324 Sporting Sketches 



direction of the general movement furnished the 

 best of sport. 



The successful squirrel hunter was the envy of 

 his youthful associates. I ranked high, probably 

 because I had a much better gun than any of my 

 comrades. I used to sally forth with a narrow 

 strap buckled about my waist. When a squirrel 

 was killed, the hind leg was slit under the tendon, 

 the strap passed through and rebuckled. Twenty 

 squirrels thus hung, with long tails fluttering free, 

 made a noble fur-kilt, quite worthy of a Zulu chief- 

 tain, or Robinson Crusoe himself. When the bag 

 was large, needless to say the proper route home 

 was through the busiest streets. Per contra, when 

 the bag was otherwise just naturally too light a 

 bag waited for darkness. 



In our country were many negroes who loved 

 "squrl" and were always hunting when that game 

 was to be had. I once so far fell from grace as 

 to sell seven squirrels to a negro for a nickel apiece. 

 In town, they were worth a dime each, but one should 

 not expect top prices in the outposts. So I sold 

 them, and he paid me a bad quarter dollar and 

 promised the balance later. He has never yet 

 made good. Because of that transaction war was 

 declared, and assuredly the brunettes had a merry 

 time. A large percentage of them were good 

 hunters who understood the habits of their quarry, 

 but they were poor shots and inclined to laziness. 

 They carried, as a rule, long-barrelled, single guns, 

 of about fourteen or sixteen gauge, while the 

 ammunition was in the old-fashioned horn and 

 pouch, or, more frequently, in bottles of suitable 



