The River Rat, And a Catahoula Hog Dog — Richard Mason

Author Richard Mason has been described as Americas' "New Mark Twain". This is the final book in Richard Mason's seven book series recounting the tales and adventures of Richard the paperboy - a young boy growing up in a small town in South Arkansas in the 1940s. He gets up to all sorts of adventures and in this book it is no exception.
Extract:
Well, I'm Richard Mason, and I live on a little farm in South Arkansas about a mile from the little-bitty town of Norphlet. I'm the durn paperboy.
Shoot, being the paperboy, I know everybody in the danged town, and they sure as heck know me. If I miss one paper someone is gonna be by Doc's Newsstand telling him some God-awful lie about me not throwing him a paper when his stinking, sorry yard dog chewed it up.
Doc's one of my good friends, but that don't keep him from chewing me out if I'm late, or if I miss chunking a paper. Well, Doc is kinda grumpy, but if you was in a wheelchair, I'll bet you'd be grumpy, too.
Well, I live in a little, white house on the edge of that huge Flat Creek Swamp that goes for about a zillion miles across South Arkansas, and I live there with my momma and daddy. Daddy works at a refinery and Momma is a part-time switchboard operator in a department store in the big town of El Dorado.
I'm not kidding you, my daddy is something else. Heck, he's great during the week and we get along real good, but on weekends he's always slicked up, with his sandy red hair combed back, wearing a starched and ironed pair of khakis along with a matching shirt and a brown felt hat.