CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 65 
believe 15 or 18 dollars. Talking of guns do you still retain your 
proposed idea of having the old gun new stocked & Breeched. If 
you do, suppose you have it done now; as it is the only gun I can 
shoot with; as I am alone here I ought to have a very good one. 
Keller would do it well & perhaps trust us some weeks or so. I 
suppose it would not cost more than 8 or 1o dollars, including a new 
heel piece. The old one is so small that it would not do for a new 
stock. The heel piece is the iron against which the right shoulder 
rests on the end of the stock. 
Try and get me heads of all the birds which cannot be procured 
here; by pulling off the skin, taking out the eyes, and extracting 
the brain or some of it, and putting them in the sun, they would 
dry and I would clean them when I get them. I will write more 
fully hereafter; as I want to stuff a cowbird before going to bed, and 
itis latenow. Give my love to Aunt Blanie & Penrose and Believe me 
Your aff. Brother 
S. F. Barren. 
Miss Lucy Baird records the following: 
‘““Mrs. Blaney, my father’s aunt, came to Carlisle in 
April, 1842, with her children. Her husband Major 
Blaney of the U. S. Engineer Corps, was stationed at 
Smithville, North Carolina, at the mouth of the Cape 
Fear river, engaged in superintending the construction 
of Fort Johnson, during a portion of the seven years 
that my grandfather Churchill was in command at Fort 
Caswell. Major Blaney and his family resided in the 
garrison or very near it, and an intimacy sprang up be- 
tween my grandmother Churchill and Mrs. Blaney which 
lasted throughout their lives. Major Blaney died quite 
suddenly in 1842, and the fact that the Churchill’s were 
the friends who were with Mrs. Blaney at the time of 
her great affliction, made the friendship still stronger. 
My great grandmother Biddle and her son Edward went 
to Smithville (now Southport) and brought Mrs. Blaney 
and her children back to Carlisle where they remained. 
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