A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



Instinct plays no part in coon lore. A 

 coon can reason as well as the average human 

 being. My captive proved to be as artful 

 and wicked as Beelzebub himself. 



Whenever my back was turned he would 

 be up to all sorts of mischief. When caught 

 red-handed he could put on a look of inno- 

 cence too comical for anything. By the end 

 of the first month he had got all of my ways 

 of life down fine. If I went into the woods 

 with my gun, on my return he would tear 

 around in his cage anxious for the squirrel 

 he had not seen, but was sure to get. When 

 I went away without the gun, he paid no 

 attention on my return. I do not think he 

 was guided by scent, for sometimes the wind 

 would not be right. Without doubt he con- 

 nected the gun and squirrel in his mind, and 

 perhaps knew more about a gun than I 

 thought. 



He did not take kindly to cage-life, al- 

 though his cage was under a small pine-tree, 

 so when I was about the cabin I chained him 

 to the tree and let him run outside. I put 

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