Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1890 — The Dog Had to Climb. [ARTICLE]

The Dog Had to Climb.

We were comfortably seated around tbe hearth at Porter in Pike county. Pa, and the spirit of story telling was strong upon us, because the fishing had been unusually good and the supper bounteous. The flash ; an! sparkle of wit filled the upper air of the room as with a fine,aurora, and a halo of calm bliss encircled the brow of each entranced listener. But first the drug and then the antidote. The benevolent colonel drew us down gently from the giddy hights with a story of a coarse plebeian, locally known as a catfish. Thus ran his tale: “A man and his dog went fishing in the i Mississippi. In a short time the man i felt a mighty pull on the line, and he knew that a catfish had taken hold. ; The giant came along peacefully enough until he happened to ch mge his mind, and then he decided to double on his course and take the man along. The faithful dog, seeing his master’s danger, rushed to the rescue ■ bravely enough. The wily catfish, when he found the dog pursuing, turned upon him and terrified the dog, who . incontinently turned tail and swam i vigorously toward the dry land, the 1 catfish hotly following. Presently the i dog gained the land and ran hastily, ! the catfish surging fter him. The dog, sorely pressed and fearing a painful death, in his extremity climbed a tree, the catfish still pursuing.” | “Hold on! hold on!” we cried io chorus; “dogs cannot climb trees.” “Can’t climb a tree?” responded the colonel. “But the catfish was close upon him, and this dog had. to climb.” —Forest and Stream.