It was every fellow for himself, we were in such a hurry to get to the coon.

Lloyd kept far in the lead, ahead of everybody, and Joyce walked straight up a steep bank as if she had been a fly.

When we got to the tree where the dogs were howling and baying we had to look a long time before we could see the coon.

Then all we could distinguish was the shine of its eyeballs, for it crouched so flat against the limb that it seemed a part of the bark.

It was away out on the tip-end of one of the highest branches.
"The only way to get it was to shake it down, and to our surprise, before we knew who had volunteered, we saw Doctor Bradford, in his immaculate white flannels, throw off his coat and go shinning up the tree like an acrobat in a circus.