The Old Fence Dog

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 September 1904, Page 417

The Old Fence Dog

ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE

September, 1904]

________ By Kollingstotfe V j

CHAPTER 111

tS the real work of life had now to commence, our education was forthwith taken in hand. We had once heard our master say when showing us to a friend : ' You'll see these fl^i pups will take after the \,r^ old dog, and turn out real fa clippers V We guessed this meant praise, and the first time we had a chance we vowed we'd deserve it.

" Coming as we did from a family of professional sheep dogs, Bob and I laughed at the idea of there being any particular art in driving sheep about, anything, in fact, that we did not know already without teaching. At our first attempt we found ourselves wofully deceived. Instead of watching and copying mother's manoeuvres, Avhen our master, trusting to her to guide us, rashly ordered us to bring the flock ud to him, we rushed straight into the middle of them, and, in spite of all her attempts to counteract our errors, we drove twenty ofi them into a swampy creek, and scattered the rest to the four points of the compass. Master whistled and shouted till he was hoarse, but what pup was likely to listen to him with, such fun afoot ?

Vot, X.-No. 6 -ST.

" After this he gave me to Master Tom, and Bob to the head shepherd, to be properly broken in, and I remember every detail of the process. Runholders and their shepherds rarely allow for the different j dispositions of their dogs when they/ are breaking them. Now, for example, I was naturally inclined to be timid and nervous, thrashing always had an injurious effect on me. I am convinced they would have made a far better dog of me by sparing the rod, though, mind you, I firmly believe in it for dogs like Bob ; but I was handed over to Master Tom who was a perfect terror at it. Why, one day when he hadn't a stick handy, he caught me by the hind legs and banged me against a fence till I was stunned ! And wasn't he a dead shot with a stone ! Then there was Bob who would undoubtedly have been the better for lashings of it, he was given to that soft-hearted Sandy, who hardly ever touched him with a stick, and couldn't hit a haystack at ten yards with a lump of shimgiei. That isn't what I call doing dogs justice, it took all the heart out of me ; but it didn't seem to hurt Bob much. He certainly turned out a clipper, everyone allowed that ; but I did not ! I failed to acquire the

knack of pushing my fortunes, or gaining a reputation, and grew to be of a retiring nature.

" When there was any particular hurry skurry, yarding- up awkward sheep, or work requiring extra skill and keenness,, and other dogs were anxious to distinguish themselves, 1 retired and allowed them to do so. It was pure good nature on my part, but could you believe it ? it was positively ascribed to laziness. One's motives are often so terribly misinterpreted. I knew all the while that I could do the work as well, or even better than they could, but I considerately gave them the chance. It was a mistake, I can see it all plainly now, but 1 could not then.

" They also made another great error, they never would allow me to be the leading dog when we were driving 1 ; I am convinced that 1 should have shone at that. It would have suited my disposition admirably. Running along in front of the sheep to prevent them from going too fast, breaking away, or boxing with other flocks, I should have been farther away from Master Tom. He might have flung stones at me to his heart's content, I should not have cared an atom, for I should have taken all sorts of carei to be safely out of range. He would have been reduced to flinging curses instead, and they, you know, don't break bones. He was quite as good at this sort of flinging as at the other. His command of language was astonishing, but he never exhibited it till he got out of the home paddocks— oh, no ! He'd been well educated, and of couse he knew that it was wicked to swear even at sheep-dogs near the house. But once outside the sacred precincts, as the men called the paddocks, and safely out on the run, he made up for it if anything went wrong— my word he did ! He'd throw off his hat, and dance on it, and rave, and stprm till you could hear him ten miles the other side of the house, but he wasn't supposed to know that, was he ?

" It cost him dearly once, though. His parents particularly wished to see him marry and settle down ; he had not the slightest objection. They asked a girl, whom they considered an excellent match for him, to stay at the house. She came from Christchurch, prepared to thoroughly enjoy her visit to the country ; she was really a very nice girl without taking her dollars into consideration. 1 loved her, for she was very kind to me. Tom used to say he was quite jealous of me, when he saw her hugging me r in her lovely white arms, for he loved her too. We dogs really have some advantages over you men, she even kissed me sometimes, but I never saw her kiss him. That made me value her caresses far more than 1 should otherwise have done.

11 Now Tom. had received strict instructions from his parents on no account to drive sheep while the young lady was about. It was not considered safe. He fully intended to obey this admonition, for he was quite conscious of the danger ; but one fine morning' he and I breakfasted at daylight, and started oft' up the run to get a favourite horse of his which had been turned out for a spell ; the young lady had expressed a wish to ride it. On our way out Tom espied some sheep which he knew were urgently required in the yards for some purpose, so he sent me after them. Judging that his lady love would in all probability, be fast asleep at this early hour, or at all events, out of ear shot, he talked to me even more emphatically and unreservedly than usual.

" He erred in Ms surmise, she sat at her open window thinking 1 how kind he was to get up so early to give her pleasure, when his rude admonishment of me was wafted gently to her delicate, pink ears by the balmy morning breeze, which happened unfortunately to be exactly in the right direction. "It hurt her. She was not used to it, like I was. We did not get in from the run till lunch time, for the

mob of horses had strayed far away. To Tom's utter dismay he found that the visitor had returned to her home quite unexpectedly. He wrote to enquire the reason, and she returned his letter with a tract enclosed on the sin of talking 1 figuratively to dogs. But T did not see that it did liim a bit of good. I was really quite sorry for him, for

he did not do it on purpose/ The old dog's tone was very doleful as he said this.

" Tell us of your own love affairs, old man ! Let's hear something about them/ I said, hoping by this to cheer him up.

"My own love affairs ! the less said about them the better ! 1 am not proud of them. As a rule they were eminently unsuccessful. I was

never fond of fighting, and to be a successful lover in dog life, one requires to go through a lot of it, often against fearful odds, two or three to one, as likely as not ! It is true T received a few scant smiles from the fair sex at odd times, but 1 don't mind admitting 1 to you that it was only when there were no other dog's about, or by sneaking

up and paying my court while two or three other blundering great brutes were so busy fighting for the lady's favour that they did not notice me. I do not boast of this. I do not consider it worth it.

" The worst of it was, that in my green and salad days I was always in love with one or other of my lady acquaintances ; but my experience of the tender passion consisted

principally in pining in secret, and forming bold and amorous resolutions in. my kennel, which 1 lacked the pluck to carry out when opportunity offered. The only really promising affair I remember, was, nipped in the bud by a cruel accident. I had for some time admired from a distance a certain prepossessingyoung female. One day 1 took advantage of the fact that most of the other dogs were out mustering, and could not be back for a few days, to call on her and make her acquaintance. When 1 arrived I found there was yet a rival in my path. I had not anticipated this, however as he was a weak, sickly-looking fellow 1 summoned courage, attacked him furiously, and gave him such a thrashing that "he never interfered with me again. We passed a very pleasant evening, but as the lady was nearly as shy as I was, we did not make much headway. However, I promised to call again the next evening, and she appeared pleased ; judge then of my disappointment when I found I was chained up, and could not keep my appointment.

" She never forgave me for breaking- it, nor would she listen to my excuses, and there was an end of it. It was very evident that requited love, which is the perfume of life, the one rose in the desert, was not to shed its 'benign influence over my weary pilgrimage. Perhaps it is as well so. Fancy what it would have been for me to have been torn from the bosom of wife and family, and condemned to this horrible monastic existence \"

" But you have not yet told me how you came to be relggated to boundary keeping," I remarked.

11 I am coming; to it fast now. Some dogs, you know, have the luck to get a good master or better still, mistress, who will not part with them for worlds. My masters were never like that, they invariably seemed only too glad to get rid of me. I cannot account for it, but I was never, what I call, properly appreciated. I did the- 'best I could to please them, but .always in vain. I

have been sold at various prices from five pounds down to half a crown. I have been traded for various commodities ranging from an old horse down to a few figs of tobacco. 1 have even been given away, but as far as masters went I only got from bad to worse. Thus 1 passed from hand to hand, from station to station. This sort of thing is very trying, for almost everyone has a different way of working; dogs, and they expect you to understand what they mean at once, even when some of them hardly know themselves.

" " When 1 got into the hands of the head shepherd on this run I found he was one of those idiots who will persist in carrying a whip, and cracking it. Now, if there is one thing that upsets my nerves more than another it is the crack of a whip, 1 always retire at the first report. Master Tom carried one when he broke me in, and used it mercilessly, as I have good reason to rememiber. But it is not so much, that remembrance as the principle of the thing that sets me against it. A stock-whip is absolutely necessary with cattle, but no true shepherd would dream of using one with sheep ; I honestly believe this fellow had been a bullock-driver.

" Several times just as we were getting home with a muster, when he and 1 were alone, he began his abominable whip-cracking, because he thought I was not driving the sheep fast enough. I left him in disgust— and so did the sheep. He could not manage them without me, so his day's work was wasted, for which lie cursed me, and the manager cursed him. It is a curious way they have.

" The next day I was tied to a boundary fence, and have been at it ever since, sometimes at one place and sometimes another. My first location was at a spot where the fence ran down into a shingly river bed, and could not be continued on account of frequent floods. The kennel was firmly staked and lashed down with fencing wire, why, I

could not at first conceive, for it was not an article anyone was likely to steal, but I was not long in finding out. It stood on a high part of the heaps of gravel and boulders which the river had at some previous time thrown up. A sudden melting of the snow in the ranges by a hot nor'-wester followed by a fortnight's incessant rain, caused one of those ' highest floods in the memory of man/ which occur, I have noticed, once in every two or three years at the outside. I had to

jump on top of my kennel and remain there for nearly three weeks, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, but always shivering', in the six inches, more or less, of melted snow water which covered it. They never troubled to come and feed me, for they took it for granted I was drowned ; but if I had nothing, to eat, 1 had plenty to drink, and that's more than I have here. I have often wished since that I was back on that old kennel again, wheni my mouth has been parched and my

tongue swollen with thirst, though when I was there I would have given worlds to get away ! We are never satisfied with our lot, but is it any wonder ? Can mine be deemed satisfying by any stretch of the imagination ?"

" But surely they might give you water enough to secure you a drink every dav ?"

" Well, it is not always their fault, though it generally is. It has often happened just as the man has filled my tin and departed, before I

could get half a drink, some thirsty swaggers rushed up, took a drink, then filled their billies with what remained, leaving me none for the next few days. You see there's no water for miles on either side, and these hot summer days the men set as thirsty as I do."

" Drink out of a dog tin ?" I exclaimed with a shudder.

e< Yes ; and, notwithstanding your shudder, so would you, if you'd tramped for miles in a hot sun with your tongue out, and a heavy swag;

on your back. I thought I knew what trouble meant 'before they tied me up to a boundary, but, bless you, I knew nothing at all about it. All my previous experiences were as nought compared to the gloomy horrors of this solitary monotonous) existence ; the gnawing hunger, the parching thirst, the excessive heat in summer, the biting cold in winter, the weary, weary tramp four or five feet to the end of the chain, and four or live feet 'back apain, the cramp, the rheumatic pains, and the chronic cough, which have never left me since that horrible flood, and, worse than .all, the awful solitude ! The only wonder is that 1 yet sur-

vive !"

" But have they not a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in this country ! Surely they will get to hear how you are treated, and life will ye,t be made more endurable to you," I interposed.

" Don't you believe it ! I am told they have quite enough to do about towns arresting' every unfortunate driver whose horse happens to be rubbed a little raw with the harness, or any poor boy who is caught carrying a fowl head downwards, the way they were meant to be carried, or why would they know how to curl their necks up so comfortably ? A few boundary dogs starved to death, or worse still, nearly so ; or a flock of sheep left in the yards for four or five days without food or water on a sheep run, are matters which rarely come under their notice ; or if they do, they are dismissed with the remark— ' Mere routine of station work, can't be avoided/ No ; we shall never get help from man, we don't for a mo-

ment expect it ; but there must— l am" convinced there must be — something better further on ! — lt cannot — cannot possibly be — as you men affirm— that to the Hereafter— for us dogs — there is no — admittance V His voice had sunk iby degrees into a weak, husky, faltering whisper. It ceased, there was the sound of a deep-drawn, sobbing sigh, a slight scuffle, a rattle of the rusty chain, and the poor old Fence Dog had gone to see for himself. . . . What he saw, 1 know not. I rubbed my eyes, rose to my feet, saddled my horse, and rode on my way, pondering over many things. Was this a dream that I had dreamt in the course of an afternoon nap ? Not all of it — if any ! For there lay the poor old dog stone dead before my eyes ! When next I passed that way, a younger dog, with a much louder bark, had taken the poor old fellow's place, but he had little interest for me. The kennel had received some trifling repairs, and there were now no flies around it. They had remained true to their old friend, as a loud buzzing, and a pestilential odour arising from behind a thick bunch o$ spear grass, proved conclusively. Closer scrutiny was unnecessary and inadvisable. Poor old Tweed ! even honourable burial was denied you ! Had I the wherewithal to dig a prave in this shingly, sun-baked earth, you should lay no longer thus sweltering in the scorching sun. But it cannot hurt you now !

(the end.)