The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-09-05
'sMRS. HUBBELL'S LIVE STOCK. -

u
ever heard of; and if l can tell it Just
rs it happened, you'll think twas funny
too. Mrs. Hubbell-you will be glad
to KNOWS very sweet little woman,
who has deep and abiding affection
for pets of all kinds. Everything from
a baby to chicken, horse to y hop
toad, is of consequence to her, and as
you may imagine pets are always very
fond of her. Let me tell you what she
has. First mare, STAR" beauti-
full little animal, who makes her mile
in 200, never breaking. Once in u
while she takes it into her pretty head
to dance round a piece of paper in the
street or prick up her ears at the sound
of the cars; but never when there's any
serious business on hand, such as =
race, or desire on the part of her mis-
tress to reach place ut a given time.
U, no! Then she's as steady as = mare
twice her age. Then there is a hunting
dog called Erie" named after rail-
road stock; a black-and tan called
Baby" three canary birds, "Tom,"
-" Jerry" and "Zip;" two cats, Julius
Cesar and Hamlet" the first as
black as the blacklist thing you can
think of; and two hens and rooster,
'Pcarlic,' daisy and king"
These hens know their names as well
as children, and when their mistress
calls s. Pcarlie." Daisy would never
think of such a thing as coming, but
will wait her turn even tho she may be
very hungry. The way these hens
were trained to be SO well-behaved was
very simple. Mrs. Hubbcll began with
them when they were very young
chickens, gave them their names, and
with little stick would drive away the
one who came without having her name
called. king declined to be trained,
and on several occasions annoyed his
mistress very much by following her.
One morning as she was selecting some
meat at the butchers, she noticed that
some ladies were particularly amused
at something on the floor, and as she
turned to see what the matter was, 10,
and behold! there was king as
large as life standing close beside her.
Pets are sometimes great deal of
trouble, and there were days l think
when Mrs. Hubbcll would have dis
posed of them all at very low figure,
but would doubtless have bought them
back soon after ut three times their
value, rather than give them up en-
tirely.
One Saturday, II short time ago, the
little lady thought she would give her
birds an airing; SO she hung the three
cages out of the window, and the little
creatures seemed to enjoy it very much.
This was the first time they had been out
of doors since the cold weather set in.
Whether she was careless or not in
hanging up the cage containing Zip"
she doesn't know; but anyway the cage
tumbled from the window of the second
story, and "down went cradle and
baby, and all as Mother Goose
says. "Erie," Julius Cesar and
Hamlet were all playing in the yard;
and of course the cats were determined
to have the bird. Some people say
that they have seen cats who have been
trained to be kind to birds and perhaps
this can be done; but my experience is
that the cat instinct can never be wholly
eradicated. Nature made them to lay
in wait for these helpless little Great
ures, cruel as it may seem; but Nature
also gave the brides wings that they
might keep out of the reach of the
monsters, for such surely they must
appear to them. Well, the cage tum-
bled from the hook, and the jar caused
by the falling opened the door, and
Zip" rolled over onto the grass
stunned and helpless. Mrs. Hubbell
flew down stairs three steps at time,
but before she could reach the scene of
action Hamlet had pOunced upon the
bird and was running away as fast as
his fleet feet would carry him.
"Go for him, Erier' cried the little
lady in terrible fright. At that the
dog-who for some strange reason had
seemed only q quiet spectator, sprang
upon Hamlet and then Mrs. Hub
hell thinking poor Zip" would be
torn TO pieces in the melee, went
into the house again, carrying the
dilapidated cage, and sat down and
cried as if her heart would break.
You see Zip had only that morning
been flying round her room, and sat on
her shoulder and eaten out of her
mouth, and never in all his little life
had he been half 50 cunning. Perhaps
the lady had been in her room two min
utes when "Erie'' bounded upstairs,
and rushed to his mistress; then very
deliberately placing his great paws in
her lap, dropped from his mouth the
unfortunate Zip" OF course Mrs.
Hubbell thought the bird was quite
dead, for he did not stir. only lay in her
lap little wiltcd ball of yellow fcath-
crs. Erie acted SO very strangely
that his mistress didn't know what to
make of it, barking, growing and wag-
cling his tail in the queerest manner;
then he would stand very still and look
in her lap, and end by turning over the
poor little heap with his great paw.
"'Erie' evidently thinks that our
poor Zip isn't dead" said the lady;
and then she lifted the bird and blew in
his mouth. Sure enough, Zip trem-
bled q little, then shook his feathers,
and finally stood up and looked
about him. There was one happy
woman at that time; and ZIP"
and " Erie'' were treated like lords all
that day. 1 have read and heard .
great many stories about dogs, but I
Al