Twelve

There used to be a lot of the gliding squirrels around at that place. I called them flying squirrels but when they jumped from a tall tree to a shorter tree the spread their legs and the skin would act as a glider.

In the winter it used to be dark when I got home from school and one night one jumped and missed the short tree and landed beside me and I took off.  I had about a mile to go and didn’t stop until I got home.  That was the first time I knowed about them.  That’s why I thought there was some kind of animal after me.  I seen and learnt more about them as time went by.

I used to shoot at a lot of crows in the spring when we planted corn.  When no one was around they’d scratch and dig the corn up and eat it in the garden. I made to scare crows with sticks and used empty grain bags to hang on for cloths; it helped to keep them from the sweet corn.  Groundhogs, rabbits and coon would sneak in anyways.  Father showed me how to make a box trap. I made five or six of them and put something they liked on the trigger for bait.  I caught all kinds of small animals.  The only thing it was a while before I know how to kill them.  Then I hated to as there was certain kinds I would like to keep as pets but most always I had my twenty-two rifle with me.

One morning I forgot to take the shells out of my pocket and leave them home when I went to school.  I had nine of them along during the day.  I began to wonder what one would do if I threw it in the stove.  It was winter time and there was a good hot fire in the big iron pot belly stove.

When it was break time I watched when no one was looking at me and I opened the door, all the shells was in one hand, instead of taking time to pick one out I just tossed all nine in, shut the stove and hurried out the door.

It was a cold day and the teacher and about two thirds of the kids stayed in.  I waited outdoors and in about one minute it sounded like giant firecrackers gone off and it scared everyone so bad the teacher and everyone else came running and screaming of the door.  I could hear the shells hitting the inside of the stove hwe4n they went off.  It kind of scared me too as I didn’t know it would sound so bad as it did.

The teacher made us all stay out doors until she looked what happened. She found one of the busted shells after looking about ten minutes and then she knew what happened but nobody knew who done it and I sure kept that one to myself.  I could tell when the teacher looked up she had a funny look on her face and didn’t know who to trust after that.  She was a young teacher and she sure was scared too.

Then a few days later I had a rope and I tied one end to a small desk, laid it across the one step outside the school house door, covered it with a little snow.  I took hold of the other end and waited.  When the kids all came running out of the door I pulled it tight which made it about six inches high.  The first one or two fell and the rest fell over them.  Boy, what a pile of kids! A couple of the little ones was crying and they went and told the teacher.  I had to stay after school two nights and had to clean the blackboards both days and she gave me a good talking to. I couldn’t get away with very much in school as there was too many tattle-tales.