238 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



" ' Kun,' sez I to the old woman, ' run to the house for the axe.' 



" Away she started, leaving the torch with me, and she run like 

 a wild Injin. I kneeled down so as to get on a level with them, 

 and puttin' the pine knot so it would shine through, I peeped in 

 at the varmint. Lord ! he was a beauty. Crouched up in the fur 

 corner of the cabin, he stood with one foot on the wall, ready for a 

 jump. His glossy bay coat shone like a horse. His eyes looked 

 like two blue lights out on Florida Keys, and his open mouth all 

 the time dropped water down on his whitish chest and on his feet. 

 Once in a while he 'd take a look up at the hole in the roof aud lay 

 down his ears, as if to jump at it, but it was a leetle too high for 

 him, and he couldn't get room enough to make the leap. Oh, he 

 was a purty critter. His feelers were as long as a ramrod, and 

 when he looked up at the roof they lay so far back that they 

 reached the wrinkle that crossed his shoulders, the only wrinkle 

 on his body. I wanted to take a shy at him, but it warn't no use, 

 the cracks were so narrow I couldn't begin to sight over my rifle, 

 and knowed if I wounded the beast it would be all day with the 

 Doctor. ' Oh,' thinks I to myself, ' ef I could get my pigs and the 

 Doctor out, I 'd manage some way so as to take him alive, and 

 make a spec out of a real live painter. 'Twould be the first ever 

 seed in Ameriky, I reckon.' 



" Just then the Doctor broke out afresh, half a-screechin', half 

 a-prayin' ; he seemed to be kind o' confessin' to the painter, for he 

 was goin' over what a sinner he had been, and talking about Daniel 

 in the lions' den, and the sword of the Lord, and somethin' about 

 Gideon, and Samson and the young lion, and yer never did hear a 

 critter get out so much that was pious in so short a time. I think 

 if I wanted to convart a sinner I 'd shut him up with a painter — I 

 would. 



" Just as he was sayin' somethin' about reposin' on the pro- 

 tectin' arm, the painter gave a jump for the hole in the roof. 



" Jehoshaphat ! what a jump ! he got his fore-claws on to the 

 shingles, but the shingles guve way and down he cum with a 

 spiteful screech. With that the pigs rushed round in double quick 

 time, and Eliakim, forgetting his pray in', hollered for me and 

 Marthy to come and help him. He was like the old woman who 



