lugs, or hail. She had but two faults--she had got
addicted, probably in early life, to one habit of burning priming, and
to another of hanging fire; habits of which it was impossible, for us
at least, to break her by the most assiduous hammering of many a new
series of flints; but such was the high place she justly occupied in the
affection and admiration of us all, that faults like these did not in
the least detract from her general character. Our delight, when she did
absolutely and positively and _bona fide_ "go off," was in proportion to
the comparative rarity of that occurrence; and as to hanging fire--why,
we used to let her take her own time, contriving to keep her at the
level as long as our strength sufficed, eyes shut perhaps, teeth
clenched, face girning, and head slightly averted over the right
shoulder, till Muckle-mou'd Meg, who, like most other Scottish females,
took things leisurely, went off at last with an explosion like the
blowing up of a rock.

The "Lang Gun," again, was of a much gentler disposition, and, instead
of kicking, ran into the opposite extreme on being let off, inclining
forwards as if she would follow the shot. We believe, however, this
apparent peculiarity arose from her extreme length, which rendered it
difficult for us to hold her horizontally--and hence the muzzle being
attracted earthward, the entire gun appeared to leave the shoulder of
the Shooter. That such is the true theory of the phenomenon seems to be
proved by this--that when the "Lang Gun" was, in the act of firing, laid
across the shoulders of two boys standing about a yard the one before
the other, she kicked every bit as well as the blunderbuss. Her lock was
of a very peculiar construction. It was so contrived that, when on full
cock, the dog-head, as we used to call it, stood back at least seven
inches, and unless the flint was put in to a nicety, by pulling the
trigger you by no means caused any uncovering of the pan, but things in
general remained _in statu quo_--and there was perfect silence. She had
a worm-eaten stock, into which the barrel seldom was able to get itself
fairly inserted; and even with the aid of circumvoluting twine, 'twas
always coggly. Thus too, the vizy (_Anglice_ sight) generally inclined
unduly to one side or the other, and was the cause of all of us everyday
hitting and hurting objects of whose existence even we were not aware,
till alarmed by the lowing or the galloping of cattle on the hills