THAT OLD QUEEN'S ARM.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 47, 22 November 1890, Page 18

THAT OLD QUEEN'S ARM.

BJ,, T wa.- a very large, old musket of the Queen Anne period, with a heavy, brass-bound butt, brass trigger guard and three massive brass bands about the barrel and stock. At one end of ■SC' the iron ramrod was a heavy head for driving home ‘ounce balls.' and at the other there had been a • ball screw ’ for ‘ drawing charges, but it had teen _ X/ broken off in • war time,’—so grandmother used to say,—and at the date we knew the < ■ ' -■/ old piece, the ramrod was several inches shorter f than the barrel. -7 The old piece was a flint-lock. A thumbscrew an>l two leather washers held the pale green flint stone letween the clamps of the hammer; the pan wa- very large, and the • spark-catcher ‘stood up like a hare's ear. Like the famous musket with which Chamberlain slew Paugus. it was a self-primer: after the cartridge had been rammed down, a sidewise blow of the butt on the ground caused the powder to rattle out through the priming-hole into the j-an, which made it unnecessary to pour powder from the horn into the pan —a process trying to the nerves when one was under the excitement of battle, or when big game was in sight. As an agent for the sudden and violent termination of human life, the old gun had a famous record which it would have been heresy to call in question. Tradition hath it that as early as 1747 the old musket had done service on a ‘vessel fitted out agin the pirates.' and that a ball shot from it had killed the ‘ pirate cap'n.' It is also related that from a house window at Falmouth Settlement, two whooping, tomahawking, scalp-dangling savages had been shot with it. In ‘ the fights round Lake George,' the man who had borrowed it foi that campaign did not return, but another soldier brought it back, • havin' lost hisn’-in the battle. It came back with three notches on the stock, which have always been supposed to be obituary records of redskins or Frenchmen. In the earlv days of their married life, grandmother had kept the old gun hanging tn two hooks over the kitchen fireplace in true colonial fashion. She herself once shot a deer with it. and on another occasion she killed a hawk which had descended amongst a flock of chickens. Grandmother never spoke of her own exploits with the ancestral fire lock, but she understood the details of loading and tiring it very well. On one or two occasions she * flushed ' powder in the pan to show us how it was done, and went through the movements of biting off'a cartridge and driving dow n a ball with the iron rammer. ■ But it’s rusted np now, and out of order.' she use-1 to say to us, after we had grown a little older, and had begun to importune her to let us load and fire it. In our time the old musket was kept in a back chamber. < >ne day my cousin Addison and I surprised grandmother, who had taken the barrel out of the stock, and was in the act of replacing it. • I thought I would see what ails the old thing." she said to ns. in explanation of her act. • It's rusty at the breech. I: can't be bjaded now. Nobody's fired it since your Uncle William went hunting to the lakes with it. fifteen years ' ‘ Let U- take it. grandma," we urged. ‘We can clean it up. No,' she replied, ‘ not now ; but p-erhaps sometime you may. when you're older and bigger.' A boy in his thirteenth year gets ‘older and bigger' very fast—in his ow n opinion, at least —and often faster than his elders admit, or even suspect. In March, the following spring, it chanced that the old folk-set off one Friday to attend a • Conference Meeting’ in an adjoining town. They intended to return the next Monday. It was the season for ‘cutting up' the wood-pile. Early in the winter the large logs had been draw n from the woodlot to the wood-yard before the house. Here we first cut them into four-foot lengths, which we split into cordwood, and then sawed and split it again for u~e in the stove and fireplace. This task occupied grandfather and ms boys a'«>ut four weeks every spring. A few days of hired labour helped us out with the largest logs. Besides leaving to us the care of the cattle, and the tending of half a dozen tapped maple-trees, grandfather had marked off al»>ut e yard on the big wood-pile a- our stint of work during his absence. It wa* not a hard task, but he thought it was sufficient to save u- from the perils of idleness. Had he marked off two yards, instead of one, we should have jerhap<s been safer.

The crows had begun to come back, and. as is usual in spring, they were very bold. The snow was deep, and they could get but little to eat, save where about the farmers' barns dead lambs, calves, and sometimes an old cow or an old horse, which had failed to survive the winter, had l-een drawn out upon the snow. ‘ H<u hair." the black rogues called ont to each other, a« they flapped their wings in flight about the premises, and

searched with keen eyes the nooks and comers. At this season, if ever, the farmer’s boy longs for a gun. ‘ That’s the same old crow that pulled com for us last year, right up close beside the scarecrows and the windmills !' exclaimed George, as we hacked away at a great log an hour or two after the old people had gone. “ I know that qrow by the white feather in his wing. See him sail round now : * He knows we haven’t got any gun.' ‘ I guess grandma would let us take the old Queen's arm if she were at home.’ Addison remarked. ‘ You know she talked a* if she would the last time we asked her. She said “ maybe ’’ and “ some time,’’ “ when you are bigger and older," and that is most a year ago.’ ‘ But it's rusty :it can't be fired,' said George. * What's the good of a gun you can t fire t' ‘ I suppose that it could be cleaned,' replied Addison, ‘ and grandma savs, you know, that it will carry a hundred rods.’ We discussed the subject as we worked. Presently Alf Batchelder, a youthful neigh lour, who had seen our grandparents pass along the road, and had divined that we boys were alone at the farm, came over to see what was going on in the way of fun. Most parents ot our neighbourhood, it must be remarked, regarded Alf as a not wholly desirable companion for their boys. ‘ Why don't ye shoot them crows ?' was almost his first question. ‘ Clint and I've been poppin' away at them over at our house, till there don't one dare fly over the farm." Clinton was an older brother of Alfred. We told him that there was no gun at the house, except the old Queen's arm. which was rusty.

‘ Fetch her out here,' quoth Alf, confidently. ‘ I'll fix her up for ye : I know all about guns.' With some hesitation Addison and I went into the house, and into the back'chamber, and laid hands on the venerable musket. The girls, who. in grandmother's absence, were keeping house, with much pride, remonstrated with us. ■ I wouldn’t do it !’ cried Dora. ‘ You oughtn't to take it without grandmother's permission.' We justified the act by quoting the old lady's promise, and took the gun out to Alf. who examined it with the pompous assurance of the- quack doctor. He snapped the lock, tried the priming-hole and sounded the barrel with the ramrod. ' Breech-pin’s got to ct-nie out,’ said he. We adjourned to a work-bench in the carriage-house, took off the bands an I the stock, put the barrel in a wooden vice and tried to start the breech-pin. But it was rusted in hard and fast, and even an application of kerosene was of no avail to loosen the long-unused screw ; we tugged and twisted at it, in vain. ‘ Taint no use,' cried Alf, at last. * But I know what'll fetch it. It's got to be hot—hot red hot, and then cooled. That'll swell it and -brink it. Clint and I loosened the bieech-pin in grandsir’s old gun that way.’ • But won't it hurt the gun f Add questioned. ‘No : ’twon't hurt it a bit,' replied Alf. ‘We can build a fire out at the wood-pile, on the snow.’ But, as we had been strictly forbidden to kindle an out-of-door fire about the premise-, it wa- finally decided that we should thrust the breecn of the barrel into the kitchen stove.

Dura and Nell were frying doughnuts and barring cakes, and our coming with the old gun-barrel was not cordially welcomed. Like most girls, they were afraid of a gun : and they knew from experience, too.'that w hen we claimed joint rights at the stove, we were apt to spoil their fire and cause the oven to bake badly. By dint of argument and bluster we carried our point and pushed the breeeh end of the old barrel into the side door of the stove. ‘ It'll only take a minute or two to heat it,' we said, to pacify the girls. Meantime we covertly plundered the doughnut-pan. and Ah' attempted the difficult feat of eating a doughnut while standing on his head, and demonstrated that a boy can swallow up-hilL He performed the feat again and again, at the expense of so many doughnuts that the girls were forced to ask him todiscontinue the exhibition. In the midst of these gastro-dynamic exercises, there came a sudden explosion, a cataclysm of sound, that deafened and astounded us. It seemed to me as if the sky and the earth had instantaneously smitten together. The room was filled with flame and smoke and flying coals from the stove.

Those of us who had been knocked down gained our feet, and we all stared around, quite unable, at first, to realise what had happened. •’Twas the gun I’ Add at length gasped. The longsuffering girls began to cry from sneer terror and vexation, while we boys hastened to gather up the smoking evals and brands. The stove doors and covers had been blown open, and the kettle of hot fat sent flying across the floor. The kitchen doors were hastily thrown open, to let out the stifling smoke. Then Nell pointed to the sitting room door and cried, ‘ Look there We looked, and saw a big bullet-hole in the pine panel. ‘ And, oh. look there cried Dora, as we stared at the perforate! door. Broken glass lay on the fireplace hearth. ■ Oh, what will grandma say ?’ moaned the girls. ‘ And she left to keep house !’ To us. the damage seemed an irreparable calamity which could neither be concealed nor excused. Nothing remained for us save to make the most abject confession of all the details and circumstances of the occurrence as soon as our grandparents should return. Alf, with countenance agape, followed us a* far as the • best-room ' door, and then silently slipped away. Perhaps he deemed our family grief too sacred for him to further intrude upon. At any rare he did not visit the house again for a year. Add and I cooled the old gun barrel, replaced it in the stock, put on the bands and carried it back to its place in the chamber. We had lost all inclination to shoot crows. For all of us the time thenceforward, till Monday, was a dreary interval filled with remorseful thoughts. We put ourselves on our best behaviour, to help our case when the inevitable moment of explanation should come. We cut and sawed twice as much wood as grandfather had marked off for our stint ; we tidied up the barn and carded the cattle twice each day : we shovelled the big snowdrift away from before the bee-house : and we put ashes on the drifts over the grape-vines. Then on Monday forenoon, we went into the cellar and sorted over all the apples and vegetables. Never did three sailors trim more eagerly to get to windward of a bad reef. Never did three sinners do penance more industriously to get to the side of mercy before judgment. When at length, on Monday afternoon, grandfather and grandmother drove up to the door, we boys rushed out to take care of the horse, and then took grandfather round by way of the barn, the garden and the wood-yard, in order that he might see our good works before he entered the house. Upon Dora devolved the more arduous duty of ‘ breaking it,' as easily as possible, to grandmother. Grandfather must have susp>ected some latent purpose in all this exhibition of industry, for as we approached the kitchen floor. I noticed a somewhat puzzled, concerned look in his face. He appeared to be pondering and framing some interrogatory remark, as he entered the kitchen, but before he could propound it, grandmother, from within the sittingroom, called out, in a solemn voice : ‘ Joseph, come in here.'"

<?n that we slipped away and returned to the wood-pile, where we plied our axes most industriously. We expected every moment to be called indoors, but no summons came, and we cut a good deal of wood before we were at last called to supper. As we went to the table, a breathless stillness pervaded the room. The girls appeared thoughtful. Grandmother looked flushed, yet sober. No one spoke, and grandfather bowed his head and began to ask the usual blessing. After the common words of invocation. he continued thus : ‘ We thank Thee for Thy merciful care over those who in our absence have passed through a great peril, the result of their carelessness and disobedience. Make them not only penitent, as they seem, but truly grateful to Thee for Thy kind and preserving guardianship; and may the lesson prove one not soon forgotten :' These words fairly burned themselves into my memory. Save in the ‘ blessing,’ no allusion was made to o’ur mishap. Our grandparents seemed to think it almost miraculous that we all should have escaped unhurt. If Providence has thus interfered in our behalf, they thought it would ill become them to inflict chastisement. To tell the truth, we were somewhat surprised at this turn of the affair, but none the less we were glad it was no worse. For nearly a year and a half after this misadventure the old Queen’s arm rested peacefully in the back chamber. C. A Stevexs.