Bruno

“I’ll try coaxing and flattery first,” said Murphy. “If that don’t do, I’ll try threatening; if threatening won’t do, I’ll try bribing; and if he won’t be bribed, I’ll poison him.”

Bruno is on the watch.

That night, about twelve o’clock, Murphy crept stealthily round to a back gate which led into the yard behind the house where Lorenzo lived. The instant that Bruno heard the noise, he sprang up, and went bounding down the path till he came to the gate. As soon as he saw the gipsy, he began to bark very vociferously.

Lorenzo was asleep at this time; but as his room was on the back side of the house, and his window was open, he heard the barking. So he got up and went to the window, and called out,

“Bruno, what’s the matter?”

Bruno was at some distance from the house, and did not hear Lorenzo’s voice. He was watching Murphy.

Murphy immediately began to coax and cajole the dog, calling him “Nice fellow,” and “Good dog,” and “Poor Bruno,” speaking all the time in a very friendly and affectionate tone to him. Bruno, however, had sense enough to know that there was something wrong in such a man being seen prowling about the house at that time of night, and he refused to be quieted. He went on barking louder than ever.

“Bruno!” said Lorenzo, calling louder, “what’s the matter? Come back to your house, and be quiet.”

Murphy thought he heard a voice, and, peeping through a crack in the fence, he saw Lorenzo standing at the window. The moon shone upon his white night-gown, so that he could be seen very distinctly.

Murphy disappears.

As soon as Murphy saw him, he crept away into a thicket, and disappeared. Bruno, after waiting a little time to be sure that the man had really gone, turned about, and came back to the house. When he saw Lorenzo, he began to wag his tail. He would have told him about the gipsy if he had been able to speak.

“Go to bed, Bruno,” said he, “and not be keeping us awake, barking at the moon this time of night.”

So Bruno went into his house, and Lorenzo to his bed.

Murphy tries threats.

The next night, Murphy, finding that Bruno could not be coaxed away from his duty by flattery, concluded to try what virtue there might be in threats and scolding. So he came armed with a club and stones. As soon as he got near the gate, Bruno, as he had expected, took the alarm, and came bounding down the path again to see who was there.

As soon as he saw Murphy, he set up a loud and violent barking as before.

“Down, Bruno, down!” exclaimed Murphy, in a stern and angry voice. “Stop that noise, or I’ll break your head.”

So saying, he brandished his club, and then stooped down to pick up one of the stones which he had brought, and which he had laid down on the ground where he was standing, so as to have them all ready.

He is unsuccessful.

Bruno, instead of being intimidated and silenced by these demonstrations, barked louder than ever.

Lorenzo jumped out of bed and came to the window.

“Bruno!” said he, calling out loud, “what’s the matter? There’s nothing there. Come back to your house, and be still.”

The gipsy, finding that Bruno did not fear his clubs and stones, and hearing Lorenzo’s voice again moreover, went back into the thicket. Bruno waited until he was sure that he was really gone, and then returned slowly up the pathway to the house.

“Go to bed, Bruno,” said Lorenzo, “and not be keeping us awake, barking at the moon this time of night.”

So Bruno and Lorenzo both went to bed again.

He tries bribes, which Bruno refuses.

The next night Murphy came again, with two or three pieces of meat in his hands.

“I’ll bribe him,” said he. “He likes meat.”

Bruno, on hearing the sound of Murphy’s footsteps, leaped out of his bed, and ran down the path as before. As soon as he saw the gipsy again, he began to bark. Murphy threw a piece of meat toward him, expecting that, as soon as Bruno saw it, he would stop barking at once, and go to eating it greedily. But Bruno paid no attention to the offered bribe. He kept his eyes fixed closely on the gipsy, and barked away as loud as ever.

Lorenzo, hearing the sound, was awakened from his sleep, and getting up as before, he came to the window.

“Bruno,” said he, “what is the matter now? Come back to your house, and go to bed, and be quiet.”

Murphy, finding that the house was alarmed again, and that Bruno would not take the bribe that he offered him, crept away back into the thicket, and disappeared.

“I’ll poison him to-morrow night,” said he – “the savage cur!”

The poisoned meat.

Accordingly, the next evening, a little before sunset, he put some poison in a piece of meat, and having wrapped it up in paper, he put it in his pocket. He then went openly to the house where Lorenzo lived, with some baskets on his arm for sale. When he entered the yard, he took the meat out of the paper, and secretly threw it into Bruno’s house. Bruno was not there at the time. He had gone away with Lorenzo.

Bruno imprisoned.

Murphy then went into the kitchen, and remained there some time, talking about his baskets. When he came out, he found Lorenzo shutting up Bruno in his house, and putting a board up before the door.

“What are you doing, Lorenzo?” said the gipsy.

“I am shutting Bruno up,” said Lorenzo. “He makes such a barking in the night that we can not sleep.”

“That’s right,” replied the gipsy. So he went away, saying to himself, as he went down the pathway, “He won’t bark much more, I think, after he has eaten the supper I have put in there for him.”

Bruno wondered what the reason was that Lorenzo was shutting him up so closely. He little thought it was on account of his vigilance and fidelity in watching the house. He had, however, nothing to do but to submit. So, when Lorenzo had finished fastening the door, and had gone away, he lay down in a corner of his apartment, extended his paws out before him, rested his chin upon them, and prepared to shut his eyes and go to sleep.

He discovers the meat.

His eyes, however, before he had shut them, fell upon the piece of meat which Murphy had thrown in there for him. So he got up again, and went toward it.

He smelt of it. He at once perceived the smell of the gipsy upon it. 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.

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.

The robber enters the house, and carries away the bowl.