EPISODES 



495 



their haunches, looking upwards, and barking. The 

 hunters now employed their axes, and sent the chips 

 about at such a rate that one of them coming in contact 

 with my cheek, marked it so that a week after several of 

 my friends asked me where, in the name of wonder, I had 

 got ♦^^hat black eye. At length the tree began to crack, 

 and i lowly leaning to one side, the heavy mass swung 

 rustling through the air, and fell to the earth with a 

 crasli. It was not one Coon that was surprised here, but 

 three — ay, three of them, one of which, more crafty 

 than the rest, leaped fairly from the main top while the 

 tree was staggering. The other two stuck to the hollow 

 of a branch, from which they were soon driven by one of 

 the dogs. Tyke and Lion, having nosed the cunning old 

 one, scampered after him, hgL mouthing like the well- 

 trained hounds of our southern Fox-hunters, but yelling 

 like furies. The hunter's sons attacked those on the tree, 

 while the woodsman and I, preceded by Toby, made after 

 the other; and busy enough we all were. Our animal 

 was of extraordinary size, and after some parley, a rifle- 

 ball was sent through his brain. He reeled once only; 

 next moment he lay dead. The rest were despatched by 

 the axe and the club, for a shot in those days was too val- 

 uable to be spent when it could be saved. It could pro- 

 cure a Deer, and therefore was worth more than a Coon's 

 skin. 



Now, look at the moon! how full and clear has she 

 risen on the Raccoon hunters ! Now is the time for sport ! 

 Onward we go, one following the long shadow of his pre- 

 cursor. The twigs are no impediment, and we move at a 

 brisker pace, as we return to the hills. What a hue and 

 cry! here are the dogs. Overhead and all around, on the 

 forks of each tree, the hunter's keen eye searches for 

 something round, which is likely to prove a coiled-up 

 Raccoon. There's one! Between me and the moon I 

 spied the cunning thing crouched in silence. After tak- 



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