# A Gentleman From France

An Airedale Hero
A Gentleman from France
An Airedale Hero
By Clarence Hawkes Author of "Dapples of the Circus," "Pep, the Wilderness Dog," "Master Frisky," "Black Bruin," "The Trail to the Woods," "Piebald, King of Bronchos", etc.
Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman
Boston Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.
To every man, woman, and child in the whole world who loves a good dog, this book is fraternally dedicated::
Every reader of this book will be interested to know that Pierre was a real dog. As real as bone and muscle, and dog intelligence could make him.
His American friends described in these pages were the author and his wife.
Pierre came to us one Sunday morning while we were at breakfast just as described. We saw at once that he was a gentleman, in hard circumstances, and so took him in.
During the few months that he was with us he wriggled his way into the very depths of our hearts, although he worried us greatly as well. When we finally said good-bye to him, it was with tears in our eyes.
​His life story both before and after his visit with us I have had to conjecture, as several links in this history are missing.
For that reason I have not used the real name of Pierre's mistress.
About twelve years ago, one May morning, an actress's palatial private car rolled into the station at Northampton, Massachusetts, which is three miles from my home. The car stood on a siding in the meadow city for two days while the actress played an important engagement in the Northampton theatre, before a brilliant Smith College audience. The day after the car left, a notice appeared in one of the local papers advertising for one of the great lady's dogs, which it stated had run away while the actress had been in the city. So far as I know, there were no answers to the advertisement.
​Several months later a friend from Northampton who happened to be calling upon us exclaimed when she saw Pierre:
"Why, where in the world did you get Madame B.'s dog?"
"He isn't Madame's dog," I replied. "He's just a tramp, although a very distinguished one. He came to us last May and has had the best the house afforded ever since."
Then the friend told us of the actress's loss, while in the city, and of the advertisement. She also said that she had seen the dog on the rear platform of the car, and the maid combing him. She had likewise seen him half an hour later in a lively dog fight in another part of the city. When she called the attention of a policeman to the identity of the dog, he only laughed and refused to arrest the run​away, and that was why he was not recovered at the time.
Now the real name of the actress who played at Smith College on that occasion was Madame Sarah Bernhardt, but because some of the evidence establishing the fact that Pierre was her dog is missing, I have not used her name in the story. So with this incomplete pedigree of the Gentleman from France, I leave the reader to follow his fortunes to the happy end.
The Author.
Contents
Illustrations
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1954, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 69 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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