de hall o’ Kunnel Chawles Scott’s house 
in Rosedale wid a silvah waitah in ’is 
han’ fo’ wisitin’ kyawds. Fus’ tam I 
seed ’im I wuz skeer’d mos’ to deff. I 
doan wan’ no truck wid bars; if dey lef 
Jeff lone I’m mo’ den willin’.” 
“Well, Jeff,” I said, “we wont want a 
turkey till Christmas, so we will pass 
up the bears, and panthers and _ bob- 
cats, if there are any.” 
“Well, sah,” said he, noncommitally, 
“T doan say as dey is’, an’ I doan say 
as’ dey is.” 
“Then,” said I, “we will give our at- 
tention to the squirrels.” 
I had promised the Boniface of the 
hotel a mess of squirrels as well as 
some black bass; so late in the after- 
noon I took the little rifle and started 
for the fray with Jeff as scout and 
marker. The rodents proved to be plen- 
tiful and not very shy, so with Jeff to 
stalk them and scare them to my side 
of the trees we soon had a dozen or 
more. A flying-squirrel took a nose 
dive from the top of a tall pecan to the 
lower limbs of a pin-oak nearly a hun- 
dred feet away. Jeff shouted: “Shoot 
im on de wing!” But I replied that I 
drew the line at flying-squirrels. After 
looking into the soft and trustful eyes 
of the graceful little creature it would 
seem a crime to take its life, and, more’s 
the pity, they are wellnigh extermi- 
nated. 
Counting up the spoils, Jeff an- 
nounced: “Ten grays, six fox and three 
blacks; all yung ’uns and all shot tru 
de haid or fo’ sholdah.” Then he added, 
“Dats a wicked lil gun, you heah me”; 
then went on, ““Wunnah wy de blacks is 
so skeerce?” 
“The black squirrels, Jeff,’ I ex- 
plained, “are always scarce because, 
naturally, there are so few of them; 
they are not a separate breed. The only 
breeds of squirrels in these woods are 
gray, fox and flying-squirrels, not 
counting chipmunks. Once in a while 
there will be a black gray squirrel, or a 
black fox squirrel; and once in a long 
while there may be a white gray, or a 
white fox squirrel, which are known as 
albinos; but I have never seen an albino 
or a black flying-squirrel.” 
“Well, sah,” said Jeff, “dats suttinly 
noose to me; I allus tought dat de 
blacks wuz a diffunt race like wite fokes 
an’ black fokes. Wunce I heah’d a cul- 
lud preachah say dat wen de good Lawd 
made de fust wite man, de Debbil tried 
to make a man outen clay and stuck ’im 
agin de fence to dry, but evah ting de 
Debbil tutch tun’d black, an’ his han’ so 
hot it crisp and cu’l de har in kinks, an’ 
dat wuz de fust black man.” 
“Well, Jeff, that preacher had more 
imagination than Biblical knowledge, 
but we will return to our squirrels. This 
big black fox is certainly a beautiful 
Page 327 
creature; see how 
soft, silky and 
glossy black his 
coat is, and how 
snowy - white are 
the tips of his 
ears, toes and 
nose! He would 
look very hand- 
some stuffed and 
mounted like Col- 
onel Scott’s bear, 
but with a nut 
between his paws 
and his pretty 
tail curled over 
his back!” 
“He shuah wud 
luk dandy,” said 
Jeff, as he placed 
the squirrels in a 
sack, and packed 
the fish with 
damp moss in the 
basket. 
As Jeff was 
clearing away the 
remnant of our 
repast he said: 
“If I shad “my 
ole cane pole and 
fish line I wud 
ketch sum yallah 
bass fo’ Mandy’s 
an’ de chillun’s 
brekfas’, Ovah 
dar by dat rock 
whar I clean de 
fish fo’ lunch I 
dun frow’d de 
scraps in the rib- 
bah, an’ I jis seed 
a good many yal- 
lah bass feedin’ 
on ’em.” 
“Cut some 
pieces of fat from 
that slice of ba- 
con, about the 
size of a finger 
nail, and I'll try 
to catch some,” I 
said, as I drew 
on my rubber 
boots. I then cut 
the dressing from 
a worn fly, and 
put a split shot 
on the line a foot 
from the snell, 
and stepped into 
the cool water just above the rock men- 
tioned. I could see the fish feeding on 
the bottom and dropped the bait among 
them. They seemed to be as eager for 
the bait as Jeff was for the fish, and 
by the time Jeff was ready to start 
homeward I had caught a dozen “yal- 
lah” bass. I then placed a larger piece 

A good spot for black bass 
of bacon fat on the hook, for I had ob- 
served quite a large black bass feeding 
with the others. He took the bait at 
once, and proved to be a Goliath as well 
as a Samson, for he was the heaviest 
and most determined bass I had hooked 
during the day, and seemed to be en- 
(Continued on page 364) 
