"I suppose it must fall to him; as he will, of course, prefer staying with Mrs. Seagrave and the children."
As soon as they were at the tents, Ready hung up the pig to the cross pole of the tent in which he and William and Mr. Seagrave slept, and having propped the muskets up against the side of the tent, he went with William to get his knife and some stretchers of wood to open the pig with. While he and William were away, Caroline and Tommy came out to look at it, and Tommy, after telling Caroline how glad he was that they were to have roast pig for dinner, took up one of the muskets, and said, "Now, Caroline, I'll shoot the pig."
"Oh! Tommy, you must not touch the gun," cried Caroline; "papa will be very angry."
"I don't care," replied Tommy. "I'll show you how to shoot the pig."
"Don't, Tommy," cried Caroline; "if you do, I'll go and tell mamma."
"Then I'll shoot you," replied Tommy, trying to point the musket at her.
Caroline was so frightened, that she ran away as fast as she could, and then Tommy, using all his strength, contrived to get the musket up to his shoulder, and pulled the trigger.
It so happened that Tommy had taken up Mr. Seagrave's musket, which had not been fired, and when he pulled the trigger it went off, and as he did not hold it tight to his shoulder, it recoiled, and hit him with the butt right on his face, knocking out two of his teeth, besides making his nose bleed very fast.
Tommy was so astonished and frightened at the musket going off, and the blow which he received, that he gave a loud yell, dropped the musket, and ran to the tent where his father and mother were, just as they had started up and had rushed out at hearing the report.
When Mrs. Seagrave saw Tommy all covered with blood, and screaming so loud, she was so alarmed that she could not stand, and fell fainting in Mr. Seagrave's arms. Ready and William, on hearing the musket go off, had run as fast as they could, fearing that some accident had happened; and while Mr. Seagrave supported his wife, Ready went to Tommy, and wiping the blood off his face with the palm of his hand, perceived that there was no wound or serious mischief, and cried out to Mr. Seagrave, "He's not hurt, sir; it's only his nose bleeding."
"Musket knocked me down," cried Tommy, sobbing as the blood ran out of his mouth.
"Serve you right, Tommy; you'll take care not to touch the musket again."
"I won't touch it again," cried Tommy, blubbering.
Juno now came up with some water to wash his face; Mrs. Seagrave had recovered, and gone back into the tent, on Mr. Seagrave telling her that it was only Tommy's nose which was bleeding.
In about half-an-hour Tommy had ceased crying, and his nose had left off bleeding; his face was washed, and then it was discovered that he had lost two front teeth, and that his cheek and lips were very much bruised. He was undressed, and put to bed, and was soon fast asleep.
"I should not have left the muskets," said Ready to William; "it was my fault; but I thought Tommy had been told so often not to touch fire-arms, that he would not dare to do so."
"He pointed it at me, and tried to shoot me," said Caroline, "but I ran away."
"Merciful heavens! what an escape!" cried Mrs. Seagrave.
"He has been well punished this time, madam, and I'll venture to say he will not touch a musket again in a hurry."
"Yes; but he must be punished more," said Mr. Seagrave. "he must remember it."
"Well, sir, if he is to be punished more, I think you cannot punish him better than by not allowing him to have any of the pig when it is cooked."
"I think so too, Ready; and therefore that is a settled thing - no pig for Tommy."
