The Raccoon ra 
definite except the date and place of meeting. These 
being settled, the hunters begin to collect about nine 
o’clock in the evening, the boys of course a little 
earlier. With each is a dog, but as for guns, there 
will be four or five old ones in the party, ordinarily 
of the Springfield type, and warranted to kill a ’coon 
from either end! You need not possess a wonderful 
imagination to picture vividly the scene before start- 
ing. The boys, always the forerunners of the gather- 
ing pandemonium, have early in the evening located 
the harvest apple trees, and by the time the men 
acsemble, bringing more dogs, thiags are in a state of 
wld excitement. The men are quiet enough, smok- 
ing their pipes, telling stories, and talking over the 
possibilities of the hunt, but the dogs, away from 
lome once a year perhaps, are like so many boys 
until they find out “‘who is who.” There are in 
consequence several promiscuous contests. There 
may be two or three dogs out of the number that can 
follow a trail fairly well, and the rest will keep with 
these. 
By midnight, the raccoons being at their feast, the 
hunting party proceeds in none too quiet a manner 
to the cornfield. Soon, joined by the other dogs, the 
trailers are in hot pursuit, the enthusiasm of the 
younger hunters breaking forth in shouts, as they follow 
