what will happen to me
the parker brothers brought me to life in 1882 i think my memory aint what it use to be... i was sold to a hard ware store out on the east coast they put me on a shelf with some of my other sister guns but i was the olny real big girl in the rack we had to set on...by this i mean i was the only 8 gauge in the whole store sure i was not really a slim gal like a lot of my sisters the 20 s and 16 ga s were even the 12 s and some of the tens were light weight compared to them...how i use to want to be born as a 20 or a slender long barreled 16...people would come in the store and talk and handle my younger sisters and i would rarely even get a glance..even my sister s the 10 ga s would get picked up and sometimes be carried home by there new owners... how lonely it was to be born a big heavy weight girl i was not overly fat or anything i was just big... i thought i was graceful i had been taught by the parker boys that i was a beauty but atlas it seemed i was due to set on that gun shelf and be somethink to be talked about..one young man came in the store and set i would not shoot that old big gal fif the store gave it to me..he thought in his mind that i would have kicked like a mule and i would have too if this young man had of tried me out...well i began to think i would never be carried home and be cared for like my sisters had a many of a gun had sat on the shelf with me but they all had been bought and given new homes they were replaced by new sisters and even some of them were gone from my shelf... it seemed i was doomed a big gal just to set on the shelf... time slipped by months turned into a couple years how lonely i was... one day a older gentleman walked into the store and asked the owner if he had a eight gauge my how he got my attention..the owner brought him over to me i could tell the old gent liked me but something was a miss...the old gent name was bill he told the owner he liked me but he wanted a little better lookin gun you know the one with the fancy engravings on them....wellthe store owner was a mighty good salesman he told bill that he would give him a really good deal on this old plain jane P H GRADE PARKER well i could tell that bill had picked up on the good deal part...the owner told bill that usally the plain grade parkers were usally a 100.00 dollars but since i the gun had been setting on the shelf so long that he would take 90 dollars for me...well i could tell this did not impress bill to much..bill slowly started walking away the store owner said now hold on a minute you aint even made me a offer...the store owner said tell you what bill make me a reasonable offer and if i take you up on the offer heres what i ll do...if you get the gun and take it huntinh and dont like her i will trade back or buy her back from you...so the owner let bill ponder up on this a minute...well it seemed like an hour before bill finally looked up and said tell you what i ll do i ll give 75.00dollars and you throw in a box of shells my heart almost stopped for you know them shells cost a buck eighty a box... the store owner said bill you drive a mighty hard bargain but im gonna let you have the old gal for that provided you dont like her you bring her back in good shape... well both bill and the store owner were happy with the trade... as bill walked out of the store with me and layed me over in his wagon he kept thinking out loud i got a good deal on that gun but if i had of just waited i could have got myself one of those gh grade or even maybe a d grade 8 ga... well it was not long before we arrived home i had told my self i was gonna make bill proud of me when we went hunting...now bill lived in some of the greatest duck hunting areas that there ever was and he went duck hunting every chance he got...it was about a month till bill took me hunting the weather had changed from summer till fall what a sight it was to see..every little pond and creek held more ducks than i knew had existed... bill took me out that cool morning lord was it a sight ducks coming in from every angle only touble bill said there outa range...he was use to shooting a 12 ga little did he know this was whati the big gal was built for by them parker boys.... you know in them days we had to make every shot count it took bill a while but he said the next birds that come by im gonna take a shot..well was not long before 3 ducks mallards at about 65 yards now bill cocked my hammers and took good aim my after the smoked cleared there lay 2 ducks on the water stone dead...now bill was mighty surprized cause he knew these ducks were outa range for his old 12...bill gave me a good trying out that morning bill killed birds farther out and even shot at soime a cannon could not have got...we came up with 15 ducks out of that first box of shell s.. remember we had no limits back in my younger days...monday found bill going to the store and getting some more shells.the store owner asked bill if he had come to trade the old gal in bill said ive got me a keeper here...me and bill went on many of a hunt together up untill his passing i served him faith fully... more of my happinging after i ponder a while..... swamp angel
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