Page:The lady or the tiger and other stories, Stockton (Scribner's 1897 ed).djvu/105

Rh ground. Young Charley Ferris he took a burnin' chunk that one o' the boys had fetched along fruin the fire, an' throw'd it up at him, 'at we could all see him plain. He was Haskinses 'coon, sure. There wasn't a stripe on his tail. Arter that, the niggers jist made them axes swing, I tell ye. They had a big job afore 'em; but they took turns at it, an' didn't waste no time. An' the rest uv us we got the dogs ready. We wasn't a-goin' to let this 'coon off this here time. No, sir! Ther' was too many dogs, as I tell ye, an' we had four or five uv the clumsiest uv 'em tuk a little way off, with boys to hole 'em; an' the other dogs an' the hounds, 'specially old Chink, was held ready to tackle the 'coon when the time come. An' we had to be mighty sharp about this, too, fur we all saw that that thar 'coon was a-goin' to put the minute the tree come down. He wasn't goin' to git in a hole an' be cut out. Ther' didn't 'pear to be any hole, an' he didn't want none. All he wanted was a good thick tree an' a crotch to set in an' think. That was what he was a-doin'. He was cunjerin' up some trick or other. We all know'd that, but we jist made up our minds to be ready fur him; an' though, as he was Haskinses 'coon, the odds was ag'in us, we was dead sure we'd git him this time.

"I thought that thar tree never was a comin' down; but purty soon it began to crack and lean, and then down she come. Ev'ry dog, man, an' boy, made a rash fur that crotch, but ther' was no coon thar. As the tree come down he seed how the land lay; and quicker'n any light'in' in this whole world he jist