A hunter's LIFE. 25 



After getting my clothes straight again, I started (or 

 home. I told the occurrence to no one, with the excep- 

 tion of Mary, it being so mixed with fun I could not keep 

 it from her. This just suited her, for she was fond of 

 having a joke of that kind, and often when I would be a 

 little hard for her in joking, she would say: "You are fit 

 for nothing but to chase sheep," (and this is to this day a 

 by- word), or, " You are more fitted to chase sheep." No 

 jterson but she and I, however, knew how it came into use 



This familiarity continued without interruption until my 

 bi other Joshua and his wife, with a fine little son four or 

 five months old, came in search of me, as they were tra- 

 velling from the west back to Flintstone. They told me 

 that mother had married her second husband ; that the 

 newly married couple, with Joshua and his wife, had moved 

 to the West ; that they were going to see her friends at 

 Flintstone ; that my mother wished me to come to her, for 

 she had no hopes of ever seeing Jeremiah again ; and that 

 my sister had died, and left her with only Joshua and my- 

 self. I had not seen my mother then for six years, and I 

 had a strong desire to visit her ; but being persuaded by 

 uncle and aunt to continue still with them, I gave up the 

 journey to my mother's home in the West. 



I forgot to mention that my aunt, while living in 

 Monongahela, unexpectedly to everybody, had become 

 the mother of a little daughter, after being married about 

 twenty years. This knocked my nose clear out of joint ; 

 for I was soon denounced as lazy, and everything but a 

 good boy. But when my brother called on me to go to 

 my mother, my aunt, to keep me with her, promised to 

 make me as good clothes as Mr. McMullen's children had. 

 This was as good as I wanted, and I agreed to stay and 

 try it a while longer. I was then coming close to my 

 sixteenth year, and Mary the same ; but in a short time 

 *fter my brother left, I heard nothing more of the new 

 3 



