160 Old Bays on the Farm 



^coons," replies his father, seeing that his fa- 

 vourite was enthused with the prospects of a big 

 'coon harvest, ''but I don't think you'll need much 

 board space for the pelts and not more than a two- 

 gallon jug for the oil." 



"You know the Smith boys over by St. Ives," 

 broke in Jo, who wished it distinctly understood 

 that he couldn't be discouraged by talk of scarcity 

 of 'coons, "well, the Smiths and a few other boys 

 were out one night last week and got two whop- 

 pers. Their dog isn't half as good as ours neither. 

 They treed two big fellows the first com patch 

 they went to and one of the Smiths climbed the 

 tree and shook the two out of the branches. The 

 dogs were waiting for the 'coons to fall. My, but 

 there must have been something doin' just about 

 then," said Joey with a yearning look as if he 

 couldn't wait for the shades of night to fall when 

 he hoped to be one of a 'coon-hunting party. 



THIS CRITTER WASN't A 'cOON 



"Didn't I ever tell you," said the farmer with 

 a picture of boyhood's happy days in his mind, 

 "how your uncle Jim and me got fooled one night 

 when we were out huntin' 'coons many years 

 ago? We'd had great luck that fall. We had 

 one row of 'coon skins clear across one end of the 

 barn and had made a start on the second row. 

 This night I speak of was along about fall fair- 

 time and the woods were just full of 'coons. We 



