The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1907-03-20
Loaded For
H aWkS
BY C. B. LEWIS
Copyright. 1905. by G. H. sutclife

There was great Gathering and out
cry among the fowls back of the farm
house. with one long piercing shrek
from a single hen, and Aunt Sally
Warner dropped the breakfast dish she
was wiping and ran out to see a hawk
sailing away with fat pullet in his
talons. She waved her hands and
cried 'Shoo! Shoov' but there was no
salvation for the victim.
what is it, auntyY' asked her niece,
Miss Nettie Ward, from the city, who
had come out to the old farm for va
cation.
why, another of them hawks has
grabbed another of them Chickens"
was the reply. Il told pa only last
night that he ought to git out and load
the shotgun for me. l s'pose that
hawks have got as much right to live
as other folks, but I'll be summed
if''-
But he did load the gun, and it's
there behind the door, interrupted the
niece.
$50 it is! What an old goose l am
getting to be! Nettie, did you ever fire
a gun?"
Never"
"Then 1 must show you how to do it.
You take it in both hands this way.
You draw it up to your shoulder this
way. Then you shet your eyes and
pull on the trigger with your finger.
and the hawk drops dead. A hawk
may come while I'm down cellar or
upstairs and you are out here alone,
and you want to be able to shoot him"
There were only uncle, aunt and Net
tie at the farm, and the girl from the
city soon wore off the newness and the
novelty and became a bit lonesome.
On account of this lonesomeness she
almost bowed to a young man who
passed the gate one evening at dusk
and almost bowed to her, and when
she went in she asked her aunt who
it was.
81 hain't seen no strange young men
around here myself" was the answer,
"but | understand that the Stevenses,
half q mile below us, have got sum-
mer boarder. / guess he's the one you
saw"
Things happen suddenly out in the
country the same as in the city. Two
days after seeing the young man Miss
Nettie woke up with the toothache.
She had hardly come downstairs
and told of it when the rural mail
carrier left letter for the aunt, which
stated that a sister living ten miles
away was ill and wanted her to drive
over at once. She couldn't drive, and
SO Uncle Joe must go along. There
was room for Nettie to go along, but
the toothache kept getting worse. 1t
didn't take her long to decide to stay
home and doctor it. She could put on
a bag of hot ashes, hold hot vinegar
in her mouth and now and then press
a wad of cotton batting wet with pep
permint essence against the offending
molar, and there was hope that she
would be all right before night came.
During the long day, if the ache per-
mitted, she could swing in her ham,
ripe fruit, hunt for hens eggs in the
barn and watch the ducks and goslings
in the horse pond.
"There is only two things to look out
for" said the aunt when she was
ready to drive away. keep your
eyes out for hawks and tramps. AS
we haven't seen a tramp for six weeks,
/ guess you won't be bothered, but
them hawks are liable to drop down
any time If one comes, you be sure
to shoot it. I've heard that shoot
hoc %0 20
toothache."
Uncle and aunt had been gone an
hour when the toothache ceased, and
Miss Nettie piled into her hammock
under the pear tree with book. She
was just opposite the kitchen door
and only thirty feet away, and just
inside the door stood the shotgun. The
maid had great confidence that If
hawk or tramp came along she would
play the part of a heroine.
At II o'clock, when the young man
who boarded down at Stevens came
past the house with his kodak, he was
satisfied from the swinging Of the
hammock that Mrs. Nettie was read
ing.
Two hours later, when he had snap
shotted an old lop horned COW, crab
apple tree and a brook that seemed to
be flowing up hill, he returned to find
the hammock so still that there was
no doubt in his mind that the occu-
pant was asleep. He had not past the
house, walking as slowly as possible,
when he caught sight of half the body
of q man in an open window on the
other side. Whoever it was had come
sneaking down through the cornfeld.
1t was up to the young man to in
vestigate. He started out with the i'm
preston that the intruder was tramp,
and he picked up a club. scaled the
picket fence and gave shout. The
man in the window heard and drew
back. He saw and dropped to the
ground and ran around the corner Of
the house. He ran into the hammock
and it's sleeping occupant and fell over
them and bounced said sleeping occu-
pant out on the grass.
At about the same moment the young
man from Stevens. who had started to
pursue the unknown, caught his foot
and took roll, and he was so slow in
picking the currant bushes out of his
curly hair when he did get up that he
turned the corner just as the bewil-
dered Nettie had dashed into the kitch-
en-. seized the gun and was ready for
hawks.
She had keen rudely awakened,
more rudely dumped on the grass and
stepped on, and in her half awake
state she didn't know hawk from a
man until it was too late.
In a cool moment she never could
have mastered the mechanism of that
old shotgun. Under the momentary
excitement she not only fired. it, but
sent liberal quantity of bird shot into
some ones legs.
She had only heard the report of the
gun when she became panic stricken
and fed into the kitchen and shut and
bolted the door. and for the next three