The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western PrairiesBallantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
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The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies
Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
Adventure stories; Dogs -- Fiction
Remembering the use formerly made of the tall willows, he set to work
to construct a covering to protect him from the dew. As he had no
blanket or buffalo skin, he used leaves and grass instead, and found
it a better shelter than he had expected, especially when the fire was
lighted, and a pannikin of hot sugar and water smoked at his feet; but
as no game was to be found, he was again compelled to sup off unripe
berries. Before lying down to rest he remembered his resolution, and
pulling out the little Bible, read a portion of it by the fitful blaze
of the fire, and felt great comfort in its blessed words. It seemed
to him like a friend with whom he could converse in the midst of his
loneliness.
The plunge into the river having broken Dick's pipe and destroyed his
tobacco, he now felt the want of that luxury very severely, and, never
having wanted it before, he was greatly surprised to find how much he
had become enslaved to the habit. It cost him more than an hour's rest
that night, the craving for his wonted pipe.
The sagacious reader will doubtless not fail here to ask himself the
question, whether it is wise in man to create in himself an unnatural
and totally unnecessary appetite, which may, and often does, entail
hours--ay, sometimes months--of exceeding discomfort; but we would
not for a moment presume to suggest such a question to him. We have a
distinct objection to the ordinary method of what is called "drawing a
moral." It is much better to leave wise men to do this for themselves.
Next morning Dick rose with the sun, and started without breakfast,
preferring to take his chance of finding a bird or animal of some kind
before long, to feeding again on sour berries. He was disappointed,
however, in finding the tracks of his companions. The ground here was
hard and sandy, so that little or no impression of a distinct kind was
made on it; and as buffaloes had traversed it in all directions, he
was soon utterly bewildered. He thought it possible that, by running
out for several miles in a straight line, and then taking a wide
circuit round, he might find the tracks emerging from the confusion
made by the buffaloes. But he was again disappointed, for the buffalo
tracks still continued, and the ground became less capable of showing
a footprint.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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