Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1897-08-28

northern viking and the curls of an
Apollo. Secure in his beauty and bland
in his self conceit, he rose from the pew
and stepped before the chancel.
IT would wait minute if I were
you, SIR he said respectfully, "and
you will see him go out quietly"
"What is wrong?' whispered the
minister i'll some concern.
He thinks you are going to heave
that book at him, sir, without giving
him fair show, as we do.
The minister looked perplexed, but
remained motionless with the book in
his hands, Bones arose, walked hall
way down the aisle and vanished like a
yellow flash.
With this justification of his reputa-
ton Bones disappeared for a week. AT
the end of that time we received a DO
lite note from Judge Preston, saying
that the dog had become quite do1niciled
in their house and begging that the
camp without yielding up their valuable
property in him would permit him to
remain at Spring Valley for an indef-
mite time. That both the judge and his
daughter, with whom Bones was already
an old friend, would be glad if any Of
the camp would visit their old favorite
whenever they desired and assure them
selves that he was well cared for. I am
afraid that the bait thus ingeniously
thrown out had good deal to do with
our ultimate yielding. However, the re-
ports Of those who visited Bones were
wonderful and marvellous. He was re-
siding there in state, lying on rugs in
the drawing room, coiled up under the
judicial desk in the judges study, Sleep
ing regularly on the mat outside Miss
Pinkey's bedroom door or lazily snap
ping at flies on the judge lawn Hes
as yaller as ever" said one of our in
formants, "but it don't somehow seem
to be the same back that we use to bunk
clods over in the old time just to see
him scoot out of the dust. p"
And may reluctantly record a fact
which am aware all lovers of dogs
will Indignantly deny and will be furi-
ously bayed at by every faithful hound
since the days of Ulysses. Bones not
only forgot but absolutely cut us.
Those who called upon the judge in
"store clothes" he would perhaps casu-
ally notice, but he would sniff at them
as if detecting and resenting them under
their superficial exterior The rest he
simply paid no attention to. The more
familiar term of "Bonesy," formerly
applied to him in our rare moments
of endearment, produced no response.
This panied, think, some of the more
youthful of us, but through some strange
human weakness it also increased the
camps respect for him. Nevertheless
we spoke of him familiarly to strangers
at the very moment he ignored us. I
am afraid that we also took some pains
to point out that he was getting fat and
unwieldly and losing his elasticity, i'm
plying covertly that his choice was a
mistake and his life failure
A year after he died in the odor of
sanctity and responsibility, being found
one morning, coiled up and stiff, ON the
mat outside Miss Pinkey's door. When
the news was conveyed to us, we asked
permission, the camp being in a pros
porous condition, to erect stone over
his grave. But when it came to the in
scription, we could only think of the
two words murmured to him by Miss
Pinkey, which we always believed eff
fected his conversion:
"Good Dogp'
THE END