A DOG AND ITS MASTER

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XXVI, 24 December 1898, Page 826

A DOG AND ITS MASTER

Leland Stanford, Jr., was, like his father, very fond of animals, and Mrs White tells a pretty and pathetic story of the boy and his little yellow dog. One day, when Leland, Jr., was about ten years old, he was looking from the window of his home in San Franeiseo. Suddenly his mother, who hud heard a noise in the street, saw the boy turn, dash out of the house, down the steps and into a crowd of boys in front of the window. Presently he emerged from the crowd, covered with dust, and holding a homely yellow dog in his arms. Like a flash he ran up the steps into tlie house, and as the door shut behind him a howl of rage went up from the boys outside. Before his mother was aware of his purpose he had flown to the telephone and summoned the family doctor. The dignified old gentleman soon appeared, and was somewhat, disconcerted at being confronted by a very dusty, excited boy, holding a brokenlegged dog in his arms. After hearing the story, the doctor took the boy and the dog into his carriage and drove to a veterinary surgeon's office, where the broken leg was set.

Leland took the most faithful care of the dog until it recovered, and the dog repaid him with a devotion that was touching. The dog was left at Palo Alto when the boy went to Europe with his parents. When its young master was brought back dead the dog realised the sad bereavement all too well. After the body was placed in the tomb, the faithful creature took its place in front of the door. Tt could not be coaxed away even for its food, and one morning- it was found there dead. It was buried near its devoted human friend.