Any thing that a man handles, or even touches, retains for a time a
scent, which, though we can not perceive it is very sensible to a dog.
Thus a dog can follow the track of a man over a road by the scent
which his footsteps leave upon the ground. He can even single out a
particular track from among a multitude of others on the same ground,
each scent being apparently different in character from all the rest.
[Sidenote: He distrusts Murphy’s present, and maintains a faithful
watch.]
In this way Bruno perceived that the meat which he found in his house
had been handled by the same man that he had barked at so many times at
midnight at the foot of the pathway. This made him suspicious of it.
He thought that that man must be a bad man, and he did not consider it
prudent to have any thing to do with bad men or any of their gifts. So
he left the meat where it was, and went back into his corner.
His first thought in reflecting on the situation in which he found
himself placed was, that since Lorenzo had forbidden him so sternly
and positively to bark in the night, and had shut him up so close a
prisoner, he would give up all care or concern about the premises, and
let the robber, if it was a robber, do what he pleased. But then, on
more sober reflection, he perceived that Lorenzo must have acted under
some mistake in doing as he had done, and that it was very foolish in
him to cherish a feeling of resentment on account of it.
“The wrong doings of other people,” thought he to himself, “are no
reason why I should neglect _my_ duty. I will watch, even if I am shut
up.”
So he lay listening very carefully. When all was still, he fell into
a light slumber now and then; but the least sound without caused him
to prick up his ears and open one eye, until he was satisfied that
the noise he heard was nothing but the wind. Thus things went on till
midnight.
[Sidenote: The robber enters the house, and carries away the bowl.]
About midnight he heard a sound. He raised his head and listened. It
seemed like the sound of footsteps going through the yard. He started
up, and put his head close to the door. He heard the footsteps going
up close to the house. He began to bark very loud and violently. The
robbers opened the door with a false key, and went into the house.
Bruno barked louder and louder. He crowded hard against the door,
trying to get it open. He moaned and whined, and then barked again
louder than ever.
Lorenzo came to the window.
“Bruno,” said he, “what a plague you are! Lie down, and go to sleep.”
Bruno, hearing Lorenzo’s voice, barked again with all the energy that
he possessed.
“Bruno,” said Lorenzo, very sternly, “if you don’t lie down and be
still, to-morrow night I’ll tie your mouth up.”
Murphy was now in the house, and all was still. He had got the silver
bowl, and was waiting for Lorenzo to go to bed. Bruno listened
attentively, but not hearing any more sounds, ceased to bark. Presently
Lorenzo went away from the window back to his bed, and lay down. Bruno
watched some time longer, and then he went and lay down too.
In about half an hour, Murphy began slowly and stealthily to creep out
of the house. He walked on tiptoe. For a time he made no noise. He had
the bowl in one hand, and his shoes in the other. He had taken off
his shoes, so as not to make any noise in walking. Bruno heard him,
however, as he was going by, and, starting up, he began to bark again.
But Murphy hastened on, and the yard was accordingly soon entirely
still. Bruno listened a long time, but, hearing no more noise, he
finally lay down again in his corner as before.
[Sidenote: What could be the reason that the poison failed?]
Murphy crept away into the thicket, and so went home to his encampment,
wondering why Bruno had not been killed by the poison.
“I put in poison enough,” said he to himself, “for half a dozen dogs.
What could be the reason it did not take effect?”
When the people of the house came down into the kitchen the next
morning, they found that the door was wide open, and the silver bowl
was gone.
[Illustration]
What became of the silver bowl will be related in another story. I will
only add here that gipsies have various other modes of obtaining money
dishonestly besides stealing. One of these modes is by pretending to
tell fortunes. Here is a picture of a gipsy endeavoring to persuade
an innocent country boy to have his fortune told. She wishes him to
give her some money. The boy wears a frock. He is dressed very neatly.
He looks as if he were half persuaded to give the gipsy his money. He
might, however, just as well throw it away.
THE SILVER BOWL RECOVERED.
On the night when Lorenzo’s silver bowl was stolen by the gipsy, all
the family, except Lorenzo, were asleep, and none of them knew aught
about the theft which had been committed until the following morning.
Lorenzo got up that morning before any body else in the house, as was
his usual custom, and, when he was dressed, he looked out at the window.
“Ah!” said he, “now I recollect; Bruno is fastened up in his house. I
will go the first thing and let him out.”
[Sidenote: Lorenzo discovers the open door.]
So Lorenzo hastened down stairs into the kitchen, in order to go out
into the yard. He was surprised, when he got there, to find the kitchen
door open.
“Ah!” said he to himself, “how came this door open? I did not know that
any body was up. It must be that Almira is up, and has gone out to get
a pail of water.”
[Sidenote: He releases Bruno.]
Lorenzo went out to Bruno’s house, and took down the board by which he
had fastened the door. Then he opened the door. The moment that the
door was opened Bruno sprang out. He was very glad to be released from
his imprisonment. He leaped up about Lorenzo’s knees a little at first,
to express his joy, and then ran off, and began smelling about the yard.
[Sidenote: Bruno’s mysterious behavior.]
He found the traces of Murphy’s steps, and, as soon as he perceived
them, he began to bark. He followed them to the kitchen door, and
thence into the house, barking all the time, and looking very much
excited.
“Bruno,” said Lorenzo, “what is the matter with you?”
Bruno went to the door of the closet where the bowl had been kept. The
door was open a little way. Bruno insinuated his nose into the crevice,
and so pushing the door open, he went in. As soon as he was in he began
to bark again.
“Bruno!” exclaimed Lorenzo, “what is the matter with you?”
Bruno looked up on the shelf where the bowl was usually placed, and
barked louder than ever.
“Where’s my bowl?” exclaimed Lorenzo, looking at the vacant place, and
beginning to feel alarmed. “Where’s my bowl?”
He spoke in a tone of great astonishment and alarm. He looked about on
all the shelves; the bowl was nowhere to be seen.
“Where can my bowl be gone to?” said he, more and more frightened. He
went out of the closet into the kitchen, and looked all about there for
his bowl. Of course, his search was vain. Bruno followed him all the
time, barking incessantly, and looking up very eagerly into Lorenzo’s
face with an appearance of great excitement.
“Bruno,” said Lorenzo, “you know something about it, I am sure, if you
could only tell.”
[Sidenote: The wind-mill.]
Lorenzo, however, did not yet suspect that his bowl had been stolen.
He presumed that his mother had put it away in some other place, and
that, when she came down, it would readily be found again. So he went
out into the yard, and sat on a stone step, and went to work to finish
a wind-mill he had begun the day before.
[Sidenote: Lorenzo’s mother explains the mystery.]
By-and-by his mother came down; and as soon as she had heard Lorenzo’s
story about the bowl, and learned, too, that the outer door had
been found open when Lorenzo first came down stairs, she immediately
expressed the opinion that the bowl had been stolen.
“Some thief has been breaking into the house,” said she, “I’ve no
doubt, and has stolen it.”
“Stolen it!” exclaimed Lorenzo.
“Yes,” replied his mother; “I’ve no doubt of it.”
So saying, she went into the closet again, to see if she could discover
any traces of the thieves there. But she could not. Every thing seemed
to have remained undisturbed, just as she had left it the night before,
except that the bowl was missing.
“Somebody has been in and stolen it,” said she, “most assuredly.”
Bruno, who had followed Lorenzo and his mother into the room, was
standing up at this time upon his hind legs, with his paws upon
the edge of the shelf, and he now began to bark loudly, by way of
expressing his concurrence in this opinion.
[Sidenote: “Seek him, Bruno!”]
“Seize him, Bruno!” said Lorenzo. “Seize him!”
Bruno, on hearing this command, began smelling about the floor, and
barking more eagerly than ever.
“Bruno smells his tracks, I verily believe,” said Lorenzo, speaking to
his mother. Then, addressing Bruno again, he clapped his hands together
and pointed to the ground, saying,
“Go seek him, Bruno! seek him!”
[Sidenote: Bruno departs upon his errand.]
Bruno began immediately to follow the scent of Murphy’s footsteps along
the floor, out from the closet into the kitchen, and from the kitchen
into the yard; he ran along the path a little way, and then made a wide
circuit over the grass, at a place where Murphy had gone round to get
as far as possible away from Bruno’s house. He then came back into the
path again, smelling as he ran, and thence passed out through the gate;
here, keeping his nose still close to the ground, he went on faster and
faster, until he entered the thicket and disappeared.
Lorenzo did not pay particular attention to these motions. He had given
Bruno the order, “Seek him!” rather from habit than any thing else,
and without any idea that Bruno would really follow the tracks of the
thief. Accordingly, when Bruno ran off down the yard, he imagined that
he had gone away somewhere to play a little while, and that he would
soon come back.
“He’ll be sure to come back pretty soon,” said he, “to get his
breakfast.”
But Bruno did not come back to breakfast. Lorenzo waited an hour after
breakfast, and still he did not come.
He waited two hours longer, and still he did not come.
Where was Bruno all this time? He was at the camp of the gipsies,
watching at the place where Murphy had hid the stolen bowl.
[Sidenote: He reaches the gipsy camp. He discovers the place where the
bowl was hidden.]
When he followed the gipsy’s tracks into the thicket, he perceived the
scent more and more distinctly as he went on, and this encouraged him
to proceed. Lorenzo had said “Seek him!” and this Bruno understood as
an order that he should follow the track until he found the man, and
finding him, that he should keep watch at the place till Lorenzo or
some one from the family should come. Accordingly, when he arrived at
the camp, he followed the scent round to the back end of a little low
hut, where Murphy had hidden the bowl. The gipsy had dug a hole in the
ground, and buried the bowl in it, out of sight, intending in a day or
two to dig it up and melt it. Bruno found the place where the bowl was
buried, but he could not dig it up himself, so he determined to wait
there and watch until some one should come. He accordingly squatted
down upon the grass, near the place where the gipsies were seated
around their fire, and commenced his watch.[4]
[4] See engraving, page 43.
There were two gipsy women sitting by the fire. There was also a man
sitting near by. Murphy was standing up near the entrance of the tent
when Bruno came. He was telling the other gipsies about the bowl. He
had a long stick in his hand, and Bruno saw this, and concluded that it
was best for him to keep quiet until some one should come.
“I had the greatest trouble with Bruno,” said Murphy. “He barked at
me whenever he saw me, and nothing would quiet him. But he is getting
acquainted now. See, he has come here of his own accord.”
“You said you were going to poison him,” remarked the other man.
“Yes,” replied Murphy. “I did put some poisoned meat in his house, but
he did not eat it. I expect he smelled the poison.”
[Sidenote: Lorenzo goes in search of Bruno.]
The hours of the day passed on, and Lorenzo wondered more and more what
could have become of his dog. At last he resolved to go and look him up.
“Mother,” said he, “I am going to see if I can find out what’s become
of Bruno.”
“I would rather that you would find out what’s become of your bowl,”
said his mother.
“Why, mother,” said Lorenzo, “Bruno is worth a great deal more than the
bowl.”
“That may be,” replied his mother, “but there is much less danger of
his being lost.”
Lorenzo walked slowly away from the house, pondering with much
perplexity the double loss he had incurred.
“I can not do any thing,” he said, “to get back the bowl, but I can
look about for Bruno, and if I find him, that’s all I can do. I must
leave it for father to decide what is to be done about the bowl, when
he comes home.”
So Lorenzo came out from his father’s house, and after hesitating for
some minutes which way to go, he was at length decided by seeing a
boy coming across the fields at a distance with a fishing-pole on his
shoulder.
“Perhaps that boy has seen him somewhere,” said he. “I’ll go and ask
him. And, at any rate, I should like to know who the boy is, and
whether he has caught any fish.”
[Sidenote: The sheep. The geese.]
So Lorenzo turned in the direction where he saw the boy. He walked
under some tall elm-trees, and then passed a small flock of sheep that
were lying on the grass in the field. He looked carefully among them
to see if Bruno was there, but he was not. After passing the sheep,
he walked along on the margin of a broad and shallow stream of water.
There were two geese floating quietly upon the surface of this water,
near where the sheep were lying upon the shore. These geese floated
quietly upon the water, like vessels riding at anchor. Lorenzo was
convinced that they had not seen any thing of Bruno for some time. If
they had, they would not have been so composed.
[Sidenote: The ducks in the water.]
Lorenzo walked on toward the boy. He met him at a place where the path
approached near the margin of the water. There was some tall grass on
the brink. Three ducks were swimming near. The ducks turned away when
they saw the boys coming, and sailed gracefully out toward the middle
of the stream.
[Illustration: Lorenzo meets Frank going a fishing.]
Lorenzo, when he drew near the boy, perceived that it was an
acquaintance of his, named Frank. Frank had a long fishing-pole in one
hand, with a basket containing his dinner in the other.
“Frank,” said Lorenzo, “where are you going?”
“I am going a fishing,” said Frank. “Go with me.”
“No,” said Lorenzo, “I am looking for Bruno.”
“I know where he is,” said Frank.
“Where?” asked Lorenzo.
“I saw him a little while ago at the gipsies’ camp, down in the glen.
He was lying down there quietly by the gipsies’ fire.”
“What a dog!” said Lorenzo. “Here I have been wondering what had become
of him all the morning. He has run away, I suppose, because I shut him
up last night.”
“What made you shut him up?” asked Frank.
“Oh, because he made such a barking every night,” replied Lorenzo. “We
could not sleep.”
“He is still enough now,” said Frank. “He is lying down very quietly
with the gipsies.”
Lorenzo then asked Frank some questions about his fishing, and
afterward walked on. Before long he came to a stile, where there was a
path leading to a field. He got over the stile, and followed the path
until at last he came to the gipsies’ encampment.
[Sidenote: Bruno in the camp of the gipsies.]
There he found Bruno lying quietly on the ground, at a little distance
from the fire. As soon as he came in sight of him, he called him.
“Bruno! Bruno!” said he.
Bruno looked up, and, seeing Lorenzo, ran to meet him, but immediately
returned to the camp, whining, and barking, and seeming very uneasy.
He, however, soon became quiet again, for he knew very well, or seemed
to know, that it would require more of a man than Lorenzo to take the
bowl away from the gipsies, and, consequently, that he must wait there
quietly till somebody else should come.
[Sidenote: Lorenzo tries to drive Bruno home, but Bruno will not go.]
“Bruno,” said Lorenzo, speaking very sternly, “_come home_!”
Bruno paid no attention to this command, but, after smelling about the
ground a little, and running to and fro uneasily, lay down again where
he was before.
“Bruno!” said Lorenzo, stamping with his foot.
“Won’t your dog obey you?” said Murphy.
“No,” said Lorenzo. “I wish you would take a stick, and drive him
along.”
Now the gipsies did not wish to have the dog go away. They preferred
that he should stay with them, and be their dog. They had no idea that
he was there to watch over the stolen bowl.
“Don’t drive him away,” said one of the gipsy women, speaking in a low
tone, so that Lorenzo could not hear.
“I’ll only make believe,” said Murphy.
So Murphy took up a little stick, and threw it at the dog, saying, “Go
home, Bruno!”
Bruno paid no heed to this demonstration.
Lorenzo then advanced to where Bruno was lying, and attempted to pull
him along, but Bruno would not come. He would not even get up from the
ground.
“I’ll make you come,” said Lorenzo. So he took hold of him by the neck
and the ears, and began to pull him. Bruno uttered a low growl.
“Oh, dear me!” said Lorenzo, “what shall I do?”
In fact, he was beginning to grow desperate. So he looked about among
the bushes for a stick, and when he had found one sufficient for his
purpose, he came to Bruno, and said, in a very stern voice,
“Now, Bruno, go home!”
Bruno did not move.
“Bruno,” repeated Lorenzo, in a thundering voice, and brandishing his
stick over Bruno’s head, “GO HOME!”
Bruno, afraid of being beaten with the stick, jumped up, and ran off
into the bushes. Lorenzo followed him, and attempted to drive him
toward the path that led toward home. But he could accomplish nothing.
The dog darted to and fro in the thickets, keeping well out of the way
of Lorenzo’s stick, but evincing a most obstinate determination not to
go home. On the contrary, in all his dodgings to and fro, he took care
to keep as near as possible to the spot where the bowl was buried.
[Sidenote: Lorenzo goes home.]
At last Lorenzo gave up in despair, and concluded to go back to the
house, and wait till his father got home.
[Sidenote: The search for the bowl.]
His father returned about the middle of the afternoon, and Lorenzo
immediately told him of the double loss which he had met with. He
explained all the circumstances connected with the loss of the bowl,
and described Bruno’s strange behavior. His father listened in silence.
He immediately suspected that the gipsies had taken the bowl, and
that Bruno had traced it to them. So he sent for some officers and a
warrant, and went to the camp.
[Sidenote: The bowl found.]
As soon as Bruno saw the men coming, he seemed to be overjoyed. He
jumped up, and ran to meet them, and then, running back to the camp
again, he barked, and leaped about in great excitement. The men
followed him, and he led them round behind the hut, and there he began
digging into the ground with his paws. The men took a shovel which was
there, one belonging to the gipsies, and began to dig. In a short time
they came to a flat stone, and, on taking up the stone, they found the
bowl under it.
[Sidenote: Pursuing Murphy.]
Bruno seemed overjoyed. He leaped and jumped about for a minute or two
when he saw the bowl come out from its hiding-place, and raced round
and round the man who held the bowl, and then ran away home to find
Lorenzo. The officers, in the mean time, went off hastily in pursuit of
Murphy, who had made his escape while they had been digging up the bowl.
BRUNO AND THE LOST BOY.
Bruno was quite a large dog. There are a great many different kinds
of dogs. Some are large, others are small. Some are irritable and
fierce, others are good-natured and gentle. Some are stout and massive
in form, others are slender and delicate. Some are distinguished for
their strength, others for their fleetness, and others still for their
beauty. Some are very affectionate, others are sagacious, others are
playful and cunning. Thus dogs differ from each other not only in form
and size, but in their disposition and character as well.
[Sidenote: Pointers.]
Some dogs are very intelligent, others are less so, and even among
intelligent dogs there is a great difference in respect to the modes
in which their intelligence manifests itself. Some dogs naturally love
the water, and can be taught very easily to swim and dive, and perform
other aquatic exploits. Others are afraid of the water, and can never
be taught to like it; but they are excellent hunters, and go into the
fields with their masters, and find the game. They run to and fro
about the field that their master goes into, until they see a bird, and
then they stop suddenly, and remain motionless till their master comes
and shoots the bird. As soon as they hear the report of the gun, they
run to get the game. Sometimes quite small dogs are very intelligent
indeed, though of course they have not so much strength as large dogs.
[Illustration: The little parlor dogs.]
In the above engraving we see several small dogs playing in a parlor.
The ladies are amusing themselves with flowers that they are arranging,
and the dogs are playing upon the carpet at their feet.
There are three dogs in all. Two of them are playing together near the
foreground, on the left. The other is alone.
[Sidenote: Bruno was a large dog.]
Bruno was a large dog. He was a very large dog indeed. When other dogs
were playing around him, he would look down upon them with an air of
great condescension and dignity. He was, however, very kind to them.
They would jump upon him, and play around him, but he never did them
any harm.
[Illustration: Bruno among his companions.]
[Sidenote: Faithfulness.]
Bruno was a very faithful dog. In the summer, when the farmer, his
master (at a time when he belonged to a farmer), went into the field to
his work in the morning, he would sometimes take his dinner with him in
a tin pail, and he would put the pail down under a tree by the side of
a little brook, and then, pointing to it, would say to Bruno,
[Sidenote: Watching.]
“Bruno, watch!”
[Sidenote: Bruno and his master eating dinner in the fields.]
So Bruno would take his place by the side of the pail, and remain there
watching faithfully all the morning. Sometimes he would become very
hungry before his master came back, but, though he knew that there was
meat in the pail, and that there was nothing to cover it but a cloth,
he would never touch it. If he was thirsty, he would go down to the
brook and drink, turning his head continually as he went, and while he
was drinking, to see that no one came near the pail. Then at noon, when
his master came for his dinner, Bruno would be rejoiced to see him. He
would run out to meet him with great delight. He would then sit down
before his master, and look up into his face while he was eating his
dinner, and his master would give him pieces of bread and meat from
time to time, to reward him for his fidelity.
Bruno was kind and gentle as well as faithful. If any body came through
the field while he was watching his master’s dinner, or any thing else
that had been intrusted to his charge, he would not, as some fierce and
ill-tempered dogs are apt to do, fly at them and bite them at once, but
he would wait to see if they were going to pass by peaceably. If they
were, he would not molest them. If they came near to whatever he was
set to guard, he would growl a little, to give them a gentle warning.
If they came nearer still, he would growl louder; but he would never
bite them unless they actually attempted to seize and take away his
trust. Thus he was considerate and kind as well as faithful.
[Sidenote: Fierceness.]
Some dogs, though faithful, are very fierce. They are sometimes
_trained_ to be fierce when they are employed to watch against thieves,
in order that they may attack the thieves furiously. To make them more
fierce, their masters never play with them, but keep them chained up
near their kennels, and do not give them too much to eat. Wild animals
are always more ferocious while hungry.
[Illustration: The hungry watch-dog.]