The great thing is to know how to shoot, and
where to hit. Now, it's no use to fire at the head of a bear, the
proper place to aim for is the side, just back of the fore leg. Are
you a good shot?"
"Well," said I, "I can't brag, for I have seen them that could beat me
at that game; but, in a general way, I don't calculate to throw away
my lead. It's scarce in the woods. Suppose though we have a trial. Do
you see that blaze in the hemlock tree, there? try it."
Well, he up, and as quick as wink fired, and hit it directly in the
centre.
"Well," sais I, "you scare me. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect
to be taken up that way. And so sure as I boast of a thing, I slip out
of the little eend of the horn." Well, I drew a bead fine on it, and
fired.
"That mark is too small," said he (thinking I had missed it), "and
hardly plain enough."
"I shouldn't wonder if I had gone a one side or the other," said I, as
we walked up to it, "I intended to send your ball further in; but I
guess I have only turned it round. See, I have cut a little grain of
the bark off the right side of the circle."
"Good," said he, "these balls are near enough to give a critter the
heart-ache, at any rate. You are a better shot than I am; and that's
what I have never seen in this province. Strange, too, for you don't
live in the woods as I do."
"That's the reason," said I, "I shoot for practice, you, when you
require it.
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