CHAPTER XXIX.

OUR LAST NIGHT TOGETHER--THE REMARKABLE SHED-TAIL DOG--HE RESCUES HIS MISTRESS, AND BREAKS UP A MEETING--A SKETCH OF TERRITORIAL TIMES BY GRIPE--MONTGOMERY'S EXPEDITION FOR THE RESCUE OF JOHN BROWN'S COMPANIONS--SCALPED, AND CARVING HIS OWN EPITAPH--AN IRISH JACOB--"SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST"--SACHEM'S POETICAL LETTER--POPPING THE QUESTION ON THE RUN--THE PROFESSOR'S LETTER.

Supper over, we made an engagement with our hospitable friends for their presence at a sort of "state dinner" we proposed giving the next day, and then returned to our own camp. A number of the settlers soon came strolling in, and among them one bringing a most remarkable dog, of the "shed-tail" variety. The animal was well known to fame in that section, for having attacked some Indians who had taken his mistress captive and were endeavoring to place her upon one of their ponies, and so delaying them that the neighbors were able to arrive and give rescue. It was claimed that thirty shots were fired at him without effect, which, if true, proved that either those Indians were exceedingly bad marksmen, or that the small fraction of caudal appendage which the beast possessed acted as a protective talisman.

We had often seen dogs without tails, but previous to this had always supposed that a depraved human taste, not nature, was at the root of it. Tail-wagging we had considered as much the born prerogative of a dog as a laugh is that of man. It is true some men do not laugh, but the child