The First Gun. 



dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them. 

 At least this practice and drill had one useful effect 

 the eye got accustomed to the flash from the pan, 

 instead of blinking the discharge, which ruins the 

 shooting. Almost everybody and everything on the 

 place got shot dead in this way without knowing it. 



It was not so easy as might be supposed to find 

 proper flints. The best time to look for them was 

 after a heavy storm of rain had washed a shallow 

 channel beside the road, when you might select some 

 handy splinters which had lain hidden under the 

 dust. How we were found out is not quite clear : 

 perhaps the powder left a smell of sulphur for any 

 one who chanced to go up in the garret. 



But, however that may be, one day, as we came 

 in unexpectedly from a voyage in the punt, some- 

 thing was discovered burning among the logs on 

 the kitchen hearth ; and, though a desperate rescue 

 was attempted, nothing was left but the barrel of our 

 precious gun and some crooked iron representing the 

 remains of the lock. There are things that are 

 never entirely forgiven, though the impression may 

 become fainter as years go by. The sense of the 

 cruel injustice of that act will never quite depart. 



But they could not burn the barrel, and we almost 

 succeeded in fitting it to a stock of elder. Elder has 



