Our valiant city marshal would pounce upon each one of these long-snouted swine; then came the tug-of-war, amid clouds of dust; down went marshal and razor-back, the nose as long and sharp as a ploughshare cleaving the earth near the sidewalks lined with laughing people.  Our great Floridian always triumphed, and his pig-ship was incarcerated in the town “pound” until owner paid charges and penned his property outside city limits.

Once I saw a terrific contest between one of these long-legged, long-nosed porkers and the lone, pet alligator of our lake.  His pig-ship was enjoying a drink when Mr.  ’Gator seized him by the snout, the porcine braced and yelled; the ’gator let go in amazement; the pig turned to run; ’gator seized him by the leg, then Greek met Greek, teeth met teeth, till’ the saurian struck him with his mighty tail, and all was over; the alligator and the porker lay down in peace together with the pig inside the ’gator.

One day, one of our fishermen brought in a string of trout which far overshadowed the miraculous draught of fishes in the Sea of Galilee.  On being questioned as to how he did it, he said he got one bite and pulled for three hours.  The fish kept catching hold of each others’ tails in their eagerness to be caught, until he had landed four barrels of the toothsome fat trout.

Our champion brought from a few hours’ hunt, enough quail for the entire town; and when asked how he did it, he replied:  “Oh, I saw three thousand quail roosting on the limb of a tree.  I had only my rifle with one ball; I shot at the limb, cracked it, their legs fell through the crack which closed when the bullet went through, and chained them all hard and fast.  All I had to do was to cut off the limb with my jack-knife and bag the whole lot.”

One day this mighty Nimrod brought home three bears and four deer.  “How did you do it?” asked the envious multitude.  “I was asleep in my wigwam, was waked up by a rumpus outside, rushed out with my gun, and chased the crowd around the hut till I was dead beat, then I bent my rifle across my knee into the exact circumference shape of my house, and fired.  The bullet whistled by me for half an hour, chasing the varmints who were chasing each other; bum by, the bullet caught up, went through the whole crowd, and by gum; that ’ere bullet is chasing round that wigwam naouw.”

On another occasion, this same man brought in a lot of wild turkeys all ready for the table.  As usual we expressed our wonderment.  “Wall, by gum,” said he, “’twas the beatemest thing you ever heered on.  I was waked up by these critters squawkin’ over my haouse; I fired up chimbly, and daown tumbled the whole gang; the fire burnt off the feathers and roasted um up braown afore I could get at um.”

“But how about the stuffing?”

“Oh, that’s nothin’; they’d stuffed themselves afore I shot um.”