The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-08-13
The STRATEGY 81
l CANINE FRIEND

Erom fha T3oston rranucript

the Boston TrAnScr1pt
Il happened chat none Or us knew the
right direction to follow to the village We
were heading for. IN there were 70 miles
OF rivers. thickets, marches. and lakes
leading dog was the only member OF
h party who had ever been there bs-
fore. and he had been once. q year be-
fore. In bad weather, with DR.. Stewart
and . pilot. He seemed 50 confident. how
ever, hat I decided to trust him.
There was no cut path through some OF
the drogues OF woods, not q single mark
on the ponds, not q pole on the marshes.
The dog was g. large, rather s~hort-haired
animal, striped gray and brown, like q
tiger, with an intelligent face, that always
appeared to wear q grin. We called him
"Ertn." I hay once before owned g roof
over my head at night to the sagacity
and endurance OF this dog. He was then
= pup. but already leading my team. My
doctor colleague from Boston, Mess, was
driving the team behind mine. The third
team was seldom less than a mile behind.
As we covered the nrst few miles we
were delighted to find that my dog was
Following q path that we could drive
along, while here and there we found q,
stray blaze, showing we were in the
track. The dog would sometimes cross .
pond at right angles to the track through
the trees. and as 1t grew late we some-
times feared that he would not find the
track again. The fascination of watching
the dog would, however, have amply COM
pensated for a night in the woods on the
snow. Indeed. 1t became quite weird to
sit on the sledge ard watch the confident
dog go on through the trackless country,
as II It were on q high road.
AT last we brought up short. We had
crossed a large double pond, turned sharp
round an island, and come to an impene-
trable hedge of virgin forest on the steep
6tdn re % --~ u 4 - - ~ - - 49,
lakes. Still the leader went confidently
on, right into the trees, till all were tan
gled up. But 1t seemed as IL he had no
doubt. We halted to get the dogs back
on the open, and we felt we had better
camp there than go farther and fare
worse. Our implicit confidence in the dog
at that moment looked like sheer folly,
and confess to getting off and comforting
with DR.. Little as to what should be lone
next. 1t ended in my donning my snow
racquets and starting for q tour round the
lake, to see IL the dog was even on a Lake
with any outlet at all.
Tying up the team / started, but on
passing the very first big tree, found
the path, narrow, clean-cut, and taking
the hillside at a sharp angle backward,
50 thai actually the dog had only zone
the wrong side of one tree and made q
short cut, which hid the narrow path
from us. Naturally we let him have his
own way after that, and once we took
the bay Ice. he brought us to the houses
at a full stretch gallop.
One reads many stories of animal I'm
teuigence, but none Of us could name the
sense that brought our brindle dog across
that country. 1t could not be smell. Not
q soul had crossed the year to leave q
foot scent. It could scarcely be sight,
for the snow and weather had been SO
bad the only other time the dog had done
h Journey that 1t had taken three days
to cover what we did In less than u hours.
It couldn't be hearing. The silence OF
the woods is absolute. The dog does not
suggest the idea Of much brain matter,
anyhow. No mans memory, at any rate,
would carry all the details OF those twists
and turns for u months, especially when
SO many other similar tracts Of country
were being travelled daily.
The dog seemed to show q little par
donable pride as he stood up and put his
forepaws on my chest. But as I looked
down into his intelligent face, still wear
Ing the everlasting grin, 1 hardly knew
whether to laugh over the new expert
ence he had afforded US, so finally settled
the conundrum by giving him a double
portion OF whale TOR supper.