Very shortly they prepared to go home, but stopped at the spot where target practice had been started long enough to try a few more shots.
“Let me shoot once!” cried Minnie when it was Frank’s turn at the target. “I want to shoot a bear.”
She took Frank’s repeating rifle, and, after being shown by Frank how to keep it pointed away from the others and towards the target, she lifted it to her shoulder, closed the wrong eye, and tried to sight.
“I can’t see anything!”
While the laughing and joking continued, Frank taught Minnie how to sight along the rifle, how to hold it properly, and after many rather grotesque attempts, she took careful aim and fired.
At the crack of the rifle she thrilled with the pleasure of it, though startled to think she had started a bullet on its way to the target.
“Where did it go? Where did it hit?” she cried.
“Last I saw of it it was on its way up the river!” called Lanky Wallace. “You know, Minnie, it went right over the top of that tree,” he added, pointing high in the air.
But, undaunted, she tried again, and this time the target showed a hole, though at the outer ring.
A few more shots were fired, with Minnie gradually learning, for she was hitting the target or close around it each time.