Show I i That Pup of Murchisons Murchison I B By ELLIS PARKER BUTLER Author of Pigs is Pigs etc 1 1 y r I t rt 1 at 11 rA rAI 3 I tl b j II n l r 4 II a 1 I r rs s tv M r Instantly he started for f or home Murchison who rho lives next door to tome tome tome me wants to get rid of ot a dog and if it itou I I you ou know of at any anyone one who wants a dog I wish you would let Murchison know I Murchison need It He is tired of ot dogs anyway That is Just like I Murchison Way Wa up in an enthusiasm one day and sick of ot it the next I Brownlee Brownlee lives on the theother theother theother other side of ot Murchison remembers when Murchison got the dog It was the queerest q thing so Murchison says sars you ou ever er heard of Here Heie came the ex express express express press Express com wagon and delivered the dog The name was all right C P Murchison Murch MurchIson Ison lon Gallatin Iowa and the charges were paid The charges were and paid and the tho dog had been shipped from New York Think of at that Twelve hundred miles in a box with a acan acan acan can of ot condensed milk tied to the box and Please feed written on onit it When Murchison came home to din dinner dinner ner there was wag the dog At first Murch Murchison MurchIson Murchison ison was vas pleased then he was sur surprised surprised surprised then he ho was worried He ordered a dog The more he thought about it the more he worried If It I 1 could just think who sent it ithe Ithe ithe he said to Brownlee then I 1 would know who sent it but I cant think It Itis ItIs Itis is evidently a valuable dog I 1 can see that People dont send cheap in inferior Inferior inferior dogs 1200 miles But I cant think who sent it What worries me he said to Brownlee another time is who sent it I 1 cant imagine who would send me a dog from New York I know so many people and like as not some in influential influential friend of mine has meant to tomake tomake tomake make me a nice present and now he is probably mad because I ac acknowledged acknowledged acknowledged It Id like to know what he thinks of ot me about now It almost worried him sick Murchison son never did care for dogs but when a man is presented with a valuable dog all the way from New York with charges paid he simply has to admire that dog So Murchison got into the habit of ot admiring the dog and so did Mrs Murchison From what they would tell me it was rather a nice dog in its infancy for It was ryas only a pup then Infant dogs have a habit of ot being pups As near as I could gather from what Murchison and Mrs Murchison told me It was a little fluffy yellow ball with bright eyes and tail tall It was the kind of at a dog that bounces around like a rubber ball and eats the evening newspaper and rolls down the porch steps stops with short little squawks of ot surprise and lies down on Its back with its four legs In the air whenever a bigger dog comes near In color It was something like a camel I but a little redder where the hair was long and its hair hall was as like beaver fur soft sott and woolly coolly Inside with a few long hairs that were not so soft It was so I little and fluffy that Mrs Murchison called it Fluff Pretty name for a soft sort little dog Is s Fluff If It I 1 only anI knew who sent that dog Murchison used to say to Brownlee I i would like to make some return Id send him a barrel of at my best melons express paid if 1 it cost me five dollars rs Murchison was in the produce busi busl business business ness and he knew all about melons but not so much about dogs Of course he could tell a dog from a cat and a afew afew few fow things of ot that sort but Brownlee was the real dog dob man Brownlee had two Irish pointers or setters I forget which they were the black dogs with the long nappy ears I dont know much about dogs myself I hate dogs Brownlee knows a great deal about dogs do s He one of at the book taught sort Ort he h knows about dogs do s by instinct I As soon as he sees a dog he can an make a guess at Its breed and out our way that is a pretty good test for tor Gallatin dogs doss arc are rather cosmopolitan That is what makes good stock In men Scotch grandmother and German grandfather on one side and English grandmother and Swedish grandfather on the other and I dont see bee why the same true of dogs There are numbers of ot dogs in in Gallatin that can trace their ancestry through nearly n arl every ev cv every ery tr breed of dog that ever ver lived and Brownlee can look at any anyone one of at them and Immediately guess at its formula f on one part Spitz three parts grey greyhound greyhound greyhound hound two parts collie and so on I 1 have heard him guess more kinds of ot dog do than I ever knew existed As soon as he saw Murchisons dog he guessed It was a pure bred shep shepherd shepherd shepherd herd with a trace of ot Eskimo Massett who thinks think he knows as much about dogs as Brownlee does believe It The moment he saw the pup he said gald it was a pedigree dog half halt St Bernard and half halt Spitz Brownlee and Massett used to sit on Murchisons steps after attar supper and point out the proofs to each other They would argue for hours All right Massett Brownlee would say but you cant fool me Look at that noses nose If It that a shepherd nose Ill eat It And see that tail tall Did you ever see a tail like lift ll that on on a Po Spitz That is an Eskimo tail as sure as I am ama a foot high highTail Tall Tail fiddlesticks Massett would reply You cant tell teU anything by a pups tail Look at his ears There Is St Bernard for you ou And see his low lower lower lower er Jaw that thai Spitz Ill leave It I I I I to Murchison that lower Jaw Spitz Murchison 7 Then all aU three would tackle the pup andy and open its mouth and feel its jaw jawand and the pup would wriggle and squeak and back away opening and shutting its mouth to see it if its works had been damaged All AU right Brownlee would say you walt wait a year or two and see About three months later the he pup was as big as an ordinary full grown dog and his coat looked like a compromise com compromise compromise promise between a calfskin and one of f these hairbrush door mats you use to wipe your feet on in muddy weather He did not look like the same pup He was and awkward and useless and homely as a shopworn yellow plush manicure set Murchison began to feel that he really need a dog but Brownlee was as enthusiastic as ever He would go over to Murchisons fairly oozing dog knowledge Ill tell you OU what that dog Is he would say That dog is a cross be between between between tween a Great Dane and an English deerhound Youve got a very valuable valuable valuable ble dog there Murchison a very ery val valuable valuable valuable dog He comes of at fine stock on both sides and it is a cross you dont often see I never saw It and Ive seen all kinds of ot crossed dogs Then Massett would drop in and walk around the dog admiringly for a afew afew afew few minutes and absorb his beauties Murchison he would say do you know what that dog is That dog is a Ii apure apure pure cross between a Siberian wolf wolfhound wolfhound wolfhound hound and a Newfoundland You treat that dog right and have hae a for fortune fortune fortune tune In him Why a pure Siberian wolfhound is worth a thousand dollars and a good gooda a really good Newfound Newfoundland Newfoundland land mind you is worth two thousand and youve got both in one dog three thousand dollars worth of dog dogIn dogIn dogIn In the next six months Fluff grew He broadened out and lengthened and heightened and every day or two Brownlee or Massett would discover a anew anew anew new strain of ot dog in him They point pointed pointed ed cd out to Murchison that the marks by which he could tell the different kinds of dog that were combined In Fluff and every time they discovered a new one they held a sort of ot jubilee and bragged and swelled their chests They seemed to spend all aU their time thinking up odd and strange kinds of ot dog that Fluff had in him Brownlee discovered the traces of ot Cuban bloodhound hound beagle Brague de lle and mastiff but Mas Massett Massett Massett sett first traced the staghound man watch dog dachshund and harrier in him Murchison not being a man never nevel claimed to have noticed n any of at these family resemblances and never said what he thought the dog really was until a month or two later when he gave it as his opinion that the dog was a cross between a wolf a a Shetland pouf pony and a hyena It was about that time that Fluff had to be chained He bad had begun to eat other dogs and chil children children dren and chickens The Th first night Murchison chained him to his kennel Fluff walked a half halt a mile taking the th kennel along and aid then only stopped because the kennel got tangled with a lamppost The man who brought him home claimed that Fluff was nearly I asphyxiated when he found him said I he gnawed half through the lamppost and that gas got in his lungs but this was as not true Murchison learned after atter afterward afterward ward that it was as only a gasoline lamp lamppost lamppost lamppost post and a wooden one If It there were only some stags around this part of the country said Massett the staghound stag hound strain in that dog would be mighty valuable You could rent hUn him out to everybody who wanted to go and have a regular monopoly because hes the only staghound in this part of the country And stag hunting would be popular top too out here because there are no game laws that interfere with stag hunting In this state There Is no closed season People could hunt stags all the year round and have that dog busy every day of the year Yes sneered Brownlee only there areno are no stags And he any stag staghound staghound staghound hound blood blo d in him Pity there are no dachs in this state too It Then Murchison could hire his dog at night too They hunt dachs at night dont they Massett Only there is no dachs dachshund dachshund dachshund hund blood in him either It If there was wasand wasand wasand and if there were a few tew dachs Massett was mad Yes he cried And you with your our Cuban bloodhound strain I suppose if it was the open season for Cubans oud go out with the dog and tree a afew afew afew few Or put on snowshoes and follow the to his icy lair Brownlee get mad easily Murchison he said leaving out dreary nonsense about stag staghounds staghounds staghounds hounds I can tell you that dog would maHe malle ma e the finest duck dog in the state Hes got all the points for a good duck dog and I ought to know for I have two of at the best duck dogs that ever lived All AH he needs Is training If you will train him right have a mighty valuable dog But I dont hunt ducks said Murchison and I dont d nt know how to train trail even a lap dog You Thu let me attend to t his education said Brownlee I just want to show l I I II Massett here that I know a dog dg when i I see one Ill show Massett the finest I duck dog he ever saw when I get through with Fluff So he went over and got his shotgun just jUt to give Fluff Flu his first lesson The first thing a duck dog must learn Is not notto notto notto to be afraid of a gun and Brownlee said that if it a dog first learned about guns right at his home he was not so apt to be afraid of ot them He said that if a dog heard a gun for the first time when he was away from home and in strange surroundings he was quite right to be surprised and startled but if 1 he heard it in the bosom of ot his fam family famIly family ily with all his friends calmly seated about he would think It was a natural nat ral thing and accept It as such So Brownlee put a shell in his gun and Massett and Murchison sat on the tha porch steps and pretended to be uninterested uninterested I and normal and Brownlee stood up and aimed the gun in the tl the e air Fluff was eating a bone but Brownlee spoke to him and he looked up and Brownlee pulled the trigger It seemed deemed about five minutes before Fluff struck the ground he jumped so high when the gun was fired and then he started north by northeast at about sixty miles an cn hour He came back all right three weeks later but his tail tall was still be between between tween twe n his legs Brownlee feel the least dis discouraged discouraged discouraged He said he saw now that the whole principle of ot what he had done was wrong that no dog with any brains whatever could be anything but frightened to hear a gun shot off oft right in the bosom of his family That was no place to fire a gun He said Fluff Flut I i evidently thought the whole lot of us I were crazy and ran In fear of his life thinking we were insane and might shoot him next He said the thing to todo todo todo do was to take the shotgun into its natural surroundings and let Fluff learn to love it there He pictured Fluff enjoying the sound of the gun when he heard it at the edge of ot the lake Murchison never hunted ducks but butas butas butas as Fluff Flu was his dog he went with Brownlee and of ot course Massett went Massett wanted to see seethe the failure He I said he wished stags were as plentiful I as ducks and he would show Brownlee Fluff was a strong dog he seemed I to have a strait strain of ot ox in him so far as I strength went and as long as he saw the gun he insisted that he would stay at home but when Brownlee wrapped I the gun in brown paper so it looked like I I Ia a big parcel from the meat shop the horse that they had hitched to the I buckboard was able to drag Fluff along I without straining itself Fluff was fastened to the tho rear axle with a chain When they reached Duck lake Brownlee untied Fluff and patted him and then unwrapped the gun Fluff gave gay one pained glance and made the tho sixmile run home in seven minutes without stopping He was home before Brownlee Brownlee could think of anything to say and he went so far into his ken kennel kennel kennel nel that Murchison had to take off the boards at the back to find him that night nothing was what Brown Brownlee lee said when he did speak young dogs are often otten that way Gun fright They have to be gun sun broken You come out tomorrow and Ill show you how a man who really knows how to handle a dog does the trick The next dy day when Fluff saw the buckboard he went into his kennel and they pry him out with the hoe handle He connected buckboards and guns In his mind so Brownlee hor bor borrowed rowed the butchers delivery wagon and they drove to Wild lake It was seven miles but Fluff seemed more willing to go In that direction than toward Duck lake He did not seem to care to go to Duck lake at all Now then said Brownlee Ill show you the intelligent way to handle han handle handle dle a dog Ill prove to him that he ho hohas has fear that I am his com comrade comrade comrade rade and friend And at the same time he said Ill not have him run running running running ning off home and spoiling our days sport So he took the chain and fastened It around his waist and then he sat down and talked to Fluff Flut like an old friend and got him in a playful mood Then he had Murchison get the gun out of ot the wagon and lay It on the ground about twenty feet off ort It was wrapped in brown paper Brownlee talked to Fluff and told him what fine sport duck hunting Is and then as if It by chance he got on his hands and crawled toward the gun Fluff hung back a little but the chain Just coaxed him a little too and they the edged up to the gun and Brownlee pretended to discover It unexpectedly unexpected Well ell Well Nell he said this Fluff nosed up to it and sniffed it and then went at it as if it was Mas cat That Brownlee had wrapped a beefsteak around the gun inside the paper pap r and Fluff tore oft off the paper and ate the steak and Brownlee winked at Murchison I declare he said if it here a agun agun agun gun Look at this Fluff a gun Gosh Goh but we are in luck Would you believe it that dog sniffed at the gun and did not fear it in the tho I least |