The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-12-30
A WHITE RIVAL.
How a Bull Pup Came Near Spoil
ing q Romance.

never understand.
He was certainly big, and presume
bly, strong and muscular, but neither
in beauty nor in intelligence was he
anything out of the ordinary of ma
lures handiwork.
have heard her rave about his eyes;
they were the color of coffee-berries,
and moderately large, but their ex-
preston, to my mind, was eminently
sheepish. He was disgracefully selfish,
too, and was under the impression that
his acquaintance could do nothing
better than attend to his meals and ac-
company him in his walks He was also
abominably inquisitive and peculiarly
clumsy.
And in spite of all this, she loved him
the most beautiful girl in the world
loved him, and lavished caresses upon
him that any man with eyes in his
head would have given kingdom to
receive.
His accomplishments were few. He
pretended to catch rabbits, and was
reputed ''ratter" on the strength of
having once barked at rat in cage;
the servants had, with much difficulty,
taught him stupid trick of running
off with paper parcels in order to get
at the sweets or biscuits hidden inside;
and an infinite amount of shouting,
hallooing, and waving of arms would
occasionally induce him to jump over
walking stick held two inches above
the ground.
In short, he was q most ordinary
white bull terrier pup, with a pink
nose, surmounted by black spot like
blot of ink from pen.
Nevertheless, owe him a debt of
gratitude for being the cause of my
first introduction to Ella Darlington.
1t was on an August bank holiday
the one blazing hot day of damp and
dismal English summer. All the morn
ing had sought to avoid my kind, and
at length, by four o'clock in the after
noon, / had discovered q delightful
bracken-covered dell by the dry bed of
a brook in Richmond park, where, but
for the distant shouts of the gay and
h'less cyclist, nothing disturbed the
pastoral beauty of the scene.
Here stretched myself out, with my
arms under my head and my hat tilted
over my eyes, and fell to dreaming
and to wondering when, if ever, /,
bank clerk at two hundred q year,
should SO distinguish myself by the
literary efforts which wholly occupied
all my spare time as to be wholly indie
pendent of the bank, except as a place
of safety for my superfluous thousands
IT only could write brilliant novel
the novel of the season! But Ameri-
can authors had declared that the
stories of the world have all been told,
and the serial papers preferred ro-
mances written by young ladies as
being more sentimental and soothing,
and the libraries would have nothing
to do with the work Of an unknown
man, and
A feminine shrek broke in upon my
respondent musings, and the idea of a
lovely woman in distress brought me
70 my feet
She was lovely; of that there was no
possible doubt. Tall and slender, with
light brown hair and big appealing,
dark blue eyes, eyelashes curling up
wards and q red mouth dropping down
wards doiefully.
She was angry, flushed and fright
ened, as was a small, stumpy girl, evil
IDENTIFY her maid. who accompanied her.
She clasped her gloved hands implor-
lngly, and looked at me with tears in
her eyes.
my dog!" she painted. "My dog.
BULL Pray save him. Some Aries
are numbering himp
Then she ran through. the bracken
and ran after her to the spot where
i've little east-end roughs and vii ,
lainous mongrel with one ear bitten
through were wreaking vengeance
upon white bull terrier.
My six feet of authority, armed with
! stout stick, speedily dispersed the
logs assailants. They retreated in con-
fusion, employing language SO bad as
% be fortunately unintelligible to my
iamsel in distress, who was by this
time kneeling beside her precious dog,
lugging him effusively and trying to
wipe away the blood from an injured
eg.
The dog really had been a good deal
Knocked about although / have no
loubt he richly deserved it; he now,
ceiling himself an object of sympathet-
c interest, sat down and refused to
move any further.
knew something about dogs, and
peedily bound up his paw with my
'wn handkerchief and that Of his
mistress, which was simply marked
Ella"
Our faces were very close together
ver the dogs leg, and one of her tears
FLASHED on to the back of my hand.
lila blushed, laughed and apologized.
never saw lovelier blush or heard a
weeter laugh in my life.
Seeing that the beast was resolved
ot to walk, l carried him. He was a
tremendous weight, and fidgeted
But with Ella beside me.