72 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



There was an old powder-horn hanging there also, 

 which belonged to the rifle. It we were allowed to take 

 when out with the shotgun — that, too, a muzzle-loader 

 — to carry our powder in. The shot we generally took 

 ^in a bottle, the old shot belt hav- 

 ing been lost, though we still had 

 the brass shot measure that was for- 

 merly attached to it. Besides these, three 

 other rifles were in the lobby. One was a 

 THE HENRY. .56 calibcr, an old army gun, which had 

 doubtless been used In the war, and which 

 had killed deer also ; another was an old Henry .44 

 caliber rim fire, with all mountings of brass, and it had 

 also done duty with reference to deer : and the third 

 was a small .22 Flobert, used to annihilate sparrows 

 or rats, or occasionally to kill a chicken that was 

 refractory and refused to be caught. There were 

 also, home from the war, and now reposing peace- 

 fully on nails and pegs, an old army holster and a 

 brace of Colt's muzzle-loading pistols — curiously 

 wrought on the revolving chamber with odd engravings 

 illustrating the value of such firearms in case of high- 

 way robbery — and a cavalryman's helmet, with plume 

 still waving. Quaint old lobby! 



The old muzzle-loading rifle had belonged to grand- 

 father, and had been shot by all his sons and by almost 

 all their sons, but had become so rusty from disuse 

 that to shoot it again some thought the rifling would 

 have to be bored out once more. But we did n't care 

 for that, and at spare moments at noon or In the even- 

 ings we would stealthily take the old gun down and 

 out onto the porch, and, raising it slowly and steadily. 



