_He_ was at the shooting-match, and nothing could make him believe but
that I was a great shot with a rifle as well as a shot-gun. Bet he would
on me, in spite of all I could say, though I assured him that I had
never shot a rifle in my life. It so happened, too, that there were but
two bullets, or, rather, a bullet and a half; and so confident was your
father in my skill, that he made me shoot the half bullet; and, strange
to tell, by another chance shot, I like to have drove the cross and won
his bet."

"Now I know you're the very chap, for I heard daddy tell that very thing
about the half bullet. Don't say anything about it, Lyman, and darn my
old shoes, if I don't tare the lint off the boys with you at the
shooting-match. They'll never 'spect such a looking man as you are of
knowing anything about a rifle. I'll risk your _chance_ shots."

I soon discovered that the father had eaten sour grapes, and the son's
teeth were on edge; for Billy was just as incorrigibly obstinate in his
belief of my dexterity with a rifle as his father had been before him.

We soon reached the place appointed for the shooting-match. It went by
the name of Sims's Cross Roads, because here two roads intersected each
other; and because, from the time that the first had been laid out,
Archibald Sims had resided there. Archibald had been a justice of the
peace in his day (and where is the man of his age in Georgia who has
not?); consequently, he was called 'Squire Sims. It is the custom in
this state, when a man has once acquired a title, civil or military, to
force it upon him as long as he lives; hence the countless number of
titled personages who are introduced in these sketches.

We stopped at the 'squire's door. Billy hastily dismounted, gave me the