ever's wrong with him, Doc?" says my father.

"'"Nothin'," says the physician, "only your son Willyum's five inches
out o' plumb."

"'Then he rigs a contraption made up of guy-ropes an' stay-laths, an' I
has to wear it; an' mebby in three or four weeks or so he's got me
warped back into the perpendic'lar.'

"'But how about this cat hunt?' asks Dan Boggs. 'Which I don't aim to be
introosive none, but I'm camped yere through the second drink waitin'
for it, an' these procrastinations is makn' me kind o' batty.'

"'That panther hunt is like this,' says the Colonel, turnin' to Dan. 'At
the age of seventeen, me an' eight or nine of my intimate brave comrades
founds what we-all denom'nates as the "Chevy Chase Huntin' Club." Each
of us maintains a passel of odds an' ends of dogs, an' at stated
intervals we convenes on hosses, an' with these fourscore curs at our
tails goes yellin' an' skally-hootin' up an' down the countryside
allowin' we're shore a band of Nimrods.

"'The Chevy Chasers ain't been in bein' as a institootion over long when
chance opens a gate to ser'ous work. The deep snows in the Eastern
mountains it looks like has done drove a panther into our neighborhood.
You could hear of him on all sides. Folks glimpses him now an' then.
They allows he's about the size of a yearlin' calf; an' the way he pulls
down sech feeble people as sheep or lays desolate some he'pless henroost
don't bother him a bit. This panther spreads a horror over the county.
Dances, pra'er meetin's, an' even poker parties is broken up, an' the
social life of that region begins to bog down. Even a weddin' suffers;
the bridesmaids stayin' away lest this ferocious monster should show up
in the road an' chaw one of 'em while she's _en route_ for the scene of
trouble. That's gospel trooth! the pore deserted bride has to heel an'
handle herse'f an' never a friend to yoonite her sobs with hers doorin'
that weddin' ordeal. The old ladies present shakes their heads a heap
solemn.

"'"It's a worse augoory," says one, "than the hoots of a score of
squinch owls."

"'When this reign of terror is at its height, the local eye is rolled
appealin'ly towards us Chevy Chasers. We rises to the opportoonity. Day
after day we're ridin' the hills an' vales, readin' the milk white snow
for tracks. An' we has success. One mornin' I comes up on two of the
Brackenridge boys an' five more of the Chevy Chasers settin' on their
hosses at the Skinner cross roads. Bob C