The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 2 — page 127: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SOME DOG. the storm, an’ inside of three hours here he come a-bringin’ Doc back with him. “ But the biggest stunt that he ever done was at the time of the brush fire over there across the arroyo. There was fires all around us at the time, an’ every man about here was away fightin’ a big blaze up to Pine Tree Gap. Nobody had noticed this new fire, an’ before you could say scat there was a red line a-comin’ down through the chaparral an’ scrub oak. The arroyo run water in the summer, but in the winter it was powder dry. ‘“‘ Well, sir, my ole woman an’ the kids— the big boys was all with me—thought their time had come, an’ the neighbors around here thought the same. “ But Capt’n didn’t think so. Not on your lodge policy. Capt’n. remembered the flume an’ reservoir a couple of miles above here where a company was gittin’ ready to irrigate some orange land to the south. Capt’n didn’t do a thing but beat it for that reservoir. Once there he dug an’ pawed an’ tore at the big sluice-gate with his teeth till he loosened, it an’ let the water out. Then, a-barkin’ like mad, he tore down the arroyo, keepin’ just. ahead of the water. 309 “He beat the fire by about two min- utes, they say, the stream: a-spreadin’ out an’ meetin’ the flames with a hiss that could be heard a mile an’ a-sendin’ up a cloud of steam an’ smoke that could be seen for twenty. Capt’n saved not only this ranch an’ the lives of our folks, but the hull neighborhood as well. Didn’t I teil you to begin with he was some dog?” I couldn’t deny it, and presently we were outside the house again and I was standing over the Captain’s well-marked, fiower-bordered grave and looking down with genuine respect, when old Newt Meaney, coming close, spoke again in a low voice. “T told you the merciful killin’ of ole Capt’n was the hardest thing I ever tried to do,” he said, ‘“ That’s so. It was so blamed hard I couldn’t do it, an’ J didn’t. I took ’im into the woodshed an’ fired a bullet through the roof. Then I put Capt’n out of the way in a good, safe hidin’-place an’ give ’im the biggest chunk of liver he’d ever see. I dug this here grave to fool the neighbors an’ the cops. It’s his, grave, all right, but he hain’t moved into it yet. An’ he won’t till he dies like a Christian.” NEW YEAR’S LEAVES S° brittle and so fragile are The New Year’s leaves I turn, They’re very apt to break in two; But annually I yearn To start anew in January With resolutions honest, very! Thus every New Year heretofore, As everybody should, I’ve resolutions made galore To prudent be and good; But being good’s a lonely road, With wakened conscience for one’s load! Therefore with careful thought I’ve planned A different course this year. *Tis this—to make no promise that Might conscience cause one tear. « Having decided not to make any, *Twill be too easy not to break any! Maszie V. Caruthers. COnNIGLOOOKS (C@