164 Next to the Ground 



ping it round and round a small bough, and 

 holding fast though the shaking may swing 

 him back and forth like a pendulum. 



Sometimes if he felt the tail-hold slipping 

 he let go and made a mad leap for a neighbor- 

 ing bough. But when at last he was shaken 

 out, or, if that was impracticable, the tree it- 

 self chopped down, he lay seemingly dead, 

 eyes shut, tail limp, paws limber, a lump of 

 fur and flesh not even stirring at a snuffing 

 dog. He did not breathe indeed so long as 

 his captors stood watching him, but once their 

 eyes turned elsewhere he was up and away like 

 a flash. He rarely got the chance, though. 

 Somebody either hustled him into a stout 

 gunny-sack, or slipped his tail into the cleft 

 end of a sapling, and swung him over the 

 shoulder. A double catch — that is, two pos- 

 sums in one tree — was balanced at either end 

 of the sapling, and sent joyously home. A 

 fat possum is too heavy to carry uselessly 

 throughout a night hunt — how much more 

 then two fat possums ? The beasts were 

 always kept alive, fed, and often fattened, until 

 wanted for cooking. Unless dressed as soon as 

 killed, the flesh becomes rank and unpleasant. 



It was odd to see the dog strike a wild-cat's 

 track. They ran faster than ever, but with 

 bristles up and a deeper menacing note in their 

 barking. Wrong always seemed to be pro- 



