TWO COON STORIES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 7, 26 January 1912, Page 3

TWO COON STORIES.

“TVo funny,” said Deacon W. H. Nearpass, of Chester, N.' Y,, “how I found out ta what part of the country Jim Bennett had- been on one of his trips. Jim doesn’t often go on trips, except in warm weather, when snakes ore oat and are ready to let him discover something new about ’em. But this time the season must have, been pretty well along, for Jim said folks were gathering their chestnuts where he was. “Ho was driving along, thinking how lovely nature was-and yet how queer. He didn’t tell,me where it was where ho wws driving along, and he came to vman working away-in a-field like all possessed, with a pick and shovel. Jim Bennett says he •topped and hollered- to the man. . “ ‘Hello, neighbor! Short a’ meat, eh?" "The man quit digging and leaned on his piak. " ‘No,’ said he, hollering back at Jink T dunno as I’m any way short o’ meat.’ "Then Jim says ha hollered beck at the man: “ 'Why, you’re digging to get a poundhog out, ain’t you?’ “The man hollered back at Jim: “ 'No, 1 ain’t diggin’ to git a groundhog out. I’m diggin' to get a ’eoon in.’ “ Tagging to .get a ’coon in?' he sags he holleied. ‘Why, that'* kind o’ queer, ain’t i, ?' “ ‘Maybe it is and maybe it hsin’t,’ the man hollered back at Jim. Tkat’a accordin' to how folks lookeyt it/ " ‘But where’s the ’coon?’ " ‘Come over here and I’ll tell you,’ the men hollered back at Jim. "So Jim say* he tied his horse to the fence and went over into the field where the man war. The man leaned on his pick and looked at Jim awhile and then said: ‘“The ’ eoon is dead!’ "Jim Bennett says this gave him a reel •tart, 1 because he thought he was face to has with' a crasy man; but he stood bis ground,-and the,man said: "‘l’m digging his 1 grave!’ "Then the man proceeded with his talk, and Jim. says it-wasn’t long before he found that the man wasn’t crazy, not by a Jug full, bat was simply a kind and observant eitiss*, relating strange facts. " ‘Yes, sir,’ the man said to Jim Benmstt, seconding to what Jim tells me, ‘he was * ’eoda among ’eoons, and I'm going to plant him-hare because he was so 011-per-vadtn' smart that he deserves to have a - gravestone. He madto one - tad mistake to be sure. I didn’t want him to go out after the efaestauts. The boys was to blame loir hkgoin’. And I'll lick old Jiin Cortes till hs ean’t Me first time I run ag’in him. “ 'My boys is full of action and vim, and they move around thia district c«onaiderT>l« gsftherin' apples and chestnuts and seeb, Ro bots with vim gener’ly does. Jim darter has got a chestnut tree on his piaee, j’toin’ mine, that beats all the tress I know of, and my boys always-gits a hankerin' sA«r that tree 'long about this time o' year; hot Jim Carter keeps his eye onto it owtsageous close, and my-boys have got to pot w> with a good deal of botherin’ by him a they let their hankerin' for that tree git the best of ’em. " Tve got a spy glass at home; a slammsn’ good one. Jim Carter he lives a mile from that chestnut tree o’ his’n, but he keeps! eotoea’ toward it every chanto he gats to see ii it’s bein’ tampered with; so what., does my boys; do but take to luggia’ that gpf gloss with’em and sweepin’ the country with it, so if Jim is-cornin’ from any direction they kin see him long before he gits within any sort o’ right o' them, and kin keep on gatherin’ chestnuts till hs gits, too dose tor it to be safe for-’em. “ ‘This mornin’ that 'coon o' mias, after he had rocked the baby to deep and led tbs sbtokens and. the- pigs,! so Jim Bennett teta' ms. the naan Mid, ‘took down that spy g|assi and started out. Now, I didn't know this then, or I'd ’a’ found out more about it, and either stopped the 'eoon or give him Some p’intri But 1 know it now. " 'He took, that spy glass ’cause he had'; been with the boys durin’- one or two of their hankerin' trips, and went over to Jim Carter’s tree ehestnuttin’. He obestnatted and ohectnutted, sweepin’ the country every sow-and then with the spy glass to keep tebek o’. Jim. " ‘He seen Jim by and by cornin’ toward the tree. But that ’eoon kept on ehestnnttin’. He kept on ehestnuttin’ so unfortunate long that Jim Carter got there sad loaded him with a half a dosen buckshot, and -the 'eoon seen* out of tiw tree dsnd. ■ " ‘He-.kas.made a sad mistoke, smart oa ke was. He had been sweepin’ the country through the big end o' the spy glass... Of ' •ourse, that made Jim Carter look mow then a mile away when be wasn't 50 yosds from the tiks, and—well, this is that ’soon’s grave, and I’m goiii’ to plant him in it.’ "Jim Bennett pays that was more than 1 he ever learned about 'eoons before, and ke was glad ,he had stopped; and dalksd to the cns. Jim drove along and by and by, be says, he acme to a nice, smart tittle village, where every thing' looked prosperous and pleasing, except; one tall, stoopobouldered-, neglected-looking - man - who was going down the street with ayaller dog at his heck. - Jim gazed after tbs man kind o' pitying, he says, and another citiessv a spruse, jollj-appearing todividuef slid to hrin; “ That's, flam Fleming. (And a real iscent, ■ good-actin'- citizen he would bn too, if it wasn’t for that one bad fadin' o' ufo. He hunts’coons.’ "Jim Bennett says be snukka’t my » word. - v ‘“livery night Sam and that yallec dog o’ his’n ( is out huntin’ ’eoons,’ Jim says this citizen said, sorrowful as eould be. ‘And he skins ’em, sssd nails them-skins to has barn door till ygn’d think he was runnin’ a tanyard. And fes cats them ’eoons! “ ‘Jest think «l it! Now, we all like Sam, and we’ve beat dqin’ all sorts o’ things to try and shams him out o’ that failin’ o’ his’n," but we can’t seem to do it. Now, if he’d only, Utt eomebody’s chickens «r . steal a sheep, jre mowt do somethin’ tor him; Then wti could take him up and send him soras%e where they’d keep him out o’- harm’s way. “ ‘There’s on* more, thing we’re goto’ to try. If that don’t shame hkh into reformin’, then he’ll have to move some’re else. He’ll have to mfl*#!’ “Jim Bennst& says he asked the man what they inteajSed to do to Sam Kerning next. “ ‘What be we goto’ to do to 2»inv?' sasd the man. ‘Why, sir, we’re actu'ly goon' te elect him-to the legislatur’!' "When Jim Benmett told me that, J was surprised and said: “ ‘Why, Jim, how could that be? Men' strain and struggle and bsy things to get elected to the legislature, and folks look up to ’em.’. ' ‘‘ ‘Yes,’ said Jim. "Borne places they dto, I know. But this was the legislator*/ “And'" mat’s how I Comtek) find out what part of the country Jim lad been on his trip in. And very likely hglearned a whole lot more about ’coons, but that is all be told me.”—N. Y. Si-