EPISODES 493 



All is now bustle within and without ; a servant lights 

 a torch, and off we march to the woods. "Don't mind 

 the boys, my dear sir," says the woodsman, "follow me 

 close, for the ground is covered with logs, and the grape- 

 vines hang everywhere across. Toby, hold up the light, 

 man, or we'll never see the gullies. Trail your gun, 

 sir, as General Clark used to say — not so, but this way 

 — that's it; now then, no danger, you see; no fear of 

 snakes, poor things! They are stiff enough, I'll be 

 bound. The dogs have treed one. Toby, you old fool, 

 why don't you turn to the right .' — not so much ; there — 

 go ahead, and give us light. What 's that .' Who 's there ? 

 Ah, you young rascals ! you 've played us a trick, have 

 you? It 's all well enough, but now just keep behind, or 

 I'll — " And, in fact, the boys, with eyes good enough 

 to see in the dark, although not quite so well as an Owl's, 

 had cut directly across the dogs, which had surprised a 

 Raccoon on the ground, and bayed it until the lads knocked 

 it on the head. " Seek him, boys ! " cried the hunter. The 

 dogs, putting their noses to the ground, pushed off at a 

 good rate. "Master, they 're making for the creek," says 

 old Toby. On towards it therefore we push. What 

 woods, to be sure ! No gentleman's park this, I assure 

 you, reader. We are now in a low flat; the soil thinly 

 covers the hard clay ; nothing but beech-trees hereabouts, 

 unless now and then a maple. Hang the limbs ! say I — 

 hang the supple-jacks too — here I am, fast by the neck; 

 cut it with your knife. My knee has had a tremendous 

 rub against a log; now my foot is jammed between two 

 roots; and here I stick. "Toby, come back; don't you 

 know the stranger is not up to the woods.' Halloo, Toby, 

 Toby ! " There I stood perfectly shackled, the hunter 

 laughing heartily, and the lads glad of an opportunity of 

 slipping off. Toby arrived, and held the torch near the 

 ground, on which the hunter, cutting one of the roots with 

 his hatchet, set me free. "Are you hurt, sir?" — "No, 



