396 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



ArG. 



tree, were barking furiously and tearing at the 

 bark, when Bob and the two boys came up to the 

 spot. I 



He's treed, sure enough," cried Bob ; "but he 

 can't get off ihat way nohow;" and with these 

 words the negro went to work vigorously with his 

 axe at cutting down the tree. It was not many 

 minutes before the tree began to totter, and in the 

 next instant it went crasliing to the ground ; fall- 

 ing, however, directly across the little stream al- 

 ready alluded to. As it fell, the dogs and the 

 boys rushed down the bank of the stream to the 

 water, while Bob scrambled along the trunk. 

 They now saw the coon on a small branch that 

 reached into the stream, which he had run down 

 with the hope of escaping by the water, which he 

 takes t'j readily. 



But as the dogs are on the bank, close to the 

 branch, he hesitates. The dogs bark furiously at 

 him, and Harry tries to urge them into the water 

 in pursuit, while Bob climbs along the trunk of 

 the tree, and attempts to shake the coon off the 

 liQib, and Frank throws several sticks at him. 

 Still the coon hesitates to take to the water, and 

 the dogs cannot reach him on his small branch. 

 The boys shout, the dogs bark, the negro grum- 

 bles, and shakes the branch with all his strength, 

 and threatens the coon with every possible ven- 

 geance if he does not abandon the small limb, and 

 afford the dogs a chance for his capture. 



The coon could not hold out long in this position, 

 and as Bob had now out off his retreat, he at last 

 leaps into the water and makes a dash for the op- 

 posite bank. The dogs instantly plunge in, in 

 pursuit, and in a moment Bull is upon him. The 

 coon slips under the di g as he dashes eagerly at 

 him, and giving his pursuer a deep and ugly gash 

 on the nose, which brings the blood and a howl of 

 pain, manages to reach the opposite bank, but 

 now with both dogs close at his heels. 



Meanwhile Bob had scrambled along the trunk 

 of the tree across the stream, and Harry and 

 Frank were following him as rapidly as the thick 

 branches of the tree would permit. "Catch him, 

 Bull," shouted Bob; "at him, Bull! at him!" 

 "Go in, Ca3sar ; catch him, catch him!" shouted 

 both the boys ; and all three — all five we may say, 

 if we count the dogs— were wild with excitement 

 tor fear the coon would escapa. 



But the dogs are already upon the coon, just as 

 he attempts to gain another tree, and the battle 

 begins. The coon shovs good lighting qualities, 

 making the dogs' hair fly, and biting and scratch- 

 ing them badly. But he soon has to succumb, 

 and in a few moments the dogs stand over him 

 victors, although their bloody noses show that the 

 battle has not been too easily won. 



"Golly !" exclaimed Bob, as he held up the coon 

 by the tail, "that's a powerful big coon. I tell you ; 

 and he was just the finest fighter this here nigger 

 ever saw. Golly, ain't he big, Massa Harry and 

 Massa Frank ? and didn't he give old Bull a 

 mighty bloody scratch on the nose ?" And the 

 negro, as he proceeded to relate the adventures of 

 the hunt, gave way, every few moments, to long 

 and boisterous roars of laughter. 



The party now proceeded homeward, quite satis- 

 fied with their evening's sport. The next morn- 

 ing the skin of the coon adorned Bolj's cabin, 

 stretched on sticks, Frank and Harry agreeing 

 that he should possess the coon's skin, for the 

 purpose, in the ensuing winter, of making a coon's 

 skin cap, ornamented, as he promised it should 

 be, with the coon's tail hanging down behind. 



W^ATCHING ONE'S SELF. 



When I was a boy, said an old man, we had a 

 schoolmaster who had an odd way of catching 

 idle boys. One day he called out to us : 



"Boys, I must have closer attention to your 

 books. The first one of you that sees another boy 

 idle, I want you to inform me, and I will attend 

 to his case." 



"Ah," thought I to myself, "there is Joe Sim- 

 mons that I don't like ; I'll watch him, and if I see 

 him look off his book, I'll tell." 



It was not long before I saw Joe look off" his 

 book, and immediately I informed the master. 



"Indeed," said he, "and how did you know he 

 was idle f" 



"I saw him," said I. 



"You did ; and were your eyes on your book 

 when you saw him ?" 



I was caught and never watched for idle boys 

 again. 



If we are suflaciently watchful over our own 

 conduct, we shall have no time to find fault with 

 the conduct of our neighbors. 



A Laughable Clock. — A German in New Al- 

 bany, Indiana, has what he calls a "dumpling- 

 clock" in his window. On its top is a fat and jolly 

 looking Teuton, who holds a fork in his hand. 

 By an ingenious contrivance, the fork, at the end 

 of each minute, dips into a dish of dumplings, 

 and carries one of them to the mouth of the Teu- 

 ton, who swallows it with a choking gurgle, and a 

 queer motion of his glass eyes. 



We have seen even boys and men who are little 

 more than dumpling-clocks, — good to count break- 

 fast, dinner, and supper time. 



