Ii 
Way-—Atcha, the Coon—Raccoon of 
Kilder Creek 
OTHER Nature, All-mother, maker 
of the woods, that made and re- 
* jected the Bear—too big, the Deer— 
i too obvious and too helpless in 
flesh-devouring, not deeming them 
the spirit of the timberland, and still 
essayed, till the Coon-Raccoon, the black-masked 
wanderer of the night and the tall timber, respon- 
sive from the workshop, came; and dowered him 
with the Dryad’s gifts, a harmless dweller in the 
hollow oak, the spirit of the swamps remotest from 
the plow, the wandering voice that redmen know, 
that white men hear with superstitious dread. 
Oh, help thy Singing Woodsman tell about the 
Coon, his kindness, his fortitude, his joy in his 
hollow tree, that the farmer spared because it was 
so hollow, and about the song he sings as he wan- 
89 
