Mother had been used to better days and to treating her guests well, and
her early life in Michigan did not take all of her spirit away. She was a
little proud as well as I, but I have learned that pride, hard times and
poverty are very poor companions. It was no consolation to think that the
neighbors, most of them, were as bad off as we were. This made the thing
still worse.




CHAPTER IX.

A SUMMER HUNT.


Father and I went hunting one day. I took my shot-gun, loaded with half a
charge of shot and three rifle bullets, which just chambered in the
barrel, so I thought I was ready to shoot at anything. Father went ahead
and I followed him; we walked very carefully in the woods looking for
deer; went upon a sand ridge where father saw a deer and shot at it. I
recollect well how it looked; it was a beautiful deer, almost as red as a
cherry. After he shot, it stood still. I asked father, in a whisper, if I
might not shoot. He said, "Keep still!" (I had very hard word to do so,
and think if he had let me shot, I should have given it a very loud call,
at least, I think I should have killed it.) Father loaded his rifle and
shot again. The last time he shot, the deer ran away. We went to the
place where it had stood. He had hit it for we found a little blood; but
it got away.

It is said "the leopard cannot change his spots nor the Ethiopian his