The Clovis news. [volume] (Clovis, N.M.) 1907-1929, 1912-05-02

By Carl


brought back to the highway to rest
on q big mastin coming towards him
on the jump.
Mad dogl' whispered the tramp
after watching for a moment.
Head held hieh-eyes a nendish
green-slavering at the mouth. Those
were the true signs. The tramp stood
up and grasped the stout stick BY
which he carried his old satcheI over
his shoulder. The dog came straight
az him, but at the last moment
sweryed aside and passed on. He
was half-blind In his agony. and he
may have taken the man for a
shadow.
Gate open and girl In the ham
mockl" whispered the tramp. "Will
he turn in7 If he does she Will scream
and what then2 l mustn't take
chancesi"
The dog had forty rods to go by
the road, and the man, by Ieaping the
fence and making a short cut had
only about twenty-five. One jump and
he was over the fence, and then he
struck a cinder-track gait.
The dog stopped for a few seconds
at the gate and then turned in. Just
then the girl sat up in the hammock,
and seeing both tramp and dog she
screamed. The tramp let out another
link, and he was at the foot Of tho
steps when the mad beast came racing
up with growls Of agony or anger.
With a full swing Of his stick the
tramp bowled the dog over, and three
or four more blows finished him.
'What-what IS IT." demanded the
girl.
Just a mad dog, miss" was the re-
ply as the dusty outing cap was lifted.
He's dead and there's nothing to
fear"
But / want to know"
Just a mad dog"
And the tramp had reached tho gate
when Judge Horton and his wife came
driving up, and the Judge leaped out
and seized the man by the collar and
exclaimed:
Hold on, herei l want to know.
what's been going oni"
"Don't let him get away, fatheri"
cried Edith as she came running.
Whats he done F."
why, he killed a big mad dog that
was after mel l want to know his
name and make him accept thanks"
"Just a mad dog" replied the tramp
with a deprecating smile, but the trio
insisted on making a hero of him.
The judge handed him a $50 bill,
and when 1t was refused he cast
around to give a reward in some other
way.
Look here" he said after a bit,
there's four solid acres OF thistles
over there belonging to me. / want
'em cut down and rooted out. III give
you $40 an acre to do 1t, and you can
get board with the farmer just below"
The next day the tramp went to
work with scythe and spade, and It
was a twenty-days' job he had. Three
or four times in that stretch Judge
Homer visited the field and tried to
draw the worker out, but he did not
succeed very well. On two occasions
Miss Edith called him to the roadside
fence to praise and pump, but all the
information she got made a brief re-
port to her fatherl
Say, papa, you know studied
Greek9"
1T was some folderol like that. 1
believe"
And / can understand it quite well.
,,a u-hok do vorv fbfuk 9n
Il think you can't"
"And yesterday when / was passing
the thistle-held / heard our tramp.
swearing in Greekl"
did, Ell? Then I must warn him
that all swearing around here must be
done in English"
It was the tramp's last day on his
Job when a strange auto rolled up to
Judge Horizons mansion, and an hour
later his honor and his visitor en-
tered the field and walked up to the
weary and sunburned toiler.
"Ames, / didn't think It was In you'll"
said the visitor as he held out his
hand.
"Fatherl"
we've kept a little track OF you,
you see"
And Miss Edith3 Well a man has
only to save a girl from a mad dog
and hydrophobia, and then excite her
curiosity and romance, and what's the
result7 Not over a years courtship
before marriage, and It Is eminently
proper at that.
When Nasel Had 70 Ride.
~h- nro~,T oooveforu ~ ooun-