“Got mauled pretty badly; must have been having a turn with a wolf, I should say, only it’s early for wolves to be getting troublesome. So p’r’aps he’s been fighting a wild dog.”
“There ain’t no wild dogs round here,” objected Nell, with a shake of her head.
“I’m not so sure of that. Last time I was over to Button End, Job Lipton said he’d seen a buff-coloured beast hunting rabbits on the ridges, and that there’d been a talk of sheep being killed out Lewisville way,” the old man said, as he turned from the door. Nell followed him to inspect the dog, which lay helpless on the edge of the forest.
The house, a wooden one, old and weather-beaten, was perched on a high woody ridge in the great forests stretching along the American side of the Canadian frontier. A mighty Valparaiso oak grew on one side of the house, giving shade in summer and shelter in winter, but the forest had been pushed back on either side, to make room for a small orchard of wind-twisted apple-trees.
It was a lovely day in late September, but the fall of the summer could be seen in the changing hues of the maples, which flamed into crimson and gold, lighting up the sombre green of the other trees.
Pip was a big deerhound, fierce of aspect, and the creature lay at the edge of the clearing, where it had fallen, exhausted in its effort to get home after the fray, in which it had plainly come off second best. It was covered with blood and wounds, one ear being torn in a ghastly fashion.
“Oh, you poor dear thing! Good old Pip, you have been having a rough time!” exclaimed Nell, dropping on her knees beside the dog, and touching it gently here and there.
The creature wagged its tail feebly, as if it understood and appreciated her sympathy; then uttered a whining cry.
“Thirsty, are you? I’ll get you drink, and rig up a little curtain to keep the flies from bothering,” she said in the soothing tone one would use towards a child that had been injured.
“Couldn’t you help me to carry Pip indoors, granfer? I could look after it so much better there,” she said, when she had brought the water, which the creature feebly lapped.