THE PECULIAR 'POSSUM 



103 



into a stove in the hen-house, where, upon the grate, 

 I found three 'possums in their nest ! 



It is a peculiar sport, this 'possum-hunting; yet it 

 is mildly exciting ; and when you get your 'possum 

 by the tail, he smiles at you grins, I ought to say 

 and has a fit. To go hunting for a creature that 

 smiles at you in a dreadful manner when you cap- 

 ture him, that flops down in a dead faint or has 

 a fit when you take him up by the tail, that shows 

 the spunk and fight of a boiled cabbage to go 

 hunting for such a beast must be exciting, as excit- 

 ing as going to the store for a quart of beans. 



But here are the winter woods at night, and the 

 wide, moonlit fields, covered, it may be, with the 

 glistening snow. The full, round moon rides high 

 overhead, the pointed corn-shocks stand silent over 

 the fields, the woods rise dark and shadowy beyond. 

 Only the slow, musical cry of the hound echoes 

 through the stirless air, which seems to sparkle like 

 the snow, as if filled with gleaming frost-dust that 

 only the moonlight can catch and set to glancing 

 silvery-bright. 



You don't care whether you catch a 'possum or 

 not ; you are abroad in a world so large and silent, 

 so crystal-clear and shining, so crisp, so open, so 

 acreep with shadows, so deep and mysterious in its 

 distances, so pure and beautiful and unblemished, 

 that just to be abroad is wonder enough, and you 

 are not sorry to come back under the brilliant mid- 



