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Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 829, 19 June 1912, Page 7

« ROLLY' AND HIS LOST MASTER. They say that the name of the ata^ oll is changed, and that the dog is dead, b ut I remember, and I think I shall remember always. In a sharp V of a valley between two tall, unheeding mountains, stood a little brown station, all alone. Thjre. was small token of life about the building, so far as we could see, so when the conductor came back from the cffije with hU orders we wondered why the train did not go on. But pretty soon a tall old man, with a red flag under his arm, came up the track ahead of the station platform. Some of us had alighted, and to us he volunteered, while he rolled his flag closer: • Rock on the track.' ' Is it very large ?' asked someone. 'Nope, they'll git* it off puny soon; like enough in about ten minutes. Mope, trains don' hev much occasion to stop here long nowaday*. Used to be a puny decent mine up yonner,' jerking his head towards the little road; 'then they war some doings here. They hain't none <>i you .seen Roily, hev vou P he asked, abruptlj. ' Wh« is Roily ?' ' Why, Roily, he is the dorg ;* hL. eyes grew anxious; * he is a great institution around these parts.' He went out. j 'Say, Bennie, where is Roll?" he called. His voice was different from that in which he spoke to the men outside. The answer was inaudible. •Hump ! Curious, ain't it? When did he go?' Again the inaudible reply. • Well, he must have heard the whistle.' - He came back, but with his eyes on the brown road over the ridge. ' Didn't it pan out P* asked one. ' Huh ? Oh, the mine! I dunno, I guess it would ef ' but the old idea was too strong —his eyes sought the slope again. 'Now where in time is that dorg? He hain't, used to missing trains.' m * Wbat was the matter at the mine ?' 'Ob, there was ghosts came there, and that scart everybody, and now they will not ■ no one go nigh but Roily, and he is interested. Wish that he would oome, anyhow.* •Well, what ia it about, Roily, my friend, is he your dog?' asked a big quiet man, standing near Ms wife.* ' Nope. This is, he is and he is not—one way he is mine and two he is not—one way he is mine, because I feed him aud hanker after him ef he is not round. One way is not mine, he ia Beanie's, because everything I have got that Bennie hankers after is his 'n, and he thinks a heap of Roily. Bennie is the telegraph here." < Another way he is not mine nor Beanie's neither. He hisself thinks he belongs to a man that has not been around here quite a spell—the last contractor at the Hope. He left in a leetle hurry one night, being found with some mine pay-poney mixed in his own inside pocket by mistake, and he forget the dorg.' ' Did ther bang or ah: ot him ?' The old fellow grinned. < Shot him; sent the remnants East in a box. We have not been looking for him back, bat Roily is. Yes, sir, he is on hand every train, and between times he goes up to the mine to see if his man has slipped by unbeknownst and gone up there.' Jus: then the conductor, passing, said: * Nearly ready, all aboard." The old man walked with us. ' Cannot think wbat on earth keeps him. He will crx all day ef he misses this train.'

TifTfetoduotor stood, 'f«Wi H IfflS, Wr eyes too on the road. - . t . 'There he-is!' some one shouted. , 'He knowed he, was late and took the short cut,' exclaimed the old man. Our eves left the road, and at the other end of the platform met a small, smoothcoated, black-and-white monarrel, all dusty and panting, crouched-with quivering flanks by the stepj of the. last oar. The dog's eyes were on the porter. The porter looked to the conductor for a sign ; the conductor looked at his watch and his orders, and nodded. Then' the porter lifted the eager little brute into the car Vestibule. v-

We all waited with eyes on the door of the nearest Pullman; all but the quiet man, who had retired into the front corner of the car behind his newspaper. 'Blest if I want to see the beast disappointed,' he said to his wife. ' Does he go through the whole train ?' I asked of the old man.

' Yes, rai-a, all bat the colonist car and the emigrant; he knows that is not the kicd.' "Just then the Pullman door opened and the porter came through, followed by the dog, stepping high and nervously. There were a great many in the-car, and the dog was bewildered. The porter picked him up and put him on one of the seats, a double row of which ran back to back down the centre of the car. The dog put his paws on the back of the - seat and looked all around, ears up, nostrils moving, flanks quiv6rinsr, tail straight out and slowly waring. His intense feeling was manifest in every turn and move, in search for his lost master. Suddenly he gave a yelp and-bounded over the centre seats down the aisle like a young tornado, and stopped, with both paws on the quiet man's knees, yelping, danc-' ing, tearing the newspaper down upon himself.

The man took the paper away and the dog leaped towards his face with a squeal. But the squeal Ijroke half way, and the dog foil baok on all fours, still as a stone. The qumt man luoked at him kindly, and put ontu hand to pat him. The dog came closer, bis eyes always oa (he man's face, and softly pat his paws on the knees again. The man said:

'Well, Roily!' The dog's head went on one side in a moment ; the name was all right, but tho voice —the voice

He got down and backed off, his ears wavering; he gave one low, questioning whine, then slowly answered tho porter*'s call.

At the top of the car-steps he paused and came back. With head on oue side and paw raised, he lookoi again, and then, with a sharp sore of bark, turned back and went down. A moment afterward tho conductor's watch snapped; he waved his hand, and the train drew out, up the broad, canon. Bat our eyes were ail turned back to the platform, where the dog stood, poised, head on one side and foot lifted, looking after us. The quiet man didn't draw baok till we had rounded a curve; then he found a cinder ia his eye. 'Nice scenery,' he said. *****•♦ I heard afterwards that the quiet man was the son of Rolly's old master. Strange, wasn't it? . -