The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-07-29
PETS OF A BRIGHT BOY.
Ahetter from, Young Marquis Man
fred de LAMA.
Tragic Fate OF Squirrel That Fooled
with Firecrackers-A Hairless Dog
Full OF Fight-An Owl That
Could Whip Anything.
.[coPYRIGuT. 1921

'lCOPYRIGHT, 1921
am only twelve years of age, and do
not often write for publication. NJ
though have u scrapbook full of sto-
ries have written from time to time
ever since was u very little boy.
Now that have learned to use the
typewriter and help mamma with her
novels find it easier to write, and
gladly comply with your request to tell
the story of my pets, and am sure 1t will
interest your readers, because have
had so many pets, and they arc all diff
ferent from other peoples
The first pet ever owned was dog,
n beautiful Gordon setter. called her
,Lal, after grandpapas first novel. We
were great friends and used to romp in
the park together until one day Lal
chased q squirrel over ono of the flower
beds and the policeman on guard told
me never to bring dog in the park
again. But Lal caught the squirrel, and
when we tried to take it from her she
broke away and ran home, where
found her half On hour later licking
the poor little animal, which was more
dead than alive; but nursed it care
fully and by the end of week he was
quite well again and very friendly, with
"LaL" 1t was flying squirrel and
used to tease the poor dog to death, for
when "Lal" would chase him upstairs
md almost have her paws upon him he
would give spring over "Lal's" head
and sail downstairs, never landing un-
til he reached the bottom, and by the
time "Lal" had half tumbled down
stairs in her haste the squirrel was
quietly perched out of reach on top of
the hat rack.
did not have my squirrel very long,
however, for when the Fourth of July
came Dino, my big brother, and I
dubbed together and bought about
twenty dollars worth of fireworks. We
took them out into the yard and began
fixing things ready for the evening
"Lal" and the squirrel thought we had
come out to play and began running
about among the fireworks. We saw
the squirrel nibbling at something in
the pack ana stepped forward to drive
him away, but just then the cannon
crackers and fireworks began to go off
in every direction. For moment ''Lal-
stood ground and barl<ed at pack of
crackers, but when the rockets began to
whiz about the yard we sought shelter,
and rs soon as one of them struck "Lal''
she followed us with yelp. Poor
squirrel, we saw him make desperate
leap for safety, but just then magnif-
cent howerpot went off and up he went
in blaze of glory, and when all had
subsidized and we put out the grass that
had caught fire we found our little pet
huddled mp in corner, every hair
singed from his body and the flesh raw
and blistcrcd.
We wrapped him up in soft linen rags,
but he never recovered from his burns
and q few days later he died Poor
little fellow, he was the first to fill q
grave in our little graveyard near the
back fence.
missed my pet very much, so mamma
bought me Japanese rabbit, but did
not have time to get very fond of him;
he used to chew everything he could
find and one day he chewed up the
cooks new boots. Cook was very angry,
but the next day she left her old gloves
on the floor and the rabbit chewed them
up. think cook put something on the
gloves, for few hours later our rabbit
was dead, and when we dug his grave
near that of our first pet "Lar stood
by and rubbed her nose against my
cheek and whined and whined
We both felt the need of company, SO
when some one gave mamma beauti-
full white Angora cat we were very
happy at first, but the new member of.
our little household had very bad tenn