The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-08-18

looking up until she was told: YES.
Irixy caught il. Nice Trixy" After she
had made the round. she ran of and
Durieu her trophy, watching the spot
az night. Then she dug il UP and ran
and laid it before him.. When he had
gwen her need of praise she tossed
the mouse away. and looked over at
MAJOR, as though saying, Take IL and
"eicome- don't care for 1t any more"
TALENTED BIRD DOG.
A gentleman living some twelve miles
out of Memphis, Tenn, owned a bird
dog whose intelligence was a neighbor-
hood marvel This was some fifty years
back. but even then there were such
things as yellow fever epidemics. A pc
culiarly virulent one was raging in the
town, and the gentleman found him
self under the strenuous necessity Of
communicating with his son John, who
was commission merchant there. His
Iamlly, white ard black, numbered more
than a hundred, and naturally he did
not wish TO risk bringing the fatal fe-
Yer on TO the plantation. Therefore he
determined TO test Birdo as a messen-
ger. He wrote a letter, fastened II Sc
cureiy 10 the dogs collar, took hiy.i to
the Plantations outer verge, and sid: a
"Birdo, go and give John this letter.
Understand me, John! Nobody else.
Then come home, but not until lou have
seen him."
Birdo trotted off. II was a little after
sunrise when he started. At shutdown
he was back with a letter from John
saying that the deg had gone first TO his
house and founo him absent, then had
trotted TO the store and sat, growing
whenever his partner tried to take the
letter, until John himself came in. To
him he darted, barking and capering,
and though he sat quiet throughout the
writing of return letter, it was no
sooner fast to his collar than he ran
to the door. whining to he off,.
In the flush days of steamboating be-
FORE the war, the captain of a Mississippi
pi river boat he'd dog that could dis
tinguish between the passengers il
once he had heard their names. The mat
ter was mentioned one night in the
saloon and passenger sneered at the
idea.
bet you $500 the dog can't do 1T once
In three times he said.
Done. "srejoined the captain. write a
note to your wife and 1 will write one to
mine. Both are in the ladies' cabin. We
Will give the notes to Snip at the same
time, and If he fails to deliver them
properly the money is yours
The passenger wrote merely his wife's
pet name inside a slip of paper, which
he folded and addressed. The captains
missive ran:
Dear Wife-Send me word at once
what Snip does when he comes into the
cabin"
Then he delivered both slips to the
dog, saying as he handed over the pas
senger's note:
Snip. this IL for Mrs. NJ, who sat
beside me at supper. Give it to her,
then take this other note to your Miss
Catherine"
Snip ran away. The men sat smok-
ing and chatting. Very shortly wait
er brought a scrap of paper to the pas
senger, His wife had written: What
does 1t mean, your sending me a note
by this little dog?" At almost the same
minute the captains wife wrote: "Snip
came in and ran about shifting at all of
us, then jumped in Mrs. Ms lap,
dropped a bit of paper there, and came
on to me with the other one" The pas
senger owned himself beaten and offered
$1,000 for Snip, saying luck could not
go against him if he owned wise a
beast. But the captain would not part
with Snip. who lived and died a river
dog.
A WISE MULE.
So much for the dogs. They by no
means monopolize the reasoning faculty
in what are styled the lower animals
Many men are not so wise AS some very
wise mules. Jet was one of them, a big
black fellow, standing nearly sixteen
hands, and so tough and supple that he
might have been made Of whalebone
and India rubber. At work he was a
jewel of the first water. A playful
spell made him a torment. He could
open gates and draw bars as though his
feet were hands, and the fences were
not built that he could not jump If the
humor took him. Consequently most
of his summer leisure was passed in a
stall, though the rest of the work stock
ranged and rollicked over acres knee
deep in luscious clover. Jet, If turned
to grass, would crop it ravenously, but
move swiftly as he cropped toward the
outer fence, where it was nearest a
neighboring plantation for which he
had developed an inordinate fondness.
He was over the fence and galloping to
the neighbours always inside half an
hour after he was out of the stable.
The neighbor usually stabbed him or
sent him home outright, but that made
no difference. Jet ran there all the
same. One day his owner, vexed be-
breaks, begged the neighbor to set the
mule hard at work the next time he
broke in. The neighbor agreed and put
Jet to the following pillow, beside two
of his own beasts. A half day they
strained and 'tugged through matted
clover and weedy tangle. When Jet
came for the noon feed he was turned
loose to wallow, but in place of that he
leaped the fence, set his head on one
side and his tail up and went whinnying
nome at gallop. What is more to the
point, he stayed there faithfully, evil
IDENTIFY. reasoning that ii was better to
take pleasure in leisure than to go visit
ing and be set at wearying work.
Big Pete, another mule, knew the
meaning of the dinner horn, and always
answered it with a loud, joyous bray.
After he had heard 1T he would pillow
a furrow toward the house, but refuse
utterly to draw if he were headed away
from it. Beck and Lady, a team of mare
mules, grew so accustomed to the drill
in the course Of many wheat seedlings
that it was almost impossible for an
awkward driver to make them skip
ground They understood that to do
good work the outer spout must run in
the track made by the wheel in the pre-
vious round, and there they held it
unless there was a mighty tug upon
their mouths. Similarly in harvest time
they would turn and half back at the
corners before the driver had time to
speak.l@Dhey had learned what was
needed. and did il OF their own motion.
A chicken story may fifty close this
record. 1t has to do with fiirty hen