Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-07-31
Hove Shep. and Shep Loves Me
A Story of a Boy and a Dog.
By F. A. MITCHELL.

1 ICopyright. 1909 by American Press Asso- cationl
 love to think of those happy days now far agone when we were boys. There was Abe and sam and Ned and myself. all of whom lived within a mile of each other and were lnsepara- ble. While we were out of school we were together aud when in school we were thinking of one another. When we were told to write compositions on subjects of our own choice we wrote about what We loved. most usually ei- ther eat or dog Or Il horse or lamb or our swimming hole or the cir GUS. We were only from six to nine, and our good teacher did not expect us to soar higher
 remember one of the essays was upon the subject of a dog called Shep- herd. the name being abbreviated to Shep. There was sentence in it that l have never forgotten delight to nurse il in my heart as an epicure will
 
 this: "l know Il dog by the name of Shep. love Shep. and Shep loves me-" Could there be anything more touching? Alas. how rare. how brief. Is real affection of human being for an inferior animal. It can never be as real as in childhood.
 We boys all lived along a road that led toward a city. An omnibus passed every morning to take people to town. and can hear today the bugle notes that served for signal ringing out clearly as Josh drove by. picking up the passengers. We all knew Josh. and many a free ride he gave us. One of the regular passengers used to stand at his gate every pOrning when the stage was late with lis watch in his hand. Josh used to call him Colonel Minute, but his name was Colonel Ringgold. veteran of the Mexican war. He had been shot all to pieces. being minus an eye. an ear. leg and an arm. do believe that the only spur that forced Josh to keep any sort of time was the thought of the colonel. watch in hand. standing at the gate. his single eye darting between 1t and the driver.
 We boys were fin great terror of Colo nel Rlnggold. We told each other aw- full stories about him which we invent ed ourselves. but which in time be- came real to us. Que was that his house was fortified with an unlimited number of guns. pistols. sabers. and the like. It was ayerred by one boy that he had killed a man with his wooden leg. There is no one like a boy for making real things out of dreams, and all we had to do was to fancy these things. tell them to each other and they had happened.
 Colonel Ringgoid was the owner of the dog Shep Shep was q collie, and the collie Is very intelligent dog. Shep stood. us remember him. about two feet high. his color being mix ture of white and brown. During the night Shep was expected to be in by o'clock. but during the day he was free to romp with Us boys. think he loved Ned best That was because Ned loved him best. for Ned. you know. was the boy who wrote the compost tion mentioning Shep SO affectionately.
 We were all very careful that Shep should not get into trouble. first. be- cause we lcved him and. second, be- cause we feared that his owner would blot us from the face of the earth if any harm came to the dog while in our company. Many bigger dog we beat off when he was driving our com rade to the wall.
 One afternoon when we were all to- gether teaching Shep to jump rope we saw the colonel coming toward us. walking with the limp occasioned by his wooden leg. Every boys heart sank into his boots. Had the whole