EPISODES 495 



their haunches, looking upwards, and barking. The 

 hunters now employed their axes, and sent the chips 

 about at such a rate that one of them coming in contact 

 with my cheek, marked it so that a week after several of 

 my friends asked me where, in the name of wonder, I had 

 got that black eye. At length 'the tree began to crack, 

 and slowly leaning to one side, the heavy mass swung 

 rustling through the air, and fell to the earth with a 

 crash. It was not one Coon that was surprised here, but 

 three — ay, three of them, one of which, more crafty 

 than the rest, leaped fairly from the main top while the 

 tree was staggering. The other two stuck to the hollow 

 of a branch, from which they were soon driven by one of 

 the dogs. Tyke and Lion, having nosed the cunning old 

 one, scampered after him, not mouthing like the well- 

 trained hounds of our southern Fox-hunters, but yelling 

 like furies. The hunter's sons attacked those on the tree, 

 while the woodsman and I, preceded by Toby, made after 

 the other; and busy enough we all were. Our animal 

 was of extraordinary size, and after some parley, a rifle- 

 ball was sent through his brain. He reeled once only; 

 next moment he lay dead. The rest were despatched by 

 the axe and the club, for a shot in those days was too val- 

 uable to be spent when it could be saved. It could pro- 

 cure a Deer, and therefore was worth more than a Coon's 

 skin. 



Now, look at the moon ! how full and clear has she 

 risen on the Raccoon hunters ! Now is the time for sport ! 

 Onward we go, one following the long shadow of his pre- 

 cursor. The twigs are no impediment, and we move at a 

 brisker pace, as we return to the hills. What a hue and 

 cry ! here are the dogs. Overhead and all around, on the 

 forks of each tree, the hunter's keen eye searches for 

 something round, which is likely to prove a coiled-up 

 Raccoon. There's one! Between me and the moon I 

 spied the cunning thing crouched in silence. After tak- 



