h the report half the scrap was torn away, and then he taught her
how to hold the piece and how to aim.

She expressed, at last, a desire to shoot, and he gave her the little
rifle loaded. She aimed swiftly and desperately, and pressed the
trigger, and the echoes had not died away when she let fall the gun
upon the grass.

"I'm hurt," she said.

He sprang to her side, pale-faced, as she raised her hand to her
shoulder, but he brightened a moment later. He opened the dress at her
neck, and turned it down on one side, and there, on the round, white
shoulder, was a slight ruddy bruise. He kissed it, and laughed.

"It'll be all right in no time. Now, do as I tell you."

He put a cartridge in the piece again.

"Try it once more," he said; "aim more deliberately and hold the stock
of the gun very tightly against your shoulder as you fire."

"But it will hurt me."

"No, it won't. Do as I tell you."

She would have obeyed him had he told her to leap into the lake, and
the lake was deep.

She set her lips firmly, held the gun hard against her shoulder, aimed
carefully and fired.

The red spot flew from the gray trunk of the oak. She looked up amazed.

"Why, it didn't hurt me a bit!"

"Of course not. There is a law of impact, and you are learning it.
The strongest man in the world could not hurt you pushing you against
nothing. He could kill you with a blow. With the first shot your gun
gave you a blow. In the second it could only push you. Listen to the
wisdom of your consort!"

She made a mouth at him, and he told her she'd had her "baptism of
fire," and soon they sallied into the forest, hunting.

She was very pretty and piquant in her kilted dress and shooting jacket
and high boots. It was a formidable army of two.

There were myriads of bees in the openings, and the fall flowers were
yielding up the honey to be stored, in the hearts of great trees, and
at noon-time they sat down in one of the openings for luncheon.

He had shot only a couple of ruffed grouse, for it was a ramble rather
than a real hunt, this first mid-wood excursion of the pair, and she
had shot at various things, a grouse or two and squirrels, and missed
with regularity, and was piqued over it, but he had noted her
increasing courage and confidence and resolution with each successive
shot, and knew that he had with him, for the future, a "little
sportsman," as he called her.

They built a fire, just for the fun of it, and