Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/592

 The Widow and her Gun.

THE WIDOW AND HER GUN. _A gun passes to a widow under her husband's will giving her all the " household property in the dwelling-house" and the use of the house for her life.] MATTER OF FRAZER, 92 New York, 239. "PRAZER preparing to depart this life, The household property within his house, Likewise the use throughout her natural life Of the said house, he willed unto his spouse. Among those properties there was a gun Wherewith at Bloody Creek or Bunker Hill Perchance his ancestor had thought it fun With shot some red-skin or red-coat to fill. Or possibly it was of later date, And from behind a fabled cotton bale Had sent intrusive Briton to his fate, And forced his gallant comrades to turn tail. Perhaps against the wall of Monterey It may have made the tropic echoes start; Perhaps from Bull Run it had run away, Exemplifying valor's better part. Perhaps 't was but a humble fowling-piece, Or possibly designed for " turkey-shoot," Or rats, or skunks, or dogs too fond of fleece, Or for marauding boys too fond of fruit. Or maybe it had shone with brightest ray When it had helped to make a host retreat In fierce sham-fight, on general training-day, Predestined to unmerited defeat. On this great point the book affords no history; And lest the reader think that I have mocked, I leave the matter in its pristine mystery, — I will not, like a gun, "go off half-cocked"

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