“I didn’t want to make a race o’ it; so I let him pass me, rayther than that he should fall behind, an’ get among my legs.
“Of coorse, he landed fust; an’ I could hear by the stompin’ o’ hoofs, that his suddint appearance hed kicked up a jolly stampede among the critters upon the island. I could see both deer and mar dancing all over the groun’, as if Old Nick himself hed got among ’em.
“None o’ ’em, howsomdever, thort o’ takin’ to the water. They hed all hed enough o’ that, I guess.
“I kep a leetle round, so as not to land near the painter; an’ then, touchin’ bottom, I climbed quietly up on the mound. I hed hardly drawed my drippin’ carcass out o’ the water, when I heerd a loud squeal, which I knew to be the whigher o’ my ole mar; an’ jest at that minnit the critter kim runnin’ up, an’ rubbed her nose agin my shoulder. I tuk the halter in my hand, an’ sidling round a leetle, I jumped upon her back, for I still wur in fear o’ the painter; an’ the mar’s back appeared to me the safest place about, an’ that wan’t very safe, eyther.
“I now looked all round to see what new company I hed got into. The day wur jest breakin’, an’ I could distinguish a leetle better every minnit. The top o’ the mound which, wur above water wan’t over half an acre in size, an’ it wur as clur o’ timmer as any other part o’ the parairy, so that I could see every inch o’ it, an’ everythin’ on it as big as a tumble-bug.
“I reckin, strengers, that you’ll hardly believe me when I tell you the concatenation o’ varmints that wur then an’ thur caucused together. I could hardly believe my own eyes when I seed sich a gatherin’, an’ I thort I hed got aboard o’ Noah’s Ark. Thur wur—listen, strengers—fust my ole mar an’ meself, an’ I wished both o’ us anywhur else, I reckin—then thur wur the painter, yur old acquaintance—then thur wur four deer, a buck an’ three does. Then kim a catamount; an’ arter him a black bar, a’most as big as a buffalo. Then thur wur a ’coon an’ a ’possum, an’ a kupple o’ grey wolves, an’ a swamp rabbit, an’, darn the thing! a stinkin’ skunk. Perhaps the last wan’t the most dangerous varmint on the groun’, but it sartintly wur the most disagreeableest o’ the hul lot, for it smelt only as a cussed polecat kin smell.
“I’ve said, strengers, that I wur mightily tuk by surprise when I fust seed this curious clanjamfrey o’ critters; but I kin tell you I wur still more dumbfounded when I seed thur behaveyur to one another, knowin’ thur different naturs as I did. Thur wur the painter lyin’ clost up to the deer—its nat’ral prey; an’ thur wur the wolves too; an’ thur wur the catamount standin’ within three feet o’ the ’possum an’ the swamp rabbit; an’ thur wur the bar an’ the cunnin’ old ’coon; an’ thur they all wur, no more mindin’ one another than if they hed spent all thur days together in the same penn.
“’Twur the oddest sight I ever seed, an’ it remembered me o’ bit o’ Scripter my ole mother hed often read from a book called the Bible, or some sich name—about a lion that wur so tame he used to squat down beside a lamb, ’ithout layin’ a claw upon the innocent critter.
“Wal, stranger, as I’m sayin’, the hul party behaved in this very way. They all appeared down in the mouth, an’ badly skeart about the water; but for all that, I hed my fears that the painter or the bar—I wan’t afeard o’ any o’ the others—mout git over thur fright afore the flood fell; an’ thurfore I kept as quiet as any one o’ them during the hul time I wur in thur company, an’ stayin’ all the time clost by the mar. But neyther bar nor painter showed any savage sign the hul o’ the next day, nor the night that follered it.
“Strengers, it ud tire you wur I to tell you all the movements that tuk place among these critters durin’ that long day an’ night. Ne’er a one o’ ’em laid tooth or claw on the other. I wur hungry enough meself, and ud a liked to hev taken a steak from the buttocks o’ one o’ the deer, but I dasen’t do it. I wur afeard to break the peace, which mout a led to a general shindy.