XLVIII. Sheppy's First Coon Hunt 



LAST night Sheppy was initiated into the 

 mysteries of coon-hunting. The opinion has 

 prevailed in the neighbourhood for some 

 time past that coons are becoming plenti- 

 ful again. Their tracks have been seen along the 

 government drains and around watering ponds 

 where they probably went to hunt for frogs. More- 

 over, before the corn was cut ears were found partly 

 stripped and gnawed, and the work was pronounced 

 by experts who had been coon-hunters in the old 

 days as the work of coons. The matter was 

 brought to a head yesterday when I saw coon tracks 

 on the sideroad while driving home from the vil- 

 lage. It was unquestionable that there were coons 

 in the neighbourhood, and a coon hunt was quite in 

 order. Of course, we had no reason to believe that 

 Sheppy would prove to be a good coon-dog, but he 

 has a hasty way of dealing with woodchucks and 

 muskrats that he manages to catch at a distance 

 from their holes, and more than once he has tracked 



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