We had to do what we did very quickly as it was getting
near night. When we had borrowed the ax and were nearly back to the woods
again, we heard the report of Sheldon's rifle, as it rang out of the
timber clear and sharp and died away in the oak openings. When we got
into the woods we hallooed for him, he answered and we went to him; he
had found the tree. We asked him what he had shot at, he said at a deer,
but missed him. We cut down the tree and were rewarded by getting four
coons. Afterward I sold the coon skins in Detroit for a dollar apiece.
That Mr. Arvin Sheldon is now an old resident of the town of Taylor and
lives about two miles south-west of me.
After we got the tree cut down and the coons secure, it was between
sundown and dark. We were six or seven miles from home and then had to
take the ax home. Late that evening, when I got back under the old
paternal roof, there was one there who was very tired but the excitement
of the day helped him a little. By hunting (and it was hard work for me
as I made a business of it) I accumulated a considerable sum of money.
Father had earned and saved some money, so that with what I had, he made
out enough to pay off the mortgage to Mrs.
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