The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1909-10-28

..1g
tondlv imagined. He was neither
sorce ~ nor dreadful, strong nor swift,
hrt he was one of the noisiest, best
sst,red silliest pups that ever
ahovod his masters boots to bits.
ne master. Bill Aubrey, was an old
mouptaineer who was camped below
rorne, Peak IN the Yellowstone Park.
This Is in very quiet corner, far
tror, the usual line of travel, and
pnps camp, before ours came, would
have been a very lonely place but for
his companion, this irrepressible,
voolly-coated little dog.
Chink was never still for five min
utes. indeed, he would do anything
be was told to do except keep still.
He was always trying to do some abb
surd or impossible thing, or If he did
oHampt the possible he usually
snoiled his best effort by his way of
going about it. He once spent a
whole morning trying to run up a
tall. straight pine tree in whose
branches was a snickering pine
squirrel.
The darling ambition of his life for
soma weeks was to catch one of the
picket-pin gophers that swarmed on
tbe prairie about the camp. These
little animals have a trick of sitting
holt upright on their hind legs, with
their paws held close in, so that a dis
tance they look exactly like picket
plns. Often when we went out to
picket our horses for the night we
would go toward a gopher, thinking
It was a picket-pin already driven in,
and would find out the mistake only
when it diyed into the ground with
defiant chirrup.
Chink had determined to catch one
Of these gophers the very first day he
came into the valley. OF course he
went about it in his own original way,
doing everything wrong end first, as
usual This, his master said, was due
to q streak of Irish in his makeup.
So Chnk would begin a most elab-
crate stalk quarter of a mile from
the gopher. After crawling on his
breast from tussock to tussock for
hundred yards or so, the nervous
strain became too great, and Chink,
getting too much excited to crawl,
would rise on his feet and walk
straight toward the gopher, which
would now be sitting up by its hole,
fully alive to the situation.
After minute or two of this very
open approach, Chinks excitement
would overpower all caution. He
would begin running, and at the last,
Just as he should have done his finest
stalking, he would go bounding and
barking toward the gopher which
would sit like peg of wood till the
proper moment, then dive below with
derisive chirrup, throwing with it's
hind feet a lot of sand right into
Chlnk S eager, open mouth.
Day after day this went on with
ieVei sameness, and still Chink did
not give up. Perseverance, he seemed
10 believe, must surely win in the end,
as indeed it did. For one day he
made an unusually elaborate stalk
alter an unusually fine gopher, car
Iied out all his absurd tactics, finish
ing with the grand, boisterous charge,
anu actually caught his victim; but
this time 1t happened to be a wooden
picRet-pin. Any one who doubts that
aog knows when he has made a fool
vi himself should have seen Chink
lnat day as he sheepishly sneaked out
VI sight behind the tent.
But failure had no lasting effect on
ohink There was a streak of grit as
wen as irish in him that carried him
through every reverse, and nothing
eouid dash his good nature. He was
aiways up and doing with the max
mum OF energy and the minimum of
discretion, delighted as long as he
could be into everything.
Every passing wagon and horse
man and grazing calf had to he
ouesled' and If the cat from the
suara-house strayed by, Chink felt
.nat II was solemn duty he owed to
'le soldiers, the cat and himself to
rnase u her home at frightful speed.
ne would dash in twenty times a day
u,'er an old hat that Bill used de-
nperately to throw into a wasps nest
WIN the order, Fetch it,"
II took time, but countless disasters
,Ss ean 10 tell; Chink began to realize
s suat 'here were long whips and big.
hetce he dogs with wagons; that horses
nave nve teeth In their heels, that calves
haoe SaSe relatives with clubs on their
'aus' aus that slow cat may turn out
sauhA' and that wasps arc not but-
,eInies' Yes, 1t took an uncommonIv
GU, lyus ume' but 1t all told In the end
vn,nk tegan to develop a grain-a
os - one, but living. growing grain
oi good dog sense.
II seemed as II all his blundars
"ere The rough, unsymmetrical stones
a. 90, an arch, and the keystone was
aueu' the structure, his charac,ar
croas s'rong and complete by his
,Uwhing blunder in the matter of 4
o,n, u's coyote lived not far from our
sn p y. and he evidently realized as
ls ., ,he animals here do, that no man
anS anowed to shoot. trap, hunt or In
,hS thy way molest the wild creatures In
,o s PARK; above all, In this part. clos,
s,ue sne military patrol. with soldier,
ways on watch. Secure In ths
oSowiedge OF this, the coyote used 4
soan sone about the camp each night 10,
aps' Then. growing bolder. he
T,nN is occasionally in the daytime
oil day. 'u' nearly
sowa ~ae morning. as he sat on banA