The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-05-30
Martin Heiskill ON ,Coon and 'possum.
From That Same Old Coon by Frank r. Stock
ton; Scribner for June,

| From " That Same Old Coon" by Frank R. Stock
ton: scribner for June.
We were sitting on the store-porch Of
a small Virginia village. / was one
| Of the party, and Martin Heiskill was
the other one. Martin had been out
fishing, which was an unusual thing fol-
him.
Yes, sir" said he, as ne held up the
small string of fish which he had laid
carefully under his chair when he sat
down to light his pipe; that's all Pve
got to show for days work. But faint
often that l waste time that way. /
don't blieve in huntin' fur thing that
ye can't see. If fishes sot on trees, now,
and ye could shoot at 'em, I'd 90 out
and hunt fishes with anybody. But it's
mighty trifin' work to be goin' it blind
in mill-pond."
I ventured to state that there were
fish that were occasionally found on
trees. In India, for instance, certain
fish climbs trees.
ga which what's?" exclaimed Mar.
tin, with an arrangement of pronouns
peculiar to himself.
Oh yesw he said, when had told
him all / knew about this bit of natural
history. That's very likely. Ireckon
they do that up North, where you come
from, in some of them towns you was
tellin' me about, where there's so many
houses that they tech each other"
"That's all true about the fishes,
Martin" !" said I, wisely making no refer
ence to the houses, for I did not want to
push his belief too hard, "but we'll
drop them now"
" Yes" said he, "I think we'd BETTER
Martin was good fellow and. no fool,
but he had not travelled much, and had
no correct ideas of cities, nor, indeed, of
much of anything outside of his native
backwoods. But of those backwoods he
knew more than any other man ever
met. He liked to talk, but he resented
tall stories.
!" Martini" said I, glad to change the
subject, edo you think there'll be many
'coons about, this fall p
About as many as common, reckon"
he answered. What do you want to
know fur?"
I'd like to go out coon hunting" /
said :" that's something / have never
tried"
"Well," said he, "I don't s'pose your
goin' will make much difference in the
number of 'em, but, what's the good NV
itf You'd better go ,possum-huntin'.
You kin eat 'possum.
Don't you ever eat 'coons p I asked.
Eat 'coonsr he exclaimed, with
contempt. "Why, there isn't nigger in
this county d eat coon. They amt
fit to eat"
Il should think they'd be as good as
'possums," said I. "They feed on pretty
much the same things, don't they ?'
"Well, there amt much difference,
that way; but a 'possum's mighty diff
ferent thing from coon, when ye come
to eat him. A 'possum's more like a
kind O. tree-pig. An when he's cooked
he's sweeter than any suckin'-p pig you
ever see. But 'coon's more like q cat.
Who'd eat cats ?n
Iwas about to relate some city sausage
stories, but refrained.
"To be sure" continued Martin,
"there's Colonel Tibbs, who says he's
eat 'coon-meat, and liked it fust-rate !;
but then ag'in, he says frogs is good to
eat, so ye see there's no dependin' on
what peoplesa Now, know what I'm
talkin' about; 'coons amt fit fur human
bein's to eat"
"What makes you hunt 'em then ?''
asked.
Hunt 'em fur fun," said the old fell
low, striking lucifer match under his
chair, to re-light his pipe. "Ef ye talk
about yittles, that's one thing, an eff ye
talk about fun, that's another thing.
An / don't know now whether you'd
think it was fun. / kinder think you
wouldn't. Ireckon it'd seem like pretty
hard work to you."
"I suppose it would" I said 2" there
are many things that would be hard
work to me, that would be nothing but
sport to an old hunter like you"
You're right there, sir. You never
spoke truer than That IN your life
There's no man inside O. six counties
that's hunted more'n I have. I've been
at it ever since I was a youngster, an
I've got lot O. fun out NV it-more fur
than anything else, fur that matter
You see, afore the war, people used to
go huntin' more for real sport than they
do now. AM 'tw'n't because there wa:
more game in this country then thar
there is now, fur there wa'n't-not hall
as much. There's more game in Vir.
ginny now than there's been any time
this fifty years"