Well I did! Oh, you may larph, but jist imagin’ yourself lost in the cane on Sky Lake, (the cane on Sky Lake is some—thirty miles long, from one to three miles wide, thick as the har on a dog’s back, and about thirty feet high!) out of licker, out of powder, your knife gone, the ground kivered with snow, you very hungry and tired, and two panters follerin’ your trail, and you’d think you was bewitched too!
Well, here they come, never lettin’ on, but makin’ arrangements to have my skalp that night; I never lettin’ on, but detarmin’d they shouldent. The har had been standin’ on my head for more nor an hour, and the sweat were gist rollin’ off me, and that satisfied me a fight war a brewin’ atween me and the panters! I stopped two or three times, thinkin’ they’s gone, but presently here they’d come, creepin’ along through the cane, and soon as they’d see me they stop, lay down, roll over and twirl their tails about like kittens playin’; I’d then shout, shake the cane, and away they’d go. Oh, they thought they had me! In course they did, and I detarmined with myself, if they did let me go, if they diddent attack an onarmed man, alone and lost, without licker, dogs, powder or knife, that the very fust time I got a panter up a tree, with my whole pack at the root, my licker gourd full, and I half full, my twelve-to-the-pound-yager loaded, and my knife in shavin’ order, I’d let him go! Yes, ’tisn’t Chantrey if I diddent!
But what did they care? They’d no more feelin’ than a pine-stump! I know’d it woulddent do to risk a fight in the cane, and pushed on to find an open place whar I could make sure of my one load, and rely on my gun barrel arter. I soon found a place whar the cane drifted, and thar I determined to stand and fight it out! Presently here they come; and if a stranger had seen ’em, he’d a thought they were playin’! They’d jump and squat, and bend their backs, lay down and roll, and grin like puppys;—they kept gittin’ nearer and nearer, and it wer gettin’ dark, and I know’d I must let drive at the old he, ’afore it got so dark I coulddent see my sights; so I jist dropped on one knee to make sure, and when I raised my gun, I were all in a trimble! I know’d that woulddent do, and ris!
“You are witched, Chunkey, sure and sartin’,” said I. Arter bracin’ myself, I raised up agin and fired! One on ’em sprung into the air and gin a yell, and the other bounded towards me like a streak! Lightin’ close to me, it squatted to the ground and commenced creepin’ towards me—its years laid back, its eyes turnin’ green, and sorter swimmin’ round like, and the end of its tail twistin’ like a snake. I felt light as a cork, and strong as a buffalo. I seen her commence slippin’ her legs under her, and knew she were gwine to spring. I throw’d back my gun to gin it to her, as she come; the lick I aimed at her head struck across the shoulders and back without doing any harm, and she had me!—Rip, rip, rip—and ’way went my blanket, coat, and britches. She sunk her teeth into my shoulder, her green eyes were close to mine, and the froth from her mouth were flyin’ in my face!! Moses! how fast she did fight! I felt the warm blood runnin’ down my side—I seen she were arter my throat! and with that I grabbed hern, and commenced pourin’ it into her side with my fist, like cats-a-fightin!—Rip, rip, she’d take me,—diff, slam, bang, I’d gin it to her—she fightin’ for her supper, I fightin’ for my life! Why, in course it war an onequal fight, but she ris it! Well, we had it round and round, sometimes one, and then yother on top, she a growlin’ and I a gruntin’! We had both commenced gittin’ mighty tired, and presently she made a spring, tryin’ to git away! Arter that thar wan’t no mortal chance for her! Cause why, she were whipped! I’d sorter been thinkin’ about sayin’
“Now I lay me down to sleep,”
but I know’d if I commenced it would put her in heart, and she’d riddle me in a minit, and when she hollered nuff, I were glad to my shoe soles, and had sich confidence in whippin’ the fight, that I offered two to one on Chunkey, but no takers!
“Oh, ho!” says I, a hittin’ her a lick every time I spoke, “you are willin’ to quit even and divide stakes, are you?” and then round and round we went agin! You could have hearn us blow a quarter, but presently she made a big struggle and broke my hold! I fell one way, and she the other! She darted into the cane, and that’s the last time I ever hearn of that panter!!!
When I sorter come to myself, I war struttin’ and thunderin’ like a big he-gobler, and then I commenced examinin’ to see what harm she’d done me; I war bit powerful bad in the shoulder and arm—jist look at them scars!—and I were cut into solid whip-strings; but when I found thar warn’t no danger of its killin’ me, I set in to braggin’. “Oh, you ain’t dead yet, Chunkey!” says I, “if you are sorter wusted, and have whipped a panter in a fair fight, and no gougin’;” and then I cock a doodle dood a spell, for joy!
When I looked round, thar sot the old he, a lickin’ the blood from his breast! I’d shot him right through the breast, but sorter slantindickler, breakin’ his shoulder blade into a perfect smash. I walked up to him:
“Howdy, panter? how do you do? how is missis panter, and the little panters? how is your consarns in gineral? Did you ever hearn tell of the man they calls ‘Chunkey?’ born in Kaintuck and raised in Mississippi? death on a bar, and smartly in a panter fight? If you diddent, look, for I’m he! I kills bars, whips panters in a fair fight; I walks the water, I out-bellars the thunder, and when I gets hot, the Mississippi hides itself! I—I—Oh, you thought you had me, did you?—drot you! But you are a gone sucker, now. I’ll have your melt, if I never gits home, so—”