Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-11-07
WHOLE NO. 1880


their old home, eight miles away from
the village.
Diana kept herself very quiet and
poor Dick, except a word or two of re-
morse and SclGrcproach, was equally
silent. thought Of our oldest boy,
our Ion, expected home from school the
next day. after a ycai 5 absence of the
two little ones at home, and their father
and for time there came upon me a
horror Of great darkness,
The beast grew more restless He
whncd and snarIcd, and struck Savagely
at the rafters overhead but the great
beams held. Then it seemed suddenly
to occur to his mind that there might
be other ways of reaching Us, and he
rushed outdoors and began prowing
round and round the house, as we could
see through a crack or two between the
logs.
We knew that, unless help came soon
we were lost, and we drew closer togcth-
cr There we're a few worsd of whs-
pering PRAYER, and then Dick, pale and
determined, took his place by the win
dow.
I've heard he don't take but one
when he springs. Its my place, said
the boy
Diana clung to him, sobbing for the
first time, and he gently put her from
him,
The next instant the creature bounded
to the roof of the shed.
The crack in the shutter was darken-.
ed we heard him snutiing impatiently,
and then the shutter shook and trem-
bled.
Dick opened his clasp-knitc, pitc-
ously-insuhicicnt weapon against the
fearful claws that were even then render
ing and tearing at the fral boards
open the trap-door, he said. "Per
haps YOU can swing yourselves down and
get away
undid the fastening, but Diana
cung to her brother.
The shutter held out longer than we
could have hoped. but saw that the
creature would be upon us in another
moment.
To our surprise, he seemed suddenly
to pause in his attack. There was a
long, low hiss and whistle, a halfstran-
gled roar, a heavy fall, shout, and then
again the strange sound, in which old
experiences on the Plains enabled me to
recognize the whir of the thrown larat.
Not daring to believed that we were
saved, we looked through the cracks,
but the desperate struggle that we
could hear going on below was out of
our sight. Through the shouting and
the half choked roar of the tiger we
could hear the ugly dog barking and
growing furiously.I
In few minutes he came flying in
to the lower room, and, unable to
reach Inc, he yelped and danced in
frantic excitement
He was followed by tall, fair blue
eyed giant of man, who beholding a
lady above him, climbed up the wall
more like cat than man, and, reach
ing our place of refuge, remarked, rs
to society in general:
We'll, | swami" and then, finding
that expression of feeling inadequate,
"well, | do. r'Oa."
is the creature dead?" | asked.
"Well, no, ma'am,' said the show
man, for such he was she amt dead,
but he's safe enough. You see, he's
a valuable kind Of an animal and he
amt bad, as tigers 90" h concluded
in tone of apology.
Here poor Diana, with an hysteri
cal burst of tears and laughter, said
that he might not be bad, as tigers
went but that, as they stayed, she
thought him highly objectionably.
well, 'spose he is, miss" said
our new friend shut we never calcu-
late to have him lying around loose;
but he's a valuable animal, and I'm
kind of fond of the critter, and I'd
hate to kill him.
I'm sure | don't want the poor
thing killed, said Diana, nervousIy;
'but, oh, we want to 90 home !"
"Yes, certainly said the big man,
soothingly 81 guess the best way to
get out will be right down out of this
window on to the roof
In a few minutes we all stood safe
on the greensward, while the ugly dog
ran to and fro from one to the other,
and then, finally exhausted with his ex-
ertions, lay down and painted for breat
until the state of his wind impelled
him once more to dance and yelp.
The tiger, wound round and lolnd
with the tough folds of more than one
lasso, and with his feet chained, lay
helpless on the ground Two stout
fellows, armed with knives and pistols
stood over him; but Dick turned away
from the sight with shudder.
GLOW did you find him ?" he asked
Snowman.
"It was all that dog" said our
friend. Il declare, the way some
critters act does beat all natur. You
see, we lost the dog going on more'n
a week back. One of the men get
got mad at the dog when he was
drunk, and give him an awful whip
ping and | expected it hurt his feel
ings, and he run off AS for the tiger,
he got out early this morning; and
we didn't want to make none too much
fusss about it, and We just set out at-
ter him but expected half the coun-