46 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



killing my dogs, and keeping out of shot herself. She will get 

 tired here by and by, and then will go further down the coast. 

 She has raised a young one here this season, for in the summer 

 one of the boys, while coming up the river in a canoe, saw her 

 swimming across with her kitten in her mouth. He could have 

 come up with her then, but she growled so fiercely that he was 

 afraid, and made a fool of himself." 



" 'Specs anybody make a fool of hisself, when painter want to 

 climb in de boat ! " replied a self-conscious voice in the back- 

 ground. 



"We had Mike here last year to hunt the same panther, 

 I think, but I believe he got whipped ; at all events, he went out 

 one day, and didn't come back since." 



" Mike smiled his peculiar smile, which meant, like the Germans' 

 • Yah wohl,' anything, according to the speaker's intent, but said 

 not a word. 



 Tell us of that hunt, old father of Diana," said the Doctor. 



"Where, sir, is my panther skin you promised?" asked 

 Jackson. 



"Painter is an oncommon onsartin varmint," was Mike's 

 musing reply, as he put his brawny arms around his knees, and 

 rocked himself backward and forward like a China Mandarin. 



" I should think that he was onkimin sartin, for he comes here 

 regularly once a year." 



" Wall, you see, Colonel, this war the way I was done fur that 

 time, and when yer heern it, you '11 say that it was skeery, and no 

 mistake." 



" A story — a story ! " exclaimed Miss Jackson. I leaned for- 

 ward to see the speaker, and he began his tale. 



