ooked at his weapon very gravely, and put on another pair of
caps, remarking, "I never had a gun miss fire like that with me before."

Jim's own gun was ready again in short order, but there was a queer
questioning look stealing into his face, and he said,

"Take mine, Charley; I'll look into that business."

Charley traded guns, and stood anxiously watching for another rabbit,
while Jim "looked into" both barrels of the offending piece, and tried
them with the ramrod.

"Got enough in 'em; no mistake about that. Guess I'd better draw the
charges."

There was a corkscrew on the end of the ramrod for that sort of thing,
and in a moment more Jim had a wad out of each barrel.

"Hullo! Powder? I declare! Why, Charley, you've put your ammunition in
wrong end first. You might have cracked caps on that thing all day. Your
shot's all at the bottom."

"Is that so? Well, you see, I never used that kind of a gun before,
and--"

"Here comes Nap! Big rabbit. There's a chance for you. Take him on the
run."

He tried. That is, he raised Jim's gun, and blazed away with one barrel,
but all the harm he did that rabbit was to knock down a whole bunch of
bright red mountain-ash berries from a branch twenty feet above him.

"Quick, Charley! Your other barrel. He's turning on Nap, around those
sumac bushes."

Charley had held his gun a little loosely, and it had given him a smart
kick in consequence; but he saw what Jim meant, and his reputation as a
sportsman was at stake. He knew, too, that Jim was trying his best not
to laugh, and he was determined to get that rabbit.

"Bow-ow-ow-wow!"

Rabbit and dog seemed somehow to come within range of that gun at the
same instant, just as it went off. It was a grand good thing for old Nap
that his master's city cousin aimed so high, and that the gun kicked
again. As it was, the astonished dog was now making the snow fly in a
whirl, as he dashed around in it after the tip of his tail, where one of
the little leaden pellets had struck him.

That was only for a moment, however, and then he came gravely marching
across the crust, and looked up in the faces of the boys, one after the
other, as much as if he was asking, "Which of you was green enough to
take me for a rabbit?"

He had not been very badly hurt, except, perhaps, in his sense of
justice; but now Charley suddenly gave a shout, and sprang forward.

"I hit him! I hit him!"

"Fact," said Jim; "so you did. Come here, Nap. Poor