Year: 1877

in the murder myself. tell ye, Squire" +"


said the old man, as he turned to the


judge, eye have did an onwise thing,


and in yer merriment made an innocent


man do deed he wouldn' naturally do.


No, DO, the horn isn't worth a life


to John Norton, even if that life be the


life of the smallest of Gods creatures


onless the takin' of it can be of service


to man."


The old trapper had said this with all


the solemn gravity of a man who was


speaking from the conviction not only of


principle, but of a lifelong practice, and


as one who had forgotten, in the larger


and graver thought, the smaller and
lighter one of the sports around him.


And as he closed, he turned to Henry in


in the act of speaking; but Herbert


who, while he sympathized with the old
mans sentiments, and deeply regretted
that, betrayed by the suddenness of the
event, he had unnecessarily taken life,


was nevertheless anxious lest, in the
mind of some of the crowd, not to say
in the mind of the judge himself, the old
trapper's fame might sufer-checked
him by the motion of his hand, and
pointed his finger out over the lake.


The old mans face lighted, for he saw
not only what Herbert had pointed at
a large, feecy plume, that, torn from the
skin of the bird, was still drifting in the
golden air,-but also the generous
thought of his companions heart for
him. He turned to the judge and said :


"Doye see, jedge. what the boy means
Do ye see that bit of down foatin' out
there across the sun, that came from the
back of the bird2 The boy wants me to
shoot at it; for he fears lest the man
whose head has whitened in the woods
should lose his fame here, to-day; and
Pm glad he has done what he has done,
for while it's nothin' he can't do himself,
yet it is enough to show these ladies
here and yourself, too, that John Nor
toms finger did not quit the trigger when
he lined the sights on the bird, because
he feared his lead would go wild"


"Now, Henry" said the old man,
laughing, yer heart is right toward an
old man, and he'll remember yer thought
in his behalf when the miles be between
us, and you be in the settlements amid
many, and 1 be by the fire in the cabin
alone. Yis, boy, it's nothin' ye can't do,
for ye have mastered the weepon, and if
1 could live my life over, 1 would ask no
better way of spendin' it than of spend
in it together with ye in the woods, for
yer piece and yer heart is both true.
Yis, ye sartinly could do it, but ye sar-
tinly couldn't do it quicker than this"
and with motion SO quick that those
who stood highest to him started back,
the old man jerked his rifle into the air,
and before it would seem it were posi-
BILE for hand and eye to have come into
conjunction the smoke belched out from
the muzzle, and the golden-colored
plume that had come from the poor
birds back, lying swathed as it was in
the warm, red rays of the declining sun,
darted forward through the air as if
jet of wind had struck it in the
center, and when it stopped the two
halves foated off and stood inches apart.


The shooting was ended. The voice
of the judge only expressed the unani-
nous feeling of the crowd when he pro-
"that no further trial could
with propriety be made, and that the
silver horn would be given to the two
contestants, leaving it in their hands as
their icint property"