The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-03-13
Some Fox Stories.

the hounds, had leaped on a wall and
thence into the tree crutch. The dogs
came up, and finding the end of the
trail, gave up the chase, without look
ing into the tree, and went home. At
sight of the farmer the animal bounded
away through the snow to the woods,
Col. Seth Lathrop, the Salem hunter,
| came to the end of fox trail at the
brink of beautiful pool in q wooded
hollow on Dodge Hill, in that town. 1t
was October, and brown leaves fiecked
| the surface of the water. His hounds
were completely at fault. They smelled
of the fresh tracks that ended at the
margin, and after running around to
the other shore returned, baying their
disappointment The Colonel was
puzzled. He suspected that the fox
had committed suicide. AT length, as
his quick eye searched every part of the
little pond, he noticed in the middle q
leaf that was q trifie rounder and darker
than its neighbors, and about it an al
most imperceptible tremor of the water.
he raised his gun and fired. The
Colonel said afterward that ''that fox
came outer that ere pond hole leetle
quicker l ever seen anything move
afore except creased lightnin'. Ithad
swan into the pool, and with its feet on
the bottom, and its nose protruding
among the yellow leaves sufficiently to
breathe, it expected to deceive the
hounds into abandoning the chase.
When hard pressed fox has been seen
by wOOdsmen to use great ingenuity to
delay or throw the hounds off the scent.
A Norwich observer, while hidden in
the woods last fall, saw one come pant
ing to wall, spring upon it, run along
four or five rods, leap off, run on one
side forty feet. and then spring over
and continue about the same distance
on the other side. This course was
kept up for two hundred rods, when the
fox plunged into a swamp Just as the
hounds came in sight. They were de-
layed over half an hour in ferreting out
and regaining the trail. The fox had
got two or three miles away. Knowing
the habit of foxes in following a regular
route homeward, an old farmer of
Franklin, a town north of this city,
played a sharp trick on his neighbors
winter or two ago. He had observed
that the ''hOme run" to certain burrows
of foxes lay along Ayers Gap, about
one hundred rods from his house at one
point of its course, and whenever his
neighbors were out hunting, and the
sounds indicated that the chase was ap-
preaching, he took his gun. ran down
to the run, shot the fox and returned
to his home, while the hunters further
down the run waited in vain for the
game. The neighbors did his hunting
for him nearly all winter before they
discovered the trick. He had killed
six foxes in about two months.
1t is now the season for fox-hunting
yarns in all the country groceries in
Eastern Connecticut. Squire Harris,
once famous fox hunter of Salem, fig
ures in not 4 few of them. ''Guess
none O. you fellers ever heerd how old
'Squeer Harris o. Salem shot fox
around Rattlesnake Hill once, did YEP"
inquired an old-time fox hunter, the
other night. rs he cooked up his hat
and the snOw-water trickled off his cow
hide boots and Kissed and sputtered on
the big belly of the Voluntown base
burner. None of the party of sports
had. Wall" he continued, ''the ole
'Squeer was purity good shot in them
days, an | allus Civ him credit, tew,
fur purity middlin' fair tal'nts fur lynn.
He tole me this yarn mOre'n q millyun
times, an ez ev'ry time he dished 1t up
he told it different, kin say, without
meanin' any disrespect to the 'Squeer,
it's hard to tell jest which pertickler
part is ficshun an which is open ter
doubt. He gin it tew me jest ez reg'lar
ez we come together, an he was ez per-
ticker with ev'ry part on it ez eff it was
ez fresh ez daisy an he he'd jest had
the adventer with the fox, which he'd |
been ded then bout twenty-seven years. |
1t warn't much of story the fust an
second, an even the 'leventh time, an
l don't think the 'Squeer tux much |
stock in it himself, but ez it CROWD an
developed it kinder grated Onter him, |
an ! wouldn't swear but the ole 'Squeer |
really believed part on it was truth;
though whether he anchored his faith |
to the fust vershun or the New Rever-
shul never could find out. L guess
III let We hev it, boys, jest ez the
SPieer gin it to me the millionth an
fust time arter he he'd spent the best
par. O. thirty years polishin' on her up.
He allus hegu n in this way:
".Waal, Joe Bailey, did 1 ever tell We
bout thet fox adventer o mine down
'ound Ra ttlesnake Hill week or tew
pack, sez he.
".No,' sez /, 'Squeer, I don't think
-e never did l knew it was safe to
Jay thet without castin' any refecshuns
IN my reporta shun fer veracity; fer, ez
[ was a-tellin' ye, he allus he'd n bran
lew yarn each time, with a new frame,
IN new winder blinds, new cut o.
paint, an bran new Mansard roof
inder the same ole capshun. So I sez,
No, 'Squeer, don't think We never
lid"
".No, I guess 1 never did nuther,'
,ontinered the Squeer, but it was bout
he thrillin' adventer ever / come
lcrost. I'll spinner fur We. WAL. We
know, I'd ben huntin' foxes purity much
Iii that week; but they wos the alfred
st runners ever see, an 1 cudn't get
light o. hide or har on 'em. Nuther
,ud the dSrgs. But bimeby, long late
n the AFTERNOON, got onter one down
round Rattlesnake, an made up my
mind: ''Blast We, I'll hey yer' So ez
he fox lit out round the hill an the
lorg arter him, 1 concluded I'd try
eetle strat'gy. jest jumped, kinder
pry like, ter one side o. the path, and
huckcd g rifle ball inter the ole
nusket on top o. the double Bs.
Then 1 stuck the ole gun atween a
ouple o. hick'ry saddles an bent her
bout double, so ez to Civ the barrel the
'roper twist fur shootin' round hill, i
n let drive arter the fox an dorg.
yaal, she Just more'n spuk up. Boong