The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-10-07
TWO COON STORIES.

n WHAT part OF the jim DtuDtAh
lad been on one Of his trips. Jim doesn't
hten go on trips, except in warm weather,
when snakes are out and are ready to let
lim discover something new about EN-
But this time the season must have been
pretty well along, for Jim said folks were
gathering their chestnuts where he was.
He was driving along, thinking how
ovely nature was and yet how queer. He
didn't tell me where it was where be was
irving along, and he came 10 a man work
ng away in field like all possessed, with
pick and shovel Jim Bennett says he
topped and hollered to the man.
Hello, neighbori Short a. meat, ehg'
The man quit digging and leaned on mis-
pick
mo said he, hollering back at Jim. 7
iunno as I'm any way short o meat
Then Jim says be hollered back at the
man:
Why, you're digging to get ground-
hog out, amt your
THE man hollered back at Jim:
" No, amt diggin' to git a grounding
out I'm diggin' to get coon in
Digging to get coon in,' he says be
hoIlered. Why, that's kind o queer.
amt it,
Maybe IT is and maybe i hain't,' the
nan hollered back at Jim. That's accord
~ to how folks lookout it,
But where's the coon"
"'Come over here and I'll tell you,' the
man hollered back at jam.
80 Jim says he tied his horse TO the
fence and went over into the field where the
man was The man leaned on his pick
and looked at Jim awhile and then said:
The coon is deadH
Jim Bennett says this gave him real
start, because he thought he was face to
lace with crazy man; but he stood his
ground, and the man said:
I'm digging mis- gravel
Then the man proceeded with his talk.
and Jim says it wasn't long before he found
that the man wasn't crazy, not by jug
full, but was simply kind and observant
citizen, relating strange facts.
Yes, sir, the man said to Jim Bennett,
according to what Jim tells me, he was
coon among 'coons, and I'm going to
plant him here because he was 50 sll-per-
vsdin' smart that he deserves to have
| gTayestoae. He made one sad mistake
/ to he sure. l didn't want HIM to go out
/ after the chestnuts. The boys was to blame
/ for his goin' And III lick old Jim Carter
| till be can't see first time run ag'in him.
my boys is full of action and vim, and
they move around this district consider bic
| getherin' apples and chestnuts and sech,
| like boys with vim generly does. Jim
4 Carter has got chestnut tree on his place,
4 j'inin' mine, that beats all the trees know
| Of, and my boys always gifts hankerin'
after that tree long about this time o
year; but Jim Carter keeps his eye onto it
outrageous close, and my boys have got tc
put up with good deal of botherin' by
him if they let their hankerin' for that tres
git the best of 'em.
I've got a spy glass at home, slammin'
good one. jim Carter he lives a mile from
that chestnut tree O. his'n, but he keeps
comm toward it every chance he gets TO
see it's bein' tempered with; so what
does my boys do but take to luggin' that
spy glass with EN- and sweepin' the coun-
try with it, so if Jim is comm from any
direction they kin see him long before be
zits within any sort O. sight o. them, and
kin keep on getherin' ehestnuts till be
gifts too close for it TO be safe for 'em.
This mornin' that coon o mine, after
he bad rocked the baby TO sleep and fed
the chickens and the pigs, so Jim Bennett
tells me the man said, took down that
spy glass and started out. Now, | didn't
know this then, or I'd "a found out more
about it, and either stopped the coon or
give him some p'ints. But know it now.
He took that spy glass cause he had
been with the boys durin' one or two of
their hankerin' trips, and went over to Jim
Carriers tree chestnuttin'. He chestnutted
and chestnutted, sweepin' the country
every now and then with the spy glass TO
keep track o Jim.
He seen Jim by and by comm toward
the tree. But that coon kept on chest
nuttin' He kept on chestnuttin' so un-
I -
and loaded him with a half dozen buck
shot and the coon came out of the tree
: dead.
He has made sad mistake, smart as
. he was He had been sweepin' the country
[ through the big end O. the spy glass. OF
course, that made Jim Carter look more
than a mile away when he wasn't so yards
from the tree, and-well, this Is that coon Q
grave, and I'm goin' to plant him in it.
. Jim Bennett says that was more than
l he ever learned about 'coons before, and
i he was glad he had stopped and talked to
| the man. Jim drove along and by and by,
I he says he came TO a nice, smart little
village, where everything looked prosper.
Gus and pleasing, except one tall, stoop-
shouldered, neglectedlooking man who
was going down the street with yalleI
dog at his heels. Jim gazed after the man
kind o plying, he says, and another CITIZEN
a spruce, jolly-appearing individual said to
u him:
n That's Sam Fleming And real de
B cent, good-actin' citizen he would be, too
/. If it wasn't for that one bad failin' O. his'n
e He hunts 'coons'
n Jim Bennett says be couldn't say 4
: word.
Every night Sam and that yaller dog o
his'n is out huntin' 'eoons, Jim says TIM
: citizen said. sorrowful as could be, And
: he skins EN-, and nails them skins to hii
barn door till you'd think lie runnin' q
s lanyard. And he eats them coonsl
n Jest think of it, Now, we all like Sam
and we've been dom all sorts o things
TO try and shame him out o that failin o
his'n, but we can't seem to do it. Now
. if he'd only lift somebody's chickens OF
; steal a sheep, we mowt do somethin' fol
him. Then we could take hum up snC
send him some'rs where they'd keep hin
out O. harms way.
There's one more thing we're goin' tS
: try. If that don't shame him into reform
in then he'll have to move some'rs else
I" He'll have to novel