RASTUS EARNS HIS SLEEP 263 
joke. It was small wonder Rastus grew up to a 
full twenty pounds of sharp face, the bead-like 
eyes ringed with black, and black and dirty gray 
furred body, without much fear of man or beast, 
and without any great resort to the instinctive 
strategy of his race. ‘There had been nobody, in 
fact, even to name him Rastus. 
Then Wolf came. Wolf had a master who 
came with him, but the master did not figure 
much until autumn, while Wolf started in im- 
mediately, the May violets being still in bloom in 
the woods. Wolf was a born ’coon dog. Down 
south they have ’coon dogs, I’m told, but I never 
thought much of any I ever saw. At least, 
they’d be of little use on our mountain. They 
are hound dogs, and they bay on the scent. Ifa 
dog bayed on the scent of one of our ’coons, the 
’coon would be off so far in advance that he would 
get safely to his den in the rocks, where nobody 
could get at him, and the dog would never tree 
him at all. Wolf had a hound’s nostrils, but no 
bay. He followed a hot trail like a silent race 
horse, and he never barked till he was certain he 
had his ’coon up that particular tree beneath 
