The Dog Crusoe and His Master | Page 2

having once
been a pup, because in connection with the days of his puppyhood there
hangs a tale.
This peculiar dog may thus be said to have had two tails--one in
connection with his body, the other with his career. This tale, though
short, is very harrowing, and as it is intimately connected with Crusoe's
subsequent history we will relate it here. But before doing so we must

beg our reader to accompany us beyond the civilized portions of the
United States of America--beyond the frontier settlements of the "far
west," into those wild prairies which are watered by the great Missouri
River--the Father of Waters--and his numerous tributaries.
Here dwell the Pawnees, the Sioux, the Delawarers, the Crows, the
Blackfeet, and many other tribes of Red Indians, who are gradually
retreating step by step towards the Rocky Mountains as the advancing
white man cuts down their trees and ploughs up their prairies. Here, too,
dwell the wild horse and the wild ass, the deer, the buffalo, and the
badger; all, men and brutes alike, wild as the power of untamed and
ungovernable passion can make them, and free as the wind that sweeps
over their mighty plains.
There is a romantic and exquisitely beautiful spot on the banks of one
of the tributaries above referred to--long stretch of mingled woodland
and meadow, with a magnificent lake lying like a gem in its green
bosom--which goes by the name of the Mustang Valley. This remote
vale, even at the present day, is but thinly peopled by white men, and is
still a frontier settlement round which the wolf and the bear prowl
curiously, and from which the startled deer bounds terrified away. At
the period of which we write the valley had just been taken possession
of by several families of squatters, who, tired of the turmoil and the
squabbles of the then frontier settlements, had pushed boldly into the
far west to seek a new home for themselves, where they could have
"elbow room," regardless alike of the dangers they might encounter in
unknown lands and of the Redskins who dwelt there.
The squatters were well armed with axes, rifles, and ammunition. Most
of the women were used to dangers and alarms, and placed implicit
reliance in the power of their fathers, husbands, and brothers to protect
them; and well they might, for a bolder set of stalwart men than these
backwoodsmen never trod the wilderness. Each had been trained to the
use of the rifle and the axe from infancy, and many of them had spent
so much of their lives in the woods that they were more than a match
for the Indian in his own peculiar pursuits of hunting and war. When
the squatters first issued from the woods bordering the valley, an

immense herd of wild horses or mustangs were browsing on the plain.
These no sooner beheld the cavalcade of white men than, uttering a
wild neigh, they tossed their flowing manes in the breeze and dashed
away like a whirlwind. This incident procured the valley its name.
The new-comers gave one satisfied glance at their future home, and
then set to work to erect log huts forthwith. Soon the axe was heard
ringing through the forests, and tree after tree fell to the ground, while
the occasional sharp ring of a rifle told that the hunters were catering
successfully for the camp. In course of time the Mustang Valley began
to assume the aspect of a thriving settlement, with cottages and waving
fields clustered together in the midst of it.
Of course the savages soon found it out and paid it occasional visits.
These dark-skinned tenants of the woods brought furs of wild animals
with them, which they exchanged with the white men for knives, and
beads, and baubles and trinkets of brass and tin. But they hated the
"Pale-faces" with bitter hatred, because their encroachments had at this
time materially curtailed the extent of their hunting-grounds, and
nothing but the numbers and known courage of the squatters prevented
these savages from butchering and scalping them all.
The leader of this band of pioneers was a Major Hope, a gentleman
whose love for nature in its wildest aspects determined him to
exchange barrack life for a life in the woods. The major was a first-rate
shot, a bold, fearless man, and an enthusiastic naturalist. He was past
the prime of life, and being a bachelor, was unencumbered with a
family. His first act on reaching the site of the new settlement was to
commence the erection of a block-house, to which the people might
retire in case of a general attack by the Indians.
In this block-house Major Hope took up his abode as the guardian of
the settlement. And here the dog Crusoe was