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"We did not, however, proceed direct to the bottom. Abe knew better than that. The young corn was just then `in the milk, and the 'coon-hunter expected to find his game nearer the field. It was settled, therefore, that we should follow the line of the fence, in hopes that the dog would strike a fresh trail, leading either to or from the corn-field. "It was now night two hours after sundown.
Superstition was the butt-end of his religion; and he not only protested, but I am satisfied that he believed, that all the four 'coons were one and the same individual, and that individual `de debil. "Great 'coon-hunter as he was, he would now have gone home, if I had let him. But I had no thoughts of giving up the matter in that easy way. I was roused by the repeated disappointment.
It was the first affair of the kind I had been present at, and I was somewhat curious as to the mode of carrying it on. My companion and inductor was a certain `Uncle Abe, a gentleman very much after the style and complexion of our own Jake here. "I need not tell you, gentlemen, that throughout the Western States every neighbourhood has its noted 'coon-hunter.
They were as boastful as Homeric heroes, and for the same reason. There was in them a rude virility that found expression in word as well as in deed. Davy Crockett, coon-hunter, Indian fighter, and Congressman, was a great man in his day. It does not detract from his worth that he was well aware of the fact. There was no false modesty about this backwoods Charlemagne.
There is no way of getting at him there, except by felling the tree, and this the most zealous 'coon-hunter would not think of attempting. The labour of cutting down such a tree would be worth a dozen 'coons. A swift dog, therefore, will overtake the raccoon, and force him to the nearest tree often a small one, where he is either shaken off or the tree cut down.
He had the reputation of being a great "'coon-hunter" and "bayou fisherman;" and in these pursuits no doubt he had picked up his canoe-craft. It was the most singular voyage I had ever made. The pirogue floated in an element that more resembled ink than water. Not a ray of sun glanced across our path. The darkness of twilight was above and around us.
We should not be likely to meet any one upon it; and it was our design to conceal our horses among the trees in the rear of the cane-fields. On such a night not even the negro 'coon-hunter would have any business in the woods. Creeping along with caution, we had arrived near the point where this wood-road debouched, when voices reached our ears. Some persons were coming down the road.
"You and me might have borrowed a hundred prospectin' pans and never got even a drink thrown in. Then to think of that old preachin' coon-hunter hevin' to give in and pass his strike over to his daughter's feller, jest because he had scruples about gold diggin' himself. He'd hev booted you and me outer his ranch first." "Lord, ye ain't takin' no stock in that hogwash," responded the other.
The same attitude on the part of the visitors is taken for granted any other indeed holds mortal possibilities of offence so that if the visitor has common sense, all embarrassment passes at once. The door was closed, the fire blazed on uncovered, the smothered talk and laughter of the two girls ceased, the coon-hunter came not and the night passed in peace.
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