The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1899-10-25
SOMERSET. PA. WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25 1899.

be made Of the dead mans sheep and
Of his dog.
'The sheep" answered the man,
"were not his; he had sold them. AS
to the dog, nobody wants the brute.p
"Why not ?''
The man shrugged his shoulders and
looked askance at Demon, who had fol-
lowed me.
every well,p I said; "then l will
take him"
No objection was made, and Demon
passed into my possession.
My uncle had several hundred sheep,
which were tended by an old native
Californian and his son. took Demon
to them and offered his services In the
care of the flock. To my surprise they
refused. urged the matter, and finally
demanded the ground of their opposi-
tion. At last the old man said:
"He looks like a sheep killer"
This accounted for the refusal of the
Basque shepherds to take the dog;
they too, suspected him. Knowing how
prone such men were TO superstitious
prejudices, / would not allow the ami
NAL to be condemned without cause.
"Do you know that he kills sheep?"
/ asked the old man.
He shook his head. Then / asked If
any one had ever seen the dog prowl-
ing around at night or behaving in a
suspicious manner. Again he shook
his head
at is all nonsense" said, finding
myself fairly forced into the position of
the dogs defender.
"Now, tell you" said the old sliep-
herd, ~ know that dog. 1 think him
bad dog. l will show you some
thing"
He went into his hut and brought out
two half-grown puppies-lively, wrig-
Cling little fellows-and put them down
on the ground before Demon.
"You see" he said, puppies always
try to play with strange dogs-never
afraid of them. Look / told you he
is bad dog"
The infants waddled up to Demon,
who approached them, wagging his tail
good-naturedly. The instant they got a
good view of his face they whirled about
and went off ki-yi ing at a great rate of
speed.
The performance struck me as anus
ing, and / laughed, but the old shep-
herd looked very grave.
"a bad dog" he reiterated, slowly,
every bad"
Well, I said, "I will take him my
self, since you will not. But if ever
learn" here 1 instinctively looked
down into the dogs face as though
speaking to him-'if ] ever learn that
he has killed sheep shall have him
shot"
The dogs eyes looked up into mine
with keen, intelligent gaze, and /
could not resist the belief that he had
understood.
1t is not improbable that my preju-
dice against the animal was even stron-
ger than that of the shepherds; but, as
/ was an educated, reasoning man,
proud Of my freedom from every form
of superstition, how could bring my
self to countenance such irrational fam
eies? On the contrary, my duty SEEM
ed to lie in the opposite course-to defy
this prejudice and to protect and defend
the object at which it was leveled. Be-
sides, had come to feel a powerful Gu
riosity with regard to this creature
which, though apparently inOffensive,
was so generally hated and feared.
What was it that inspired all other an
imals with such distrust Of him? Not
my horse alone, but every quadruped on
the place manifested a very evident un-
willingness to have him about. The
other dogs would not associate with
him. Yet he was never quarrelsome or
ill-tempered.
One thing he did which, though not
a serious fault, was often annoying. He
had.a habit of watching closely every
motion Of the person nearest him-usu-
ally myself. Sometimes / almost inn
agined that / could feel his eyes when
did not see them-his gaze was so con-
slant and intense. This habit, thought
to myself, was acquired during his life
with the brutal Basque, who might be
expected at any moment to infiict some
undeserved blow upon him. Despite
thisexplanation, there were times when
we were alone together, and / looked
up to find him watching me that l felt
an unreasoning dread.
Demon had been in my possession
several weeks when all at once | began
to hear complaints about the killing of
sheep. Every morning fresh victim
was found dead-nOw Of one flock and
now Of another, yet all within limited
range. They were all mutilated in the
same way, and the work was plainly
that Of a dog prscticed in sheep killing.
AS had expected, suspicion immedi-
ately fell upon Demon; and one morn
ing when / came out Of the house
found a couple Of herders waiting to
see me.
They had no evidence against the
dog, yet they demanded that he should
be put to death. The injustice Of it
reused my indignation, and, calling
Demon TO me, said:
81 want you to look al him. You say
that a sheep was killed last night.
Where is there any sign OF blood about
his jsws?"
One of them examined Demons
mouth, but found no mark Of the
slaughter. The other said:
THAT does not prove anything. A
regular sheep-killer does not spill much
blood, and sometimes he learns to wash
it all off,"
This sounded improbable to me, but
/ did not argue the matter.
Every WELL" said. Tonight De-
mon shall be shut up in the corral, and
II sheep is killed We will know that
he is not the guilty dog"
They shook their heads. "He will
find some way to get out Of the corral"
said one of thNm.