The evening times., 1898-04-04
"CRITTER AGAINST CRITrER"
Zcb Whites Yarn About n Bad Mans
Discontinue.

t!rom the Chicago Daily News)
One afternoon, when the old 'possum
hunter of Tennessee had been out on
the mountain alone, he came back with
a dead wildcat, and, after supper. when
l began asking questions. he said:
Thar amt many of the critters left
around we're now, but thar was a time
soon arter the wah, when yo' couldn't
go fo'ty rods from the cabin without
seem one. They was big and savage
too and the way they would strip the
hide off dawg would make yo'r ha'r
stand up. They was allus skulking
round the cabin arter poultry and two
or three times / run agin EN- and got
clawed. One night, in the winter of
'CS. l stepped out to see what allied the
chickens and a cat lit on my back and
laid me up fur a month";
We'll l said, as he paused.
wall, / was gittin' around agin. but
still sore and stiff. when q critter drop
ped down into these parts from Moth
Keerleeny. He just let it be known
from the fust that he was a slam-bang
rip-roarer, and he went about clankin'
his teeth, and telln' how he was bon
in a whirlwind and Graded in deluge
Sum o us kinder thought he was all
bras, and sum reckoned he was bad
man, but we'd had fghtin' 'nuff and
wasn't anXus to try him on. That critter
had bluffed most everybody round we're
befo' he cum TO me. l was over at the
Corners one day, feelin' mighty bad from
head to foot. when he stands up to me
and seq:
Zeb White, I've been told that yo'
ar a good mana powerful good man.
Sorter good seZ I-'sorter good when
I'm feelin all right
'Hev yo' got dizziness of the head?'
sez he, thinkin' to make fun of me. If
that's the trubble I'll hev yo' put to bed
and nussed like an ailin' child
THAT critter kept at me till l was mad
'nuff to cry" said Zeb He knowed 1
wasn't fittin' to fout and he was powerful
anxus to pick a row. 1t was the fust
time in my life that l ever let any human
bein back me down, but | was in no
shape fur a tussle. l went home with
tears of madness in my eyes and the
ole woman sees 'em and sez:
Zeb, yo' jest hold on to yo'rself a
few days and yoll be able to lick dat
critter all to squash It's purity hard
to hev sich a man bluff yo' down. but
when yo' git well o. them claw-marks
=
yell fur mercy.
That's the way she talked to me-" said
Zeb, land l sorter quieted down and
made up my mind to wait. The critter
wouldn't let me alone, however. He
knowed 1 was a good man well, and he
wanted to git all the advantage. One ev-
enin', as l sOt smokin' my pipe and bilin
over with rath, a monstrous big wild
cat cum prowlin' around the henhouse
l had a shot at him from the doah, but
he set up a snarlin and jumped into
the bresh fence over thar. Bout this
time along cum the critter from Moth
Keeleeny. He'd bin blowin' around up
at the Corners how he was cumin' down
yere to make me eat snow. He knocks
on the doah and stands up boldly TO
say:
"'Zeb White, I've got feeIin's and yo'
must respect 'em. I've got to lick sum-
body or bust, and bein' as all the rest of
the crowd hev took water I'm dependin
on yo'. Cum out yere an let me para
lyze yo'. If yo've got grit 'nuff to fight
a woodchuck now's yer time to show
it,
II was fur goin' out, bad as / was. but