66 I GO A -FISHING. 



which John sent after him. He fell fifty feet in a sheer 

 fall, and struck the ground with a sound like a falling 

 stone. Used to their proceedings, John sprang for him, 

 but he was not there. Quick as a flash, he was up the 

 next tree, and the second load of shot rattled into the 

 trunk as his gray tail whisked around the other side of it, 

 and he went up into leafy obscurity. 



While John loaded, I laughed ; and now mounting 

 again, I rode around among the trees, and at length caught 

 sight of the squirrel, apparently sky-gazing, among the 

 leaves on the extreme topmost branch of the tree, quite 

 out of reach of shot. How to dislodge him was the ques- 

 tion, for, as to mounting the tree, neither of us would think 

 of it ; and while we took breath and cogitated, Simmons, 

 shoe-maker at the cross-roads, came trudging up the road, 

 with his rifle on his shoulder, bound on a hunt. Of him 

 John borrowed the weapon that had been for so many- 

 years familiar to his hands, and with a light toss and a 

 quick sight he shot. The squirrel came down, plunging 

 through the leaves of the tree, and by limbs where, had he 

 been living, he would have caught and held on, and 

 struck the ground close by my horse, who sprang into the 

 air and kept me occupied in quieting him till John had 

 placed his gun and game in the wagon, and was mounted 

 by my side. 



Then we dashed off and down the hill-side, still through 

 forest, pausing now and then to gather flowers or to rest 

 in cool, deep shades, and once to drink of a spring that 

 trickled from the bank, clear and cold. 



Passing across the plain, we paused at the gate of a 

 house which stood under a large oak-tree, to inquire after 

 the health of an old man, the oldest man in the neighbor- 

 hood, whose years were well-nigh exhausted. Thev told 



