Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-01-12
A KICKING GUN.

Since pa qnit drinking" said the
boy to the grocery man, she is little
nervous, and the doctor said he ought
to go out some where and get bizness
off his mind. and hunt ducks and row
boat, and get strength, and pa said
shooting ducks was just in his hand,
and for me to go and borrow a gun,
and could go and carry game. So
l got gun at the gun store, and
some cartridges. and we went away
out west on the cars, more than fifty
miles, and starved two days. You
ought to seen pa. He was Just like
boy that was sick and couldn't 60 to
school. When we got by the lake he
jumped up and cracked his heels to-
gether and yelled. thought be was
crazy. but he was only cunning.
Well, after shooting twenty or thirty
times at ducks without killing one, I
heard some wild geese squawking,
and then pa heard them and then he
was excited. He said you lay down
behind the muskrat house and I will
get goose. 1 told him he couldN't
kill goose with fine shot, and I AN Vi
him big cartridge the gun store man
loaded for me, with a handful of pow
der in, and I told pa it was a goose
cartridge, and pa put it in the gun.
The geese came along about mile
high, squawking, and pa aimed at a
dark cloud and fired. Well, I was
Offal scared. I thought I had killed
him. The gun just reached up and
came down on his jaw, and on his
shoulder. and everywhere, and he
went over log and struck on his
shoulder, and the gun few out of his
hands, and pa he laid there on his
neck with his feet over the log, and
that was the first time he didn't
scold me since he got relidgin. I
felt offal sorry, and got some dirty
water in my hat and poured it down
his neck, and laid him out, and pretty
soon he opened his eyes and asked If
any OF the passengers got ashore
alive. Then his eye swelled out SO it
looked like blue door knob, and pa
felt of his jaw, and asked if the en-
gineer and fireman jumped of, or if
they went down with the engine. He
seemed dazed, and then he saw the
gun, and he said, Take the -
thing away, it's going to kick me
again" Then he got his senses, and
wanted to know if he killed a goose.
and 1 told him no. but he nearly
broke ones jaw, and then he said the
gun kicked him when it went of, and
kept kicking him more than twenty
times, when he was trying to sleep.
We went hack to the tavern where
we were stopping. We told the tav-
ern-keeper that he fell over a wire
fence; but I think he began to sus-
pect, after he spit the loose teeth out,
that the gun was loaded for q bear"
HAS your pa talked much about it
since you got back!" asked the gro
Gerry man.
Not much. He can't talk much
without breaking his jaw. But he
was able to throw chair at me. You
see l thought I would like to joke him
a little, cause when anybody feels
bad a joke kind of ivens 'em up, so
we were talking about pas liver, and
ma said he seemed to be better since
his liver had become more active, and
1 said: Pa, when you was a rolling
over with the gun chasing You and
kicking you every round, your liver
was active enough, cause it was on
top half the time Then pa throwed
the chair at me. He says he believes
l knew that cartridge was loaded.
But you ought to seen the fun when
an old she deacon of pas church
called to collect some money to send
the heathens. Ma wasn't in, 80 ps
went to the parlor to stand her of,
and when she see that pas face was
tied up, and his eye was black, and
his jaw cracked, she held up her
hands and said: oh, my dear brother,
you have been drunk again. You
will have to go back and commence
your probation all over again. And
pa said: 'Dam6do,' and the old she
deacon screamed and went off with
out getting enough money to buy q
deck of round cornered cards for the
heathen."