Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-01-14


n 1t roamed creatures whose chief
1t roamed creatures whose chief
zest in life is the finding OF such
gaps and breaking through the for
age.
The Places acreage ended, to
northward, in the center of an oak
grove whose northern half was owned
by one Titus Romaine. q Grabbed lit
tie farmer OF the old school. Into
his half Of the grove, In autumn when
mast lay thick and rich amid the
tawny dead leaves, Romano was wont
to turn his herd of swine.
To Lad, the giant collie, this was
always a trying season. For longer
than he could remember Lad had
been the official watchdog OF the
Place. And his chief duties were to
keep two-footed and four footed
strays from trespassing thereon.
To an inch he knew the boundaries
OF the masters land. And he knew that
no human intruder was to be mo-
Tested, so long as such intruder had
the sense to walk straight down
the driveway to the house. But woe
to the tramp or other trespasser who
CHANGED to come crosslots or to
wander In any way of the drive!
Woe also to such occasional cattle
or other livestock as drifted in from
the road or by way of a casual fence
gap.
Human invaders were to be met in
drastic fashion. Quadruped trespass-
ers were to be rounded up and swept
RI o~1
the highroad With cattle or with
stray horses this was an easy job:
and 1t contained withal much fun
at least, for Lad
But pigs were different
Experience and instinct had taught
Lad what few humans realize, name
1y. that of all created beasts the pig
is the worst and meanest and most
vicious and hardest to drive. When
horse or q cow, or a drove Of them,
wandered into the confines Of the
Place, 1t was simple and joyous to
head them off, turn them, set them
into gallop and send them on their
journey at top speed II took little
skill and less trouble to do this. Be
sides, it was gorgeous sport. But
pigs.
x X x X
WHEN a porker wriggled and
w hunched and nosed a space in
the line fence, and slithered greasily
through, Lads work was cut out for
him. 1t looked simple enough. But
it was not simple nor was IL safe.
In, the first instance, pigs were hard
10 start running. Oftener than not
they would stand. braced, and glare
at the oncoming collie from out their
OWL little red-rimmed eyes, the shouts
above the hideous masked tushes
quivering avidly. That meant Lad
must circle them at whirlwind speed
barking a thunderous fanfare to con-
fuse them. and. watching his chance,
to flash in and nip ear or flank, or
otherwise get the brutes to running
And even on the run they had an
ugly way of wheeling. at close quar-
tiers, to face the pursuer. The razor
tushes and the pronged forefeet were
always ready at such times to wreak
death on the dog, unless he should
have the wit and the skill and the
speed to change, in a breath. the d.
rection OF his dash. No, pigs were
not pleasant trespassers There was
no fun in routing them. And there
was real danger.
Except by dint of swiftness and of
brain, an eightypound collie has no
chance against 60o-pound pig. The
pigs hide, for one thing. is too thick
to pierce with an average slash or
nip. The pig is too close to earth
and too well balanced by build and
weight to be overturned And the
tushes and forefeet can move with
deceptive quickness. Also. back OF
the -ed-rimmed little eyes fuckers the
redder spirit of murder
Locomotive engineers say a cow on
a track is far less perilous TO an on
coming train than is a pig. The for
mer can be lifted by the impact and
flung to one side. A pig, oftener than
not. derails the engine. Standing
with the bulk OF its weight close to
the ground, it's welI-nigh as bad an
obstruction TO trains as would be a
boulder OF the same size.
Lad had never met any engineers
But he had identically their opinion
of pigs.
In all his long life the great collie
had never known fear At least, he
never had yielded to 1t. Wherefore,
in the autumns. he had attacked with
gay zest such of Titus Romaine's
swine as had found their way through
the fence.
But nowadays there was little
enough of gay zest about anything
Laddie did. For he was old-yery,
al To
milestone. In other words. he was
as old for dog as is an octogenarian
for a man.
Almost imperceptibly, but to his in
dignant annoyance. age had crept up
on the big dog; gradually blurring
his long clean lines; silvering his
muZzle and eyebrows: fecking his
FURNISHED mahogany coat with stip-
pies Of silver; spreading to greater
size the absurdly white little fore
paws which were his one gross van
ity; dulling little the preternatural-
ly keen hearing and narrowing the
vision.
Yes, Lad was old. And he was a bit
unwieldy from weight and from age.
No longer could he lead Wolf and
Bruce in the forest rabbit chases
Wherefore. he stayed at home, for che
most part; and seldom strayed far
from the mistress and the master whom
he worshiped.
Moreover, he deputed the bulk of
tresspass-repelling to his fiery little
son, Wolf; and to the graver and
sweeter Bruce-"Bruce. the Beauti-
full"
Which brings us by nesdfully prosy