Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1888-12-15

gather Oh one Tree, anu HOt y Wy
big tree at that, snd Sam came down.
Il DOM know how many there's
up there yet, he said, but there's
six certain"
The dogs refused to leave the tree,
but the hunters carried their nine
coons home On the way they met
Bill Grover and Jerry Knapp, who
were also out cooning. but hadn't
killed any.
You might as well 20 home,
said Sam Greeley, "unless you go
over in Ginn's Hollow, whore we're
been. All the coons in those woods
are freed in one tree over there.
You'll hear The dogs yeiping at 'em
if you 90 that Way
Grover and Knapp went over to
the hollow; and the noise made by
the dogs took them TO the tree.
There's coon here, that's sure"
said Grover, and climbed the tree.
He shook down six.
"There's two or three more here,
said Grover, !" but they're way up in
The top branches, and | can't get to
'em."
So the two hunters went away
with their six coons. The dogs re-
NAMED. Next morning Charley
Cradle went TO the hollow with his
gun. The dogs were still under tue
tree. Charley popped three coons out
of the tree top, and shouldered them.
Then the dogs went home.
Everybody about Brady's said
chat such thing as Is coons being
found in one tree was without pre-
cedent, and 30 one could understand
how it was unsil Uncle Jake Shind-
Ter, the champion hunter OF Fably
run, got up and explained it.
You'll find" he said, ''if you take
the trouble to investigate that tree
is boiler. Holler trees is where coons
lives du.ing the winter, as many as
can comfortably pile in together.
Now them IS coons was lookup Tor q
winter home. Some of 'em, maybe,
had nestled in that very tree before.
They happened to all meet there
about the time Greeley's dogs and
the rest of 'em struck the tree. Wy
wasn't they in the holler of the tree?
Well, if you'll take the trouble TO
investigate you'l find that boiler had
been took up previously by fami-
ly or so Of black snakes / haint
sure, but Pm willing to bet a farm
hat you'll find a couple dozen, may
be, Of black snakes huddin' in that
holler. Now coons amt the kind o.
critters that will bunk in with snakes,
and so them Is didn't choose quarters
in that tree. The dogs came along
as they was considerin' what they
bad better do, and, OF course, as
long as the dogs were there no coon
would leave the tree till he was fore
ed to. That's all there is to them Is
coons bein' in that tree. You'll find
il SO if you take the trouble
to investigate. l knocked 20
coons out of a holler chestnut
once. The next day cut hole in
the tree near the bottom and Lit some
straw and stuck in it, and kept the
fire goin'. 1t wasn't long before
black snakes began to come out OF
the hole at the top, and | thrashed
the life out Of 90 big ones-200 feet
of black snakes, I'll bet a farm"
Sam Greeley and the rest of the
hunters went over to Ginn's hollow
to test Uncle Jake's theory. If any
one had bet farm that Jake was
wrong he'd have lost the farm. A
fire built in the tree as the old hunter
described made a lively tree of it in
a few minutes, for 81 black snakes
came wriggling and comforting them
selves out Of the hollow trunk, and
only two we're agile enough to get
away into the bushes. After the
snake colony had been cleaned out: