HOW SOME WOMEN WENT SHOOTING. 





pant reply. " That wild sweet orange 

 tree you see over there I discovered 

 once myself. We'll soon come to a 

 clump of palmettos." 



" That was a wild sweet orange 

 tree you said we passed an hour 

 ago," said the bold one again. 



" Oh, that's not the one. Are you 

 getting afraid? Know these woods? 

 Well, I should say so," and she gave 

 a whoop which brought us all to- 

 gether with a piteous little chorus of 

 moans and " Oh, don'ts!" 



" I'm tired, and mv feet burn so !" 

 cried the young woman. 



We had passed several wild sweet 

 orange trees, but they were not the 

 right one. Finally there was forced 

 upon us the certainty that we were 

 lost, and even our crack shot had to 

 admit that we had gone a little out 

 of our way; whereupon, the bold one 

 of our party began to question her 

 sternly. 



" How many hours' walk was it 

 from our camp to the Indian settle- 

 ment?" 



" About two hours." 



We had been out now between 3 

 and 4 hours with no sign of a settle- 

 ment. We felt that we had just been 

 wandering around in the forest, trav- 

 eling over the same ground — perhaps 

 going around in a circle, " for I al- 

 ways notice," said one, " that when 

 we come to a wild sweet orange tree 

 we turn a curve." 



" The next time we come to a wild 

 sweet orange tree, we'll turn about 

 and retrace our steps, and when we 

 think we have gotten half way be- 

 tween that and where the next sweet 

 orange tree ought to be, we'll strike 

 off at an angle," said the brave one, 

 taking the leadership completely out 

 of the hands of our crack shot, whose 

 own courage gradually showed signs 

 of oozing, as, silent and moody, she 

 followed now, trying to carry her 

 rifle with an air of indifference, while 

 her silver-mounted game bag re- 

 mained empty. The young woman 

 had mournfully buried the songbird 

 in the forest and had tenderlycovered 

 it with leaves. 



Soon we encountered the wild 



sweet orange tree again, and she who 

 had assumed the leadership lool 

 upon us with a grimsmile oi despaii 

 as we reached our landmark, halted 

 and turned about. We retraced oui 

 steps, keeping steadily in the op 

 site direction. This we did for an 

 hour or more, which we calculated 

 would bringus somew here near where 

 we left the right path. 



Here we struck what seemed a 

 trail. This did not lead to our camp, 

 for we had noticed no such trail in 

 coming. But it evidently \n\ 

 somewhere — even our shooter, n»u 

 an humble follower, show ed an 

 ness to take it. 



"Our canij) lies to the cast ol US, 1 

 think, but we arc not sure of the way. 

 Here is a trail; if it should take us 

 to an Indian settlement, and I sur- 

 mise it will, we may be able to h 

 guide and pony," said our new 

 leader. 



Hope was returning, but our feet 

 were blistered and c\ ery step was t< »i - 

 ture. We had cut our shoe-tops 

 across, to let the sand out, and e\ 

 little while would have to stop ami 

 stub our toes against some tree trunk 

 to let the sand out at tin- I our 



sandals, which had silted in OVCI 

 the top. 



A curl of blue smoke, through the 

 trees, brought an exclamation ol glad 

 surprise from all of us, in which 

 our crackshot faintly joined. She 

 was now wearily dragging her gun 

 along the ground, her game bag ly- 

 ing in the hollow of her arm. S 

 refused our help to carry it. We 

 truly pitied her, formisery had made 

 US all akin now. 



Our guide had surmised 1 ' !>'• 



The trail led toan Indian - I 

 That we were ob 

 saw. as -nine tall Indian W0ul< 

 up singly and with, folded arms 

 stand in front of us. I< I at 



us from under his brows 

 The women and children < 1 



about. I lur friend's rifle 



the youths amazing >ne tall 



low took it out of her 1 ant 



hand, glan ed along the bai 

 grunted approving the 



