394 DUCK SHOOTING. 



of the circuit rider; farming, past and future; mar- 

 riages, sickness and death, 



I heard one of them tell John a story which will per- 

 haps bear repeating. He said : 



"I never knew till the other day that coons went 

 fishing." 



"Why, of co'se they do," said John; "they mostly live 

 on fish and crabs." 



"No, that ain't what I mean. I mean fishing with a 

 hook and line. The other day I was going up a little 

 lead and I come to a bend, going slow and quiet, so's 

 to see if they wus any ducks sitting in there. Just as I 

 looked over the p'int I see an old coon a little ahead 

 of me runnin' round on the beach this way and that 

 way, like he was plum' crazy, and waving his paws. I 

 watched him a little to see what he'd do, and pretty 

 soon I see he was working around a little pool that had 

 some minnies into it, and pretty soon he druv 'em up 

 into a corner and he made a rush and swep' a lot of 

 'em ashore with his paws. I expected now to see him 

 eat 'em, but he didn't; he just put 'em up where they 

 couldn't get back to the water, and then he took one 

 and trotted down to the water again. When he got 

 there he stopped and looked about a little. When he 

 found a place to suit him he stuck the minnie on one 

 of his sharp claws and held that foot in the water. 

 Pretty soon I saw from the way he acted that a fish 

 was biting at the bait, and in a minute the coon jerked 

 his paw out of the water and threw a little fatback out 

 on the bank. He ran to it, carried it up on the marsh. 



I 



