Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-11-22

his mean little eyes watching lazlly-speak- |
ing to nobody, noticing nobody, sulking all
to himself. There he stayed until he caught |
a Whit of the fragrant, pungent odor OF
fried trout. Then he cooked one eye and |
lifted an ear. He must not carry things |
too far. Next heard single thump of
his sx-inch tail-George was beginning to
get pleased-he always was when there
were things to eat.
All this time Jonathan, tired out, sat in
his big splint chair at the supper table.
He had been thrashing the brook since day
light-over his knees sometimes. could
still see the high water mark on his patched
trousers. Another Whit of the frying-pan
and George got up. He dared not poke
his nose into Marthy's lap-there were too
many chunks of wood within easy reach
of herhand. So he sidled up to Jonathan,
rubbing his nose against his big knees,
whining hungrily, looking up into his face.
81 tell We, - said Jonathan, smiling at me,
patting the dog as he spoke, "this yere
George hez got more sense'n most men.
He knows what's become of them trout we
ketched. guess he's gittin' over the way
| treated him today. Ye see we wuz up
the East Branch when he run fox south.
Thinks /, the fox'll take a whirl back and
cross the big runway, and, sure enough, 1t
warnt long afore heared George a-comin'
back, yippin' along up through Hank 81
mons holler. So | whistled to him and
steered off up onto the maountain to take
look at BOg-eddy and try and git pickerel.
When | come daown agin | see George
warn't whar | left him, so | hollered and
whistled agin. Then thinks | you're mad
cause | left We and won't let on we kin
hear 50 | come along hum without him.
When | went back a while ago a-lookin
for him, would yer believe it, thar he wuz
a-layin' in the road, about forty rod this
side of Hank Simon's sugar naples, flat
onto his stummick an disgusted an put
out awful. 1t wuz about all | could do ter
Git him hum. | knowed the minute come
in fust time an see he warn't here tibet his
feein's wuz hurt cause | left him. pre-
saume mebbe | oughter holered agin afore
| got so fer off. Then thought, of course,
he knowed I'd gone to BOg-eddy. Beats
all what sense some dogs hez."
never knew Jonathan to lose patience
but once: that was when George tried to
burrow into the hole of pair of chipmunks
whom Jonathan loved. They lived in a
tree blanketed with moss and lying across
the wood road. George had tried to scrape
an acquaintance by crawling in unlimited,
nearly soaring the little fellows to death,
and Jonathan had flattened him into the
dry leaves with his big, paddle-like hands.
| That was before the bear-trap had nipped
his tail, but George never forgot it.
He was particularly polite to chipmunks
after that He would lie still by the hour
and hear Jonathan talk to them without
even a whine of discomfort. watched the
old man one morning up beneath the lodges
cropping on his hands and knees, filling hi:
pockets with nuts, and when he reached
the wood road, emptying them in pile
near the chipmunk's tree, George looking
on good naturally.
''Guess you leetle cunnin's better hurr!
up" he said while he poured out the nut:
on the ground, his knees sticking up as HI
sat, like some huge grasshopper's. Cues
We amt got more'n time ter fill yer cub
bud-winter's a-comin' Them leetl
birches on Bog eddy is turnin' yeller-that
the fust sign. Fore ye knows it snow'l
be flyn'. Then whar'll We be with every
thin froze tighter'n Sampson bound tn
; heather, you cunnin' leetle skitterin pups
Then l presume likely yell come druli
raound an want me an George should 60
, We suthin to git through tn winter o
! wont they GeorgeY
= beats all" he said to me that night
chow thoughtful some dogs is. Hadn'
e been fer George today, I'd clean forge
t them leetle folks. | see him scratchin
- raound in the leaves an | knowed rigf
4 away what he wuz thinkin' OF"
Often when was sketching in the dens
, forest, Jonathan would lie down besid
r me, the old flop of hat under his heat
his talk rambling on.
e 81 don't wonder we like to paint zen
Il Thar hain't nOthin' so human as tree
e Take tibet big hemlock right in front er ye
S Hain't he led pretty decent life? 5,
It how praoud an tall he's growed, with the
!. arms of his'n spraouting up raound hir
e | tell We them hemlocks is pretty decel
d people. Now take look at them tv
n white birches down by tibet big roc
re Amt it shame the way them fellers h,
lr been goin' on since they wuz leetle saplin:
Z maxim it so nothn' could grow 'roul
lie 'em,-wth their jackets all ragged a
5, tore like tramps an their toes all out
lie their shoes whar Their roots is stickin' Gle
ID OF the bark, amt they a-ketchin' it
ID their ole age? An then foller on daoy
d, whar tibet leelle bunch er silver naples
n, dancn' in the sunlight, so slender an GU
a. min, all aout in their summer dressC
is julluk bevy er young gals,-ain't tn
* human like? | tell we, trees is the huma
oy est things tibet is.
ly These talks with me made George re
IS less. He was never happy unless Jonath
OF had hinon his mind.
lie But it was cluster of daisies that fl
lifted the inner lid of Jonathan's he
tx for me. | was away up the Notch ov
n looking the valley, my easel and can'
a dashed to tree, the wind blew so, VIII
lis Jonathan came toiling up the slope,
1T precpice in fact, with a tin can strap
ell to his back, filled with hot corn and so
list doughnuts, and threw himself beside 1
he the sweat running down his weather-tanI
1t. neck.
er $50 long ez we know whar you're slit
en- at work it amt nat'ral to let we starve,
mt it?" throwing himself beside me,-Geo
in had started ahead of him and had b.
nd picked up and carried, as usual. WI
Use Jonathan sat upright, after a breath
yer spell, his eye fell on a tuft of limp, brui
yer daisies flattened TO the earth by the hee
It's his clumsy shoe. There were acres of {
for ers in sight.
p" Gosh hang!" he said, catching
lld breath suddenly, as if something had st'
him, and reaching down with his hoT
)ne bent fingers, 'ef tibet amt too ba
the Then to himself in tone barely audibl,
ma he had entirely forgotten my presence
ian "You never he'd no sense, Jonathan,
MP, how, stumblin' raound like er bull
big, tramplin' everything. Jes see "
ing we've gone an done with them big fee
red yourn," bending over the bruised plant
tenderly adjusting the leaves. "Them
tied sizes hez got jest ez good right ter liv,
ged you hev."