Bruno

Antonio’s expedients to avoid work.

In fact, he was really proud of it. He liked to be employed, and to prove himself useful. With Tony it was the reverse. He adopted all sorts of schemes and maneuvers to avoid the performance of any duty. When he had reason to suppose that any work was to be done in which his aid was to be required, he would take his fishing-line, immediately after breakfast, and steal secretly away out of the back door, and go down to a brook which was near his father’s house, and there – hiding himself in some secluded place among the bushes, where he thought they could not find him – he would sit down upon a stone and go to fishing. If he heard a sound as of his father’s voice calling him, he would make a rustling of the leaves, or some other similar noise, so as to prevent his hearing whether his father was calling to him or not. Thus his father was obliged to do without him. And though his father would reprove him very seriously, when he came home at noon, for thus going away, Tony would pretend that he did not know that his father wanted him, and that he did not hear him when he called.

The plowing.

One evening in the spring, Tony heard his father say that he was going to plow a certain piece of ground the following day, and he supposed that he should be wanted to ride the horse. His father was accustomed to plow such land as that field by means of a yoke of oxen, and a horse in front of them; and by having Tony to ride the horse, he could generally manage to get along without any driver for the oxen, as the oxen in that case had nothing to do but to follow on where the horse led the way. But if Tony was not there to ride the horse, then it was necessary for the farmer to have his man Thomas with him, to drive the horse and the oxen. There was no way, therefore, by which Tony could be so useful to his father as by thus assisting in this work of plowing; for, by so doing, he saved the time of Thomas, who could then be employed the whole day in other fields, planting, or hoeing, or making fence, or doing any other farm-work which at that season of the year required to be done.

Antonio escapes.

Accordingly, when Tony understood that this was the plan of work for the following day, he stole away from the house immediately after breakfast, and ran out into the garden. He had previously put his fishing-line, and other necessary apparatus for fishing, upon a certain bench there was in an arbor. He now took these things, and then went down through the garden to a back gate, which led into a wood beyond. He looked around from time to time as he went on, to see if any one at the house was observing him. He saw no one; so he escaped safely into the wood, without being called back, or even seen.

He felt glad when he found that he had thus made his escape – glad, but not happy. It is quite possible to be glad, and yet to be not at all happy. Tony felt guilty. He knew that he was doing very wrong; and the feeling that we are doing wrong always makes us miserable, whatever may be the pleasure that we seek.

His walk through the wood.

There was a wild and solitary road which led through the wood. Tony went on through this road, with his fishing-pole over his shoulder, and his box of bait in his hand. He wore a frock, like a plowman’s frock, over his dress. It was one which his mother had made for him. This frock was a light and cool garment, and Tony liked to wear it very much.

When Tony had got so far that he thought there was no danger of his being called back, and the interest which he had felt in making his escape began to subside, as the work had been accomplished, he paused, and began to reflect upon what he was doing.

He almost decides to return and help his father.

“I have a great mind to go back, after all,” he said, “and help my father.”

So he turned round, and began to walk slowly back toward the house.

“No, I won’t,” said he again; “I will go a fishing.”

So he turned again, and began to walk on.

“At any rate,” he added, speaking to himself all the time, “I will go a fishing for a while, and then, perhaps, I will go back and help my father.”

So Tony went on in the path until at length he came to a place where there was a gateway leading into a dark and secluded wood. The wood was very dark and secluded indeed, and Tony thought that the path through it must lead to some very retired and solitary place, where nobody could find him.

“I presume there is a brook, too, somewhere in that wood,” he added, “where I can fish.”

The gate was fastened, but there was a short length of fence on the left-hand side of it, formed of only two rails, and these were so far apart that Tony could easily creep through between them. So he crept through, and went into the wood.

He comes to the brook.

He rambled about in the wood for some time, following various paths that he found there, until at length he came to a brook. He was quite rejoiced to find the brook, and he immediately began fishing in it. He followed the bank of this brook for nearly a mile, going, of course, farther and farther into the wood all the time. He caught a few small fishes at some places, while at others he caught none. He was, however, restless and dissatisfied in mind. Again and again he wished that he had not come away from home, and he was continually on the point of resolving to return. He thought, however, that his father would have brought Thomas into the field, and commenced his plowing long before then, and that, consequently, it would do no good to return.

Fishing. The squirrel.

While he was sitting thus, with a disconsolate air, upon a large stone by the side of the brook, fishing in a dark and deep place, where he hoped that there might be some trout, he suddenly saw a large gray squirrel. He immediately dropped his fishing-pole, and ran to see where the squirrel would go. In fact, he had some faint and vague idea that there might, by some possibility, be a way to catch him.

The squirrel ran along a log, then up the stem of a tree to a branch, along the branch to the end of it, whence he sprang a long distance through the air to another branch, and then ran along that branch to the tree which it grew from. From this tree he descended to a rock. He mounted to the highest point of the rock, and there he turned round and looked at Tony, sitting upon his hind legs, and holding his fore paws before him, like a dog begging for supper.

An unsuccessful hunt.

“The rogue!” said Tony. “How I wish I could catch him!”

Very soon the squirrel, feeling somewhat alarmed at the apparition of a boy in the woods, and not knowing what to make of so strange a sight, ran down the side of the rock, and continued his flight. Tony followed him for some time, until at last the squirrel contrived to make his escape altogether, by running up a large tree, keeping cunningly on the farther side of it all the way, so that Tony could not see him. When he had reached the branches of the tree, he crept into a small hollow which he found there, and crouching down, he remained motionless in this hiding-place until Tony became tired of looking for him, and went away.

The lost boy.

Tony, when at last he gave up the search for the squirrel, attempted to find his way back to the place where he had left his fishing-pole. Unfortunately, he had left his cap there too, so that he was doubly desirous of finding the place. There was, however, no path, for squirrels in their rambles in the woods are of course always quite independent of every thing like roadways. Tony went back in the direction from which he thought he came; but he could find no traces of his fishing-pole. He could not even find the brook. He began to feel quite uneasy, and, after going around in very circuitous and devious wanderings for some time, he became quite bewildered. He at length determined to give up the attempt to find his fishing-line and cap, and to get out of the woods, and make his way home in the quickest possible way.

Tony’s difficulties.

The poor boy now began to feel more guilty and more wretched than ever before. He was not really more guilty, though he felt his guilt far more acutely than he had done when every thing was going well with him. This is always so. The feeling of self-condemnation is not generally the strongest at the time when we are doing the wrong. It becomes far more acute and far more painful when we begin to experience the bitter consequences which we bring upon ourselves by the transgression. Tony hurried along wherever he could find a path which promised to lead him to the gateway, breathless with fatigue and excitement, and with his face flushed and full of anxiety. He was in great distress.

He stopped from time to time, to call aloud to his father and to Thomas. He was now as anxious that they should find him as he had been before to escape from them. He listened, in the hope that he might hear the barking of Bruno, or some other sound that might help him to find his way out of the woods.

He is misled by various sounds.

Once he actually heard a sound among the trees, at some distance from him. He thought that it was some one working in the woods. He went eagerly in the direction from which the sound proceeded, scrambling, by the way, over the rocks and brambles, and leaping from hummock to hummock in crossing bogs and mire. When at length he reached the place, he found that the noise was nothing but one tree creaking against another in the wind.

At another time, he followed a sound which appeared different from this; when he came up to it, he found it to be a woodpecker tapping an old hollow tree.

Tony at the brook.

Tony wandered about thus in the wood nearly all the day, and at length, about the middle of the afternoon, he became so exhausted with fatigue, anxiety, and hunger, that he could go no farther. He was very thirsty too, for he could find no water. He began to fear that he should die in the woods of starvation and thirst. At length, however, a short time before the sun went down, he came, to his great joy, to a stream of water. It was wide and deep, so that he could not cross it. He, however, went down to the brink of the water, and got a good drink. This refreshed him very much, and then he went back again up the bank, and lay down upon the grass there to rest.

Cows in the water.

Presently two cows came down to the water, on the side opposite to where Tony was sitting. They came to drink. Tony wished very much that they would come over to his side of the water, so that he could get some milk from them. If he could get a good drink of milk from them, he thought it would restore his strength, so that he could make one more effort to return home. He called the cows, and endeavored, by every means in his power, to make them come through the water to his side. One of them waded into the water a little way, and stood there staring stupidly at Tony, but she would not come any farther.

Then Tony thought of attempting to wade across the water to the cows, but he was afraid that it might be very deep, and that he should get drowned. He thought, too, that if he could contrive in any way to get near the cows, there would still be a difficulty in getting a drink of their milk, for he had no cup or mug to milk into. He wondered whether or not it would be possible for him to get down under one of the cows and milk into his mouth. He soon found, however, that it was of no use to consider this question, for it was not possible for him to get near the cows at all.

Then he reflected how many times his mother, in the evenings at home, when the cows were milked, had brought him drinks of the milk in a cup or mug, very convenient to drink out of, and how many long and weary days his father had worked in the fields, mowing grass to feed the cows, and in the barns in the winter, to take care of them, so as to provide the means of giving his boy this rich and luxurious food; and he felt how ungrateful he had been, in not being willing to aid his father in his work, when opportunities offered to him to be useful.

Good resolutions.

“If I ever get home,” said he to himself, “I’ll be a better boy.”

Here comes Bruno.

Just then Tony heard a noise in the bushes behind him. At first he was startled, as most people are, at hearing suddenly a noise in the woods. Immediately afterward, however, he felt glad, as he hoped that the noise was made by some one coming. He had scarcely time to look around before Bruno came rushing through the bushes, and, with a single bound, came to Tony’s feet. He leaped up upon him, wagging his tail most energetically, and in other ways manifesting the most extraordinary joy.

Bruno leads the way through the woods.

In a minute or two he began to walk away again into the woods, looking behind him toward Tony, intimating that Tony was to follow him. Tony slowly rose from his place, and attempted to go.

“Yes, Bruno,” said he, “I know. You are going to show me the way home. I’ll come along as fast as I can.”

Tony soon found, however, that he could not come very fast. In fact, he was almost exhausted by fatigue and hunger, and he had now little strength remaining. He accordingly staggered rather than walked in attempting to follow Bruno, and he was obliged frequently to stop and rest. On such occasions Bruno would come back and fawn around him, wagging his tail, and expressing his sympathy in such other ways as a dog has at command, and would finally lie down quietly by Tony’s side until the poor boy was ready to proceed again. Then he would go forward, and lead the way as before.

It is very extraordinary that a dog can find his way through the woods under certain circumstances so much better than a boy, or even than a man. But so it is; for, though so greatly inferior to a boy in respect to the faculties of speech and reason, he is greatly superior to him in certain instincts, granted to him by the Creator to fit him for the life which he was originally designed to lead as a wild animal. It was by means of these instincts that Bruno found Tony.

The various expeditions in search of Tony.

Bruno had commenced his search about the middle of the afternoon. It was not until some time after dinner that the family began to be uneasy about Tony’s absence. During all the forenoon they supposed that he had gone away somewhere a fishing or to play, and that he would certainly come home to dinner. When, however, the dinner hour, which was twelve o’clock, arrived, and Tony did not appear, they began to wonder what had become of him. So, after dinner, they sent Thomas down behind the garden, and to the brook, and to all the other places where they knew that Tony was accustomed to go, to see if he could find him. Thomas went to all those places, and not only looked to see whether Tony was there, but he called also very loud, and listened long after every calling for an answer. But he could neither see nor hear any thing of the lost boy.

Bruno’s search.

Then Tony’s mother began to be very seriously alarmed, and his father, too, determined to leave his work, and go and see if he could find him. He accordingly sent Thomas one way, while he himself went another. Bruno watched all these movements with great interest. He understood what they meant. He determined to see what he could do. He accordingly ran out into the garden, where he had seen Tony go after breakfast in the morning. He smelled about there in all the paths until at length he found Tony’s track. He followed this track to the seat in the arbor, where Tony had gone to get his fishing-line. Taking a new departure from this point, he went on, smelling the track along the paths as he advanced, to the bottom of the garden, thence into a wood behind the garden, thence along the road till he came to the gate under the trees where Tony had gone in.

He finds Tony’s cap and fishing-pole.

By smelling about this gate, he ascertained that Tony did not open the gate, but that he crept through between the bars on the left-hand side of it. Bruno did the same. He then followed the track of Tony in the solitary woods until he came to the brook where Tony had been fishing. Here, to his great astonishment, he found Tony’s cap and fishing-pole lying by the margin of the water.

What this could mean he was utterly unable to imagine. The sight of these things, however, only increased his interest in the search for Tony. He soon found the track again, and he followed it along by the side of the bog, and to the great rock, and by the old trees. What could have induced Tony to leave his cap and pole by the brook, and go scrambling through the bushes in this devious way, he could not imagine, not knowing, of course, any thing about the squirrel.

He, however, proceeded very industriously in the search, following the scent which Tony’s footsteps had left on the leaves and grass wherever he had gone, until at length, to his great joy, he came up with the object of his search by the brink of the water, as has already been described.

Tony had gone but a short distance from the place where Bruno had discovered him, before he found his strength failing him so rapidly that he was obliged to make his rests longer and longer. At one of these stops, Bruno, instead of waiting by his side, as he had done before, until Tony had become sufficiently rested to go on, ran off through the bushes and left him.

“Now, Bruno!” said Tony, in a mournful tone, “if you go away and leave me, I don’t know what I shall do.”

The cap restored.

Bruno was gone about five minutes, at the end of which time he came back, bringing Tony’s cap in his mouth. He had been to the brook to get it.

Tony was overjoyed to see Bruno again, and he was, moreover, particularly pleased to get his cap again.

So he took his cap and put it on, patting Bruno’s head at the same time, and commending him in a very cordial manner.

“I am very much obliged to you, Bruno,” said he, “for bringing me my cap —

very much obliged indeed. The cap is all I care for; never mind about the fishing-pole.”

Bruno returns home.

Tony spoke these words very feebly, for he was very tired and faint. Bruno perceived that he was not able to go on; so, after remaining by his side a few minutes, he ran off again into the bushes and disappeared.

“Now he has gone to bring the fishing-pole, I suppose,” said Tony. “I wish he would not go for that; I would rather have him stay here with me.”

His strange conduct.

Tony was mistaken in his supposition that Bruno had gone for the fishing-pole; for, instead of going to the brook again, where he had found the cap, he ran as fast as he could toward home. His object was to see if he could not get some thing for Tony to eat. As soon as he arrived at the house, he went to the farmer’s wife, who was all this time walking about the rooms of the house in great distress of mind, and waiting anxiously to hear some news of those who were in search of Tony, and began to pull her by her dress toward the place in the kitchen where the tin pail was kept, in which she was accustomed to put the farmer’s dinner. At first she could not understand what he wanted.

“My senses!” said she, “what does the dog mean?”

“Bruno!” said she again, after wondering a moment, “what do you want?”

Bruno looked up toward the pail and whined piteously, wagging his tail all the time, and moving about with eager impatience.

He succeeds in obtaining a dinner for Tony.

At length the farmer’s wife took hold of the pail, and, as soon as she had done so, Bruno ran off toward the closet where the food was kept, which she was accustomed to put into the pail for her husband’s dinner. He took his station by the door, and waited there, as he had been accustomed to do, looking up eagerly all the time to Tony’s mother, who was slowly following him.

“I verily believe,” said she, joyfully, “that Bruno has found Tony, and is going to carry him something to eat.”

She immediately went into the closet, and filled the pail up, in a very hurried manner, with something for Tony to eat, taking care not to put in so much as to make the pail too heavy. As soon as she had done this, and put on a cover, and then set the pail down upon the floor, Bruno immediately took it up by means of the handle, and ran off with it. Tony’s mother followed him, but she could not keep up with him, and was soon obliged to relinquish the pursuit.

Bruno had some difficulty in getting over the fences and through the bars with his burden, as he went on toward the place where he had left Tony. He, however, persevered in his efforts, and finally succeeded; and at length had the satisfaction of bringing the pail safely, and laying it down at Tony’s feet. Tony, who was by this time extremely hungry, as well as faint and exhausted by fatigue, was overjoyed at receiving this unexpected supply. He opened the pail, and found there every thing which he required. There was a supply of bread and butter in slices, with ham, sandwich fashion, placed between. At the bottom of the pail, too, was a small bottle filled with milk.

He conducts Tony home, and goes back for the fishing-pole.

After eating and drinking what Bruno had thus brought him, Tony felt greatly relieved and strengthened. He now could walk along, where Bruno led the way, without stopping to rest at all. So the boy and the dog went on together, until they safely reached the bottom of the garden. Here they were met by Tony’s mother, who was almost beside herself with joy when she saw them coming. She ran to meet Tony, and conducted him into the house, while Bruno, as soon as he found that his charge was safe, turned back, and, without waiting to be thanked, ran off into the woods again.

And where do you think he was going, reader?

He was going to get Tony’s fishing-pole.

Tony’s mother brought her boy into the house, and, after she had bathed his face, and his hands, and his feet with warm water to refresh and soothe him, agitated as he was by his anxiety and terror, she gave him a comfortable seat by the side of the kitchen fire, while she went to work to get ready the supper. As soon as Tony had arrived, she blew the horn at the door, which was the signal which had been previously agreed upon to denote that he was found. Thomas and Tony’s father heard this sound as they were wandering about in the woods, and both joyfully hastened home. Tony, in the mean time, dreaded his father’s return. He expected to be bitterly reproached by him for what he had done. He was, however, happily disappointed in this expectation. His father did not reproach him. He thought he had already been punished enough; and besides, he was so glad to have his son home again, safe and sound, that he had not the heart to say a word to give him any additional pain.

Bruno lies down to sleep.

Bruno himself came home about the same time that Thomas did, bringing the fishing-pole and line with him. The apparatus was all safe, except that the hook was gone. It had got torn off by catching against the bushes on the way. Bruno brought the pole and line to Tony. Tony took them, and when he had wound up the line, he set the pole up in the corner, while Bruno stretched himself out before the fire, and there, with his mind in a state of great satisfaction, in view of what he had done, he prepared to go to sleep. The bright fire glanced upon the hearth and about the room, forming a very cheerful and pleasant scene.

Tony’s reflections.

How shameful it is, thought Tony, as he looked upon Bruno by the fire, that while a dog can be so faithful, and seem to take so much pride and pleasure in doing his duty, and in making himself as useful in every way as he possibly can, a boy, whose power and opportunities are so much superior to his, should be faithless and negligent, and try to contrive ways and means to evade his proper work. You have taught me a lesson, Bruno. You have set me an example. We will see whether, after this, I will allow myself to be beaten in fidelity and gratitude by a dog.

This story reminds me of another one about a boy named Antonio, who got away from home, and was in trouble to get back, though the circumstances were very different from those which I have just related. The name of this new story is “Boys Adrift.”