The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-05-02
aa e si.iGE I TF@9 FRiEsiSSss.

""S the IOurtn time Picnic q passed
tnat way since morning-twice going to
cpd twice coming from school. Lunch
time she had brought a small bit of
Dread and q mouthful Of meat from home
liner folks were poor and could not spare
inore), and c~oaxing him, with ont
stretched hand and kind words, to come
down the long flight of steps to where
she stood on the sidewalk, she had fed
them to him, but he had swallowed
them In great haste, and, with a CRATE
Iul wave of his curly tail and a thankful
look IN his brown eyes, had hurried
back again. 1t was q dreary ~piace-the
building to which these steps belonged,
so dreary that it seemed strange
That ever a dog would choose
to linger there. A great.
grey building, dark and funereal in
every stone of its Egyptian architecture;
with massive doors and iron barred
windows, it cast a gloom all about it,
and one looking up at its strong walls
could not but think. with q heart ache
OF the many poor wretches who had
been and still were imprisoned within
them. Picnic lived about a block away
IN a little, old, tumble-down wooden
house, In a dirty, crowded street. Her
father was a loagshoreman, and worked
hard, early and late, to earn enough to
support his family in the humblest way,
and her mother, a cheerful, kind heart
eel woman, had as much as she could do
to look after her five children, all girls,
of whom Picnic, IL years old was the
eldest.
Well, Phenie's to and from school led
past the Tombs, that dreadful place
where criminals are kept in cells so
that they may do no harm to their fell
low-creatures and one morning-it was
q morning in early September-as she
passed it she saw, as / have already told
You, a little dog sitting at the top of the
long broad steps. He was not a pretty
dog, not at all a pretty dog. In fact he
was rather an ugly dog. He was COW
cred with shagg.s, yellowish-brown hair,
half of once Of his ears had been torn off,
very likely in a street fight, and he ha
the most comical S-shaped tail that ever
curled over a dogs back. Picnic glanced
az I'LL hlilulN 10 6uO NGub w 1OI Sic
was very fond Of animals, but did not
give him another thought until when,
on her way to lunch, she spied him still
sitting in the same place. Then, think
ing he might be hungry, she won his
'dog-heart by bringing him, on her way
back something to eat. School out, he
was there yet. And there he remained
for four days, receiving gratefully each
noon what the child could spare from
her own not too plentiful meal. And
Saturday coming, her morning work
over, she could not rest until she had
run to the foot of the steps and looked
up to see if he was still there. Yes,
there he was, waving his flag at sight
of her.
IL wonder who he belongs TEL won
der why he don't go away" she said to
herself as she had said many times be-
fore. 81 wish / could find out" And
seeing a policeman whom she had long
known bysight stopping to pat the dog
as he came down the steps she took cour-
q and asked him when he had reached
her side, do you know that little dog?R
1T made his acquaintance a few days
ago answered the policeman.
will You please, if you've got time,
tell me why he stays here?"
His matters inside, SAID the ponce
man who was a jolly, good-natured fell
low, and looked as though he'd rather
be beaten himself than beat anybody else
with the heavy club he carried.
"His master, z repeated Picnic.
ayes, his master, RoIly Brick, aboy a
little bigger than you. He stole a ban
n off 8 fruit-woman's stand and they
chased him, the poor young scamp, as
If he'd stole a diamond. And that dog
MP there run with him, both of 'em 60
ING as hard as they could pelt. And
when he was caught that dog tried to
fight for him. But il wasn't a use
the fruit-woman was determined TO send
him up, said twasnt the first thing, by
a iupful, he'd stole from her. And so
they took him in, aud that dogs set
there ever since. 'Spect they'll kick
him into the street soon's Rolly's sent
away M
.sOhl will he be sent away?' said
Picnic. when ~
SIN an hour or two I reckon"
'sBut suppose the banana woman
don't come to make complaint against
him?D
Don't half think she will. said the
policeman. "She's over her mad by
this time. But hell go all the same,
cause he's a vagrant."
"Ayagrant? I"
Eyes, a yagrant amt got any friends
or any home"
Back went Picnic to the little old,
tumble-down wooden house to hayea
long earnest talk with her mother, and
to make herself as neat as possible, and
before an hour had passed she made
one Of a throng that filed the court
room where q number Of law breakers