Jonas on a Farm in Winter | Page 9

under the
General's crib.
"Why, Franco," said Jonas, "how came you here?"
Franco said nothing, but stood looking up into Jonas's face, and
wagging his tail.
"Franco," said Jonas, "how could you get in here?"
Franco remained in the same position; the light of the lantern shining in
his face, and his tail wagging a very little. He could not tell certainly
whether Jonas was scolding him or not.

Franco remained about the barn until breakfast-time, and then Jonas, at
the table, told the farmer that he tried to drive the dog away the night
before, but that in the morning he found him in the barn.
"I don't believe you really tried," said the farmer's wife. "I can drive
him away, I know,--as I'll show you after breakfast."
Accordingly, after breakfast, putting on hastily an old straw bonnet, she
went out into the yard and took a small stick from the wood pile, to use
for a club, and then called to Franco.
"Franco," said she, "come here."
Franco looked first at her, and then at Jonas, who was standing in the
door-way, as if at a loss to know what to do.
"Go, Franco," said Jonas.
The farmer's wife walked out in front of the house into the wind,
calling Franco to follow. She then attempted to drive him along the
road, much as Jonas had done. She brandished her stick at him, and,
when she had succeeded in getting him as far from her as she could, by
stern and threatening language, in order to drive him farther, she threw
the stick at him with all her force.
Franco jumped out of its way. The stick rolled along the road before
him. He sprang forward to it, seized it in his mouth, and came trotting
back to the farmer's wife, and laid it down at her feet; and then,
standing back a few steps, he looked up into her face, with a very
earnest expression of countenance, which seemed to say,--
"What do you want me to do next?"
This very act of Franco's embarrassed the woman considerably. She
could not bear to take up the very stick, which Franco had himself
brought to her, and throw it at him again; and, on the other hand, she
could not bear to give up, and let Franco remain. She, however, picked
up the stick, and brandished it again towards Franco, and, stamping

with her foot at him, she said,--
"Away with you, dog; get home!"
What the result of this contest would have been, it is very difficult to
say, had it not been that it was soon decided by the occurrence of a
singular incident; for, as the farmer's wife nodded her head, and
stamped at the dog, the jar or the motion seemed to give the wind a
momentary advantage over her bonnet, which, in her haste, she had not
tied on very securely. A strong gust carried it clear from her head, and
blew it away over Franco, upon the snow by the side of the road
beyond. Franco, who was all ready for a spring, bounded after it, and
pursued it at full speed. The snow was nearly level with the top of the
stone walls, and the wind carrying it diagonally from the road, it rolled
over the little ridge of stones which remained above the drifts, and then
swept across the field, down a long descent, like a feather before the
gale.
Franco pursued it with flying leaps over the snow, which had become
sufficiently consolidated to support his steps. He gained upon it rapidly,
and at length overtook and seized it; and then, turning round, he trotted
swiftly back, leaped over the top of the wall, and brought the bonnet,
and laid it down at its owner's feet, with an air of great satisfaction.
The good woman took up her bonnet, and threw her stick away, and,
turning around, walked back to the house. The farmer, who had been
looking out at the window, was laughing heartily. She herself smiled as
she returned to her work, saying,--
"The dog has something in him, I acknowledge; go and see if you can't
find him a bone, Jonas." "Yes, Jonas," said the farmer, "you may have
him for your dog till the owner comes and claims him."
And this is the way that Jonas first got his dog Franco. He told Oliver
that morning, as he was patting his head under the old General's crib,
that the dog had taught them one good lesson.
"What is it?" asked Oliver.

"Why, that the Christian duty of returning good for evil, is good policy
as well as good morals."
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
DOG LOST
About the middle of the winter, the farmer went to market with his
produce.