XXIV.
The Accidents of Life--"Some Men Achieve Greatness, and Some
have Greatness Thrust Upon Them"--A Slide--Rattle at
the Top and an Icy Pool at the Bottom--A Fanciful Story

CHAPTER XXV.
Headed Towards Home--The Martin and Sable Hunter--His
Cabin--Autumnal Scenery

CHAPTER XXVI.
A Surprise--A Serenade--A Visit from Strangers--An
Invitation to Breakfast--A Fashionable Hour and a
Bountiful Bill of Fare

CHAPTER XXVII.
Would I were a Boy Again!

CHAPTER XXVIII.
Headed Down Stream--Return to Tupper's Lake--The Camp on the
Island

CHAPTER XXIX.
A Mysterious Sound--Treed by a Moose--Angling for a Powder
Horn--An Unheeded Warning and the Consequences

CHAPTER XXX.
Good-bye--Floating Down the Rackett--A Black Fox--A Trick
upon the Martin Trappers and its Consequences

CHAPTER XXXI.
Out of the Woods--The Thousand Islands--Cape Vincent--Bass
Fishing--Home--A Searcher after Truth--An
Interruption--Finis

THE RIFLE AND THE ROD.

CHAPTER I.

A GREAT INSTITUTION.

"It is a great institution," I said, or rather thought aloud, one
beautiful summer morning, as my wife was dressing the baby. The little
thing lay upon its face across her lap, paddling and kicking with its
little bare arms and legs, as such little people are very apt to do,
while being dressed. It was not our baby. We have dispensed with that
luxury. And yet it was a sweet little thing, and nestled as closely in
our hearts as if it were our own. It was our first grandchild, the
beginning of a third generation, so that there is small danger of our
name becoming extinct. A friend of mine, who unfortunately has no
voice for song, has a most excellent wife and beautiful baby, and
cannot therefore be said to be without music at home. It is his first
descendant, and everybody knows that such are just the things of which
fathers are very apt to be proud. He was spending an evening with a
neighbor, and was asked to sing. He declined, of course, giving as a
reason that he never sang. "Why, Mr. H----," said a black-eyed little
girl, of seven--"why, Mr. H----, don't you never sing to the baby?"
Sure enough! I wonder if there ever was a civilized, a human man, who
never sang to the baby. I do not believe that there was ever such a
paradox in nature, as a man who had tossed the baby up and down,
balanced i