THE PECULIAR 'POSSUM 



101 



; 



he was grown, unlike any other wild animal I had 



i ever tamed, he would not depart from these domes- 



jticated ways, but insisted upon coming back home 



every time I took him away to the woods. Of 



course he was only a few months old when I tried 



j to turn him loose in the woods, and that may account 



i for his returning and squeezing through the open- 



! ing of the pump-box trough into the kitchen and 



Agoing fast asleep on the cushion of the settee ; as itj 



/may also account for his getting into a neighbor's 1 ! 



> yard by mistake on his way back one night and' 

 drowning in the well. 



\ You have read of 'possum hunts ; - and they are j 

 i peculiar, too, as naturally they must needs be. For 



Jyou hunt 'possums with rabbit hounds, and shoot I 

 them with a meal-sack shoot them into a meal-j 

 sack would be more exact. And you hunt by moon- 



> light if you really love 'possum. 



'> We used to start out just as the moon, climbing over , 

 the woods, fell soft across the bare fields. The oldt 

 dog would be some distance ahead, her nose to the j 

 [ground, sometimes picking up a trail in the first corn-r ; 

 'field, or again not until we reached the woods, or! 

 'again leading us for miles along the creek meadows 

 >among the scattered persimmon trees, before strik- 

 ing a fresh scent. 



Wherever the trail started it usually led away for 

 the woods, for some hollow stump or tree, where the 

 'possum made his nest. Once in a while I have over- 



- 



