The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-02-23
CHAPTER VI.

AS Was saying 1taInDleF went on,
"the scent was as plain as the nose on
your face, and, although ! passed it
over, one Of the other dogs had a hint
of it and whimpered over it. This dog
afterward made a very good track dog.
He had what they called cold nose.
and he was hard-headed enough to
hang on. But at that time he was
young and foolish, and new to the bust
ness. He had no mind of his own.
So / went back to the trail, picked up
the scent, and went along with it slow
ly, as if it we're tedious job to unrayel
"What I wanted to do was to follow
it until it crossed some other trail, and
then pick up the new one and carry Old
Grizzly away from the Son of Ben Ali.
But it was impossible. No one had
passed, and SO we ran on after the Son
of Ben Ali.
''The next best thing to finding some
other track, / thought, was to get out
of sight Of Old Grizzly. ! let myself
out a little, the other dogs did the
same, and in a few moment we had left
Old Grizzly behind. Right then / did
something ] had never done before,
and that was to try to catch rabbit
when / was hunting a different kind
of game. While we were going along,
full tilt, big fat rabbit jumped up
right under my nose. ! dashed after it
as hard as / could 60, and the other
dogs came tumbling after. I was so
close to the rabbit that it turned be-
fore going into the swamp. ! made it
again, and it ran into the mouth Of
-
ran up, and they had quite fight over
the rabbit, tearing it to pieces in short
order. | was hungry myself, and
nothing would have pleased me better
than to rush in and take the rabbit
away from my companions. / didn't
have time.
while the others were swapping and
snarling | slipped into the swamp, ran
across it, and made a circle of a mile
or more, and tried to pick up the scent
aeain where | thought it ought to be.
But it was not there. / knew then
that the Son of Ben Ali had wandered
about, not knowing or caring where he
went so long as he kept out of the way
of Old Grizzly. l made another circle,
and this time I picked up the scent
AGAIN. / had said to myself when /
was hunting for it that / would remain
silent when ] found it, but came upon
it so suddenly and unexpectedly, and it
was so warm and fresh that / cried out
ut the top Of my voice. 1t was foolish,
but such is habit. My companions
heard it, and they came to me without
delay. ] knew they were coming, and
the best / could do was to discover
which way the scent led, and then take
the back track, trusting to the dullness
Of my companions to mislead them.
By the time they came up / was trip
ping along toward the cold end of the
trail as noisily as if the Son of Ben Ali
were i'm plain view. The others, not to
be outdone, joined in the cry and we
went boiling along the back track In
this way we came up with Old Grizzl
who seemed to be much astonIsneu ~
see us running headlong in the way he
had just come.
'The scent grew fainter and fainter,
and everything would have gone well
but for one of my companions, the one
that discovered the scent at the be-
ginning Of the hunt. When the scent
grew colder he began to circle around
for himself. and about a half a mile
away he picked it up with such howl
and flourish that ! ran to him. It was
so warm that / looked up, expecting to
see the Son of Ben Ali trotting along
d quarter Of a mile away. But it was
not so. He was not in sight.
i joined in and took the lead. saying
to myself that when we got into the
woods I'D show my spotted companion
new wrinkle in trailing. When we
came to the bushes / dropped back a
little, seized my companion by the
neck, and dragged him around and
shook him up in a way that surprised
him and the others
What's that for? he cried You're
too spotted | replied This auieted
them down, but it was too late TO car
ry ont my new plans. The scent had
been growing warmer and warmer
and ! took it mp again as matter of
duty, and the others followed in a
more sober manner We went through
the woods at a pretty good pace, and /
expected to see the Son Of Ben Ali
limpipg along ahead Of MS. ready to
drop for we had now come several
miles in doubling and twisting and
| turning.
"But instead Of seeing the Son Of
Ben All, we saw something that was
more surprising. We came upon a
young man and a young lady The
young man had been hunting, for he
had a gun, and the young lady had
been gathering wild flowers, for ne
! gro girl with her had basketful''
81 know! / know!" cried Druslla.
''Dat niger oman wuz my nanny.
been hear 'er tell dat many an nany's
de time. Yes, sub! dat wuz my mann
myl An dat amt all Dat ar white
man an dat ar white oman wuz you
all's pa an ma"
Buster John and Sweetest Susan
looked at Aaron for confirmation or
| denial.
"That's So" Aaron said.
NANNY say dey wuz courtin'." ex-
| planned Drusilla,
Buster John seemed to be somewhat
| embarrassed at this information, but
Sweetest Susan appeared to relish it.
| On the other hand, Rambler went to
| Aaron and said;
"Son of Ben Ali, 1t would please me