The sons - a fine,
hardy, independent set of fellows - were regarded by the old man with
pride and affection. Many were his anecdotes of their prowess in
hunting and fishing.
His method of giving them an aversion to strong drink while very
young amused me greatly, but it is not every child that could have
stood the test of his experiment.
"When they were little chaps, from five to six years of age, I made
them very drunk," he said; "so drunk that it brought on severe
headache and sickness, and this so disgusted them with liquor,
that they never could abide the sight of it again. I have only one
drunkard among the seven; and he was such a weak, puling crathur,
that I dared not try the same game with him, lest it should kill
him. 'Tis his nature, I suppose, and he can't help it; but the truth
is, that to make up for the sobriety of all the rest, he is killing
himself with drink."
Norah gave us an account of her catching a deer that had got into
the enclosure the day before.
"I went out," she said, "early in the morning, to milk the cows,
and I saw a fine young buck struggling to get through a pale of the
fence, in which having entangled his head and horns, I knew, by the
desperate efforts he was making to push aside the rails, that if I
was not quick in getting hold of him, he would soon be gone."
"And did you dare to touch him?"
"If I had had Mat's gun I would have shot him, but he would have
made his escape long before I could run to the house for that, so I
went boldly up to him and got him by the hind legs; and though he
kicked and struggled dreadfully, I held on till Mat heard me call,
and ran to my help, and cut his throat with his hunting-knife.
