Farmer Bluff's dog Blazer

by Florence E. Burch

For a moment Bill scarcely knew whether to be glad or sorry; then the nobler instincts of his nature gained the upper hand, and he dashed along the bank, shouting—"Hold on! Keep it up till I catch hold of something to fish you out!"

At the same instant, there was an outcry from among the willow-trees. A dog sprang forward with a bark, and a dear treble voice rang out excitedly—"Why! It's some one's head! In, Blazer; in! Fetch him out! Oh! Quick! Quick!"

It was Maggie Rust, who had gone out with Hal to look for the dog, and found him on the riverbank, worrying at a knuckle bone dropped there by a careless butcher boy on his way to the Vicarage.

A bare moment sufficed Blazer to reach the bank, and in he splashed, paddling bravely across the current, with his fierce eyes starting, and his hard breaths frothing the surface of the water as he swam.

Maggie cheered him on. "Quick, Blazer; quick! Oh, he's floating down so fast!" she cried towards Hal, who had been slower getting to his feet to gain the spot. "He'll never reach in time."

But Blazer was also going with the stream as well as crossing it. In a few minutes more, the brave animal was up with Dick, and had his teeth firmly fastened in his jacket. And now came the tug of war. Maggie watched breathlessly, with beating heart and tightly clasped hands, whilst Hal, his face white and his lips parted, hung by her on his crutches. But Blazer was strong, and the water buoyed his burden up. The stream, too, helped in one way, whilst it hindered in another; for it lengthened every stroke, and carried him forward as he tried to cross back to the shore.

"Hurrah!" shouted Hal, at length unable any longer to keep his excitement in. "Hurrah! He'll do it! He'll do it! Hurrah!"

And Maggie's hands unclasped to clap as she took up the cry—"Hurrah!"

On first recognising "the young Squire," Bill had come to a sudden halt, and watched from a safe distance, half a mind to turn back; then he had come slowly on. Now he, too, took up the cheer with his whole might, and shouted—"Hooray!—Hooray!" as he ran excitedly forward.

A minute more, Dick was at the bank, and Maggie had sprung forward to help him out, whilst Blazer ran round about them in great glee, claiming praise for his heroic rescue, and splashing everybody with the water of his coat. Bill hung back an instant; then he, too, sprang to Maggie's side, and seizing Dick by the other arm, soon had him up on to the bank.