AN AUTUMN HOLIDAY 51 



"Then use gun, trap, snare, poison, or any other 

 means you have ; but never put a nuisance animal to 

 torture — jiever leave even a rat to die miserably in a 

 trap." 



" I guess I'll let you do my hunting for me, daddy," 

 said Dodo, duly impressed. " I'd rather not kill any- 

 thing myself." 



" And I had much rather you would not," said Mr. 

 Blake, putting his arm around her. " Keep your little 

 heart tender. There is greater need for such things 

 than for game and guns in this world nowadays, little 

 daughter. I would not now willingly kill a big game 

 animal myself and see the light fade from its bright 

 eyes and the last flutter of its breast." 



" It wouldn't be any harm if we learned how to shoot, 

 would it, daddy ? " asked Nat. " ' Way back in the sum- 

 mer Uncle Roy said perhaps you would teach me some 

 time, and Rap, too," for the boys had long since become 

 inseparable. 



"Certainly, you shall learn this very fall. Every 

 man should know how to shoot and handle a gun prop- 

 erly, if need requires. Shooting game fairly is a manly 

 art, and it is also a manly art to know when and -what 

 not to shoot." 



" See the river," said Dodo. " You called it little, 

 but it is much bigger and swifter than our river. Oh, 

 what a queer bridge, and all the evergreen trees are on 

 the rocks on one side, and great tall barky trees with 

 no leaves on the other." 



" This is the beginning of the hickory wood, where 

 we are going. It looks to me as if some one had been 

 making improvement here, since my day," said the 



