196 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



Yancy Stump was a Democrat who, as he 

 phrased it, had fought for his Democracy; 

 that is, he had been in the Confederate 

 Army. He was at daggers drawn with his 

 nearest neighbor, a cross-grained mountain 

 farmer, who may be known as old man 

 Prindle. Old man Prindle had been in the 

 Union Army, and his Republicanism was of 

 the blackest and most uncompromising type. 

 There was one point, however, on which the 

 two came together. They were exceedingly 

 fond of hunting with hounds. The Judge 

 had three or four track-hounds, and four of 

 what he called swift-hounds, the latter includ- 

 ing one pure-bred greyhound bitch of won- 

 derful speed and temper, a dun-colored yelp- 

 ing animal which was a cross between a grey- 

 hound and a fox-hound, and two others that 

 were crosses between a greyhound and a wire- 

 haired Scotch deer-hound. Old man Prindle's 

 contribution to the pack consisted of two im- 

 mense brindled mongrels of great strength 

 and ferocious temper. They were unlike any 

 dogs I have ever seen in this country. Their 

 mother herself was a cross between a bull 

 mastiff and a Newfoundland, while the father 

 was described as being a big dog that be- 

 longed to a "Dutch Count." The "Dutch 

 Count " was an outcast German noble, who 

 had drifted to the West, and, after failing in 

 the mines and foiling in the cattle country, 

 had died in a squalid log shanty while striv- 

 ing to eke out an existence as a hunter among 

 the foot-hills. His dog, I presume, from the 



