68 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
“Yah! yah! see dat "possum laugh! grin nudder side 
you’s mout ’fore long, ole chicken thief!” 
“Shake he, Josh! shake hard, nigger! he hold on good 
wid he curl-tail !”’ 
“Ha! yah! whoop! hear he growl! now dat ’possum laugh ! 
dar he come!” 
A simultaneous rush,—screams, shrieks, growls, all min- 
gled for an instant, while we beat off the dogs, and then he is 
swung in triumph above their heads by the tallest of the party. 
Now the well known trick of the opossum, in feigning to be 
dead. affords new amusement; and he is surrounded by his 
merry torturers, who, amidst noisy clamors, tease him in a 
thousand ingenious ways to make him show signs of life, 
