Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1914 — How Hero Captured The Village [ARTICLE]

How Hero Captured The Village

Hero waa a great overgrown St. Bernard puppy. Hie coat wax ragged and short about the body, but on his neck It had filled out more ajvd there was a tuft of hair at the end of his tall. In color he waa a tawny yellow. —— Hero was not remarkable In the amount of intelligence he displayed. He had an immense curiosity, however, that brought him a great reputation.

Not having a little master in his home, he had made friends with a hoy who lived at the other end of the small Cape Cod village. The village sights grew tame for Hero when this boy was at school or away from the town. So he often trotted along the dusty highway to the neighboring townß, or followed the sandy coast paths that led over the hills.

On one of these jaunts he turned into a path that led through a growth of scrub pines—a trail that he had never taken before. Beyond these pines, on a hill overlooking the bay, was a group of oottages. Here during the summer months lived a oolony of families from the city. Provision wagons crawled daily through the sand, keeping them In touch with the outside world and the town below. In this way the mail and the day old papers reached them.

In one of . these papers there had appeared the notice of a lion that had broken loose from a traveling circus further up on the Cape. Now it happened at the very moment when Hero came in sight of the cottages, a group of cottagers sat in a little pavilion reading this and wondering whether the lion oould be in the woods near by. Hero ambled Joyously toward the group, when suddenly one of them spied him. With a shriek, “There’s that terrible lion now!” she rushed for the nearest cottage and slammed the door. The others, not so fortunate, huddled In terror In the pavilion. Those who could climbed to Its roof. All the Inmates of the cottages barred and bolted the doors, drew down the shades and waited In terror for a sudden spring through the unprotected glass windows. The dog, startled by the screams, quickened his pace and disappeared over the further side of the hill. Beyond the hill he came out again on the main road and followed it baok horns. After almost an hour had elapsed, a cottager cautiously emerged from his door, pistol in hand, prepared to rescue the people In the pavilion. He wee Joined by another carry*ing a stove poker. Then others appeared armed with table legs, carring knives, rakes and shovels. As they grew braver, they mada a systematic search of the place, and even penetrated a short distance into the woods. But the terrible “King of the Desert” was not to be found. Hero never knew, of course, that he had captured & summer colony, but most of the folk on the Cape who knew him found it out and ha became a great comic hero.