The Possum 157 



the cream of the night's hunting. There were 

 some six hundred acres of tjbe old fields, so 

 there was room for many possums and their 

 hunters. But since White Oaks lay nearest, 

 those who lived there felt a sort of pre-emption 

 right to choice in the chase after the night 

 rangers. 



Persimmon trees are, after a sort, sylvan 

 immortelles. Nobody ever saw a dead one, 

 any mpre than a dead mule. Cutting down 

 and grubbing up does not destroy them. They 

 sprout cheerfully from the tiniest tip of root, 

 and keep on sprouting from year to year, de- 

 fying even August cutting. As to seat, the 

 tree is nobly catholic, growing and bearing 

 much fruit upon thin land, growing more, 

 bearing still more fruit, upon rich. It spreads 

 by seed as well as by sprouts. In the sunny 

 open fields, which it loves passing well, it grows 

 commonly in clumps, from five to twenty, 

 though the clumps stand well apart. In the 

 woods it grows singly, and, curiously enough, 

 ripens its fruit earlier than when growing in 

 the open. There are very many varieties of 

 it, differentiated mainly by the several man- 

 ners of fruit. Some trees ripen it early in 

 September. Others keep the acrid puckery 

 tang until February. The early trees are often 

 bare before frost, covering the ground under- 

 neath with their fruit, which is round, deeply 



