The night’s coon hunt had been more than a success. Jerry
Shields and his hunting partners loaded both their dogs and the
catch into their dusty pickup trucks.
The hunters drove up out of the woods to Simpson’s Crossroads, a tiny farming
community, where the riotously joyous hunters piled out of their vehicles at the door
of a small all-night diner. They tramped into the dim building happily bragging about
their dogs and the fantastic things that their hounds did, only pausing to order their
usual breakfasts.
“You can put them in a creek or in a sand flat and you can still bet that they will
have every coon in the county treed in a minute.” A hunter in a brown jacket poured
9
Grade
First Place
Luke Foyle is the
1st Place Winner
for Grade 9 in the
2015-16 Seton Short
Story Contest
28
