El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-19
The HeraId's Daily
Short Story

that. 1t would have saved him lot OF
trouble, but he did not know 1t, aRo
so be steadily followed the trail for two
hours, till it ended in a patch Of braek-
en-, all gold and copper, nearly as hiSn
as a man.
A true wild beast would have crept
on his belly all round that patch OF
bracken, TO find out, II possible, what
the fox was doing there, and where he
was doing II. Leggy,. on the other
hand, blundered in in the true, jovial
dog fashion, and the first thing he knew
was that ne was on his nose, with
three-inch cash smarting on one
shoulder
Leggy did not cry pen and ink" as
other dogs would have done, because
he was a poacher's dog, and knew the
value Of silence you see He just rolIeo
over sideways, and regained MS rect
under cover OF the bracken- Then he
turned to interview that fox, and, 10
judge by his eye, that fox would have
had an exceedingly "uncomfy" time OF
It. But the fox was gone, had vanish
ed like smoke, and although Leggy
wasted the remainder Of that night try
ing to find him, he did not succeed.
About dawn he became conscious OF
the awful chill in the wind 1t does
always seem colder in this hour than
at any other. I think he was wonder
ing whether the wild folk had houses,
and I know he thought at that moment
that a house would be a desirable thing.
That was where his domestic upbring-
ing came in.
The call Of the wild was not so loud
in his brain then as it had been, and he
was beginning to find himself listen
ing lOugingly for certain distant we'll
known sounds which had nothing al
all to do with the wild, such as the
rattle OF cart, the lowing Of cattle, the
barking of a dog, and the far-away
shouting Of children.
When il was dark, Leggy got on the
tran OF a hare, and followed u care
fully out to a big field which seemed
to be literally alive with hares. Never
in all his life had he seen so many
hares. He could see them rising ahead
Of him, dark blOtches in the gloom, one
after the other, like ghOstly phantoms.
So many We're there that Leggy got
quite confused, and while he was ann
lessly running about, putting them up,
simply for the fun Of the thing,
long, swift, red shape suddenly passed
him at the gallop.
At the same instant Leggy stopped
dead, as if petrified. From FAR across
the field at the gateway at the other
end, he had caught a scent on the
breeze, and there was low, subdued
whistle also. For a moment only he
waited thus; then, with bound and
q joyful little Whimper, he leapt for
ward after the red shape, and began
driving all the hares he could find
carefully and scientifically towards the
gateway whence had come the scent on
the breeze and the soft whistle. The
scent was the scent of his master; he
had spread a net across the gateway
to catch the hares as they raced
and the red shape was Leggy's
own sister, rounding the hares up.
All" said his master softly, when he
had finished killing his spoil, and
Leggy, racing up out of the darkness, /
nearly went mad with silent JOY. It's
you, is it, Knew as you'd come back
sooner or later. They all does. Dawgs
amt no good as wild critters. any
ways. It's only cats as ken 90 back to
lature I reckon,