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Show Possum Dick Or, again, take Possum Dick, the an- dent and mysterious negro hunter, ' who lives la the neighborhood of Clio-ton, Clio-ton, S. O. Of Possum Dick's achievements achieve-ments In other lines I know nothing, but that he Is wise in the lore of men and animals I know, for I have hunted hunt-ed with him. How old he Is I cannot say, but he is bent and leathery and seamed, and as he shuffles along, with his old staff In one hand, the other a vast, strange, horny hand It Is hangs almost to "his knee. Ills ragged, faded coat is pinned with safety pins, and his trousers are mended with twigs; his little beard is gray and wooly, his eyes are large, sad, thoughtful, and sometimes there comes Into them, when he Is amused, the flicker of a smile but that Is all. "IIow do you find your way when it's dark like this?" you ask as yon plod behind Dick's swinging lantern. "On night lak dis," he answers, "Ah hunts by de stahs. Ah Jes' tak me an ohjlc foh a stah, an' set me dat stah fo' t' guide me on ma coo'se. When dc stahs ain't out, den Ah hunts by de wind. Ah has a too'ch, an' Ah holds it up so an' de smoke, dat tell me when Ah'm agoln'. De too'ch, da's good too, fo' t' shine de possum's eye." "Shine his eye? Dow do you mean?" "Ah hoi's ma light down behln me so an' Ah looks up in de tree, an' possum, up in de tree, he see de light, an' he study it, an' his eyes dey shines it back. So den, If Ah don' 'tlckally want t' ketch him 'live, Ah shoots him wlf dat ol' gun o' mine. If it's possum up de tree, he give you bofe eyes, but if it's coon he inns' gen'ally shet one eye an' put his paw oveh it, like he was hldln' Tom you. Den, if you makes fuss sohtch like you was 'nothah coon down deah he open dat eye what he shet. . . . Dey has deh dlffunt ways, de vahnilnts." "And you know their ways, don't you, Uncle Dick? You feel that it Is the voice of the woods and stubble fields that speaks through this old negro who has lived always so near the earth that he has come to be a part of it." "Ah's been huntin now foh mo'n fo'ty yeahs," he replies modestly. "Ah'd oughten to know some o' de vahmlnta up to now. All mus' o' ketched thoa- san's o' possum and coon. Ah s'pose dem vahrnints thinks Ah'm afteh dem same as devil's afteh folks." You ask if the devil gives Possum Dick much trouble. "Oh, he come shassayln 'roun' now 'n ag'in," he returns, "but when Ah heads him Ah says : "Deh he Is ! Da's him tryln' temp me t' do wrong.' An' Ah always did try t' live right dat Is, evvah sence Ah join de chu'eh. De young folks, dey don't ca'y dehselves lak us ol ones." Julian Street, In Collier's Col-lier's Weekly. |