Читать книгу Camping in the Winter Woods: Adventures of Two Boys in the Maine Woods онлайн

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“It’s up there, all right,” said the trapper, holding aloft the lantern and peering upward into the night.

They were unable to see the coon, which was evidently in the very top of the tree and well shielded by the darkness. The two veteran hunters decided to build a fire. Soon there was a great roaring blaze, which threw a shaft of light far aloft into the mass of naked branches. On one of them, in near the trunk, crouched their quarry. The tree was too big to chop down, and after some discussion Bill volunteered to climb it.

Having cut a long, crotched pole, the trapper fastened it to his waist with a piece of buckskin, and then he twined his legs about the tree and began to “shinney” toward the top. Ben and the boys armed themselves with stout clubs and waited anxiously for something to drop.

When he was within striking distance, Bill loosened the pole from his waist and pushed the coon from the limb on which it crouched. It fell, but caught on a lower branch, which ran to a fork, and again settled down. Bill slid down to it, and this time gave it a prod that sent it sailing through space with outstretched legs. It fell heavily to the ground in the midst of the little group at the base of the tree.