The Red Book Of Animal Stories - online children's book

Stories of Animals, Fantastic and Mundane, Edited By Andrew Lang

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TWO BIG DOGS AND A LITTLE ONE 275
notice of them, never even casting a glance in their direction as he went by, or giving a single lash to his tail. All went smoothly till unluckily one night the servant, whose business it was to shut up the sheep in their shed, and the dog in .his own premises, forgot all about it, and the next morning when the sun rose, three dead bodies were found stretched in the yard, with just one little wound in their throats, where the blood had been sucked. The murderer meanwhile was doing his daily work, as cheerfully and patiently as if he had nothing on his mind at all.
Now and then, however, Fowler showed that he had a conscience. Some geese, which had once been wild, lived on the farm, and one of them was very fond of his master, and would even go out to walk with him about the place, strutting side by side with Fowler. They seemed to be the best of friends, and nobody gave a thought to the fact that, next to sheep and dried fish, Newfoundlands love poultry. But they were soon reminded of it. As in the case of the sheep, the geese were one night left at large, by accident. Next morning neither goose nor dog appeared to go their rounds with their master, and search was made. A few white feathers were found in a field outside the grounds, and after some time Fowler was discovered behind a woodstack in the yard, looking, for once, very much ashamed of himself. His master called the dog to follow him, and led him to the field, where the scattered feathers were pointed out to him. Fowler looked once at the man who had detected his crime, then, with a howl of regret rushed away from the field, and no persuasions would get him near his master for many days after.
Of course, most of the stories about Newfoundland dogs have to do with rescue from drowning, for these animals, from their great size and skill in swimming, are more useful in saving life than any man. But here are some very clever tricks of a dog that belonged, a great many
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