SATAN THE RACCOON 



and then pretended to sleep. The dog was 

 deceived, and got bolder and bolder until he 

 was near enough for Satan to reach him. The 

 coon made a swift rush and caught the yelp- 

 ing cur, and handled him so roughly that I 

 was obliged to rescue him. It is needless to 

 say that the cur was cured of yelping. 



Satan whipped two other dogs before night, 

 then for several weeks had no trouble worth 

 mentioning. Now and then, through the 

 summer, a strange dog would attack Satan 

 and get whipped. 



There is a class of writers that claim that 

 the lower animals cannot reason. That such 

 animals are controlled by instinct. I have 

 ever found the lower animals as intelligent 

 in relation to the needs of their lives as we 

 are to ours. Satan proved to me and to others 

 that he could reason, also that he could take 

 advantage of new circumstances. Visitors 

 often gave Satan a dirty nut, which he would 

 clean by rubbing it between his paws. This 

 trick was played on the coon constantly. 

 Satan invented a new way to clean a nut. He 

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