i 4 BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



ammunition as a matter of course. I was in the 

 farmyard, round which was a high stone wall ; stand- 

 ing three or four yards from this wall I was aiming 

 just above it at a blackbird in an apple-tree in the 

 orchard across the road. Just as I fired, a tall hat 

 appeared above the wall. My gun was pointed 

 slightly upwards, but I believe a great part of the 

 charge passed in an upward direction through the top 

 of that hat. Had the workman who wore it been 

 three inches taller he would certainly have been saved 

 from the sin of blasphemy for he promptly alarmed 

 me with his curses but I should have been sent to 

 gaol, tried by jury, found guilty of murder, and 

 hanged by the neck till I was dead ! That was the 

 terrible thought that overwhelmed me, and I fer- 

 vently thanked God for having made that man so short 

 and the wall so high, and for so mercifully preserving 

 me and the man from such an awful fate. It was a 

 long time before I could venture to touch a gun again. 



ANOTHER FEARFUL ACCIDENT WITH A GUN. 



Not long after this an equally ghastly event hap- 

 pened to my brother in our own home. 



He was younger than I, and yet he, too, had been 

 allowed to fire away at rooks or wood pigeons around 

 the house. He had brought the loaded gun into the 

 hall, and was fooling somehow with the cock, or 

 trigger, when, bang ! it exploded. The charge 

 smashed through the parlour door, and lodged in the 

 leaf of a large polished oak table, where the shot 

 remain to this day. 



There were two tailors at work in this room, for- 



