“Well, whar was I, Capting?—oh, I remember now! Well, when the barrel come we _did_ lumber; Chunkey he soon commenced singin’. We went on that way nigh a week, and then cooled off. One mornin’, I and Chunkey had gone down to the creek to git a bait of water, and I knoed the bar would be thar, as it war waterin’ time with them.” “Why, Jim, have they a particular time to water?” “In course they has; they come to water at a certain place, and jist as reglar as a parson to his eatin’; every bar has his waterin’ place, and he comes and goes in the same path and _in the same foot-tracks_ always, until he moves his settlement: and jist you break a cane, or limb, or move a chunk or stick near his trail, and see how quick he’ll move his cabin! Oh yes, a bar is mighty particlar about sich things—that’s his _sens_—that’s his _trap_ to find out if you are in his settlement. Why, Capting, I have watched ’em—” “Jim, you have left yourself and Chunkey on the bank of the creek, ‘a-waterin’.’ Are you going to stay there?” “Well, we set down on the bank and took our stand opposite the _biggest kind_ of sign, and sure enough, presently _down_ he come; a bar don’t lap water like a dog; no, they sucks it like a hog. You jist ought to see him rais his nose and smell the wind. Well, he seed us, and with that he _ris_! He war a whopper, I _tell you_! He looked like a big burn, and he throw’d them arms about awful, honey. It war about one hundred and twenty yards to him, but I knoed he were _my_ meat without an accident, so I let drive, and he took the creek—then out he went, and scampered up the bank _mighty quick_, and then sich a ratlin’ among cane, sich a growlin’ and snortin’, sich a breakin’ of saplins and vines, I reckon you never _did_ hear; I knoed, in course, I had him. I throwed a log in and paddled across—found his trail, and lots of har and fat, but no blood!” “That was very strange, Jim; how did you account for that?” “Why he were too fat to bleed! Oh, you think I am foolin’ you, but you ask Chunkey. It is frequently the case. I follered his trail about a quarter and a half a quarter, and _thar_ he lay; so I jist hollered to Chunkey to git two negers and a yoke of steers to take him to the house. How much do you reckon he weighed?” “I have no idea, Jim.” “Now, Sir, he weighed, without head, skin, or entrails, four hundred and ninety-three pounds, and his head sixty pounds! You don’t believe me! Well, just ask Chunkey if I haint killed ’em smartly over seven hundred pounds! Killin’ him sorter got my blood up, and I determined to have another. Chunkey had been jerkin’ it to the licker gourd mighty smart, and was jest right.” “‘Chunkey,’ says I, ‘let’s gin it to another!’ “‘Good as ——,’ says Chunkey. ‘Who cars for expenses? a hundred-dollar bill ain’t no more in my pocket nor a cord of wood!’