THE TWO DOG SCOUTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 37, 13 February 1929, Page 18

THE TWO DOG SCOUTS.

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I don't know whether I've told you before, but Jump the dog and his friend Snuff belong to the Dog Scouts. That means they iiave to do a good turn every day. Very often they can't think of a good turn to do, so they do one to each other; but that wasn't so at the time about which I'm telling you now. They were going for a trot together into tlie country, and had just sat down to think how nice everything seemed, and what fun they'd just had chasing a rat, when they heard a dog howling a long way away. "That means there's a dog in trouble," said Snuff. "Dear me!" cried Jump. "I suppose we'll have to go and see about it, only it seems such a long way away." "All the same," said Bnuff, "we shall have to go. because we're Dog Scouts." "Oil!" cried Jump. "There it is again! . . . Two dogs, three dogs, four dogs, all howling! We'll be able to do four good turns all at once, and that will save us doing any more for fopr days!" "That's a good idea," said Snuff, and away they went across the field towards where they thought the sound came from. But it was further away than they thought. They ran and ran and ran until they were quite tired, and had to sit down to get their breaths back. And then they heard it again. "00-hoo!" cried Jump, "Five dogs, six dogs, seven dogs, eight dogs, nine dogs— nine good turns all at once! I wonder how many more there are in trouble?" So off went Jump and Snuif again, tearing along through hedge* and across iicldn, and jumping over little brooks, but the sound still seemed a long way away. At last they came to a wood, and then suddenly the noiae seemed right over on the other side, and this time there were twelve dogs! Snuff wanted to sit down and rest, but Jump made him go on, and when they came to the other eide of, the wood what do you think they saw t Why, a whole pack of foxhounds, with a huntsman in a lovely red coat. The foxhounds had been hunting a fox for miles, and that was why it had taken Jump and Snuff so long to find them, and—perhaps you don't know—foxhounds make a howling kind of bark when they're out hunting. When J u in)) and Snuff came out of the wood a big foxhound twice their size came up to them and asked what they were doing there. "You are not foxhounds," he said. "Xo, biit we're Dog Scouts," said .Jump proudly, "and we heard all of you howling, and thought you must be in trouble, so we came along to help you." TJio big foxhound smiled, and said: "Well, even if you're not foxhounds you're not bad sorts of dogs, but I'm afraid you can't be of any use to us. Still, I've just found a bone, which I shall be very pleased to give you if you'll promise not to fight over it." "Of course, we shan't fight," said Jump, after ho'd thanked the foxhound. At that moment the huntsman blew his horn, and the foxliound had to run away, leaving Jump and Snuff very pleased with the bone and themselves.