It will fit you just as well as your own, for
we're pretty much of a size. Frank, there, will wear his old monkey
jacket, the skirts of which he razeed last winter for the very purpose.
Ah, here is Brower--just run up, Brower, and bring down my shooting
jacket off the wall from behind the door--look sharp, will you! Now,
then, I shall load, and I advise you both to do likewise; for it's bad
work doing that same with cold fingers."
Thus saying, he walked to the corner, and brought out his rifle, a short
heavy double barrel, with two grooves only, carrying a bitted ball of
twelve to the pound, quite plain but exquisitely finished. Before
proceeding, however, to load, he tried the passage of the nipple with a
fine needle--three or four of which, thrust into a cork, and headed with
sealing wax, formed a portion of the contents of his pouch--brushed the
cone, and the inside of the hammer, carefully, and wiped them, to
conclude, with a small piece of clean white kid--then measuring his
powder out exactly, into a little charger, screwed to the end of his
ramrod, he inverted the piece, and introduced the rod upward till the
cup reached the chamber; when, righting the gun, he withdrew it, leaving
the powder all lodged safely at the breech, without the loss of a single
grain in the groovings.
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