72 A NOCTURNAL EXPEDITION. 



'possum's skin. I must own," he added, " that I have 

 frequently entered very heartily into an opossum-hunt." 



I could not help smiling when my host spoke so em- 

 phatically of this distinguished variety of the chase ; but 

 he answered, very seriously, that I was wrong in jesting 

 on so interesting a subject, and that if I wished to ascer- 

 tain the reasons which had encouraged his partiality for 

 this kind of sport, I would discover that it was neither so 

 trifling nor so ridiculous as it seemed. 



His proposal was immediately accepted, and the master 

 gave orders for all the necessary preparations to be com- 

 pleted before evening. When we set out night was 

 already far advanced. Naturally I remarked that in so 

 dense an obscurity it would be very difficult to catch 

 sight of the game ; but my friend, on the contrary, replied 

 that nothing could be easier. To this assertion I did not 

 venture upon an answer. I could only utter a mental 

 protest, and suffer him to guide me ; and this is what I 

 really did. 



The American waggon, drawn by a robust horse, on 

 whose benches were installed the opossum-hunter, two of 

 his friends, and myself, soon deposited us in the centre of 

 a woody thicket, and therein we moved forward on foot, 

 in perfect silence, preceded by a gigantic negro, who 

 carried a blazing torch. Our two dogs, having discovered 

 the scent of an opossum, barked loudly, and darted ahead 

 of us, guiding us quickly to the foot of an old tree, which, 

 from every sign, we concluded to be the retreat of our 

 wary game. I confess I was much puzzled to know in 

 what manner our 'possum-hunter would bring down this 

 patriarchal oak; for he had no hatchet with him, and the 



