Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1902-04-26
TWO COON STORIES.

| had been on one Of his trips. Jim doesn't
| often 90 on trips, except IN warm weather,
when snakes are out and are ready TO let
him 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
lovely nature was and yet how queer. He
didn't tell me where it was where he was
4 driving along, and be came to a man work
ing away in a field like ali possessed, with
a pick and shovel jim Bennett says be
stopped aud holered to tie man.
Hello, neighbour Short a. meat, eh 2"
"Ihe man quit digging and leaned on his
pick
"'No,' said he, holering back at Jim. i
I dunno as I'm any way short O meat
Then Jim says he hollered back ct the
/ man:
why, you're digging to get ground
hog out, amt your
''Ihe man hollered back at Jim:
! No, | amt diegin' to git grounding
/ out. I'm diggin to get coon in
Digging to get a coon inH he says he
I hollered. why, that's kind o queer,
4 amt ity'
Maybe it is and maybe It hain't, the
4 man hollered back at jim. That's accord
4 in to how folks looks at It,
But where's the coonY
Come over here and Ill tel you, the
man h6lIered back at jim
! so Jim says he tied his horse to the
4 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 dead'
/ dim Bennett says this gave him a real
Z start, because he thought he was face to
/ face with crazy man; but he stood his
/ ground, and the man said
I'm digging his 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 obscrvant
| citizen, relating strange facts.
Yes, SIR the man said to Jim Bennett,
according to what Jim tells me, he was
coon among eoons, and I'm going to
I plant him here because he was so all-per-
vadin' smart that he deserves to have a
! gravestone. He made one sad mistake
to be sure didn't want him to go out
after the chestnuts. The boys was to blame
for his goin'. And I'll lick old Jim Carter
till he 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
Carter has got chestnut tree on his place,
j'inin mine, that beats all the trees / know
of, and my boys always gifts a 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 to
put up with a good deal Of botherin' by
him if they let their hankerin' for that tree
git the best of EN-.
I've got a spy glass at home, slammin'
good one. Jim Carter he lives mile from
that chestnut tree o his'n, but he keeps
comm toward it every chance he gets to
see if it's bein' tempered with; so what
does my boys do but take to luggin' that
spy glass with em and sweepin' the coun-
try with it, so ii jim is comm from any
direction they kin see him long before he
gifts within any sort o sight o them, and
kin keep on gethern chestnuts till lie
gifts too close for it to be safe for EN-.
This mornin that coon O mine, after
he had rocked tie baby to sleep and fed
the chickens and the pigs, SO Jim Bennett
tells me the man sand, took down that
spy glass and started out. Now, / didn't
know this taen, or I'd a found cut more
about it, and either stopped the coon or
:
He took that spy glass cause he had
been with tie boys durin' one or two OF
their hankeIin trips, and went over to jim
Carriers tree chestnutuin'. lie chestnutted
and chestnutted, sweepin' the country
every now and then with the spy glass TO
keep track 0 jim.
He seen Jim by and by comm toward
the tree. But that coon kept on chest
nuttin'. He kept on chestnuttin' 30 UNI
fortunate long that Jim Carter got there
and loaded him with half a dozen buck
saot, and the coon came out oi the tree
dead.
He has made sad mistake, smart as
he was. lie bad 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 80 yards
from the tree, aud-well, this is that COON
grave, and m goin' to plant him in it,
Jim Bennett says that was more than
I he ever learned about 'coons before, and
he was glad he had stopped and talked TO
the man. Jim drove along and by and by,
he says, he came to a nice, smart little
( village, where everything looked prosper
Gus and pleasing, except one tall, stoop-
shouldered, neglected-looking man who
was going down the street with yaller
dog at his heels. Jim gazed after the man
kind O plying, he says, and another citizen,
a spruce, jolly appearing individual said to
i him:
That's Sam Fleming. And real de-
! cent, good-actiu' citizen he would be- too,
/ il it wasn't for that one bad failin' o his'n.
/ He hunts coons.
.'Jim Bennett says he couldn't say
! word.
Every night Sam and that yaller dog o
4 his'n is out huntin' 'coons, Jim says this
4 citizen said, sorrowful as could be. And
1 he skins EN-. and nails them skins to his
1 barn door till you'd think he was runnin'
/ LANYARD. And he eats them 'coons,
"'Jest think Of it! Now, we all like Sam,
land we've been dom all sorts o. things
4 o try and shame him out o that failin' o
/ his'n. but we can't seem to do it. Now,
/ il he'd only lift somebody's chickens or
/ steal sheep, we mowt do somethin' for
Z !. 4,I+e L.. ,,,l