Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/43

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INDIAN CHILDREN AND BOYS
23

in powder and shot impressed upon them that a young Indian about fourteen years old, seeing one day a large cougar about to cross a stream on a log, did not fire at him from the canoe, but crept ashore and hid himself at the end of the log until the cougar nearly touched the end of his gun, when he fired, and, in the words of Western Ike,"Blowed a hole in that cougar that a bull bat could a' flew through without teching his wings on either side." Spoken to about the risk he had taken the youngster said he couldn't afford to waste a load of shot, and had to make sure work.These old guns missed fire very frequently, and the little Indian's economy might have cost him dear, but to his mind life was about the cheapest of his possessions; it had never cost him anything. For large game shooting they would frequently make a slug for their