"Pooh!" Melinda scoffed. "There haven't been a thousand hounds and two thousand hunters in the Creeping Hills during the past hundred years!"
"Old Joe's been prowling that long," Harky declared.
"Rubbish!" said Melinda. "He's just a big raccoon who's smart enough to climb a tree that can't be felled or climbed. Even my own father believes he's been here forever, but you should know better. You've been taught by Miss Cathby."
Harky sneered, "Miss Cathby don't know nothin' about nothin'."
"Harold!" Melinda was properly shocked. "Don't you dare talk that way about Miss Cathby!"
"Ha!" Harky crowed. "I'll—"
The battle that might have resulted from this impact of Miss Cathby's education with the lore and legend of the Creeping Hills was forestalled when two hounds began to bay at Old Joe's sycamore. They were Thunder and Duckfoot.
