The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-05-12
Jacks RaccOOn.
Youths Companion. !

we nave a raccOOnl we nave mad him
two weeks. He is half BOb's and half mine.
Mr.. Brownhill caught him and tanned him,
and then gave him to US.
Papa says he is quite superior man, and
/ think so too. Mamma says that must
explain that l mean Mr.. Brownh1ll.)
The raccoOn is a perfect beauty; gray,
with black rings on his tail, and his tail is a
great bushy tail; and some black stripes on
his body, and a sharp pointed, black nose
and they twinkle all the time. They twin
kle so that Alice-she is one of my sisters
says:
Twinkle, twinkle, little coon!
How your voice is out of tune.
Every time hear you speak,
1t is lust horrid squeak"
He does squeak but don't think It's hor-
rid, any more than the noise her kitten
makes.
Well, he belongs to Bob and me together,
as told you; so one week he lives at our
house, and tie next week he lives at Bob's
and we are going to teach him a new trick
every week.
1t is Bob's week now, and miss him very
much, though of course 1 see him every
day.
He knows some tricks already.
You give him some snow, and he sits up
and makes it into snowballs patting it with
his funny little black hands (of course they
are paws OuI lucy really lOOk ike ndQQSl,
till he makes it quite round and hard, and
then he rolls it about, or else he throws it
away, and looks at you to give him some
more.
He doesn't like to have his feet wet, so
when they get wet, he pats them against the
wall until they are dry.
He did that in mammals room one day,
and left the marks of his feet all ever the
pretty pink paper; and mamma whipped
him. But don't suppose he knew that the
paper was pink, or pretty, either.
L love him very much, and he sits on my
shoulder, for he is young one, and not very
big yet.
You ought to see Tom, our great yellow
cat, when Coon pulls his tall He humps
himself up and growls, and gets very angry.
You see, he knows it isn't dog, but he
doesn't know what it is.
Bob has just been here, after had written
that; and oh! what do you think Coon has
been doing at his house?
Well, you see, he likes to go to sleep on
the window-sill in the kitchen, where the
sun shines in. Bob left him there, sound
asleep, all culled up in ball with his tail
all over his nose; that is the way he sleeps,
and he looks so funny, YOU can't think
By-and-by Bobs mother came into the
kitchen, and she saw that the door of the
ie-cupboard, where she keeps the pies, was
open. So she went TO shut it; and she
looked in, and there was Coon, sitting on the
top shelf, with pie in his hands,
When he saw her, he dropped the pie, and
it broke all 10 pieces on the floor, and he
jumped right over her head, and ran of as
fast as he could lun.
And Mrs. Taylor screamed, and Bob came
in TO see what was the matter, and Coon ran
right between bis legs and tripped him up,
ard he fell down on top of the pie.
And then Mrs. Taylor looked at the other
pies, and he had patted every one of them
all round the edge, and there were the marks
of his feet al over them.
There were twelve pies; some of them were
squash, and some were custard, and some
were cranberry.
She was very angry, and Bob shut up Coon
in the wood-closet and came over to tell me
about it, and don't think ever laughed so
much In all my life. JACK.