BLACK SWAMP 73 



dainty, fine-clawed, hand-like feet were bright 

 black. But the most striking thing about it 

 was its face, which was very light grey, with 

 a large black patch around each eye like an 

 exaggerated pair of spectacles. The eyes 

 themselves were extraordinarily large, dark, 

 and lustrous, and glowed with a startling, 

 almost impish intelligence. 



The racoon was not given, as a rule, to 

 daytime prowlings, his preference being for 

 moonlight rather than sunlight. Nor, usually, 

 was he given to haunting the sinister recesses 

 of Black Swamp. But he was a wanderer, 

 and capricious as all vagabonds ; and he had 

 somehow discovered that there were crawfish 

 in the brook where it flowed through the 

 swamp. He was an ardent fisherman, deft 

 and unerring with his hand-like claws. But 

 to-day his fishing was unsuccessful, for never 

 a crawfish was so considerate as to come his 

 way. He saw the suckers and trout gathered 

 at the mid-deeps of the pools, but he was too 

 impatient, or not really hungry enough, to 

 wait for them to come near shore. While 

 he was watching beside the big pool wherein 

 the bear had recently fished with such success, 

 a wood-mouse unwarily came out of its hole, 

 just at his feet, and was captured before it 

 had time to see^its peril. This prize con- 



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