Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-23
THERE
GREAT
WAS TIE
MASTIFF
Copyright by James Elverson.


r. y HEN my brother and / were boys,
wv the school which we attended was
two miles from our home as the
ISa9EET road ran, but we were in the habit
of saving half mile by cutting
across lots In winter we wallow
ca deep In snow, especially when we came to
tne nigh pasture walls, about which it was
sure to lie in huge drifts; but this was only
lun ior u.s. and we would arrive at the
scnool house glowing from our Arctic travel
we had traps and snares set in the more
wooded portions of the way, and these we
visited as we went along; so that often we
would take half dozen quails or brace
OF partr1dges to school with us, to say moth
ing OF rabbits and gray squirrels.
Uur family owned an immense, tawny mas
tlli, named Caesar, one of the most intelli-
gent dogs ! have ever known, and he was
deIghted when permitted to accompany u.s.
AS we always carried our dinners and re-
named at the school house during the noon
RECESS we taught him to return home with
out us, IN order to be company for mother
during the day, as she was often left alone
IN consequence OF fathers absence upon busi-
ness we would then send our game home
by hIm instead of hanging it up in the
school house entry, and he seemed very proud
to carry it. p-0Nu
After a time he got in the habit of com.
ing Tor us when school was dismissed.
ohe spring, when my brother Ed was four
Teen and was twelve, there was an intense
excitement concerning mad dogs
We heard of them from all directions and
though the reports were doubtless exagger-
ated, there was evidently some truth at Tho
bottom. real mad dog, it was said, had
gone racing through the neghboring village
atrnl Dlslng d number OF other dogs; while
strange cur, frothlng at the mouth had been
KILLED at the -Four Corners" only a mile
from our house.
We became as careful of Caesar as our
parents might have been of us during a scar
iet Iever epidemic Ii mad dogs were run
nlng at large, he must not go with us to
the school house any more, for who could
tell what rabid creatures he might fall in
with. either going or returning? AS To our
selves, we would be able to climb a tree
in case OF necessity, but poor Caesar, so nm.
suspicious, so magnanimous, what could he
do! One little nip from some contemplate
cur with foamng jaws, and the die would be
cast. Already in imagination we could see him
tied up and shot for having had the misfor-
tune to get bitten.
There would not be the least need of put
ting him in confinement. Noble, largeeyed
Caesar! His intelligence was protest
against that. We would have only to tell him
that he must not go with us.
When the time came for us to start off
without him, we patted his broad head and
tried to tell him what it all meant; but Il
is doubtful if we made him understand that
mad dogs had anything to do with the mat
ter. His great eyes had sorrowful but re-
signed look as he watched us from the door
yard
We took our usual course across lots There
was, no longer any snow, but in place of
1T the volets were springing up and the fields
wore a vivid green. Sure enough, that morn
ing, while crossing a lonesome thirty-aere
pasture, belonging to Mr.. Gray, we saw
a dog that showed very strange actions He
was running about the lot. annarentv with