Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-07-18

upon me horror Of great darkness.
The beast grew more restless. He whineC
and snarled, and struck sayagely at the
rafters overhead but the great beams held
Then 1t seemed suddenly TO occur to hi,
mind that there might be other ways Of
reaching us, and he rrs'led outdoors and
began prowling round "a round the house
as we could see throug, crack or two be-
tween the logs.
We knew that, unless help came soon. we
were lost, and we drew closer together.
There We're few words of whispered pray
er, and then Dick, pale and determined, took
his place near the window
I've heard he don't take bat 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 darkened we heard him snuifing i'm
patiently, and then the shutter shook and
trembled. Dick opened his clasp-knife. a
piteously insufficient weapon against the
fearful claws that were then rending and
tearing at the frail boards
open the trap-door, - he said. - Per-
haps we can swing ourselves down and get
away
nndid the fastening, but Diana clung to
her brother. The shutter held out longer
than we could have hoped, for | saw the
creature would be upon Us in another mo-
ment. To our surprise, he seemed suddenly
to pause in his attack. There was a long,
low hiss and whistle, halfstrangled roar,
heavy fall, shout, aud then again the
strange sound, in which old experiences on
the plains enabled me to recognize the whir
of the thrown lariat
Not daring to believe that we were saved.
we looked through the cracks, but the des-
perate struggle which we could hear going
on below was out of sight Through the
shouting and the half-choked roar Of the
tiger We could hear the ugly dog barking and
growing furiously. In few minutes he
came flying into the lower room, and unable
to reach me, he yelped and danced in frantic
excitement.
lie was followed by tall, fair, bue-eyed
giant of a man, who, beholding lady above
him, climbed up the wall more like Il cat
than man, and, reaching our place of re-
tuge, remarked as to society in general
" Well, swan" and then. finding that
expression Of feeling inadequate, - well.
do yum -
- Is the creature dead?'' | asked.
" W ell, no ma am. said the Snowman.
for such he was - he amt dead. but he's
safe enough. You see, he's a valuable kind
OF an animal and he amt bad, a. tigers
| 90, he concluded in tone of apology.
Here poor Diana. with an hystercal burst
of tears and laughter, said that be might
not be as bad. as tigers went; but that Us
they stayed. She thought him highly ohjec-
| tionable.
- Well, | 'spo>e he is, miss said our
new friend - but we never calculate to
have him lying around loose but he's
a valuable ANIMAL and I'm kind of fond of
the critter, and Ia hate to kill him."
- I'm sure don't want the poor thing
killed, said Diana nervously = but, Oh,
we want to 90 home.'
. Yes, certainly said the big man sooth-
ingly. - guess the best way to get out
viii be right down out of this window on to
/ thereof"
In few minutes we all stood safe on the
green sward, while the ugly dog ran To and
fro from one to the other, and then. finally
exhausted with his exeftions. Law down and
painted for breath until the state Of his mind
impelled him once more to dance and yelp.
The tiger, wound round and round 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 a
| shudder.
" How did You find him?" he asked the
! Snowman.
- 1t was all that dog, said our friend.
=" declare, the way some critters act does
| beat all natur. You see we lost the dog
| going on mOre'n n week back. One of the
men got mad at the dog when he was drunk,
and give him an awful whipping-and / ex-
| pect 1t hurt his feelings, and he run off. As
for the tiger, he got out early this morning
and we didn't want to make none too much
fuss about it, and we Just set ont after him
but expect hall the country's out looking
now. Me and Jim and these two we took
the lariats-l learned how 10 use the thing
out on the plains. 1t CONES kind Of handy
to know most things generally. We'd meant
10 exhibit this afternoon, and. after we'd
hunted the critter pretty much all the morn
ing, we went back to the tent over in
Gaioosa To see if any one else had heard Of
him, and we hadn't more'n got there when
in bounces this dog. He hadn't got no
name, only the ugly dog; and he comes
up to me and begins to beg and whine, and
then he catches hold Of me and tries to drag
me along with him, and felt sure something
was 10 pay. So, having the tiger on my
mind, naturally thought of him first and.
as long as | didn't know where to look for
him, was just as like To find him by follow
ng the dog rs any other way 80 We set out.
and You never saw 4 critter so tickled as
that dog was. He led US along through the
swamp, and by-and-by | was sure heard
the beast. So we kind of stole a march on
him, and when he jumped on the roof we'd
got quite comfortably close to him and he
was 50 busy clawing the shutter he never
suspected nothing and threw the lariat.
and it took him Just as slick as n whistle
L IN awful glad of it, because I'd have hated
to shoot him only for acting according to his
nature. 'Iain't as if he was a Christian,
you know, concluded the Snowman .excusing
his pct.
. But how could the dog know he would
find you in Galoosa?''
- Well, critters know more things than
folks think they do. Maybe he remembered
we were there last year, or likely enough,
some of the other dogs told him. -
- hope you'll let me keep him, said ,
as the ugly dog pressed close to my side
- Oh, my, yes'ml | amt the kind of n
man to take dog away from lady," said
the gallant Snowman. I've sent one Of
the boys to Galoosa for the tigers cage and
my buggy, and I'll see you home I'm
awful sorry the beast has put You and the
young lady to so much inconvenience but
he amt bad fellow. now, really
We reached home before any rumor of
the runaway colts had come to Maysvile :;
but we found the village in great excitement
about the tiger, and the captain, in rather
an anxious state of mind, preparing to 90
out and meet us. lie looked rather grim
when he heard of our adventure, and receiv-
ed poor Dicks penitent confession ; but had
the discretion to do nothing more than to
express the hope that it would - be lesson
to him, and, indeed, think it was.
As for g the ugly dog" he was the hero
of the family. So long as he lived, his was
the warm place on the rug in winter, the
shady piazza in summer, and any quantity
of affection and caresses. He lived to ex-
treme old age, land, in spite of growing in
trinity. preserved mis- loving and amiable
temper to the end. His last act was to drag
himself to my feet, and he died with his
head on my arm, fee5ly trying to lick my
hand. There were some tears shed over his
grave, and we did not think necessary to en-
ter into an argument against the firm belief
entertained by our children that 90 the ugly
dog had gone to heaven. .'-APpleton's Jour
nal
RuBINsTEN.-Studying never more than
three hours day, young Anton appeared
publicly at 10 years of age. 81 played, but
never practised after was 49," confesse,
the nianist whom Robert BROWNING n fns