EXPERIENCES OF A TRAPPER AND HUNTER 
FROM YOUTH TO OLD AGE 
By T. ALEXANDER 
CHAPTER I. 
The first thing I remember was my father, Captain D. W. Alexan¬ 
der of Chapel Hill, Tennessee, coming home from the Civil War. He 
was about the most ragged man I ever saw, one of his pants legs was 
ripped from his ankle to his thigh, he had whiskers all over his face 
and his deep blue eyes were shining like stars. This impression as I 
hid myself behind my mother’s coat-tail in fear, I have never for¬ 
gotten. 
The first I can remember of my mother is her sitting at a spin¬ 
ning wheel; I thought it would be fun to run into her thread, but when 
I put my thoughts into action I got all tangled up and mother took 
me by the arm, untangled me, gave me a scold and a shake, followed 
by a slap on the side of the head and told me to stay out of her thread. 
Thinking things had gone far enough, I swelled up at her like a toad 
and scolded at mother—at that stage of the game she gave me a none 
too gentle spanking and ordered me to go out in the yard to play. As 
old Guard, our old yellow cur dog, came around the house just about 
this time and I being mad anyway, I took a firm hold on both of his 
ears, mounted him and endeavored to ride. He gave a swift trot, which 
overbalanced me and I tumbled off, never, however, letting go of his 
ears, which, of course, hurt. This raised old Guard’s Irish and he 
snapped at me, his teeth went clear through my right ear, leaving a 
scar which I carry to this day. 
Another fond recollection of my boyhood was a little nigger about 
my age, known as my nigger Jim. We had many happy days playing 
together. In those days we did not wear pants as little boys of today 
but we wore long white shirts in the summer and stripped Balmoral 
woolen goods like the women of those days wore, in the winter. 
One day Jim and I were sitting near the root of a tree in the 
orchard, feasting on some fine peaches, when all at once our attention 
was attracted by a frog that was jumping as far and as fast as he 
could; just at that instant, there came a large black racer snake right 
in behind the frog. Jim was so frightened that he jumped and made 
for the house, running so fast that his shirt-tail stood straight out be- 
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