ot commonly required of the boys of my age; but
she treated me invariably with so much kindness that I was far more
happy and content than I had been in the family of Manito-o-geezhik. She
sometimes whipped me, as she did her own children: but I was not so
severely and frequently beaten as I had been before.

Early in the spring, Net-no-kwa and her husband, with their family,
started to go to Mackinac. They left me, as they had done before, at
Point St. Ignace, as they would not run the risk of losing me by
suffering me to be seen at Mackinac. On our return, after we had gone
twenty-five or thirty miles from Point St. Ignace, we were detained by
contrary winds at a place called Me-nau-ko-king, a point running out
into the lake. Here we encamped with some other Indians, and a party of
traders. Pigeons were very numerous in the woods, and the boys of my
age, and the traders, were busy shooting them. I had never killed any
game, and, indeed, had never in my life discharged a gun. My mother had
purchased at Mackinac a keg of powder, which, as they thought it a
little damp, was here spread out to dry. Taw-ga-we-ninne had a large
horseman's pistol; and, finding myself somewhat emboldened by his
indulgent manner toward me, I requested permission to go and try to kill
some pigeons with the pistol. My request was seconded by Net-no-kwa, who
said, 'It is time for our son to begin to learn to be a hunter.'
Accordingly, my father, as I called Taw-ga-we-ninne, loaded the pistol
and gave it to me, saying, 'Go, my son, and if you kill anything with
this, you shall immediately have a gun and learn to hunt.' Since I have
been a man, I have been placed in difficult situations; but my anxiety
for success was never greater than in this, my first essay as a hunter.
I had not gone far from the camp before I met with pigeons, and some of
them alighted in the bushes very near me. I cocked my pistol, and raised
it to my face, bringing the breech almost in contact with my nose.
Having brought the sight to bear upon the pigeon, I pulled trigger, and
was in the next instant sensible of a humming noise, like that of a
stone sent swiftly through the air. I found the pistol at the distance
of some paces behind me, and the pigeon under the tree on which he had
been sitting. My face was much bruised, and covered with blood. I ran
home, carrying my pigeon in triumph. My face was speedily bound up; my
pistol exchanged for a fowling-piece; I was accoutred