well after the passing of bill i had to set in the corner of the cabin for awhile till bills relatives figured out what to with me...it was now the year of 1900.... after all the folks got together they decided they would put every thing up for sale and this encluded me...seems nobody wanted a big old 8 ga gal every body was shooting them new fangled pump guns of mr winchester the 1897 s i waskinda jelous... a auction day was set for us on july 10 1900 for us as the days passed i wandered who would be my new owner and would he be good to me...the day of the auction arrived and at 1 oclock i was put up for sale..i was started at 50.00 the auctioneer said i was worth a hundred but no one seemed to think so...some feller hollered out in the crowd that you could by a new lc smith or a pump 97 for less than 40.00 my spirit sank low...finally the auctioneer ask for a bid there was a young man in the crowd hollered out i ll give 30.00 for her ..i expected some one else to up the bid but i heard the anvil come down the 3 rd time and sold...well my new owner paid the 30.00 and left with me in hand i did not know what to think of my new owner just yet...but at daybreak i knew i had a real duck hunting man...my new owner was a market hunter his name was destrey...as i was put into a little boat that destrey called a punt boat i noticed that beside me was also a model 97 i told her you been hunting long she said wait till we getinto some ducks and destrey will leave you at home from now own...my what a concieted gal that 97 was...as weslowly made our way up the little river i noticed that in the front of the boat was a huge cannon of a gun it was a front stuffer as destrey called it..he said she was a 2 inch gun that she held a full 12 ounces of shot and loaded powder by the handfulls in her... as we slowly rounded a curve in the river destrey said gals heres what we been waiting for...there must have been 500 wood ducks in thiscurve a feeding well destrey had the hammer back and was sighting in for a shot we were at about a hundred yards when the ducks spotted us and lifted into the air im guessing they had risen about 5 foot off the water when the punt gun came to life with a mighty roar and smoke so thick i could not tell if we had hit anything or not..out little punt boat was shoved backwards by the mighty blast destrey grabbed the 97 and began fireing all 5 shotsfrom that moment on i always wished i had a magazine...then it was my turn destrey said angel this is what i bought you for to get them cripples that the 97 cant reach..i mustered up with a mighty roar and i could see that destrey had finished off 2 cripples that must have been 100 yards boy did i give that old 97 a look...when all of the counting was done we had 97 ducks in that little boat the big 2 inch gun had killed or crippled all these ducks but it was the little 97 that had got four of the cripples but they were at close range myself i was sure proud with just my 2 at such a long range from that day forward destrey said i was his swamp angel...destrey took very good care of me and his other guns we all worked very hard together but we also played hard too some times destrey would just have to show his big gal off to his buddies...destrey truly brought me into the light he made a living legend out of me my the times were good and the little 97 and i got along purty good in the years we were together...more on the swamp angel later ive got to ponder some more.... SWAMP ANGEL
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