“I know so many, I hardly know which one to tell. Did I ever tell you how near a panther was using me up.”
“No, give us that.”
“Then you shall hear it. It happened while I was living down by the big swamp. I was sitting in my cabin one night alone, thinking of a heap of things, and not thinking of much neither, when a notion struck me, that I should like some 'possum and hominy for supper. Well, I wa'nt hungry much, but the coals,—they were these large oak coals, you know; they looked so hot and clean that I thought it was a pity to let them burn out, as they were so nice for roasting. So I gits up. Says I, if there's a 'possum in these capes I'll have him, and calling along my old bitch Jupiter, I started out.”
“But,” said Rolfe, “Jupiter is of the masculine gender.”
“Do what!” said Earth.
“Jupiter,” said Rolfe, “must be the name of a dog, and not of a bitch.”
“Well, now I wan't speaking as to that; but if I don't know the name of my dog, who does? I tell you she was named Jupiter, and if you dont want to hear the story, I'll drop it.”
“Oh! by no means, Earth, go on.”
“Well, as I was saying, I called up old Jupiter and started;—the thing seemed to know directly I got out, what it was I wanted, for the way that she began to poke her nose in among the bushes was to the 'possum family quite curious. You see I had left my gun and took 'long with me an axe, and old Jupe seeing that, would no more have noticed a bear or a deer, than she would have done a horse. Well, I had'nt been out long before she opened. The trail was right warm, and she streaked it: I could'nt see her, but she fairly whistled as she came by me, and the first thing I know'd, she treed, from a mile and a half to two miles off. I started to go to her, but I soon found out from the vig'rous manner in which she barked, that it was no 'possum, but an old 'coon; and as old Jupe was never known to leave a tree, I concluded to go back.”
“Well,” said Rolfe, laughing; “that is the way the panther used you up, is it?”