airy, 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.