He was roaming about in rustic fashion, when he attracted the attention of a youth twice his size, who began to "make fun" of him.

Young Putnam bore the insult as long as he could, then he "challenged, engaged, and vanquished his unmannerly antagonist, to the great diversion of a crowd of spectators." There were very few diversions for the youth of Putnam's time, so long ago; but the boys, like those of modern times, indulged in bird's-nesting now and then.

Climbing to a tree top one day, in his endeavor to secure a nest, "Young Put" had a fall, owing to a branch breaking in his hands.

He was caught by a lower limb, however, and there he hung, suspended by his clothes betwixt heaven and earth.

His cries attracted some companions, one of whom he commanded (as he had a gun) to fire a bullet at the limb and try to break it.