216 FORTY-FOUR YEARS OP 



and as his dinner was waiting on the table for him, with- 

 out loss of time be went at it ; but coming to the neck- 

 bone, he said : " Polly, what is this ? " 



"It is a duck, which Uncle Spurgin killed on the 

 pond." 



"Well," said Hugh, "it has a — big neck-bone." 



Then the little girl showed him the tail, but, notwith- 

 standing, Hugh would not stop until he had finished the 

 last piece of the opossum. That was the first and last 

 piece of opossum I ever ate ; and were it not for my pre- 

 judice against his rat-looking ears and tail, I could find 

 no fault with the taste of his flesh. 



Here ends this story ; and now I will relate another, 

 which I had previously overlooked. John McMullen, Sam 

 Vansickle (the man who had the race with the turkey gob- 

 bler), and myself, went to the Meadow Mountain to hunt ; 

 taking with us five dogs, in order to be able to cope with 

 the strongest bear we might chance to meet. When we 

 arrived at the hunting-ground, there was no snow on the 

 ground, but that very evening a slight snow fell. In the 

 morning, as we were all anxious for fun, we started into 

 the woods, the dogs being keen for the chase. We had 

 traveled but a short distance, when we found the tracks 

 of a bear, which we were sure was a tremendous big ani- 

 mal, but in reality it was quite a small one. Our mistake 

 was caused by the snow being dry, and the leaves under 

 it frozen ; so that, when the bear put his foot down, the 

 frozen leaves were moved to a considerable distance, mak- 

 ing the track very large. This mistake raised our expec- 

 tations to the highest jtitch, as we anticipated much fun, 

 and a great fight. 



We sent ofl all the dogs, and such a noise as they all 

 made, is seldom heard. " Now, boys," cried I, " let us see 

 who will have the first shot at the bear;" and off we 

 started like so many wild bucks, and in a short time I dis- 



