“Abe seeing me so resolute, had somewhat recovered his courage and his senses, and now laid hold of the axe. Abe was a ‘first hand’ at ‘chopping,’ and the hole soon gaped wider.
“‘If de hole run clar up, massa,’ said he, resting for a moment, ‘we can smoke out de varmint—wid de punk and de grass here we can smoke out de debil himself. S’pose we try ’im, massa?’
“‘Good!’ cried I, catching at Abe’s suggestion; and in a few minutes we had made a fire in the hole, and covered it with leaves, grass, and weeds.
“The smoke soon did its work. We saw it ooze out above at the entrance of the ’coon hole—at first in a slight filmy stream, and then in thick volumes. We heard a scraping and rattling within the hollow trunk, and a moment after a dark object sprang out upon the lliana, and ran a short way downward. Another followed, and another, and another, until a string of no less than six raccoons squatted along the parasite threatening to run downward!
“The scene that followed was indescribable. I had seized my gun, and both barrels were emptied in a ‘squirrel’s jump.’ Two of the ’coons came to the ground, badly wounded. Pompo tackled another, that had run down the lliana, and was attempting to get off; while Abe with his axe clove the skull of a fourth, that had tried to escape in a similar manner.
“The other two ran back into the ‘funnel,’ but only to come out again just in time to receive a shot each from the reloaded gun, which brought both of them tumbling from the tree. We succeeded in bagging the whole family; and thus finished what Abe declared to be the greatest ‘’coon-chase on de record.’
“As it was by this time far in the night, we gathered up our game, and took the ‘back track to hum.’”