He Was Given The Run Of My
Room, But I Had Expected, Of Course, That He Would Sleep In His Own
Box, As Usual.
But no, the little rascal in some way discovered the
warmth of the blankets on my bed, and in
Between these he had
undoubtedly spent most of the time during our absence, and there we
found him after a long search, and there he wants to stay all the time
now, and if anyone happens to go near the bed they are greeted with
the fiercest kind of smothered growls.
The black horse has been sold, and Faye has bought another, a sorrel,
that seems to be a very satisfactory animal. He is not as handsome as
Ben, nor as fractious, either. Bettie is behaving very well, but is
still nervous, and keeps her forefeet down just long enough to get
herself over the ground. She is beautiful, and Kelly simply adores her
and keeps her bright-red coat like satin. Faye can seldom ride with me
because of his numerous duties, and not one of the ladies rides here,
so I have Kelly go, for one never knows what one may come across on
the roads around here. They are so seldom traveled, and are little
more than trails.
CAMP BAKER, MONTANA TERRITORY,
March, 1878.
THE mail goes out in the morning, and in it a letter must be sent to
you, but it is hard - hard for me to write - to have to tell you that my
dear dog, my beautiful greyhound, is dead - dead and buried! It seems
so cruel that he should have died now, so soon after getting back to
his old home, friends, and freedom. On Tuesday, Faye and Lieutenant
Lomax went out for a little hunt, letting Hal go with them, which was
unusual, and to which I objected, for Lieutenant Lomax is a
notoriously poor shot and hunter, and I was afraid he might
accidentally kill Hal - mistake him for a wild animal. So, as they went
down our steps I said, "Please do not shoot my dog!" much more in
earnest than in jest, for I felt that he would really be in danger, as
it would be impossible to keep him with them all the time.
As they went across the parade ground, rifles over their shoulders,
Hal jumped up on Faye and played around him, expressing his delight at
being allowed to go on a hunt. He knew what a gun was made for just as
well as the oldest hunter. That was the last I saw of my dog! Faye
returned long before I had expected him, and one quick glance at his
troubled face told me that something terrible had happened. I saw that
he was unhurt and apparently well, but - where was Hal? With an awful
pain in my heart I asked, "Did Lieutenant Lomax shoot Hal?" After a
second's hesitation Faye said "No; but Hal is dead!" It seemed too
dreadful to be true, and at first I could not believe it, for it had
been only such a short time since I had seen him bounding and leaping,
evidently in perfect health, and oh, so happy!
No one in the house even thought of dinner that night, and poor black
Cagey sobbed and moaned so loud and long Faye was obliged to ask him
to be quiet. For hours I could not listen to the particulars. Faye
says that they had not gone out so very far when he saw a wild cat
some distance away, and taking careful aim, he shot it, but the cat,
instead of falling, started on a fast run. Hal was in another
direction, but when he heard the report of the rifle and saw the cat
running, he started after it with terrific speed and struck it just as
the cat fell, and then the two rolled over and over together.
He got up and stood by Faye and Lieutenant Lomax while they examined
the cat, and if there was anything wrong with him it was not noticed.
But when they turned to come to the post, dragging the dead cat after
them, Faye heard a peculiar sound, and looking back saw dear Hal on
the ground in a fit much like vertigo. He talked to him and petted
him, thinking he would soon be over it - and the plucky dog did get up
and try to follow, but went down again and for the last time The swift
run and excitement caused by encountering an animal wholly different
from anything he had ever seen before was too great a strain upon the
weak heart.
Before coming to the house Faye had ordered a detail out to bury him,
with instructions to cover the grave with pieces of glass to keep the
wolves away. The skin and head of the cat, which was really a lynx,
are being prepared for a rug, but I do not see how I can have the
thing in the house, although the black spots and stripes with the
white make the fur very beautiful. The ball passed straight through
the body.
The loneliness of the house is awful, and at night I imagine that I
hear him outside whining to come in. Many a cold night have I been up
two and three times to straighten his bed and cover him up. His bed
was the skin of a young buffalo, and he knew just when it was smooth
and nice, and then he would almost throw himself down, with a sigh of
perfect content. If I did not cover him at once, he would get up and
drop down again, and there he would stay hours at a time with the fur
underneath and over him, with just his nose sticking out. He suffered
keenly from the intense cold here because his hair was so short and
fine. And then he was just from the South, too, where he was too warm
most of the time.
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