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Show Ii. ' Adventures With Firearms. ) The more familiar with tho use of j firearms an Intelligent person becomes, $ 1 the moi'e he dreads accidents. "What s man who hns used a ride or fowling- piece can look back over his career i afield wjthout thankfulness for escapes not due to his own foresight? ! My first experience .as a boy I can ,1 J never recall without a sickening sen- 4 , satlon, oven today. Sly 'brother nnd 1 ; had lain our guns down, unloaded. A few moments later my foot came In , contact with the stock of my gun. and ';. the weapon was discharged, tearing the 'I . bark from a tree where, a second be 5 fore, my brother's head had rested. t And to this day I cannot imagine how that cartridge could have remained In 1 my gun. That Is the usual story -a horribly trite one, heaven knows. I t Again, In the callow days' of youth and I much self-confidence, und also In the- h days when there were no bammerles fowling-pieces, I and two companions 5; , oamc to the edge of a stream one hot "I j September day, thirsty as spike bucko y ;, In a drought. Very carefully and con- ' ' sclentioualy we uncocked our guns, laid ii them down beside us, muzzles point- I ing ahead, and knelt to drink. My com j . panlons finished quickly, rose and S , oocked their pieces, starting ahead. I, ! supporting my weight on my hands ; wrist-deep in water, lay Blaklng my i ! ' thirst, then Jumped up, and started to j cock the left barrel. But my hand., was ,1 , not perfectly dry, the hammer slipped l at half-cock from under the ball of my J wet thumb, and the charge tort If I through trie willows within an Inch I j of my companions' heads. One never a I forgets such moments. Robert "W. 5 , Chambers, in IIarpcr'3 Weekly. |