He ought to've lasted a
good spell longer. He's no use for huntin' now, that's certain."
Isaac accepted the rebuke meekly. John York was a calm man, but he now
grew very fierce under such a provocation. Nobody likes to be hindered
in a coon-hunt.
"Oh, Rover's too old, anyway," explained the affectionate master
regretfully. "I've been wishing all this afternoon I'd brought him; but
I didn't think anything about him as we came away, I've got so used to
seeing him layin' about the yard. 'Twould have been a real treat for old
Rover, if he could have kept up. Used to be at my heels the whole time.
He couldn't follow us, anyway, up here."
"I shouldn't wonder if he could," insisted John, with a humorous glance
at his old friend, who was much too heavy and huge of girth for quick
transit over rough ground. John York himself had grown lighter as he had
grown older.
"I'll tell you one thing we could do," he hastened to suggest. "There's
that dog of 'Bijah Topliff's. Don't you know the old lady told us, that
day she went over to Dipford, how high he was valued? Most o' 'Bijah's
important business was done in the fall, goin' out by night, gunning
with fellows from the mills. He was just the kind of a worthless
do-nothing that's sure to have an extra knowin' smart dog. I expect
'Liza Jane's got him now. Perhaps we could get him by to-morrow night.
Let one o' my boys go over!"
"Why, 'Liza Jane's come, bag an' baggage, to spend the winter with her
mother," exclaimed Isaac Brown, springing to his feet like a boy.
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