A CHRISTMAS WITH "OLD PORT." 357 



beginning, "I met a fool in the forest," but it was evident 

 that it was very inappropriate; but, as I got up in a be- 

 wildered way, I somehow blundered through some 

 thanks, and finished by saying: "Somewhere between 

 the lids of the volume that Mat quotes you will find these 

 words, 'I hold your dainties cheap, sir, and your welcome 

 dear/ " 



General Miller then called on Port to rise, and tell 

 how he came by the 'coon which we had eaten. The old 

 man would not get up, but said : 



"Y* see, it was this way. I was off, over beyond, 

 away back of Teller's, an' a-makin' toward the hell-hole 

 to pick up a few pa'tridges, 'cause Mat and Tobi said they 

 wanted to have Fred come over here on Christmas. As 

 I watched the snow, I see what looked like a funny track. 

 The snow was soft, an' it had been a-thawin', an' the sur- 

 face was all spotted with fallin' leaves and dropping 

 snow; but there was a kind o' regularity in these marks 

 that made me look closer, an' sez I to myself, sez I, that's 

 some kind of an animile that's been a-runnin' here, an' I 

 don't know what it is. It was a long track, as near like 

 what a baby could make if it walked through the snow; 

 for there was a heel to it, and it wasn't a bit like the tracks 

 of dogs, foxes, cats, minks or other animals that can be 

 read on sight; but I was bound to know what the thing 

 was. I had no dog I never hunt with a dog if I can 

 help it and after tracking it a few miles I found the 

 thing in a tree and shot it. When it came down, I knew 

 by the bushy-ringed tail what it was. It's the only 'coon 

 that I ever heard of being killed around Greenbush, and 

 that's all there is about it. My father, who lived up in 

 Vermont, used to tell of a hunter who had no bullet for 



