The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-12-07

A girl, but cannot remember
l9N MD when I did not love a gun.
= Toy guns satisfied my early child
hood, but with my first pair of pants
came the longing for a real gun, which
RAPIDLY increased as 1 grew older. My
fhrother Will, two years my senior, was
possessed with the same longing, and
1by the time l was nine Il he eleV-
Ell years of age, We had come to serl-
ously consider ways and means OF ac-
j Touring a gun. Our father was a very
| positive in his refusal to assist us i'll
ANY material manner, and even went
ESQ far as to forbid our attempting 1t
I ourselves, considering us too young to
be trusted with a gun.
Inclined to obedience, we gave the
matter up for a season, but could not
bring ourselves wholly to abandon it.
One day brother Will came to me in
great excitement, saying he had found
a gun that could be bought for Sl.oO,
and that we must set about raising
! the money at once, before some n
else secured the prize. 1t was a large
sum of money for us to get together,
7 and it cost much thought and labor
to do it, but the possibility Of owning
a gun stimulated us so that we speed
lily accomplished the task, and one
fine morning purchased and proudly
bore home our first real gun. 1t was
an antiquated army musket, rusty and
battered. but to Dull eyes all that q
gun ought to be.
We found it a heavy load to carry,
but no burden was ever borne more
ch~eerfully. A careful and critical ex-
animation of our treasure, after we
: had gotten it safely home, developed
the fact that it was so heavy neither
of us had the strength to hold it out
in firing position. But Will solved this
problem by suggesting that we could
shoot from q rest on some convenient
stump or fence.
Then on further investigation VIC dis
covered that neither of us was tall
enough to reach up to the muzzle OF
the gun to pour in the powder and shot
with which to load it. This was more
serious and not so easily remedied as
the first difficulty. I suggested that
we might carry a box to stand on
when loading. but this plan did not
seem quite practical. and was not very
well received by my brother. st is
all we can do.to carry the gun. without
Juggling a big box, too" said he. And
who ever heard of anybody going
hunting with a gun and a box to stand
on when loading it," he rather indiS-
nantly inquired.
I think the fact of it's being so unor-
thodox. rather than its novelty, caused
us to dismiss it as wholly Impractical:
for we could not consider any method
not approved by sportsmcn. now that
we had a real gun.
We finally consulted an Old gun
smith. telling him our troubles, and he
advised that we have the barrel of the
gun cut off, thereby reducing the
weight and the length, and agreed to
do the job himself for the modest sum
OF forty-five cents.
We promptly resolved ourselves, for
the second time. into a ways and
means committee, and after a few days
of as earnest financiering as ever fell
to the lot of men engaged in all enter
prise Of Importance. We :allied forth to
the gunsmith's with our gun and the
price of the desired improvements.
With something like two feet cut Off
the barrel. and the same from the iron
ramrod. we had an arm that either Of
us could h~old-very brictiy-in firing
position. and readily reach the muzzlc
Of from the ground.
Cooking our gun gave us much
trouble at first, but this We finally
learned. to do by resting the muzzle on
the ground, bracing the stock against
our chest. and pulling IN the ponderous
lock with both hands. The sound OF
the two Clicks" announcing the
stages which We knew as half and
whole cooked was thrilling in the
extreme, bearing a strong resemblance
to the noise made by a heavy fre-set
falling on q stone hearth. 1t was sim
ply sweet music 70 our ears, and we
knew that no gun Eve had a stronger,
or more business-like click.
1t was some time before we could
persuade our father to allow us to
test its shooting qualities; and when
we did, our further knowledge Of the
gun. and its strong characteristic
might be thus summed up: It had
wonderful capacity for ammunition,
taking a handful each of powder and
shot, at a load, with a handful of paper
OH each. \ very loud and booming re-
port. when fired. a recoil. which led
us seriously to consider, at times,
whether or not the propellins power
had not-in some manner-become re-
yersed; and the knack of scattering
shot in a way beyond the power Of
belief.
We also discovered a little later on,
that the threads of the tube seat were
worn, and that occasionally the tube
was blown out, whiStling by our heads
with terrific force, and not killing us
although occurring several timcs-sim-
ply and solely because Of the kind and
all-wiSe Providence that especially re-
cards the reckless boy.
But what a grand, good, beautiful
.Sln that old ilon wreck was to us, and
how we loved it. The boy Of to-day