The only thing in which he really seemed interested was the coon skin he was dressing to send to Boston.

Over that he worked by the hour, sometimes with earnest face, and sometimes he raised his head, and let out a whoop that almost frightened Mary.

At such times he was sure to go on and give her some new detail of the hunt for the fifty coons, that he had forgotten to tell her before.
He had been to the hotel, and learned the Thread Man's name and address, and found that he did not come regularly, and no one knew when to expect him; so when he had combed and brushed the fur to its finest point, and worked the skin until it was velvet soft, and bleached it until it was muslin white, he made it into a neat package and sent it with his compliments to the Boston man.

After he had waited for a week, he began going to town every day to the post office for the letter he expected, and coming home much worse for a visit to Casey's.

Since plowing time he had asked Dannie for money as he wanted it, telling him to keep an account, and he would pay him in the fall.