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<DIV>The sorting out and packing took several weeks. In the evenings my four
brothers would sit around the fire and make ram rods for their guns, and
mould the round lead bullets that were used in the old muzzle loading
muskets. One of the guns, with its old flintlock, stands in the corner as
I write these stories. It stands high as a tall man, and is so heavy that only a
strong man can level it and hold it steady. It was made by hand, and has a
silver plate on the side of the carved stock, that tells the name of the
maker and the date. I was fairly good at running the hot lead into the iron
moulds and the boys would let me do it. They allowed me to "neck" the
bullets when they were cold. When fresh from the mould there was always an
uneven place where the opening in the mould had been. It had to be
carefully cut off with a sharp knife, and it was rather a tedious task. So
the boys were glad to leave it for me to do. </DIV>
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<DIV> But I really wanted most to make a ram rod. I would
whittle and work on one for hours and try to hold my tongue out of the
corner of my mouth like Jasper did when he was very intent upon his work.
I thought perhaps it might help, but it was of no use. My ram rods were
always crooked. I think I must have wondered about it, for Jasper said:
"Lottie, what do you want a ram rod for, you haven't got any gun?" That
was quite true, but I had not thought of it. </DIV>
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<DIV> When the ram rods were perfectly shaped, they were
scraped with a piece of glass, then rubbed with sand till they were as
smooth and true as though they had been turned in a lathe. Then the boys would
take a thin tow string and wrap it spiral fashion from one end to
the other, spacing it maybe one inch apart. Then they would double back to
the starting place, then they would hold it for a second in the flame and
the string would burn off in a flash. Then there would be little brown
lines that formed tiny squares, scorched lightly but indelibly, from end
to end of the rod. I thought them very beautiful. </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><B>Walt
Davies<BR>Cooper Hollow Farm<BR>Monmouth, OR 97361<BR>503 623-0460 <BR></B><IMG SRC="cid:X.MA1.1086833681@aol.com" height=93 width=72 border=0 DATASIZE="2892" ID="MA1.1086833681" ></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>