278 Trails to Woods and Waters 



in the vegetables, or ate sweet apples. They 

 had to live and there was enough for both us 

 and them, but when they visited our hen coops 

 and killed a dozen fine pullets in a single 

 night, even old Ben's anger was aroused, and 

 he and I declared war upon the raccoons. 



Ben's old fox hound Bugler was a famous 

 raccoon dog, and together with a dog bor- 

 rowed from a neighbor, made up our pack. 



We would keep the dogs in the leash, and 

 go with them to all the neighboring cornfields. 

 We would circle entirely around each field 

 and would usually find a fresh raccoon track 

 that the dogs were all eagerness to follow. 



There were several reasons why we did not 

 get any coons. Sometimes they climbed such 

 large trees that we could not cut them down 

 or climb them. Often they holed in the 

 ledges near by, where we could not dig them 

 out, while frequently the dogs would lose the 

 scent after going a short distance, or Bugler 

 would strike a fox track, and leave the rac- 

 coon for a fox, which he considered better 

 worth while. 



