The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-03-28
Curious ,Fidget.

who was always minding other peoples
business more than his own. 1t was
dreadful habit, this spending so much
time seeking for news and adventures,
and nOkin1 and nruine aa ',annh :~t- A.
affairs Of others.
His mother was good, staid. old
dog, who felt very badly about this
restless trait of her child's, and who
often talked very seriously, and warned
him that sad consequences would sure
ly follow such persistent spying and
meddling with other peoples con-
Germs. But you could not possibly tell
our little brown dog anything; and he
didn't mind, so he had to learn by sad
experience the penalty of having his
own way. He would run and race him
self almost to death in search of some
gossip or Investigation, poking his
nose into ash-bins, dust-heaps and
whatnot, in hopes of some stray thing to
find out If he heard slight noise at
the corner, away he would jump and
stand with his ears pricked up, one
eye turned up street, and one eye
turned down street, TO see if he could
tell exactly Uhere it was. What matter
was it if he couldn'tp Why, it worried
him almost to death, if he couldn't see
and hear everythiag!
When he was a little baby dog, he
was so pretty with his bright eyes, and
thick, brown hair that curled in rings,
that the children declared he must be
called Fido; and so he was for time.
but as he soon developed such miser-
able, disagreeable habit as the one l am
telling you about, he presently began
to be called Fidget-and often Old
Fidge! His nose grew long and sharp
on the end from constantly poking it
SO much into other peoples business,
and as he never had time to take care
of himself and form neat, tidy ways, his
pretty, soft, brown coat became mass
of frizzy, crinkly hair.
One day he was going home from one
of his long rambles, and he thought he
would not 60 home quite then, SO he sat
down to rest in lane by the roadside.
A short distance from him, lying on the
ground under tree, was an old colored
man fast asleep. Near him, on the
ground, was large, strong bag. Now,
as soon as he saw it. Fidget became
perfectly possessed to know what was
in the bag. So he got up and walked
around the bag. Then, as he saw that
there was no prospect of awakening the
old man, who, having walked miles
with his load, was very tired, he grew
bolder, and, with one eye on the sleep
| ing man, commenced to snuff and peer
around the bag; he put out his paw and
began to scratch and feel of it.
After prying around some little time,
he found, to his great delight, a small
hole on the under side Of the bag, at one
end, just large enough to admit his
long nose, but not large enough to take
| in his inq,lisitive eyes.
Delighted at this discovery, he pushed
in his nose and shifted with long,
searching breaths the hidden mystery.
He poked around there among the con-
tents, pushing hard to get his head in,
but of no avail. They were queer,
| oval things-some of them smooth and
moist, some were soft and damp at one
end. like q little brown bag that shrank
and wrinkled away from his tantalized
investigations; SO hepushed and scrarn-
bled all the harder. Oh, how good it
smelt! What were they? Dig and
push--he rooted all among them with
all his prying, inquisitive strength; he
must find out.
"Yap! yip, yap, yowr' Oh, of all
the screams that ever came from poor
dogs mouth! Something had taken
| hold of the end of his nose with snap!
And as before, he worked hard to get it
in. so now he worked harder yet to get