This is a simple story and easy enough to tell.<\/p>\n
An old man named Hyder Simpson and his hound-dog Rip are going on a nighttime coon hunt.\u00a0 His wife Rachel warns him that she\u2019s had premonitions and that he shouldn\u2019t go but he tells her not to fret and heads out after supper.<\/p>\n
During the night, Rip trees a coon but the varmint escapes into the creek and even with Hyder warning the dog off, Rip jumps in the creek where he is dragged under by the raccoon.\u00a0 Hyder jumps in to save Rip but neither of them resurfaces even after we see the coon swim away and escape.<\/p>\n
The next morning, we see Simpson and Rip sleeping on the bank of the creek.\u00a0 Hyder doesn\u2019t remember much of the night but tells Rip they\u2019re both going to catch hell from Rachel.\u00a0 While heading home they reach two of his neighbors burying a box on Simpson\u2019s property.\u00a0 He questions them about it and even threatens them with his rifle but they seemingly ignore him and talk about the dog they are burying and how he will be missed.\u00a0 Hearing that they are burying a beloved dog he assumes they are overwhelmed with grief and unable to speak to him so he moves on toward home.<\/p>\n
When he gets back to his cabin, he finds Rachel in her mourning dress and the local parson trying to comfort her over Hyder\u2019s death.\u00a0 Simpson can\u2019t make them hear him and soon we see the pallbearers removing his coffin from the bedroom and heading out toward the church yard.\u00a0 Hyder follows behind them to find out what is going on.\u00a0 But suddenly he finds himself and Rip separated from the funeral procession by a wooden fence that he\u2019s never seen before.\u00a0 He follows the fence to find a way around it to the churchyard.\u00a0 After following it for a long while he reaches a gateway in the fence with a guard building.\u00a0 He calls out and an attendant approaches and starts asking Hyder some questions.\u00a0 Hyder answers them casually but when the man asks Hyder how he died, they get into a dispute.\u00a0 Simpson tells him that he\u2019s certainly not dead and the man tells him that if he weren\u2019t dead, he couldn\u2019t be where he is now and that this was the gateway to the Elysian Fields.\u00a0 Hyder asks him why he can\u2019t hear the singing and the harp music and the man says that he\u2019ll hear it once he crosses the gateway.\u00a0 Looking in Hyder can see some smoke coming around a curve in the road.\u00a0 The gatekeeper invites him to come in but when Hyder tries to get a reluctant Rip to enter with him the gatekeeper tells him that dogs are not allowed.<\/p>\n
Hyder protests and says he won\u2019t go anywhere where Rip isn\u2019t welcome and he questions how they can have coon hunts in heaven without dogs.\u00a0 The gatekeeper says there aren\u2019t any coon hunts in heaven.\u00a0 This settles things and Hyder says that he\u2019s not going in and will continue down the road.\u00a0 The gatekeeper tells him that there is nothing down the infinite road to nowhere.\u00a0 But Hyder moves on.<\/p>\n
A way down the road Hyder sits down with Rip and talks about his confusion at their predicament.\u00a0 Coming down the road from the direction they were heading is a young man dressed as a country cousin to Mr. Simpson.\u00a0 He asks for Simpson and Rip by name and explains that he is an angel sent to find him and bring him to the gates of heaven.\u00a0 When Hyder tells him about his recent experience at the gate the angel tells him that wasn\u2019t heaven it was hell.\u00a0 And the reason that they don\u2019t allow dogs is because dogs can smell the brimstone and refuse to enter.\u00a0 \u201cHe tells Hyder, \u201cA man will walk into Hell with his eyes open but even the Devil can\u2019t fool a dog.\u201d\u00a0 Heading now to Heaven he asks the angel if they have coon hunts and is told that there will be one that night right after the square dance.\u00a0 When Hyder says he wishes Rachel could attend the angel tells him not to worry, that she would be there soon and that she wouldn\u2019t have any trouble avoiding Hell.<\/p>\n
Hyder is played by Arthur Hunnicutt, an Arkansan who made a career in Hollywood playing hillbillies.\u00a0 This is a sentimental fantasy that plays on the heartstrings of anyone who ever had a favorite dog, especially a hound.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the goofy ones but I\u2019m a sucker for dog stories.\u00a0 B+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a simple story and easy enough to tell. An old man named Hyder Simpson and his hound-dog Rip are going on a nighttime<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240,1661],"tags":[38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,1858,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-6833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","category-twilight-zone","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rod-serling","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-the-hunt","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n