OR,
The Adventures of a Boy and a Dog
Chapter I.
TIM’S FLIGHT.
“Strayed.—A boy from the home of the subscriber; and any one returning him will be suitably rewarded. Said boy is about eleven years old, has short, light hair, a turned-up nose, and face very much tanned. When last seen he had on a suit of blue clothes considerably faded and worn, and had with him a yellow dog, with a long body, short legs, and a short tail. The boy answers to the name of Tim, and the dog to that of Tip. Any information regarding the runaway will be liberally paid for. Address Captain Rufus Babbige, in care of this office.”
“There, Tim,” said the man who had been reading the advertisement aloud from the columns of a country newspaper to a very small boy, with large, dark eyes, and an exceedingly dirty face, who was listening intently, “you see that Rufe Babbige don’t intend to let you get away as easy as you thought, for he’s willing to pay something for any news of you, though I’ll be bound he won’t part with very much money.”
“But he always said he wished I’d have sense enough to die,” replied the boy, trying to choke down the sob of terror which would rise in his throat at the idea of being thus advertised for as though he were a thief; “an’ it don’t seem to me that there’s been a day but what he or Aunt Betsey have given me a whippin’ since my mother died. Look here!”
As he spoke the boy pushed the ragged coat sleeves up from his thin arms, showing long discolorations which had evidently been made by a whip-lash.
“It’s all over me just like that, an’ I don’t see what he wants Tip an’ me back for, ’cause he’s always said he wished he was rid of us.”