306 FORTY-FOUR YEARS OP 



liglitniug he would throw his hiud parts over her, and 

 make at her with his great horns. In the meantime, I 

 came close up, and shot him through the lungs. 



On examination, I found my first ball had passed along 

 his back, under the skin, without doing any injury ; and 

 then I felt certain that I had overshot my mark the even- 

 ing before. I then put up a snow-ball about sixty yards 

 distant, and shot at it, and found that my ball struck about 

 eighteen inches above the mark. This gave me the fidgets ; 

 and putting the gun between the forks of a tree, I gave it 

 a bend downward, which made it very crooked. I put it 

 in again and again, until by frequent twisting I got it so 

 that it would shoot a ball within six inches of a mark. I 

 then concluded to try if I could kill with it in that 

 condition. 



I took some of that buck with me, fearing that I should 

 not be able to kill any more, and that for want of meat I 

 would have to come after the buck before I finished my 

 hunt. So it turned out ; for I hunted a whole week and 

 got two deer, though I shot many times and missed. 

 Towards the last of the week, one of the children came 

 to me with two horses; when, being tired, angry, and 

 discouraged, I took the two deer and went home, fully 

 satisfied that beauty on the outside of anything was no 

 proof that the inside was as it should be ; and that, if a man 

 has a good article, it is the height of folly to exchange 

 it for another that he is unacquainted with, although 

 it may look a great deal prettier than his own. This ex- 

 change of guns proved a considerable loss to me, not only 

 during that hunt, but in the amount of time I lost in get- 

 ting it in such a condition that it would shoot correctly. 

 In all, I lost at least a week of the best time for hunting. 



When I got my gun in order, I bought a dog because 

 he was of the breed which I kept ; but he was young and 

 untaught I then made another trial at the same camp, 



