“Now, Rolfe, that's no way to interrupt a man; if you want to hear the story, you must let me tell it in my own way.”
“I beg pardon, Earth, I did not at the moment recollect, that a hunter must tell all the particulars of a story, or he will tell none of them.”
“Well, that is a fact; if there are three or four out after a bear, and they kill him, when they get around a fire, they must all tell how it happened; each in his own way.”
“Well, as I was saying, I concluded to go back, and started off. It was some distance to my cabin, and after getting on a piece, the night was so very moony and pleasant, that I thought I had just as well sleep out; and, upon looking around, I discovered a piece of oak bark, about seven or eight feet long, which came off a large tree, and which, if shut up at each end, would make something like a trough, and, if turned oven, would make a safe cover, so I wheeled it over and crawled under.”
“Why did you take such precaution?”
“Because the panthers were mighty bad, and if you were out by yourself, and did not have a fire, they would crawl over you to a certainty. Did I never tell you how one lit upon me while I was stooping down drinking out of my spring. You know where my spring is?”
“Yes, I know where your spring is; but go on with your first story.”
“Oh, yes; where did I leave off? Old Jupe had treed”——
“No, you told that,” said Rolfe, “you had just crawled under a trough.”
“Ah! I recollect; but, Rolfe, I wish you would'nt call it a trough, for I told you plainly that it was a piece of bark,—oak bark too,—seven or eight feet long;—came off a right smart tree.”