LEGEND OF A MUSKET.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 834, 8 July 1871, Page 3

LEGEND OF A MUSKET.

Mark Twain tells the following «tory related by a fellow passenger, *ta, being bantered about his timidity, Mil he had never been scared since to loaded an old Queen Anne's mustet for his father once, whereupon he gave the following : " You see, the old man was trying to learn me to shoot blackbirds and beasts that tore up the young corn and such things, so far that I could be of some use about the farm, because 1 wasn't big enough to do much. My gun was a single barrelled shot gun, and the old man carried an old Queen Anne musket that weighed a 100, made a report like a thunder «lap, and kicked like a mule. The old man wanted me to "shoot the musket sometimes, but I was afraid. One day, though, I got her down, and 'o I took her to the hired man, and wked him to load her, because it was oit in the field. "Hiram," said he, 'do you see those marks on the stock, *° X and a V, on each side of the Queen's crown % Well, that means ten balls and five slugs—that's her load." , "Buthow much powder?" "Oh," he says, "it don't matter; put in three or four handfuls." ' So I loaded her up that way, and "Was an awful charge. I had sense enough to see that, and started. I levelled her on a good many blackbirds, J™ every time I ,went to pull the I shut my eyes and winked. I

was afraid of her kick. Towards sundown I fetched up at the house, and there was an old man resting on the verandah. " Been out hunting, have ye ?" " Yes, sir," said L "What did you killP" " Didn't kill anything, sir—didn't shoot her off—as afraid she would kick—(E knew blame well that she would)." " Gimmio that gun 1" the old man said, as mad as sin. And he took aim at a sapling on the other side of the road, and I began to drop back out of danger. And the next moment I heard the earthquake, and heard the Queen Anne whirling end over end in the air, and the old man spinning around on his heel with one leg up and both hands on his jaw, and the bark flying from that old sapling like there was a hailstorm. The old man's shoulder was set back three inches, and his jaw turned black and blue, aud he had to lay up for three days, Cholera nor nothing else can scare me the way I was scared that time.