Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-11-17

! of no intelligence, and the other was
that of the Peck family, IN particular,
who maintained as stoutly that he was
of fine breed and Of remarkable sa-
gacity.
Billy Peck and Polly Peck told many
an odd tale in proof of this belief.
Billy said that whenever he went
swimming King Cole sat upon thc
bank of the creek lhe was none too
fond of the water HIMSELF and at the
end of half an hour. which was the
length of time Billy was allowed to
stav in the water, King Cole notified
him in sharp peremptory barks that
his time was up. If he paid no atten-
tion to this notice the dog would con
ouer his dislike of getting wet, and,
plunging into the creek, bring the de
linquent boy to land. Polly always
capped this story with n marvellous
tale of how once when she had been
trundling the baby carriage on the
slope by the creek and stopped to
watch the geese there, King Cole had
pushed stones behind the wheels OF
the perambulator to prevent its rolling
down the hill. But the general pub
lie said that it had never with its own
ewes seen any of these wonderful
things, and that Billy and Polly Peck
were given to romancing, and rees-
serted their belief that King Cole was
a mongrel pup of no intelligence. Pri-
vate Peck said that no argument short
of bullet would drive out an idea
after it had once got lodged in some
peoples minds, and that is perfectly
true.
Peck was an honest soldier, but he
was guilty of telling long yarns, in
which he Dragged too much ofhimself
and King Cole that they had come to
be called, appropriating one on his
much-used phrases, "Me an Me Dog. y
According to him a thing that could
not be done by this firm was not
worthy of accomplishment; and if
there was a difficult job on hand some
body was sure to say, iestingly: "We
had better send for Me an My Dog. "
When, therefore, the robbery oc-
Cured at the commissary department
upon the very night that Peck was on
guard there, Jokes were passed freely
at his expense, everybody sarcastically
inauiring where "Me an Ny Dog
could have been.
Peck felt very sore about it, for he
knew that the malicious intimated that
the deed could not have been done
without his knowledge, and that he no
doubt shared the booty with the thief
The thief was presumably one of the
men called Big Brownie distinguish
him from another man in the same
company by the name of Brown, who
was very small-for he had deserted
that same night. So far he had eluded
all pursuers, of whom poor Peck had
been the hottest Peck could not give
up the hope of finally capturing him,
and said 81 amt done with that
vilyun yet, only give me an my dog
a chance at him al you'll see. What
part the dog was to play was not
specified.
1t was the second morning after the
robbery, and Billy and Polly Peck
wandered for some distance outside
the fort, which was on our Mexican
frontier. 1t was a low-lying bushy
country. uninhabited except for few
Mexicans. whose poor hu.s were
scattered at wide intervals over the
chaparral as this bushy land is called.
The children we're now nearing one of
The jscals or huts, dilapidated affair,
probably deserted.
''Don't lets go any further, I'm
tired, said Polly. "The soldiers have
hunted all around here"
81 amt going home till I've looked
around that old jacal. You don't
know but what that's the very place
Rio Brown is hiding in.