_Our Faithful Dogs._
While I would not advise any person to keep a dog unless he needs one,
yet one of the most faithful animal friends man can have is an educated
dog. Our two bird-dogs were full brothers, and though my brother and I
were always together, yet the dogs knew us apart. If I went to the barn
alone, my dog would follow me; yet if we boys walked to the road
together, both dogs would follow us and would not come farther unless
they were invited. If we threw our coats down, each dog would lie on or
near his master’s coat.
I never knew Set (“Set” was my dog’s name) to disobey orders but once;
that was when he was about eighteen months old. Brother and I had
started from home before daylight to walk about eight miles, to hunt
deer. When daylight came we were about five miles on our way, and I
looked around and here was Set following. I at once gave him a right
down good scolding, and told him to start for home, but he hesitated.
That minute, a snarl of “just dogs” came yelping out from a settler’s
buildings, and Set took leg bail for home with this bunch pow-wowing in
pursuit. Just then brother looked at his watch and it was fifteen
minutes past seven. When we arrived home at night my first question was
“What time did Set get home?” Mother looked over her glasses and said,
“He got here just seven o’clock.” Now I knew he was going some, by his
actions, but just where he gained the fifteen minutes still remains a
mystery.
On one occasion three sportsmen came and wanted a hunt, but I could not
go; so I introduced Set to them, and as they had guns he eventually
consented to go along. In about an hour he pointed a large bevy of quail
in a weed field. The three sportsmen lined up and pressed forward, and
as the birds buzzed up in front of them, bangety-bang! went six shots,
right out in the open. And not a bird was touched. Dear old Set looked
around in disgust, turned, and came straight home.
Well, it wasn’t long before our faithful dogs were getting a year older
every twelve months, but still they clung to us, though life had become
a burden. Dear mother, unbeknown to us, got a man to chloroform them.
When he started to dig their graves we caught on, and both of us, men,
stopped work and made a box and laid our faithful friends—friends who
had never deceived us—side by side in one coffin and buried them under a
shade tree on the old homestead. As we pushed the earth on the box I
felt ashamed to look up at brother, but when I did I found there were
tears in his eyes, too.