Bruno lies down to sleep.
Bruno himself came home about the same time that Thomasdid, bringing the fishing-pole and line with him. The apparatus was all safe, except that the hook was gone. It had got torn off by catching against the bushes on the way. Bruno brought the pole and line to Tony. Tony took them, and when he had wound up the line, he set the pole up in the corner, while Bruno stretched himself out before the fire, and there, with his mind in a state of great satisfaction, in view of what he had done, he prepared to go to sleep. The bright fire glanced upon the hearth and about the room, forming a very cheerful and pleasant scene.
Tony’s reflections.
How shameful it is, thought Tony, as he looked upon Bruno by the fire, that while a dog can be so faithful, and seem to take so much pride and pleasure in doing his duty, and in making himself as useful in every way as he possibly can, a boy, whose power and opportunities are so much superior to his, should be faithless and negligent, and try to contrive ways and means to evade his proper work. You have taught me a lesson, Bruno. You have set me an example. We will see whether, after this, I will allow myself to be beaten in fidelity and gratitude by a dog.
This story reminds me of another one about a boy named Antonio, who got away from home, and was in trouble to get back, though the circumstances were very different from those which I have just related. The name of this new story is “Boys Adrift.”
Boys are generally greatly pleased with seeing ships and the water. In fact, the view of a harbor, filled with boats and shipping, forms usually for all persons, old as well as young, a very attractive scene.
There was once a boy named Antonio Van Tromp. They commonly called him Antony. Sometimes they called him Van Tromp. He lived in a certain sea-port town, where his father used to come in with a ship from sea. His father was captain of the ship. Antonio used to be very fond of going down to the pier while his father’s ship was unloading. One day he persuaded his cousin, who was several years younger than himself, to go down with him.
Antonio and his cousin amuse themselves on the pier.
The boys played about upon the pier for an hour very happily. The seamen and laborers were unloading the ship, and there were a great many boxes, and bales, and hogsheads, and other packages of merchandise lying upon the pier. There were porters at work carrying the goods away, and sailors rolling hogsheads and barrels to and fro. There was an anchor on the pier, and weights, and chains, and trucks, and other similar objects lying around. The boys amused themselves for some time in jumping about upon these things. At length, on looking down over the edge of the pier, they saw that there was a boat there. It was fastened by means of a rope to one of the links of an enormous chain, which was lying over the edge of the pier. On seeing thisboat, they conceived the idea of getting into it, and rowing about a little in the neighborhood of the pier.
The boat.
There were no oars in the boat, and so Van Tromp asked a sailor, whom he saw at work near, to go and get them for him on board the ship.
Conversation with the sailor.
“Not I,” said the sailor.
“Why not?” asked Van Tromp.
“It is ebb tide,” said the sailor, “and if you two boys cast off from the pier in that boat, you will get carried out to sea.”
“Why, I canscull,” said Van Tromp.
“Oh no,” said the sailor.
“At least I can pull,” said Van Tromp.
“Oh no,” said the sailor.
The boys stood perplexed, not knowing what to do.
All along the shores of the sea the tide rises for six hours, and while it is thus rising, the water, of course, wherever there are harbors, creeks, and bays, flowsin. Afterward the tide falls for six hours, and while it is falling, the water of the harbors, creeks, and bays flowsout. When the water is going out, they call it ebb tide. That is what the sailor meant by saying it was ebb tide.
Sculling and pulling.
Scullingis a mode of propelling a boat by one oar. The oar in this case is put out behind the boat, that is, at the stern, and is moved to and fro in a peculiar manner, somewhat resembling the motion of the tail of a fish when he is swimming through the water. It is difficult to learn how to scull. Antony could scull pretty well in smooth water, but he could not have worked his way in this manner against an ebb tide.
Pulling, as Antony called it, is another name for rowing. In rowing, it is necessary to have two oars. To row a boat requires more strength, though less skill, than to scull it.
The boys, after hesitating for some time, finally concluded at least to get into the boat. They had unfastened the painter, that is, the rope by which the boat was tied, while they had been talking with the sailor, in order to be all ready to cast off. When they found that the sailor would not bring them any oars, they fastened the painter again, so that the boat should not get away, and then climbed down the side of the pier, and got into the boat.
The boat adrift.
Unfortunately, when, after untying the painter, they attempted to make it fast again into the link of the chain, they did not do it securely; and as they moved to and fro about the boat, pushing it one way and another, the rope finally got loose, and the boat floated slowly away from the pier. The boys were engaged very intently at the time in watching some sun-fish which they saw in the water. They were leaning over the side of the boat to look at them, so that they did not see the pier when it began to recede, and thus the tide carried them to a considerable distance from it before they observed that they were adrift.
At length Larry—for that was the name of Antony’s cousin—looking up accidentally, observed that the boat was moving away.
“Antony! Antony!” exclaimed, he, “we’re adrift.”
As he said this, Larry looked very much terrified.
Antony rose from his reclining position, and stood upright in the bottom of the boat. He looked back toward the pier, which he observed was rapidly receding.
Adrift.
“Yes,” said he, “we’re adrift; but who cares?”
When a boy gets into difficulty or danger by doing something wrong, he is generally very much frightened. When, however, he knows that he has not been doing any thing wrong, but has got into difficulty purely by accident, he is much less likely to be afraid.
Antony knew that he had done nothing wrong in getting into the boat. His father was a sea-captain, and he was allowed to get into boats whenever he chose to do so. He was accustomed, too, to be in boats on the water, and now, if he had only had an oar or a paddle, he would not have felt any concern whatever. As it was, he felt very little concern.
His first thought was to call out to the sailor whom they had left on the pier. The boys both called to him long and loud, but he was so busy turning over boxes, and bales, and rolling hogsheads about, that he did not hear.
“What shall we do?” asked Larry, with a very anxious look.
The sail-boat.
“Oh, we shall get ashore again easily enough,” replied Antony. “Here is a large sail-boat coming up. We will hail them, and they will take us aboard.”
“Do you think they will take us on board?” asked Larry.
“Yes, I am sure they will,” said Antony.
Just then the boat which the boys were drifting in came along opposite to a large sail-boat. This boat was sloop-rigged; that is, it had one mast and a fore-and-aft sail. She was standing up the harbor, and was headed toward the pier. The sail was spread, and the sail-boat was gliding along smoothly, but quite swiftly, through the water.
There were two men on board. One was at the helm, steering. The other, who had on a red flannel shirt, came to the side of the boat, and looked over toward the boys. We can just see the head of this man above the gunwale on the starboard side of the boat in the picture.
Boats in the harbor
Antony calls for help. He receives none.
“Hallo! sail-boat!” said Antony.
“Hallo!” said the flannel shirt.
“Take us aboard of your boat,” said Antony; “we have got adrift, and have not got any oar.”
“We can’t take you on board,” said the man; “we have got beyond you already.”
“Throw us a rope,” said Antony.
“We have not got any rope long enough,” said the sailor.
As he said these words, the sail-boat passed entirely by.
“Whatshallwe do?” said Larry, much alarmed.
Larry was much smaller than Antony, and much less accustomed to be in boats on the water, and he was much more easily terrified.
“Don’t be afraid,” said Antony; “we shall get brought up among some of the shipping below. There are plenty of vessels coming up the harbor.”
The boys float down the channel.
So they went on—slowly, but very steadily—wherever they were borne by the course of the ebbing tide. Instead of being brought up, however, as Antony had predicted, by some of the ships, they were kept by the tide in the middle of the channel, while the ships were all, as it happened, on one side or the other, and they did not go within calling distance of any one of them. At last even Antony began to think that they were certainly about to be carried out to sea.
“If the water was not so deep, we could anchor,” said Antony.
“We have not got any anchor,” said Larry.
The grapnel.
“Yes,” replied Antony, “there is a grapnel in the bow of the boat.”
Larry looked in a small cuddy under the bow of the boat, and found there a sort of grapnel that was intended to be used as an anchor.
“Let us heave it over,” said Larry, “and then the boat will stop.”
“No,” replied Antony, “the rope is not long enough to reach the bottom; the water is too deep here. We are in the middle of the channel; but perhaps, by-and-by, the tide will carry us over upon the flats, and then we can anchor.”
“How shall we know when we get to the flats?” asked Larry.
“We can see the bottom then,” said Antony, “by looking over the side of the boat.”
“I mean to watch,” said Larry; and he began forthwith to look over the side of the boat.
They see the bottom.
It was not long before Antony’s expectations were fulfilled. The tide carried the boat over a place where the water was shallow, the bottom being formed there of broad and level tracts of sand and mud, called flats.
“I see the bottom,” said Larry, joyfully.
Antony looked over the side of the boat, and there, down several feet beneath the surface of the water, he could clearly distinguish the bottom. It was a smooth expanse of mud and water, and it seemed to be slowly gliding away from beneath them. The real motion was in the boat, butthismotion was imperceptible to the boys, except by the apparent motion of the bottom, which was produced by it. Such a deceiving of the sight as this is commonly called an optical illusion.
“Yes,” said Antony, “that’s the bottom; now we will anchor.”
Anchoring.
So the two boys went forward, and, after taking care to see that the inner end of the grapnel rope was made fast properly to the bow of the boat, they lifted the heavy iron over the side of the boat, and let it plunge into the water. It sank to the bottom in a moment, drawing out the rope after it. It immediately fastened itself by its prongs in the mud, and when the rope was all out, the bow of the boat was “brought up” by it—that is, was stopped at once. The stern of the boat was swung round by the force of the tide, which still continued to act upon it, and then the boat came to its rest, with the head pointing up the harbor.
“There,” said Antony, “now we are safe.”
“But how are we going to get back to the shore?” inquired Larry.
The boys wait for the tide.
“Why, by-and-by the tide will turn,” said Antony, “and flow in, and then we shall get up our anchor, and let it carry us home again.”
“And how long shall we have to wait?” asked Larry.
“Oh, about three or four hours,” said Antony.
“My mother will be very much frightened,” said Larry. “How sorry I am that we got into the boat!”
“So am I,” said Antony; “or, rather, I should be, if I thought it would do any good to be sorry.”
Captain Van Tromp misses them.
In the mean time, while the boys had thus been making their involuntary voyage down the harbor, Captain Van Tromp, on board his ship, had been employed very busily with his accounts in his cabin. It was now nearly noon, and he concluded, accordingly, that it was time for him to go home to dinner. So he called one of the sailors to him, and directed him to look about on the pier and try to find the boys, and tell them that he was going home to dinner.
In a few minutes the sailor came back, and told the captain that he could not find the boys; and that Jack, who was at work outside on the pier, said that they had not been seen about there for more than an hour, and that the boat was missing too; and he was afraid that they had got into it, and had gone adrift.
“Send Jack to me,” said the captain.
When Jack came into the cabin, the captain was at work, as usual, on his accounts. Jack stood by his side a moment, with hiscap in his hand, waiting for the captain to be at leisure to speak to him. At length the captain looked up.
“Jack,” said he, “do you say that the boys have gone off with the boat?”
“I don’t know, sir,” said Jack. “The boat is gone, and the boys are gone, but whether the boat has gone off with the boys, or the boys with the boat, I couldn’t say.”
The captain paused a moment, with a thoughtful expression upon his countenance, and then said,
“Tell Nelson to take the glass, and go aloft, and look around to see if he can see any thing of them.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” said Jack.
The captain then resumed his work as if nothing particular had happened.
Mr. Nelson discovers them by means of his spy-glass.
Nelson was the mate of the ship. The mate is the second in command under the captain.
When Nelson received the captain’s order, he took the spy-glass, and went up the shrouds to the mast-head. In about ten minutes he came down again, and gave Jack a message for the captain. Jack came down again into the cabin. He found the captain, as before, busy at his work. The captain had been exposed to too many great and terrible dangers at sea to be much alarmed at the idea of two boys being adrift, in a strong boat and in a crowded harbor.
“Mr. Nelson says, sir,” said Jack, “that he sees our boat, with two boys in it, about a mile and a half down the harbor. She is lying a little to the eastward of the red buoy.”
A buoy is a floating beam of wood, or other light substance, anchoredon the point of a shoal, or over a ledge of rocks, to warn the seamen that they must not sail there. The different buoys are painted of different colors, so that they may be easily distinguished one from another.
The captain paused a moment on hearing Jack’s report, and looked undecided. In fact, his attention was so much occupied by his accounts, that only half his thoughts seemed to be given to the case of the boys. At length he asked if there was any wind.
“Not a capful,” said the sailor.
“Tell Nelson, then,” said the captain, “to send down the gig with four men, and bring the boys back.”
The gig.
The gig, as the captain called it, was a light boat belonging to the ship, being intended for rowing swiftly in smooth water.
Nelson fits out an expedition to relieve the boys.
So Nelson called out four men, and directed them to get ready with the gig. The men accordingly lowered the gig down from the side of the ship into the water, and then, with the oars in their hands, they climbed down into it. In a few minutes they were rowing swiftly down the harbor, in the direction of the red buoy, while Captain Van Tromp went home to dinner. On his way home he left word, at the house where Larry lived, that the boys had gone down the harbor, and would not be home under an hour.
The boys watch the progress of the tide.
While these occurrences had been taking place on the pier, the boys had been sitting very patiently in their boat, waiting for the tide to turn, or for some one to come to their assistance. They could see how it was with the tide by the motion of the water, as it glided past them. The current, in fact, when they first anchored, made quite a ripple at the bows of the boat. They had a fine viewof the harbor, as they looked back toward the town from their boat, though the view was so distant that they could not make out which was the pier where Captain Van Tromp’s vessel was lying.
The view of the harbor
Of course, as the tide went out more and more, the surface of the water was continually falling, and the depth growing less and less all the time. The boys could easily perceive the increasing shallowness of the water, as they looked over the side of the boat, and watched the appearance of the bottom.
A new danger. A discussion.
“Now here’s another trouble,” said Antony. “If we don’t look out, we shall get left aground. I’ve a great mind to pull up the anchor, and let the boat drift on a little way, till we come to deeper water.”
“Oh no,” said Larry, “don’t let us go out to sea any farther.”
“Why, if we stay here,” said Antony,“until the tide falls so as to leave us aground, we may have to stay some hours after the tide turns before we get afloat again.”
“Well,” said Larry, “no matter. Besides, if you go adrift again, the water may deepen suddenly.”
“Yes,” said Antony, “and then we should lose hold of the bottom altogether. We had better not move.”
“Unless,” added Antony, after a moment’s thought, “we can contrive towarpthe boatupa little.”
Warping the boat.
So saying, Antony went forward to examine into the feasibility of this plan. He found, on looking over the bow of the boat, that the water was very shallow, and nearly still; for the tide, being nearly out, flowed now with a very gentle and almost imperceptible current. Of course, as the water was shallow, and the rope that was attached to the anchor was pretty long, the anchor itself was at a considerable distance from the boat. The boys could see the rope passing obliquely along under the water, but could not see the anchor.
Antony took hold of the rope, and began to draw it in. The effect of this operation was to draw the boat up the harbor toward the anchor. When, at length, the rope was all in, Antony pulled up the grapnel, which was small and easily raised, and then swinging it to and fro several times to give it an impetus, he threw it with all his force forward. It fell into the water nearly ten feet from where it had lain before, and there sinking immediately, it laid hold of the bottom again. Antony now, by pulling upon the rope, as he had done at first, drew the boat up to the anchor at its new holding. He repeated this operation a number of times, watching the water from time to time over the bows of the boat, to see whether it was getting deeper or not. While Antony was thus engaged, the attention of Larry was suddenly attractedto the sound of oars. He looked in the direction from which the sound proceeded, and saw, at a considerable distance, a boat coming toward them.
“Here comes the gig!”
“Here comes a boat,” said Larry.
Antony looked where Larry pointed.
“Yes,” said he, “and she is headed directly toward us.”
“So she is,” said Larry.
“I verily believe it is our gig,” said Antony.
“It is,” he added, after looking a moment longer, “and there is Jack on board of her. They are coming for us.”
In a few minutes more the gig was alongside. Two of the sailors that had come down in the gig got on board of the boys’ boat with their oars, and then both boats rowed up the harbor again, and in due time the boys reached home in safety.
Moral.
The moral of this story is, that in all cases of difficulty and danger it is best to keep quiet and composed in mind, and not to give way to excitement and terror. Being frightened never does any good, excepting when there is a chance to run away; in that case, it sometimes helps one to run a little faster. In all other cases, it is best to be cool and collected, and encounter whatever comes with calmness and equanimity.
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Hiram and Ralph. The robin.
At one time Bruno had for his master a boy named Hiram. Hiram had a friend and companion who lived in the next house to him, whose name was Ralph. This Ralph had a robin. He kept the robin in a cage.
The loft.
There was a small building near the bottom of Ralph’s father’s garden, which was used as a place of deposit for gardening implements, seeds, bundles of straw, matting for covering plants, and other similar articles employed about the garden. This building was called the “garden-house.” In the upper part of it was a loft, which Ralph had taken possession of as a storehouse for his wagons, trucks, traps, and other playthings. He used to go up to this loft by means of a number of large wooden pins, or pegs, that were driven into one of the posts of the frame of the garden-house, in a corner. Somebody once recommended to Ralph to have a staircase made to lead up to his loft, but he said he liked better to climb up by these pins than to have the best staircase that ever was made.
Ralph used frequently to carry his robin to this garden-house when he was playing about there, and on such occasions he would sometimes hang the cage on a nail out of the window of his loft. He drove the nail himself into the edge of a sort of a shelf, which was near the window on the outside. The shelf was put therefor doves to light upon, in going in and out of their house, which was made in the peak of the roof, over Ralph’s loft.
Account of Ralph’s robin.
Ralph caught his robin when he was very young. He caught him in a net. He saw the nest when the birds were first building it. About a week after the birds had finished it, he thought it was time for the eggs to be laid. So he got a ladder, which was usually kept on the back side of the tool-house, and, having planted it against a tree, he began to go up. Just then, his little brother Eddy, who was walking along one of the alleys of the garden near where the bird’s nest was, saw him.
Eddy’s advice.
“Ralph,” said Eddy, “what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get the eggs out of the nest,” said Ralph.
“No,” replied Eddy, “you must not do that.”
Ralph paid no regard to this, but went on slowly mounting the ladder. The top of the ladder, resting as it did against some of the branches of the tree, was not very steady, and so Ralph could not go up very fast. Besides, Ralph was somewhat afraid of the old birds; for they, seeing that their nest was in danger, were flying about him with very loud chirpings, being apparently in a state of great terror and distress.
“Ralph,” said Eddy, “you must not trouble those birds.”
Ralph went steadily on.
“Besides,” said Eddy, when he saw that his brother paid no heed to his remonstrances, “it would be a great deal better to wait till the eggs are hatched, and then get one of the birds.”
The plan changed.
Ralph paused when he heard this suggestion. He began to think that it might possibly be a better plan to wait, as Eddy proposed, and to get a bird instead of an egg. He paused a momenton the ladder, standing on one foot, and holding himself on by one hand.
“Would you, Eddy?” said he.
“Yes,” said Eddy, “I certainly would.”
Eddy proposed this plan, not so much from any desire he had that Ralph should get one of the birds when they were hatched, as to save the eggs from being taken away then. He had an instinctive feeling that it was wrong to take away the eggs, and he pitied the poor birds in their distress, and so he said what he thought was most likely to induce Ralph to desist from his design.
After hesitating a few minutes, Ralph said, “Well, I will.” He then came down to the ground again, and, taking up the ladder, he carried it away.
About a week after this, Ralph got the ladder one day when the birds were not there, and climbed up to the nest. He found three very pretty blue eggs in it.
The birds are hatched.
About a week after this he climbed up again, and he found that the eggs were hatched. There were three little birds there, not fledged. When they heard Ralph’s rustling of the branches over their heads, they opened their mouths very wide, expecting that the old birds had come to bring them something to eat.
About a week after this Ralph climbed up again, but, just before he reached the nest, the three birds, having now grown old enough to fly, all clambered out of the nest, and flew away in all directions.
“Here’s one!”
“Stop ’em! stop ’em! Eddy,” said Ralph, “or watch them at least, and see where they go, till I come down.”
“Here’s one,” said Eddy.
He pointed, as he said this, under some currant-bushes, near an alley where he was walking. The little bird was crouched down, and was looking about him full of wonder. In fact, he was quite astonished to find how far he had flown.
Ralph clambered down the ladder as fast as he could, and then ran off to the tool-house, saying as he ran,
“Keep him there, Eddy, till I go and get my net.”
“I can’t keep him,” said Eddy, “unless he has a mind to stay. But I will watch him.”
So Eddy stood still and watched the bird while Ralph went after his net. The bird hopped along a little way, and then stopped, and remained perfectly still until Ralph returned.
A bird pursued.
The net was a round net, the mouth of it being kept open by means of a hoop. It was fastened to the end of a long pole. Ralph crept up softly toward the place where the bird had alighted, and, when he was near enough, he extended the pole, and clapped the net down over the bird, and made it prisoner.
Caught and caged.
“I’ve caught him! I’ve caught him!” said Ralph, greatly excited. “Run, Eddy, and get the cage. Run quick. No, stop; you come here, and hold the net down, and I’ll go and get the cage myself.”
So Eddy held the net down, while Ralph went into the tool-house after the cage. He succeeded in putting the bird into the cage safely, and then went home.
The feeding.
Ralph attended his bird very carefully for many days, feeding him with strawberries and crumbs of bread. The natural food of most small birds consists of seeds, berries, and insects. Ralph knew, therefore, that strawberries would be good for his bird,and as for bread, he reflected that it was made from seeds, namely, the seeds of wheat. The only difference was, that in bread the seeds were ground up, mixed with water, and baked. So Ralph concluded that bread would be a very proper food for his robin.
Ralph taming the robin.
Ralph taming the robin.
The stile.
As soon as the robin grew old enough to hop about a little, Ralph used often to take him out of his cage and put him on the walk in the garden, or on the end of a fence, near a stile, where was a broad, flat place convenient for the little bird to stand on. In such cases, he would, himself, always stand at a little distance off, so as not to frighten the bird, and in this manner he gradually taught him to be very tame and familiar.
Bruno and Hiram. Description of the premises.
Although Ralph was thus very kind to his robin, he was generally a very unreasonable and selfish boy. Bruno, at this time, lived in the house next to the one where he lived. Bruno belonged, as has already been said, to a boy named Hiram. The two houses that these two boys lived in were pretty near together,and the gardens adjoined, being separated from each other only by a wall. At the foot of each garden was a gate, and there was a little path which led along from one gate to the other, through a field where there was a brook, and also a great many trees overshadowing the banks of it. The boys used often to visit each other by going from one of these gates to the other along this path. There was a space under Hiram’s gate where Bruno could get through. He used often to go through this opening, and pass down into the field, to drink in the brook, or to play about among the trees. Sometimes both the gates were left open, and then Bruno would go and look into Ralph’s garden; and once he went in, and walked along as far as the tool-house, looking about and examining the premises very curiously. As soon as he had seen what sort of a place it was, however, he turned round and ran out again, not knowing what might happen to him if he stayed there.
Ralph wishes to buy Bruno.
Ralph saw Bruno often when he went to visit Hiram in his garden, and he wished that he could have such a dog himself. In fact, he tried to buy him of Hiram a long time, but Hiram would not sell him. Ralph became very angry with Hiram at last for so strenuously refusing to sell his dog.
“You are a great fool,” said he, “for not being willing to sell me the dog. I would give you any price you would name.”
“That makes no difference,” said Hiram; “I would rather have the dog than any amount of money, no matter how much.”
Ralph becomes Bruno’s enemy.
So Ralph turned, and went away in a rage; and the next time he saw Bruno out in the field behind the garden, he ran down to his gate and pelted him with stones.
Bruno could not understand what reason Ralph could have for wishing to hurt him, or being his enemy in any way. He perceived, however, that Ralph was his enemy, and so he became very much afraid of him. When he wished to go down to the brook, he always looked out through the hole under the gate very carefully to see if Ralph was near, and if he was, he did not go. If he could not see Ralph any where, he would creep out stealthily, and walk along in a very cautious manner, turning his head continually toward Ralph’s gate, to watch for the slightest indications of danger; and if he caught a glimpse of Ralph in the garden, he would turn back and run into Hiram’s garden again.
The boys play together.
Bruno was a very courageous dog, and he would not have run away from Ralph, but would have attacked him in the most determined manner, and driven him away from the garden gate, and thus taught him better than to throw stones at an innocent and unoffending dog, had he not been prevented from doing this by one consideration. He perceived that Ralph was one of Hiram’s friends. Hiram went often to visit Ralph, and Ralph, in return, came often to visit Hiram. They used to employ themselves together in various schemes of amusement, and Bruno, who often stood by at such times, although he could not understand the conversation that passed between them, perceived, nevertheless, that they were good friends. He would not, therefore, do any harm to Ralph, even in self-defense, for fear of displeasing Hiram. Accordingly, when Ralph assaulted him with sticks and stones, the only alternative left him was to run away.
Hiram catches a squirrel. Ralph wishes to buy the squirrel.
It is singular enough that Ralph, though often very unreasonable and selfish in his dealings with other boys, and though inthis instance very cruel to Bruno, was still generally kind to animals. He was very fond of animals, and used to get as many as he could; and whenever Hiram had any, he used to go to see them, and he took a great interest in them. Once Hiram caught a beautiful gray squirrel in a box-trap. He put the trap down upon a chopping-block in a little room that was used as a shop in his father’s barn. Ralph came in to see the squirrel. He kneeled down before the block, and, lifting up the trap a little way, he peeped in. The squirrel was in the back corner of the trap, crouched down, and feeling, apparently, very much afraid. He had a long, bushy tail, which was curled over his back in a very graceful manner. Ralph resolved to buy this squirrel too, but Hiram was unwilling to sell him. However, he said thatperhapshe would sell him, if Ralph would wait till the next day. Ralph accordingly waited; but that night the squirrel gnawed out of his trap, and as the shop window was left open, he made his escape, and got off into the woods again, where he leaped back and forth among the branches of the trees, and turned head over heels again and again in the exuberance of his joy.
The shop.
The shop.
Hiram and Joe go into the woods.
One day Hiram went out into the woods with a man whom they called Uncle Joe, to get some stones to mend a wall. They went in a cart. They placed a board across the cart for a seat.Uncle Joe and Hiram sat upon this seat together, side by side, Hiram on the right, as he was going to drive. The tools for digging out the stones, consisting of a spade, a shovel, a hoe, and a crowbar, were laid in the bottom of the cart. Thus they rode to the woods. Bruno followed them, trotting along by the road-side, and now and then running off under the fences and walls, to see if he could smell the tracks of any wild animals among the ferns and bushes.
Bruno barks at something.
He was not successful in this hunting on his way to the woods, but, after he arrived there, he accomplished quite a brilliant achievement. Hiram and Uncle Joe were very busy digging out stones, when their attention was arrested by a very loud and violent barking. Hiram knew at once that it was Bruno that was barking, though he could not see him. The reason why they could not see the dog was, that he was down in the bottom of a shady glen, that lay near where Hiram and Uncle Joe were digging the stones.
“What’s that?” said Hiram. “What is Bruno barking at?”
“I don’t know,” said Uncle Joe; “go and see.”
Bruno finds a fox’s hole.
So Hiram threw down his hoe, and, seizing a stick, he ran down into the glen. He found Bruno stationed before a hole, which opened in under a bank, near a small spring. He seemed very much excited, sometimes running back and forth before the hole, sometimes digging into it with his fore paws, and barking all the time in a very loud and earnest manner. He seemed greatly pleased when he saw Hiram coming.
As soon as Hiram saw that Bruno was barking at a hole, which seemed to be the hole of some wild animal, he went back andcalled Uncle Joe to come and see. Uncle Joe said he thought it was the hole of a fox, and from the excitement that Bruno manifested, he judged that the fox must be in it.
“I’ll go and get the tools,” said he, “and we will dig him out.”
Hiram gets a little fox.
So Uncle Joe went for the tools, and he and Hiram began to dig. They dug for more than half an hour. Finally they came to the end of the hole, and then they found a young fox crouching close into a corner. He was about as large as a small kitten.
His plans for him. Hiram gives his fox a hole to live in.
Hiram said he meant to carry the fox home, and bring him up, and tame him. He accordingly took him in his arms, and carried him back to the place where they had been digging stones. Uncle Joe carried back the tools. Bruno jumped about and barked a great deal by the side of Hiram, but Hiram ordered him to be quiet, and finally he learned that the little fox was not to be killed. When they reached the stone quarry, Hiram made a small pen for the fox. He made it of four square stones, which he placed together so as to inclose a small space, and then he covered this space by means of a flat stone which he placed over it. Thus the little prisoner was secured.
When the pen was completed, and the fox put in, Hiram resumed his work of digging stones with Uncle Joe. He was very eager now to get the load completed as soon as possible, so as to go home with his fox. While he was at work thus, Bruno crouched down before the place where Hiram had shut up his fox, and watched very earnestly. He understood that Hiram wished to keep the fox, and therefore he had no intention of hurting him. He only meant to be all ready to give the alarm, in case the little prisoner should attempt to get away.
Hiram had very good success in training and taming his fox. Ralph and Eddy came often to see him, and they sometimes helped Hiram to feed him, and to take care of him. There was a place by an old wall behind the house where Hiram lived where there was a hole, which seemed to lead under ground, from a sort of angle between two large stones.
“I’ll let him have that hole for his house,” said Hiram. “I don’t know how deep it is; but if it is not deep enough for him, he must dig it deeper.”
The chain.
Ralph had a small collar which was made for a dog’s collar; and one day, when he felt more good-natured than usual, and had in some measure forgotten Hiram’s refusal to sell Bruno to him, he offered to lend Hiram this collar to put around Foxy’s neck.
“Then,” said Ralph, “you can get a long chain, and chain Foxy to a stake close to the mouth of his hole. And so the chain will allow him to go in and out of his hole, and to play about around it, and yet it will prevent his running away.”
Hiram liked this plan very much. So Ralph brought the collar, and the boys put it upon Foxy’s neck. Hiram also found a kind of chain at a hardware store in the village, which he thought would be suitable to his purpose, and he bought two yards of it. This length of chain, when Foxy was fastened with it, gave him a very considerable degree of liberty, and, at the same time, prevented him from running away. He could go into his hole, where he was entirely out of sight, or he could come out and play in the grass, and under the lilac bushes that were about his hole, and eat the food which Hiram brought out for him there. Sometimes, too, he would climb up to the top of the wall, and lie therean hour at a time, asleep. If, however, on such occasions, he heard any one coming, he would run down the rocks that formed the wall, and disappear in his hole in an instant, and he would not come out again until he was quite confident that the danger had gone by.