At length Dilsey called out, “Hyear he is!  Hyear de ’possum!” and they all came to a dead halt under a large oak-tree, which Dilsey and Chris, and even Diddie and Dumps, I regret to say, prepared to climb.  But the climbing consisted mostly in active and fruitless endeavors to make a start, for Dilsey was the only one of the party who got as much as three feet from the ground; but she actually did climb up until she reached the first limb, and then crawled along it until she got near enough to shake off the ’possum, which proved to be a big chunk of wood that had lodged up there from a falling branch, probably; and when Dilsey shook the limb it fell down right upon Riar’s upturned face, and made her nose bleed.

“Wat you doin’, you nigger you?” demanded Riar, angrily, as she wiped the blood from her face.  “I dar’ yer ter come down out’n dat tree, an’ I’ll beat de life out’n yer; I’ll larn yer who ter be shakin’ chunks on.”

“In vain did Dilsey apologize, and say she thought it was a “’possum;” Riar would listen to no excuse; and as soon as Dilsey reached the ground they had a rough-and-tumble fight, in which both parties got considerably worsted in the way of losing valuable hair, and of having their eyes filled with dirt and their clean dresses all muddied; but Tot was so much afraid Riar, her little nurse and maid, would get hurt that she screamed and cried, and refused to be comforted until the combatants suspended active hostilities, though they kept up quarrelling for some time, even after they had recommenced their search for ’possums.

“Dilsey don’t know how to tree no ’possums,” said Riar, contemptuously, after they had walked for some time, and anxiously looked up into every tree they passed.

“Yes I kin,” retorted Dilsey; “I kin tree ’em jes ez same ez er dog, ef’n dar’s any ’possums fur ter tree; but I can’t make ’possums, do; an’ ef dey ain’t no ’possums, den I can’t tree ’em, dat’s all.”

“Maybe they don’t come out on the Fourf uv July,” said Dumps.  “Maybe ’possums keeps it same as peoples.”

“Now, maybe dey duz,” said Dilsey, who was glad to have some excuse for her profitless ’possum-hunting; and the children, being fairly tired out, started back to the creek bank, when they came upon Uncle Snake-bit Bob, wandering through the woods, and looking intently on the ground.

“What are you looking for, Uncle Bob?” asked Diddie.

“Des er few buckeyes, honey,” answered the old man.

“What you goin’ ter do with ’em?” asked Dumps, as the little girls joined him in his search.

“Well, I don’t want ter die no drunkard, myse’f,” said Uncle Bob, whose besetting sin was love of whiskey.

“Does buckeyes keep folks from dying drunkards?” asked Dumps.

“Dat’s wat dey sez; an’ I ’lowed I’d lay me in er few, caze I’ve allers hyearn dat dem folks wat totes a buckeye in dey lef britches pocket, an’ den ernudder in de right-han’ coat pocket, dat dey ain’t gwine die no drunkards.”