Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1886 — A Girl, a Dog, and an Alligator. [ARTICLE]

A Girl, a Dog, and an Alligator.

One sultry afternoon,a young daughter of an aristocratic Southerner, in the lower part of Alabama, took a towel and soap and went to a cool and shady pool, formed by a creek which emptied into the Alabama Biver. After she had sported in the waters for half an hour or more, she half-robed herself and crawled into a hammock; swinging partly over the water, and with one foot hanging daintily over the water a sow inches, she fell asleep. Presently a large Newfoundland dog stepped out from the bushes, smelt at his mistress, wagged his tail in pleasure, and lay down at the foot of the tree. In half an hour a splashing was heard in the creek further off, and presently huge waves broke the cove, and the waters, disturbed and rolling, made a noise that caught the dog’s attention. A second or two later and the ugly nose of an alligator appeared above the water a few feet off from the foot of the sleeping girl. 'l-he hungry beast saw the tempting and dainty morsel, and his greedy eyes sparkled in anticipation. He made toward it with mouth open, teeth gleaming, and eyes afire. The faithful dog saw the peril of his mistress, and with one wild bark that awakened the quiet echoes of the woods, hurled himself full at the mouth of the alligator. The dog’s warning caused the girl to jerk up her foot, bat the dog and alligator met in a deadly struggle. They reared as they met, and the girl was thrown from the hammock to the bank, but. the gallant dog went for that ’gator, and having a good hold on him he didn’t care to turn loose." They were fjrst in the water, then on the bank, and the struggle went on, while the. girl’s screams soon brought her assistance. The ’gator was finally killed, and measured seven and a half feet in length. - The girl says she loves to swim, but fiever goes in a larger pool now than Can get in a tub, and sees that the water is strained before it goes there.*

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