THE RACCOON 



handling or pawing, the sole furniture 

 of the house and evidently a plaything. 



This little brother of the bear is one 

 of the few remaining links that connect 

 us with the old times, when there were 

 trees older than living men, when all the 

 world had not entered for the race to 

 gain the prize of wealth, or place, or re- 

 nown ; when it was the sum of all happi- 

 ness for some of us to "go a-coonin'." 

 It is pleasant to see the track of this 

 midnight prowler, this despoiler of corn- 

 fields, imprinted in the mud of the lane 

 or along the soft margin of the brook, to 

 know that he survives, though he may 

 not be the fittest. When he has gone 

 forever, those who outlive him will know 

 whether it was his quavering note that 

 jarred the still air of the early fall even- 

 ings or if it was only the voice of the 

 owl — if he too shall not then have gone 

 the inevitable way of all the wild world. 

 140 



