to Kit. When the deer come ole Kit'd shake her
head an' the deer would raise their heads to see what the noise made by
the bell was an' where it was comin' from. Then he'd shoot the deer in
the head. He showed me the place where he killed the biggest buck he
ever seen right here jess out o' town a little ways. He kept the horns.
An' I remember seein' 'em in the attic at his house. He had an ole
riffle he called "Ole Betsy" that'd been his deer rifle.

After I got to be a big boy, huntin' and fishin' was good. I never got
to do any uv it except on Saturdays and Sundays. Everbody had a brush
fence 'round the house to keep the stock in out o' the yard and one day
I seen a big bird sail down on the fence and run under it. Mother was
out in the back yard so I said to myself, I'll get the gun and kill that
hawk. I taken good aim at its head and banged away. At the crack o' the
gun I never heard such a flutterin' in my life. Mother come runnin' to
see what was the matter and when she seen it, she said, Son, that's a
pheasant. Some day you'll be a good hunter. An' guess I was for I killed
lots o' pheasants, quail, squir'ls and rabbits.

Little Sammy Duvall had a pointer he called "Quail". She was the
smartest dog I ever seen, but everybody had smart dogs them days.
Quail'd trail birds when they was runnin' till she got clost and then
circle 'round 'em an' make her stand.

Be careful there, Quail, Mr. Sammy would say. He'd nearly always get
eight or ten out uv a covey an' sometimes the whole covey. I yousta go
along jess to see him shoot. He hardly ever missed. There was so many
quail that nobody ever thought to leave any uv a covey if he wanted that
many an' they didn't get so scattered that he couldn't fin' em.

After the deer was all killed out, people trained their deer hounds to
chase foxes, coons and such like. The white boys from town yousta come
and get Will and young Sammy to go coon huntin'. They al'ays had ten or
twelve dogs. They al'ays taken me along an' treated me jest the same as
if I was as white as they was. If I got behind or out o' sight somebody
was sure to say, 'Where's George'?

One night we treed three coons in a big hollow oak. They started to cut
down the trees an' put me at the butt with a fire bran'. When the tree
fell the coons'd come out an' I was supposed to drive 'em back with the
fire, jest lettin' out one at a time so's the dogs could kill 'em. I was
about half scared uv 'em and when one big