David Crockett eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 276 pages of information about David Crockett.

David Crockett eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 276 pages of information about David Crockett.

“So to it again we went.  They were now put upon their mettle, and they fired much better than the first time; and it was what might be called pretty sharp shooting.  When it came to my turn, I squared myself, and turning to the prime shot, I gave him a knowing nod, by way of showing my confidence; and says I, ’Look out for the bull’s-eye, stranger.’  I blazed away, and I wish I may be shot if I didn’t miss the target.  They examined it all over, and could find neither hair nor hide of my bullet, and pronounced it a dead miss; when says I, ’Stand aside and let me look, and I warrant you I get on the right trail of the critter,’ They stood aside, and I examined the bull’s-eye pretty particular, and at length cried out, ’Here it is; there is no snakes if it ha’n’t followed the very track of the other.’  They said it was utterly impossible, but I insisted on their searching the hole, and I agreed to be stuck up as a mark myself, if they did not find two bullets there.  They searched for my satisfaction, and sure enough it all come out just as I had told them; for I had picked up a bullet that had been fired, and stuck it deep into the hole, without any one perceiving it.  They were all perfectly satisfied that fame had not made too great a flourish of trumpets when speaking of me as a marksman:  and they all said they had enough of shooting for that day, and they moved that we adjourn to the tavern and liquor.”

The dinner consisted of bear’s meat, venison, and wild turkey.  They had an “uproarious” time over their whiskey.  Crockett made a coarse and vulgar speech, which was neither creditable to his head nor his heart.  But it was received with great applause.

The next morning Crockett decided to set out to cross the country in a southwest direction, to Fulton, on the upper waters of the Red River.  The gentlemen furnished Crockett with a fine horse, and five of them decided to accompany him, as a mark of respect, to the River Washita, fifty miles from Little Rock.  Crockett endeavored to raise some recruits for Texas, but was unsuccessful.  When they reached the Washita, they found a clergyman, one of those bold, hardy pioneers of the wilderness, who through the wildest adventures were distributing tracts and preaching the gospel in the remotest hamlets.

He was in a condition of great peril.  He had attempted to ford the river in the wrong place, and had reached a spot where he could not advance any farther, and yet could not turn his horse round.  With much difficulty they succeeded in extricating him, and in bringing him safe to the shore.  Having bid adieu to his kind friends, who had escorted him thus far, Crockett crossed the river, and in company with the clergyman continued his journey, about twenty miles farther west toward a little settlement called Greenville.  He found his new friend to be a very charming companion.  In describing the ride, Crockett writes: 

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David Crockett from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.