Of Course There Are A Few Who Yawn And
Complain Of The Monotony Of Frontier Life, But These Are The
Stay-At-Homes Who Sit By Their Own Fires Day After Day And Let Cobwebs
Gather In Brain And Lungs.
And these, too, are the ones who have time
to discover so many faults in others, and become our
Garrison gossips!
If they would take brisk rides on spirited horses in this wonderful
air, and learn to shoot all sorts of guns in all sorts of positions,
they would soon discover that a. frontier post can furnish plenty of
excitement. At least, I have found that it can.
Faye was very anxious for me to become a good shot, considering it
most essential in this Indian country, and to please him I commenced
practicing soon after we got here. It was hard work at first, and I
had many a bad headache from the noise of the guns. It was all done in
a systematic way, too, as though I was a soldier at target practice.
They taught me to use a pistol in various positions while standing;
then I learned to use it from the saddle. After that a little
four-inch bull's-eye was often tacked to a tree seventy-five paces
away, and I was given a Spencer carbine to shoot (a short magazine
rifle used by the cavalry), and many a time I have fired three rounds,
twenty-one shots in all, at the bull's-eye, which I was expected to
hit every time, too.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 43 of 410
Words from 11434 to 11692
of 110651
