rr 



heerd Yowler, who was some ways ahead, stop his 

 yelpin', and back he come, with somethin' arter him, 

 tight as he could buckle. As they come up I let drive 

 at what was arter him kind o' promiscuously, for it 

 wasn't fairly dawn yet. The shot hit, I knew, for the 

 varmint held up, and then run oiF. 



" ' JSTow,' says I ter myself, * isn't a painter a mighty on- 

 sartin varmint ? Here is one that gets wounded, and yet 

 don't pitch inter a fellar. Who'd ha' looked for sich a 

 coward in a painter?' Then, after loadin', I put on 

 Yowler again, and we bowled along, not quite so lively 

 as afore, for Yowler was a leetle kind o' shy, but still we 

 did some pretty loud goin'. 



" 'Whar's that air pamter?' sez I to myself; ' did any 

 painter ever run so far before ?' It come on to be light, 

 and I could sec the trail, and it was an all-fired big trail. 

 Presently it got into a cane-brake, and then tuck a turn. 

 Yowler guv tongue. I could hear the canes rattle as he 

 jumped, but the painter broke out of this on the fur 

 side, and made a bee-line agin right straight for the 

 Ouithlacouchee River. 



" When we got to the river it was noon. I looked 

 down the bank, and saw the tracks along in the mud 

 where the varmint had been lookin' for a good place to 

 cross. Presently I could see where he had laid down in 

 the mud, and then for the fust time I saw it was a she 

 l^ainter with sucking young ones. As near as I could 

 make out by the marks in the mud she had two cubs 

 lugging at her, the rest of her tits being of no account. 



