"Could be you're right," Harky said reflectively. "I guess there's times when a man like you just can't help himself, and that's why you sent Melinda on the coon hunt."
"I could of helped myself," Mellie corrected. "I could of told Melinda to stay home an' she'd of stayed. But I didn't an' she didn't."
"Why'd you send her?" Harky asked.
"Pure hellishness," said Mellie. "I was mule-kicked an' couldn't go coon huntin' so I figgered I'd ruin it for everybody else."
"You sure enough did," Harky told him. "Pa's got a busted leg, Raw and Butt are staying near enough the woods so they can duck into 'em, and us coon hunters are just going to sink right where we are without we do something."
"What ya aim to do, Harky?"
"I got to take Melinda out and I'll bring her back. We have to run Old Joe up his big sycamore and I got to show Melinda that there ain't any den there for him to hide in."
"It's a right big order," Mellie said.
"But the only chance any of us got," Harky pointed out. "That Miss Cathby, she come into the hills and tried to teach that Old Joe ain't nothing but a big old coon. The rest, she says, is a lot of foolishness, too. If we don't put a finish to that sort of thing once and for all, even us men will be sitting around gathering our lore out of books 'stead of coon hunts."
Mellie shuddered at a prospect so horrible. There was a brief silence, and Harky asked, "Can Melinda fetch Glory tonight?"