The Champion ^Goon Hunter's Story 167 



"That there very night Joe an' me went out an' 

 broke the record. 



" *Well, what luckT shouts Dad, as Joe an' me, 

 along about midnight, crept up the ladder to our 

 bed in the garret. 



*' *0h, just seventeen,' answered Joe as if he 

 was badly disappointed, when we was both feelin' 

 as if we'd eclipsed old Nimrod's place in history. 



'*We could hear Mother an' Dad talkin' low, fer 

 a minute and then Dad shouts out, 'Yer mother 

 says there's half a pie on the pantry shelf that 

 wouldn't hurt ye, but mind, not one o' them there 

 skins is to go on the milkhouse.' 



A TREE FUMi OF 'COONS 



**But what I was goin' to tell ye about was how 

 we broke the record an' got them seventeen coons. 

 The old dog got three on the ground in the corn 

 patch, an' then he began cavortin' around a 

 scrubby oak tree that stood by itself in the clear- 

 in'. He fairly danced on his hind legs under that 

 tree an' Joe an' me just tumbled over ourselves 

 gettin' there. There seemed to be a 'coon on 

 every branch. 



** *A hull tree of 'em,' shouted Joe, an" he was 

 pretty near right. Up it he climbed an' the old 

 dog an' me waited for events to shape themselves 

 underneath. Joe gave the first limb he got to a 

 shake an' down came a couple of big fellows. One 

 of them landed right on the old dog's back and the 



