Year: 1877

the OWL, ana, looking Tor II, he was again
surprised to see it sailing noiselessly
| away. 1t seemed in no great haste, and
evidently had not started without due re-
Election. 1t stopped, before going out of
sight, and remained perched on another
dry limb, as if waiting for Ephraim to
come and shoot it again.
Without rejecting at all as to whether
he would be any better off after shooting
that owl, or whether it had not just as
good right to live as he, Ephraim sprang
up, seeing that there was chance for
another shot, an1 made all haste to re-
load his piece


He put the powder and shot in without
any wad between, as before-though not
quite as much as at first-for he thought
he had loaded a little too heavy. There
was pain in his shoulder yet, and he did
not care to be hit in that way again. He
rammed the charge down in great hurry,
looked in the pan to see if the priming
was all right, and then went softly toward
the owl.


When Ephraim got near, the owl
| turned his head, first to one side and then
a boy in the woods, somewhere; but he
did not fly, and, nervous with haste,
Ephraim found another rest, and again
took good aim. r
Strange to say, that gun hit him again
He even rolled upon the ground, feeling
| as if he had got aGouble allowance of pain.
Just as soon as he could think at all, he
decided that he wouldn't fire that gun
again. Of course he had killed the owl
Ia very reasonable supposition, consider.
ing how hard the gun had hit him) and
he guessed he wouldn't hunt anv more
that time.





But when he looked for the owl he
didn't see him anywhere. Could it be
that there hadn't been any owl there? An
optical Illusion, he might have thought,
had he ever heard of such a thing. At
any rate there was no owl there. But he
noticed something sticking in the limb
where he thought the owl had been-and
he kept his eyes on it for some time. IL
looked like the ramrod that belonged to
his gun; but how in the world could that
be?


He looked at his gun, which was lying
on the soft bed OF leaves where it had fall
en-, and then he felt sure it was the ram.
rod, for it was gone. But how in the
world p He couldn't understand it
till he happened to think that perhaps he
didn't take the ramrod out after loading.


"Ah! that's itp' thought he. "But
what am / going to do? It's away up
there and | can't get itl'' and then Ephra-
i'm began to wish he had left the gun at
home. The pain in his shoulder didn't
trouble him much then; his trouble was
mostly in his mind. concerning his father
and that ramrod. How he could recon
than he could tell.


1t was very large tree, without a foot
hold or finger hold for a long way up,
and the ramrod was stuck in large dead
limb, ten feet out. Ephraim saw at once
that he never could get it; and he wished
he hadn't fired that last shot. Possibly he
thought the owl was to blame; but
whether he did or not there was no help
for it. So after awhile he got up, and
picked up his gun, and went slowly and
sadly toward home.


He had not decided upon any course in
particular when he entered the house. 1t
was one of those cases the explanation of
which must be left largely to the circum-
stances of the moment.


His mother met him with the gun in his
hand.


"Ephraimp said she, astonished, and
too frightened to say more.


"I've been hunting, mother" said
Ephraim, very demurelY.


Hunting, my child? Merciful
Fatherr'


" Father didn't know it, mother; and
don't want you to tell him." .-.


"My sonI my son is the gun loaded?"


"Not now, mother. fired it off,


I" For PHYS sake, Ephralm! don't ever
take it out again"


"You won't tell father, if / won't
take it again, will you, mother?'


"You'll promise me, Ephraim, that you
will never take it again go


"Yes, mother, if you won't tell him.


Then put it where it belongs-just as
you found it. It's wonder you didn't
get hurt"


Ephraim might have said that he was
little hurt; for he had a sore and swollen
shoulder; but he said nothing Of that, nor
of the ramrod; but he tried to be as good
boy as he could all the rest of the day.


The Captain ras late home that night,
and did not notice anything wrong but
the next day, while at his desk, his eyes
fell upon his old trainIng-gun, and he saw
that the ramrod was missing. He mused
upon it. Where could it be? He never
lent that gun; nobody had had it out of
the house that he knew of. He went and
asked his wife.


Ephraim happened to be with his moth
er; and when his father asked about the
ramrod he looked at her and she looked at
him. One or the other of them must let
the cat out, but which should it be?


do you know anything about the ram
rod, Ephraim % she asked.


81 went a-hunting, father" said Ephra-
i'm, looking down.


{" A hunting? NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.? You
have not been shooting that gun, have
your


O. Yes, sir''


"Goodness Who loaded it?"


"I-did-sir."


"And fired it off?'


1" Yes, sir''


Did you kill anything?"


I" "I-dOn't know-sir." IL.


After all, the Captain couldn't help
aGghing at this point, and as soon as he
did Ephraim felt better. He frightened
up in moment, and made the best of his
fathers good nature by telling the whole
story at once. He had forgotten to take
the ramrod out, he said, and fired it at the
owl He guessed the owl went off to die
somewhere, for he didn't see him again;
but the ramrod was up so high he couldn't
get it.


The Captain laughed still, the view he
took of the matter was an unpleasantly
serious one for Ephraim; who understood
tat if he should ever take that gun again
in his fathers absence the consequences
would be direful. The gun was no gun
without ramrod, in his fathers trained
eyes, so he at once set out, with Ephraim
as guide, and the hired man carrying
lad Ter, to recover it. Ts


Ephraim led them straight to the tree,
and there the ramrod was, still sticking in
the limb. But the ladder proved too
short, and they had to go back without it.
The next day they went again, with the
longest ladder on the farm, and got the
ramrod and carried it home