Nov. 5, 18R1.1 



FOREST AND STREAM 



309 



ity -whose tastes inclined a sportive way, and among; their 

 favorite pastimes of hunting, fishing and trapping was 

 '•coonin'." Hardly a night in the season passed that the 

 baying of Silas Larkum's black hound was not heard 

 among the buckwheat and cornfields or the woods and 

 hollows of the low surrounding hills. Other dogs, prob- 

 ably as good when alone, frequently added their voices 

 to the night's concert; but old Don was acknowledged by 

 all to be their leader, and it was said that he never struck 

 a trail that he did not find the end and his master the 

 coon. 



One night in the latter part of September the door of 

 the tavern opened and Hank Bender, a tall, handsome 

 woodchopper, entered with an axe and lantern, followed 

 by a young spotted hound, and after a glance or two 

 around the room he set his axe in one corner, and draw- 

 ing one end of a long bench a little nearer to the big box 

 stove, whose sides now gave out a luddy glow, for it was 

 a cool night, inquiringly remarked as he sat down: 

 "Guess Sile 'nd t'other fellers ain't bin round yet?" To 

 which the portly landlord, who bore the name of Askem, 

 replied, "No, but I bin expectin' on 'em every minit. 

 Sile said he'd be here 'baout half-past seven 'n' iVs most 

 that naow," glancing at the clock which hung on the 

 wall above a small looking-glass and a row of bottles and 

 glasses behind the counter. 



A lean individual, whose presence Hank had not noticed 



Sib he thought they had "better be gittin', for it's a 

 mighty good night, and 'f we don't git coons to-night we 

 won't never," Then they took note of their equipments, 

 which consisted simply of Hank's axe and lantern and a 

 campaign torch carried by Joe, who reminded Sile that 

 he had his "pipe 'n' tobaccker 'n' a pocket full o' matches, 

 'n' guessed he'd take a smoke," which was a signal for 

 the rest to do the same; and then the quartette filed out, 

 leaving the landlord and Pete to comment on the ques- 

 tionable pleasures that induced men to go "skivin' raound 

 thro' the woods at night after coons." 



Along the road the party proceeded, the lantern throw- 

 ing out magnificent shadows of moving legs, for Joe 

 would not light his torch until they were in the woods. 

 Up the hill, past the school house and down the other side 

 a half-mile further they went, until they came to bars 

 which opened into a lane leading a short distance fur- 

 ther, where it ended at the corner of a cornfield and at 

 the foot of a wide hollow through which a small creek 

 ran. The dog knows their duty and without any orders 

 commenced to hunt while the rest sat down to await the 

 result of their investigations. The night was dark, ex- 

 cept for the stars, which gave a faint light, and the 

 moon would not rise until near daylight so Sile said. 



" Wal, I don't care about no moon 's long 's we got 

 this," said Joe, patting the handle of his still unlighted 

 torch and for want of something better to say. Hank 



baying and waited for the hunters to do their share of 

 the work. 



It was the duty of some one to climb the tree, Joe 

 volunteered his services, and as the rest were willing he 

 handed his torch to Jim, doifed his coat, and cutting 

 himself a stout club, gave a glance upward to locate the 

 lower limbs, spat on his hands, and grasping the tree 

 with both began to "shin it" in so adept a manner that 

 he soon reached the bottom branch and drew himself out 

 of sight in the foliage. At Sile's suggestion Jim gathered 

 twigs and wood to build a fire, which, by the time Joe 

 was well up the tree, was burning brightly. They now 

 waited patiently for some report from Joe, and had not 

 long to wait, for he soon shouted, "Here 'e is!" "Which 

 side?" inquired Sile. "Upper side, I haint got to him 

 yet," returned Joe, as the scraping of his boots and clothes 

 against the bark of the tree told that he was still climb- 

 ing. "Look out, now," came from the tree, "Git round 

 further up hill. There; that'll do now. Hank, he'll fall 

 jist about where you be. Are ye ready?" "Yes; let 'im 

 come," shouted Sile. "All right; look out." Whack. 

 "Darn ye!" Whack. "The dum cuss!" Whack. This 

 time the club struck something soft. Whack, crash, 

 rattle, "There 'e comes." Thump. Don and Jack were 

 in the right place, and so was the coon. For three or 

 four minutes pandemonium reigned supreme, but the 

 dogs, aided by Sile's club whenever he could strike with- 



iintil now, and whose equilibrium was almost upset by 

 the movement of the bench, having lecovered his balance, 

 inquired, "Where be ye goin' to-night. Hank?" 



"Well, I d'no where we'll end up, we made it out to go 

 over to Banks's holler first; Bill said the coons 's work- 

 in' on his corn, 'nd judgin' from the way they bin eatin' 

 on it, there's a passel on 'em there; then we'll likely get 

 over the ridge into Widder Hodge's woods 'nd down past 

 Diimore's cornfield 'nd so ontbrough the big woods home. 

 But ye can't never tell where ye'll get to. Sile '11 go 

 wherever his dog '11 take 'im 'nd that might be clear down 

 to Millport." 



"Sho ! wal, ye got a long tramp ahead o' ye, 'n' I'd 

 Tuther it 'ed be you 'n' me. Fer my part, I'd ruther fleep 

 'n go runnin' raound the woods in the dark, breakin' my 

 shins 'n' legs over stumps 'n' logs 'n' sich. I don't see no 

 fun in sich kind o' fun no way. Why don't ye hunt day- 

 times like decent folks?" 



"Oh, git out, ye don't know what fun is; 'nd don't I 

 hunt daytimes, too? But there's more fun in coonin' 'n 

 ye'll ever see 'till ye go, besides ye can't hunt coons in 

 day time, 'nd ye see things in the woods at night 't ye 

 don't see in the day time, too; 'nd it's kinder bewilderin' 

 to know just where ye be sometimes, 'nd then it's fun to 

 hunt yer way out, 'nd ye have more fun talkin', for folks 

 talk different, 'nd the woods smell different, 'nd the trees 

 'nd the bresh look different, 'nd — well, there's more fun in 

 it anyway," 



"Wal, everybody to his taste. That's Sile, I guess," 

 returned his listener, as the tramping of half a dozen feet 

 was heard outside. A moment later the door swung open 

 to admit Sile with two companions and the coon dog Don, 

 a short-bodied black half-hound, whose battle-scarred 

 head had lost almost every vestige of hair and one eye. 



" Wull, Hank, ye'r on time," said Sile, who, like his dog, 

 was short-bodied and stoop-shouldered, and who loved to 

 hunt, fish and go coonin' more than anything else. "Me 

 :and Joe here was jist sayin' 't we might have to wait on 

 ye, but I'm glad we won't." 



"Well, ye won't have to wait any, for I'm ready," re- 

 plied Hank. 



AMOFG THE WILDFOWL.— IX. 

 A Ceippled Canvasback Makes a Good Decoy. 



drove his axe into the log on which the rest were sitting 

 and refilling his pipe sat down to listen quietly for the 

 first warning from the dogs. 



So still was it now that the sniffing and the rattling of 

 the corn stalks cauld be heard as the dogs worked their 

 way through them, now far away, now nearer. Once 

 Don came back so near that Joe thought he had given up 

 the hunt, but continued past until he was so far away that 

 nothing could be heard of him. Thus the time passed, 

 until even Sile began to grow doubtful, when a short, 

 quick bark gave notice that one of the dogs had found 

 scent, "That's Jack," said Hank. Jest wait a little," said 

 Sile, as the young man Jim arose. "Don '11 git 'round 

 there purty soon." Another bark a little closer and then 

 the young dog came nosing along past the hunters and 

 disappeared in the corn. Soon the barking became more 

 frequent and then stopped for a few minutes, until a long- 

 continued howl caused Sile to get up and say, "That's 

 Don, and he's struck the track ahead o' Jack." "How d'ye 

 know that?"' jealously inquired Hank. "How 'd I know; 

 why, coz Don won't never speak 'f there's another dog 

 ahead o' him. What 'd I tell ye?" as Jack gave tongue 

 again, by which his position was icnown to be in the rear, 

 Don's baying now became regular, and Sile, picking up the 

 lantern, started to follow, leaving the others to get along 

 as best they could, stumbling and falling over rocks and 

 stumps, until Dons voice changed to a quick succession 

 of yelps and then settled down to long and continuous 

 baying. Then Sile stopped and waited for the rest to 

 come up, remarking, "He's got 'im treed, and ye needn't 

 hurry," 



"Jack's got another one," said Hank, unwilling to de- 

 prive his own dog of his share of the honors, as he con- 

 tinued to give tongue, but in the same direction that they 

 were going. "Mebbe," said Sile, "but I think he's on the 

 same track, we'll see." 



J oe now lit his torch and they got along more comfort- 

 ably, climbing a rail fence and following the direction of 

 the sounds into the woods a few hundred yards, they 

 came upon both Dan and Jack sitting at the foot of an 

 ordinary-sized hemlock. Then the dogs oeased their 



out hitting a dog, soon made the battle a short one, and 

 as Hank snatched the still panting beast from the young- 

 dog's jaws and held him up to the light he pronounced 

 him "a ol' sollaker." 



The fun was not yet ended, for while they waited for 

 Joe to descend, his voice came down, "By gosh! here's 

 another on t'other side; I can't reach 'im, 'n' '11 have to 

 shake 'im out. Git fm'ther dovra. Now wait, I got to 

 climb down a limb 'r two." The scraping of boots and 

 rattling of loose bark and twigs was heard, accompanied 

 by some puffing and blowing, until Joe set foot on the 

 branch that held the coon. Joe had descended further 

 than he thought he would have to, and his boots and part 

 of his legs were now visible in the light of the fire. As 

 his body was lowered and he peered out into the dark- 

 ness, the eyes of the others followed the direction, and 

 the young man who held the torch exclaimed, "By gum! 

 I see 'im; there he is. See?" pointing toward a bunch 

 which began to move slowly toward the outer end of the 

 limb. The hunters now had every advantage, for they 

 knew just where to place themselves. Joe crawled out 

 as far as he dared to, and began a lively shaking, but the 

 coon clung tighter. The man could not reach the animal 

 with his club, and to go further was to endanger the 

 breaking of the brittle hemlock. If he had a long pole 

 he thought he could reach the coon and punch him oif , 

 There were poles enough to be had for the cutting, but 

 Joe was out of reach of the longest that could be handled. 

 However, Hank selected a tree sapling, and having cut 

 and trimmed it, Jim bethought himself that he might 

 climb far enough to hand it to Joe, but he made Joe 

 promise that he would not commence the punching until 

 he was safely on the ground again. The idea seemed 

 good enough, and after much labor, during which the 

 coon exhibited more patience than any of the others, Joe 

 was in possession and Jim had returned to the ground 

 Now Joe carefully poised his weapon, pushed so hard 

 that he nearly lost his balance, and missed. After sev- 

 eral efforts more carefuUy managed, he succeeded in 

 giving the beast a dig in the ribs that made him snari 

 and partly let go and hang by his fore paws, vainly strive 



