MISCELLANEOUS. 255 



happened that my mother would want a pail ot water from 

 the spring, or an arm-load of wood. I was always ordered 

 to bring it, and, of course, being ashamed to confess that I 

 was "afraid," would go without a word of objection. Al- 

 though the spring and wood-pile were not more than three 

 rods from the door, I always imagined, especially if the night 

 was very dark, that one of the bears, panthers, wolves or 

 painted savages, of which I had been hearing so much, was 

 at my heels ready to spring upon me ; and you may rest as- 

 sured that I didn't loiter much by the wayside. I only made 

 about three steps in going to and returning from the spring. 

 My mother used to compliment me on making the trip so 

 quickly, but she never knew why I did it. 



I look about the grounds. Here is where the old granary 

 stood. I remember the woodpeckers used to come here in 

 large numbers during the winter season to help themselves to 

 the corn. I used to bait a fish-hook with a grain of corn, 

 hang it near the granary, and catch a woodpecker as we do 

 a fish. I should consider this cruel sport now, but didn't 

 know any better in those days, until my mother caught me at 

 it, told me it was wrong, and forbade me to do it any 

 more. I afterward learned to shoot them with the old family 

 rifle, which measured "six feet in the barrel." I shot it 

 several years before I was tall enough to load it, and always 

 had to get an older brother or my father to load it for me. 



Here, in the yard, just above the house I can locate 

 the spot within a foot is where I once dug a "den" for 

 a young pet "woodchuck," and turned a box over him to 

 keep him safe. But he dug out the first night, and I never 

 saw him again, unless Ring and I killed him after he grew 

 up, and then I didn't recognize him. 



And here on the hillside, about two hundred yards from 

 the house, in a thicket of brush, is where I once killed eleven 



