The same authority tells how to make a cheaper rest, by tying three moderately stout sticks together near the top, and then throwing out the other ends upon the ground after the manner of the feet of a tripod. Place your coat in the crotch formed at the top to rest your rifle upon—that is all there is of it. Having decided upon the kind of rest to be used, the question of rest-shooting is settled, as everything else is performed the same as in shooting off-hand. Most modern sportsmen object to rest-shooting to such an extent that no artificial rest is admitted at their target matches. Their reasons for such objections are that a rest is an inconvenient arrangement that could not be employed either in war or field-sports, and hence, people ought to learn to shoot well without it. And they do, but in many instances they shoot with a rest at last, making one of themselves by lying upon the ground and shooting off the knee or some other part of the person, or by setting the elbows upon the ground so as to brace with the gun as permanently as any artificial rest could possible be. The methods employed by the noted marksmen, Messrs. Fulton and Bodine, were of this character. CHAPTER XXXVII. ON USING THE SHOT-GUN. _Born Shooters._—Every man who uses a gun at all will feel an ambition to use it skillfully, and when he finds himself falling short of his aspirations he will apply to his gunsmith for instructions, for the gunsmith is expected to set the owner all right as well as his gun. There will be some difference in results to the gunsmith, however, for when the gun gets out of fix, and the gunsmith repairs the imperfections, the owner expects to pay for services rendered, but not so with reference to himself. He will expect the gunsmith to spend an hour or so in telling him how to shoot, but it will not occur to him that time is worth the same in dollars and cents spend it as we may, hence he will never think of tendering the slightest remuneration for the time consumed in giving him instructions. We have often thought that a chapter in some book telling about all there is to tell the novice on the subject of shooting would be worth a great deal to the gunsmith, as he could turn it over to his inquiring customers and go on about his work, leaving them to sift out from the “black and white” the information desired, taking their own time for it, and digesting everything in accordance with their own notions. And right here, it may be remarked, is a proper place to put in just such a chapter, which is done without further preface.