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 in this 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 that

perhaps he 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.

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 and called 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 there an 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.

The cunning of the fox.

It is not very difficult to tame a fox. And yet, in his natural state, he is very wild and very cunning. He resorts to all sorts of maneuvers and contrivances to entrap such animals as he likes for food. On the adjoining page is the picture of a fox lying in wait to catch some rabbits which he sees playing in a neighboring field. He watches for them very slyly; and when they come near enough, he will spring upon them, and seize them entirely unawares.

He is very cunning, and yet, if he is caught young, it is not difficult to tame him.

Ralph offers half a dollar for Hiram’s fox.

One day, after some time, Ralph took it into his head to buy Foxy, as he had tried to buy Bruno; but he found Hiram as little disposed to sell the one as the other.

“I will give you half a dollar for him,” said Ralph, “and that is twice as much as he is worth: a full grown fox is not worth more than that.”

Ralph had some money in small silver pieces and cents, amounting to about half a dollar. This treasure he kept in a tin moneybox, shaped like a house, with a place to drop money in down the chimney.

“No,” said Ralph, “I would rather not sell him.”

Ralph tried a long time to persuade Hiram to sell the fox, but Hiram persisted firmly in his refusal. At length Ralph became very angry with him, because he would not consent. This was extremely unreasonable. Has not a boy a right to do as he pleases about selling or keeping his own property?

Most certainly he has; and yet nothing is more common than for both men and boys to be angry with their friends and neighbors for not being willing to sell them property which they wish to buy.

“Ralph, are you stoning Bruno?”

When Ralph found that Hiram could not be induced to sell Foxy, he went off in great anger, muttering and threatening as he went. He passed out through the gate at the bottom of the garden, and then walked along the path toward the gate which led to his own garden. As he was going in, he saw Bruno lying down upon a grassy bank near the stream. He immediately began to take up stones to stone him. The first stone which he threw struck Bruno on the back, as he lay upon the grass, and hurt him very much. Bruno sprang up and ran away, barking and making other outcries indicative of pain and terror. Hiram came running down to the garden to see what was the matter. When he reached the place, he saw Ralph just aiming another stone.

“Ralph!” exclaimed Hiram, greatly astonished, “are you stoning Bruno?”

“Yes,” said Ralph; “I’ve stoned him a great many times before, and I’ll stone him again the next time I catch him down here.”

Bruno’s escape.

By this time Bruno had come to the gate. He scrambled in through his hole, and then, thinking that he was now safe, he walked along up one of the alleys of the garden.

Hiram, knowing well that it would do no good to remonstrate with Ralph while he was in such a state of mind, shut the gate of the garden, and went to the house.

Ralph resolves to reclaim his collar.