A DOG STORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 608, 19 November 1881, Page 3

A DOG STORY.

A dog in New Mexico returning one evening with the sheep to the fold discovered that his master was still in the shanty, and kept very quiet. The next evening it was the same. But after penning up the sheep the dog smelled about the door, scratched, harked and even howled, for he was getting very hungry, but his master did not move. The dog true to his appointed duty, went out with the sheep on the third day, but that night when he drove the flock into the pen the last one to attempt to get in became the victim of the dog’s appetite. This method of providing for his own wants became a part of the faithful dog’s daily duty. Every evening the last sheep to try to enter the fold was seized by him, and served for supper and breakfast and for dinner the next day. The ranch to which the dog belonged was in a solitary pa v t of the Ter ritory, and off the track of travel or visitation. From two years from the time of the master’s death—as ascertained by data left by the hatter—the faithful dog tended the flock committed to his charge, and had fresh mutton for his supper every night. The flock was not decimated by the steady drain upon its resources. On the contrary, it increased in numbers, and wb n at the end of two years from the time of the death of the proprietor the ranch was visited and the remains of the owner were found, the dog was still at his post of duty, jealously guarding his flock and driving them into tbs best pastures every day and to the fold at night, before' which he slept to keep the wild sheep-eater of the plains at a distance,