“They got a move on. We tied the monitor and sent word to shut off the water. Whilst we was all stepping on each other’s feet, I thought I heard a mixture of sounds like small roars and large ‘Ki-yi’s,’ but the farmer, he was very busy, thinking we might catch on to who did all this, and come down to his cabin some night and take his whiskers as a momentum.
“I had been pounded enough, so one of the lads took my place. I stepped out. There was a battle going on. That cussed little black-and-tan terrier was snapping and flying around poor old Hohankton, that had never received anything but kind treatment in his life, and scarcely knew what to make of this. I hate a black-and-tan dog, anyway. I like to see a dog with legs big enough and long enough to support his body, and with a body hefty enough to give the legs something to do. This yapping little devil didn’t have none of my sympathies. When I looked at the miserable beast I felt something had to happen to him.
“Just then he made a quick jump and nailed old Hank by the nose, and at the very same minute somebody hollered for me to come and fix something.
“After I pounded my thumb and wrenched my wrist getting the lever back in some shape again, they stopped the water off, and the country was saved!
“Then I grabbed that farmer and began to recite facts about his career, while the boys spit on their hands and took hold of shovels. It looked like uncle farmer would lead an upright life for some time, but he begged and hollered and pled, so the fellows loosed him from the position where we could best apply shovels, and he explained that he didn’t go for to do all this when he started, and we let him up.
“He rose to his feet and apologized to us, singly and collectively, and then he says, ‘Now I’ll just get little Pettie and ride right along home,’ and he began to holler, ‘Pettie! Pettie! Pettie!’ and all that come was old Hank, who looked him straight in the face.
“Little Pettie has departed,” I said. [Page 211]
“‘Well, what has become of the durn little coyote?’ says everybody, and then it just occurred to me that I knew, so I went back to where I had seen little Pettie grab old Hank by the nose, and, sure enough, there was a lovely little black tail!
“I brought it down to the rancher and I said, ‘Little Pettie has departed, but he, she or it leaves this for you as a souvenir.’