A NEW HAMPSHIRE COON HUNT. 



E. H. HUNTER. 



Some of these critters that's ben huntin' 

 coons around here the last 2 er 3 years are 

 enough ter make a feller that knows any- 

 thing about the business sick an' tired. 

 I've heered 'em say so much about it that 

 finally I went out one night jest ter see 

 'em maneuver. They hunted all over 2 

 er 3 towns with a pack of dogs, an' chased 

 rabbits, skunks an' patridges 'round through 

 the woods an' fields a'most all night, an' 

 finally did manage ter git one coon. From 

 what I see of these coon hunters that night 

 they haint ary one of 'em has got the 

 brains of a guinea hen. Ter begin with, 

 they haint got any dogs that's worth lead- 

 in' home. I'd a gin a $50 bill ter seen my 

 old dog dropped down inter Bill Jones's 

 corn field that night jest as good as he used 

 ter be. The'd ben coons thar. I could tell 

 by the actions; but the dogs couldn't seem 

 ter trail 'em out any better 'n a pack of 

 bull dogs. I'll bet a ton of hay agi'n a 

 toothpick that my dog would 'ave took 

 the track an' treed coons from that field 

 inside of 10 minutes. I mean the one that 

 I sold ter Clarke, of Manchester. Didn't 

 I ever tell you about 'im ? 



Waal, yer see, John B. Clarke that used 

 ter run the Manchester Mirror was an 

 awful hand ter hunt coons, an' somehow 

 er other he'd heered that I had a good 

 dog. An' he come right up ter see about 

 it. Now it happened so that I couldn't go 

 out with 'im that night, an' he couldn't 

 wait any longer, 'cause he was in a hurry, 

 so I got Ab Parmelee ter take the dog 

 an' go out with 'im. Yer see Ab had 

 hunted so much that he knew the ins an' 

 outs of the business as well as anyone, 

 fer he an' I had ketched from 50 ter 75 

 coons right along, season after season, an' 

 besides, old Sport seemed ter kind er take 

 ter him. 



Waal, they took the team an' along about 

 night started out toward the Unity hills. 

 An' it seems that all the way out thar 

 Clarke kep' tellin' Ab about coon dogs he'd 

 hunted with, an' how some on 'em would 

 hunt all right, an' tree their game all 

 right, but onless he was right thar pretty 

 quick, they'd quit the tree an' come back 

 ter him. An' that what he wanted was a 

 dog that would stick even if the hunters 

 didn't git thar fer an hour er 2. Of course 

 that was all right, fer if a man goes among 

 strangers ter buy a horse er a dog, he's 

 supposed ter know what he's lookin' for, 

 an' has got a right ter be pertickler. An' 

 I've seen them that was a durned sight 

 more fussy about such things than they 



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was when they went ter pick out a woman 

 ter be their pardner fer life. They'd look 

 up a hound's pedigree back fer 25 years ter 

 see if thar was any yaller streaks any- 

 where, an' the dog would have ter be 

 shaped jest so, an' be marked jest so, an' 

 be jest such a kind of barkin' dog, an' have 

 jest so long ears, an' such a shaped foot, 

 an' so on ; an', by thunder, them same men 

 would pick ont a whinin', fussy, crosseyed 

 woman that would talk faster an' louder 

 than any hound ye ever see would bark a 

 runnin' by sight. Yis, an' when they got 

 wound up, an' got ter goin' on, 'twant no 

 use ter talk back, fer they'd tree a critter 

 less'n a minute an' they'd stick, too, you 

 bet. 



Anyway, Clarke said so much about the 

 dog stickin' that it sort of riled Ab. He's 

 a kind of odd critter, yer see ; an' when 

 he's riled he's contrary as a prayin' deacon 

 in a hoss trade. Waal, they drove out 

 toward Unity an' the dog struck out fer 

 the hills an' disappeared, an' Clarke an' 

 Ab went up on ter the side hill an' found 

 a good snug place an' set down in a hol- 

 ler among some spruces, an' visited an' 

 told huntin' yarns fer quite a spell. Bimeby 

 Clarke got uneasy about old Sport's not 

 comin' back, an' begun ter ask if it want 

 likely he'd gone back home, er whar the 

 deuce he had gone ter anyway. He didn't 

 git much satisfaction out of Ab, you bet. 

 Finally, he asked Ab about a dog that they 

 could jest hear barkin' a long ways ofT ; 

 an' what dog he s'posed it was. It sounded 

 like some farmer's watch dog, an' they'd 

 heered it fer more'n an hour. Now you'd 

 better believe he was a trifle surprised when 

 Ab told 'im it was the old coon dog. 



"What's he barkin' at?" said Clarke. 



"A coon, of course," says Ab. 



"Well then," says Clarke, "why in blazes 

 don't we go over thar an' see about it?" 



"Oh," says Ab, "thar's no hurry; s'pose 

 we wait a while ter see if he'll stick." 



Thar's whar Ab had 'im, fer he'd heered 

 Sport barkin' all the evenin' an' was jest 

 that contrary that he was willin' ter wait 

 all night ter score a point in the game. 

 Yis, that's Ab all over when you rile 'im. 

 Pretty quick they started over ter whar 

 the racket was, an' after quite a tramp 

 found the dog barkin' at a hemlock about 

 a foot through at the butt. He'd got his 

 game up a small tree. That was one of his 

 strong points. Yer see, when he struck a 

 track he never'd yip, but would run it like 

 fury until he treed before he'd bark once. 

 Some dogs '11 bark on the track an' that 



