The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-06-21
BELLEVUE, La, THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1888.

when his strength was ebbing. the
parting message of his uncle and new
idea gave him fresh courage. "rll tell
you. Let's all scream together and
let the dog see we can beat him in
noise"
Little Amy stopped her sobbing aud
wriggling and begon with will
'Hurrah" screamed Rob, stoutly fol-
lowed by second shrill "Hurrah"
from Amy, whose naturally buoyant
spirits rose at an invitation to make a
noise. and a desolate Papa! Papa!"
from Bessie.
Just then rickety buggy drawn by
an Old white horse came jogging down
the road from the village. A lank,
bent man i'll his shirt sleeves and straw
hat was driving. At the bridge his
ears caught the children's voices and
his quick, keen eyes took in the situa.
ton. Great Scott!' he exclaimed.
Calling the old horse to sudden halt.
he jumped from the buggy, bringing
with him a gun, which he loaded
quickly. The furious brute soon saw
the man and bounded at him with red,
angry eyes. A quick pointing of the
gun. a sharp crack, and with yell the
dog rolled over on his side and never
moved again. He had been hit be-
| tween the eyes.
Come on, youngsters. 1 guess he
won't do much biting now!' said the
man. as he ran up to the children.
who be you, anyway" he asked. as
Rob helped the little girls up the bank.
But Rob was suddenly speechless
and fell to the ground. The man car
ried him to his buggy; the girls followed
after Learning from them where they
lived, old Whitley was soon jogging at
faster pace into the village again.
and Rob was in his mothers arms.
Then he smiled and said: mamma, it
was pretty hard work but did hold on
to them"
Sister Grace and Bridget put the
girls into dry clothes and mamma made
them drink some peppermint tea. 80 as
not to get cold," she said and they
were soon as merry as ever. Poor
Rob felt little weak and was glad to
lie on the lounge and let his mother
pet and care for him.
''Rob kept hold of us just as tight
and told us not TO be afraidr' exclaimed
Bessie.
"And I'm going to write papa just
how good you take care of US" added
Amy.
"Well. Rob, my boy. can't you find
your tongue and tell us how you hap
pened to think to go into the water?"
said Mr. Gray, who had joined the
group.
You see, papa" answered Rob. II
was over to Fred Warren's the other
night to see his new rabbits, and then
we sat on the steps and talked about
our new postage stamps. He'd got
some foreign ones. Mr.. Warren was
reading the paper out loud to Fred's
mother. all about a girls being bit by
n mad dog. and heard him say that q
mad dog wouldn't touch water. And
when saw the dog so near US and we
couldn't get home, | thought of that
knew about the sand bar. you know,
and so went right in
No one could help smiling over Rob's
characteristic explanation. though all
hearts were full of thankfulness for his
quick-witted and courageous behavior.
His uncle and aunt, who came back
for their children in due time, made
quite q hero of him. But Rob cared
most for new velocipede with "a reg
ular bicycle seat on springs, boys"
on which he raced all the fall and forgot
all about mad dogs in his delight over
the wonderful ''time" he could make
-Agnes B. Ornasbee, in Ladies' Zone
Journal