154 Next to the Ground 



Possum-hunters have an assembly-call the 

 same as partridges. It is a keen whooping 

 halloo. Little Moses generally raised it, in 

 signal to the rest to gather in the road before 

 his cabin. Dan and Joe were commonly the 

 first to answer it. Dan could out-whoop Little 

 Mose if he tried — but when your hunting 

 depends largely upon the loan of another fel- 

 low's dog, it is not the part of wisdom to hal- 

 loo him down at the beginning. As the hunt 

 trooped in, Little Mose distributed torches. 

 Daddy Jim always fetched his own torch — 

 he had a special art of shaping and tying the 

 stick bundles so they burned with a steady 

 pointed flame. Joe had tried to learn the art, 

 but Daddy Jim pretended he had none. He 

 was secretive in many things — as for example 

 regarding the bait he used when he came back 

 with such fine strings of fish, and how to make 

 a water-melon vine bear red-meated melons 

 or yellow, at will. 



A possum dog is generally likewise a fine 

 coon dog, so the three dogs did not know 

 until the hunters laid their course what sort of 

 game they were expected to follow. Coons 

 abide in the woods along the streams. They 

 cannot live far away from fresh water, since 

 they first dip into it every stored morsel they 

 eat. If the hunt headed for the creek, that 

 meant coons as plain as daylight. If, contrari- 



