Page:The lady or the tiger and other stories, Stockton (Scribner's 1897 ed).djvu/98

88 take a rest afore startin' off ag'in arter Haskinses 'coon."

"But I thought you said," I remarked, "that you knew you were after Haskins' 'coon the last time."

"Well, so we did know we was. But sometimes you know things as isn't so. Didn't ye ever find that out? It's so, anyway, jist as I tell ye," and then he continued his story:

"As we was a-settin' aroun' the fire, a-smokin' away, Uncle Pete Williams—he was the feller that had to hang on to the big dog, Chink, as I tell ye—he come an' he says, 'Now, look-a-here, Mahsr Tom, an' de rest ob you all, don't ye bleab we'd better gib up dis yere thing an' go home?' Well, none uv us thought that, an' we told him so; but he kep' on, an* begun to tell us we'd find ourselves in a heap o' misery, ef we didn't look out, pretty soon. Says he: "Now, look-a-here, Mahsr Tom, and you all, you all wouldn!t a-ketched me out on this yere hunt ef I 'a' knowed ye was a-gwine to hunt 'possums. 'Taint no luck to hunt 'possums: everybody knows dat. De debbil gits after a man as will go a-chasin' 'possums wid dogs when he kin cotch 'ein a heap mau comfortabler in a trap. 'Taint so much cliff rence 'bout 'coons, but the debbil he takes care o' 'possums. An' I spect de debbel know'd 'bout dis yere hunt, fur de oder cbenin' I was a-goin' down to de rock-spring, wid a gourd to git a drink, and dar on de rock, wid his legs a-danglin' down to de water, sat de debbil hisself a-chawin' green terbacker!'—'Green terbacker?' says I. 'Why, Uncle Pete, aiut the debbil got no better