UNCLE ABE’S HUNTING CAT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2101, 29 January 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNCLE ABE’S HUNTING CAT.

(By Dan Do Quilli' (William Wright). I used to live down in Tennessee, in Bledsoe Country, uisj;li to Uio Sequatchie River, ’bout four mile from l’ikeville, the county seat. It. wur a kind of a mountainous country, but thar wur plenty of little valleys and flats for all natural aggeraeultural purposes and, pursoots. ’Coon, 'possum, groundhog, quail, and all sieli game bein’ plenty, with every here and there a bee-tree., folks didn’t need to bother with the sile more than what wur needed to raise a patch o’ corn or buckwheat with a few goober peas, sweet pertaters. gourds .and other sieli articles o’ gar-den-sass. It were the durndest place for rabbits that I ever seed. A feller could git ’bout half his meat olf’n rabbits alone. ’Most any afternoon ’long ’bout four o’clock you could see half a dozen to nine rabbitsskippin' about an’ playin’ hide-an’-scek on the little grassy patches among the bushes. Them days 1 had a stump-tailed eat that was uat’raKv great for ketchin’ rabbits, but l hit on a plan that made her the boss rabbit-'keteber in Bledsoe County. She wur jist. about the size and color of a rabbit, and had about the same length of tail. So I gits and skins the head of a rabbit, tans it nicely, and fixes cycles holes in it to lace it up with. 1 made it in sieli a-way that when it was put on my cat’s head and laced up under her jaws it wur a first-rate fit, with ears stiekiu’ up as nat'ral as life. Two steps away yer couldn’t uv told her from the best rabbit that ever hop-, ped. 1 soon got her trained, and used to reg’larly. go out huntin’ with her, havin’ more fun than a (little. Nothing wasn't afraid of her in her disguise. She could go right up to anything, and I used to ketch as many rabbits, quail, pheasants, squirrels, birds, and all sieli small game as I could pack. Slic’d go right in among a flock of quail—what wo call partridges back thar—an’ pick up half a dozen before they got over bein’ astonished. But the greatest fun wur among the rabbits. When we’d get to a place wliar several rabbits were skippin’ about and havin’ a bit of fun all to themselves, I’d git behind a tree or stump and f.et the cat go ahead and interjuce- herself inter the frolic. It wur amazin’ to see how easy them rabbits wur tuck in. One of ’em would come skippin’ lip to the 010 cat as she sat thar with her rabbitears a stickin’ straight up, and would begin some jocular familarities with her, when she’d take him by the back of tin- neck and he’d pass in bis cheques without so much as a, squeak. Then another would come along and he salved in the same way. In less’n half an hour she’d sometimes have four or five rabbits stretched out on a patch of ground not over three rods square. The fool rabbits never seemed to drop onto the cat till they wur nailed.

I ’'member now of a funny thing that happened one time when I wur out a, huntin’ rabbits and sieli small game with my clle cat. It wur jist back of the corn-patch of my neighbor Jackman, who had an ole-she-cat that wur a great one to ketch and bring in rabbits. When she had kittens she’d sometimes ketch and bring in three or four a day, some of cm bigger’n herself. W'ull, I wur out back of my neighbor Jackman’s corn-field, and my cat, in her disguise, wur a sittin’ up in an open patch of ground two or three rods away, waitin’ for a game / of romps with the rabbits. All 'lit o-nct I ketclied sight of Jackman’s cat a slippiu’ along the edge of a thicket. She wur nnikin’ for what she thought wur a pore silly rabbit. W hen she got close enough she guv a spring and landed on the back of the make-be-lieve rabbit.

Sich a surprised cat as that of ole Jackman’s I never seed. Aly cat faced about with a tremenjous yowl and guv Jackman’s cat a rake over the eyes; then the air was fill 1 of catfur and yowls for half a minit. But it wur my cat as wur doin’ all tho fightiu’. The Jackman cat broke to the edge of the th'cket -and bounced on to the top of a stump. Thar, with hack humped and eyes stickin’ out’n her head, she made a sorter stand while tryin’ to git over her astonishment of mind. But- when site seed my eat makin’ at her, with eyeballs a glarin’ and her rabbit-cars a stickin’ straight up, she jist guv a spit and a sputter and broke for homo like the very devil was after her. Jackman’s cat wur never wuth. a cent for rabbits after that. Jist show her a rabbit’s head, and she’ll go up the corner of the house and sit thnr under caves and yowl for an -hour. Jackman said he wouldn’t uv had his cat spilt for five dollars. He said sho soon got so deranged in mind that sho was ruinated for all! practical purposes, and wouldn’t face a

mouse. Onct when I was goi»* home from a hunt iist loaded down with game rabbits, squirrels, quails, and the like T had a fine piece of fun. You know how everlastiu’s superstitious niggers is about rabbits, anyhow. They’ve allers got a. rabbit’s foot bangin’ about thar necks, or somcwhnrs about ’em, to give ’em luck, and they think the rabbit has got sense to outwit all the other animals put together. Wall, I wur on my way home jist a little afore sundown, and my cat wur trottin’ along two or three rods ahead of me. She’d iist got out inter the main waggon-road, back of Squire Baxter’s place, an’ I was still in the brush ma'kin’ my way out to the edge of the clearin’, when along comes an ole nigger with a gun on his shoulder and a Critic ycller dog at his heels. The dog seed the rabbit in the road and made for it with a yelp. The rabbit, or what appeared to be sicli, flew to a small jack oak-tree near by, skinned up it, got out on one of the fust limbs, and sot tliar with hair up and back bumped.

At sight of this queer conduct of a rabbit the little dog wur all broke up. He drooped bis tail between bis legs and went whinin’ back to bis master. But ycr iist ought or seen that old nigger! He’d brought liis gun down ofFn bis shoulder at the fust yelp of the dog, but when be seed the rabbit go tearin’ up the tree and hump itself out on the ilimb, he wur a little the wurst-skeered nigger in all Tennessee. If he’d seen a hog start and go up a tree he couldn’t uv been more taken aback. His eyes stuck out even with .the bridge of,.lris nose, and as .1 stood

“’Fore de Lord!" says lie. " Fore do Lord, what 'kino o' ling is iliilr 1 Slinkin’ like a limn with the ngor. In' brought up his gun. lie was try-in’ to take some sort ol aim when his little dog rubbed against bis legs behind, and be jumped three feet high, tliinkin’ he bad been attacked in the rear. At the .same time his guu went off, when pinted nearly straight up. At the crack of the gun the eat jumped to the ground, dashed into the brush, and run ten rods off afore the smoke ol the shot cleared away. But the ole darky didn’t stop to see the ell'eo’ of bis shot. Ho turned and went back the road lie’ll eonie, pawin’ up as much dust as a pair o’ runaway steers. 1 stopped out inter the road and yelled at him:

“Ephraim! Stop. Fph, you old hief!”

But thar wur no stop to him. At the sound of my voice he partly tinned about, tuck one look, Hung his gun •uni his ole wool hat away, and then just laid down to his work. Every time one ol his big fiat loot come down it sent, a splash of dust Irom the middle ol the road out oil to the grass on each side. To see an ole teller ol I'itty. who hail dlors been complainin' of rlieuniatiz in bis legs, git over ground like that was surprisin’. He’d uv beat the best foot-racer in America, llis little yafter dog was left yelpin’ rods behind. As lie run lie hollered like n bull, but all I could make out was: “Don’t come a nigh me! Don’t come a nigh mo! 1 longs to do Lord! I ’longs to de Lord!” Next day there was an awful story among the niggers ’bout the devil bein’ in the neighbourhood. Old Eph Sells had seen him in the shape of a rabbit that had climbed a tree. To toll of a rabbit going up a tree was mough for any niggor, but when Eph unlarged on his story and swore that he rabbit, was as big as a yoarliu’ •alf. bad ears as long as bis arm, and fiery eyes big as saucers, they let go ill holds. Besides the devil had pimped out of .the tree when shot at, and had taken the form of a black nan, nine feet high and broad in iroportiou. Then ho hail called Eph )y name, had ordered him to stop, md had chased him over half a mile, -hit that he had called on the name >f the Lord, the devil! would have pot him sure.

Old Eph wus a class-leader and an ex-liortcr among the npagers, so lie •ailed a prayer-meet in’ lor that night, ,ayin’ what he tole ’em was what he’d ;ako his Bible oath onto. Some of he niggers wus in doubt ’bout the devil bein’ in the settlement. To setle this I said that if he’d chased 010 Eph liis -tracks ougliter bo found in die dust of the road. To this all ;greed, and half a dozen wus appoint'd as a committee to go and look fur the tracks. I went along, and, nire enough, thar wus the tracks. Tho tracks wus ’bout- two feet i’.ong by i foot wide, and each track showed the mark of six claws. The tracks wus about eight foot apart, and we bad no difficulty ’bout tracin’ of ’em, fur I’d made ’em myself, with a sack jf straw and an old wooden bay-fork. They wur plain to be followed to a ■•ertam spot, wliar the devil seemed to hay© jumped into the air and tuck

wing. Them tracks settled it with every nigger in the neighborhood. That •light thar was a rousin’ nieetin’ atthe little log meetin’-house. I slipped in with my old cat, rigged out in her disguise, under my coat. Old Eph gob up and repeated his story, which, he said, was a warnin’. Then he went on to say: .

“It may he hard, beddrem, but I teV.s you what it is. us niggahs gotter let do lien-roosts, de co’n-cribs, an’ de unoke-houscs alone from dis time on. De Lord knows dat- dar’s none of us has made a bizness of sieli tings, but lar liev bin pressin’ times when de ladder of de family has been ’bleeged to rustle about a little in de great -ole world, an’ hunt up pel-visions. Now,” says old Eph, “de debblelasniglit call me an ole ehicken-t-iel, an’ excuse me dat I steal! Squire Baxter’s bacon, when More do Lord, I nebber knowed dat Squire Baxter had any bacon.”

Just at this pint I let niv old cat down from under my. coat, and she began oreepin’ along up the alley 'lo’ards wliar 010 Eph wur at the desk boldin’ fo’tli.

“No, beddron,” says the ole feller. “I nebber knowed afore dat Squire Baxter got a- smoke-house, even. Dis shows dat do debbble is ale ladder of liars, and dat. lie’s liable to excuse even do most innereont in all do—”

Jist hyar a nig hollers out: “Look at dat rabbit!’,’

My ole cat wur ’bout half-wav up the alley to’ards the preach in’ desk, an’ he darky went for her. All the nigs forgot wliar they wur, anil hollered :

“Ketch the rabbit! Ketch the rabbit !”

The nigger grabbed up what ho thought was a rabbit, but no sooner was it in his hands than it guv a fearful “Aliow-wow !” and a “J’hiszt!” and began using both claws an’ teeth. The nigger dropped the cat like she’d bin a rattlesnake, an’ ole Eph, with eyes bulgin’ out, shouted: “Dar he is agin! Dnt’s do debbil now!”

At the same time Eph made a rush for the back winder. Some of tho other darkies went through the door and some through the winders, and in less than hal'.f a minit thar wasn’t a ;oul left in the place but me and the 010 cat. That air scarce ’bout the devil lasted night onto three year, an’ you might safely have leit a smoke-house or a corn-crib door wide open all the time anvwhar in all that past of Bledsoe County.