Little Partner. 



and ears, but covering what I could see, I pulled the trigger, 

 and, at the crack of the gun, he let go his hold and dropped to 

 the ground. Putting him into my pocket, I handed the gun 

 back, and we moved on up the ravine, and soon heard the 

 scratching of another squirrel as he ran up the farther side of 

 a nearby tree. When he reached the crotch, he poked his head 

 through and peered down at us, offering a beautiful shot ; and 

 at the crack of the rifle he wilted without a kick with his head 

 stuck fast in the crotch. Here was a predicament we had not 

 figured on ; our squirrel had been killed too dead, and was 

 hung up where we could not get him. It was a long way to 

 the first limb, and I was too poor a climber to fancy shinning 

 up twenty feet of bare tree trunk. So I told Little Partner if 

 we got that squirrel she would have to shoot him out. She 

 fired four or five shots, hitting him every time, but did not dis- 

 lodge him ; then, turning to me, she said : "I am done shooting 

 at dead squirrels." So we left him and moved on killing two 

 more squirrels in that ravine, and then crossing to the next. 



Here there was an old dead stub of a tree the home of a 

 large family of grays. As we approached it, we heard a noise. 

 Little Partner stepped behind a tree and said, "Will, you drive 

 him around, and I'll watch for him." This was my chance for 

 a shot ; so I walked off about fifteen feet, turned around and 

 snapped the camera on her, while she had her rifle at ready and 

 was watching for the squirrel. 



We lounged around under the trees for a while, and then 

 strolled leisurely across the flat towards home talking over 

 the hits, misses and other events of the day. Measured by the 

 calendar, it is but a short step from the present to that lovely 

 September evening when we climbed the steep bank of Lime 

 Creek, just as the sun was sinking from sight behind Mahony's 

 Grove. Though but a short interval, as measured by time, 

 events have transpired in my life that make it appear an age, 

 and when I sit down and live over again the happy hours of the 

 last day that Little Partner and I spent in the woods together, 

 I drift away from the present into the dim and dreamy past. 



[136] 



