to do; trade 

 his birthright for a mess of pottage. When 

 Adolph had made the proposition, he had thought 

 him mad, and had not even mentioned it to his 

 father, and he could scarcely believe his ears at 

 dawn the next day, when he heard Adolph's voice 

 in the yard, talking trade with his father. 



