bout two in the morning, when he was suddenly
set upon, tooth and nail, by what he believed, on first waking, to be a
whole family of bears. One had him by the leg, through the bag, shaking
him. Another was dragging at the back of the bag, while the teeth of a
third were snapping at his face. Still other teeth were chewing upon his
arm, and the growling was something frightful!

This was an alarming manner in which to be wakened from a sound nap, and
it is little wonder that Rufus, although a plucky youngster, rolled over
and over and yelled with the full power of his lungs.

His shouts produced an effect. First one and then another of his
assailants let go and drew back; and getting the wool out of his eyes,
Rufus saw that the creatures were not bears, but four astonished dogs,
standing a few feet away, regarding him with doubt and disgust.

To all appearance he had been a sheep, lying a little apart from the
others, and they had fallen upon him as one; but his shouts led them to
think that he was not mutton, after all, and they did not know what to
make of it!

Rufus, almost equally astonished, now lay quite still, staring at them.
The dogs looked at each other, licked the wool from their mouths, and
sat down to contemplate him further.

Rufus, on his part, waxed even more amazed as he looked, for by the
bright moonlight he at once identified the four dogs. They were, alas!
the highly respectable, exemplary old Bender, the collie, Tige, the
brindle, and the mongrel bulldog--all loved and trusted members of
society. Rufus was so astonished that he did not think of using his
blunderbuss; he simply whistled.

That whistle appeared to resolve the doubts of the dogs instantly. They
growled menacingly and sprang away like the wind. Rufus saw them run
across the pasture to the woods, and afterward, for some minutes, heard
them washing themselves in the brook, as roguish, sheep-killing dogs
always do before returning home.

But in this case the dogs appeared to know that they had been detected,
and that so far as their characters as good and virtuous dogs went, the
game was up. Not one of them returned home. All four took to the woods,
and thereafter lived predatory lives. They were aware of the gravity of
their offenses.

During October and early November they were heard of as a pack of bad
sheep-killers, time and again; but they now followed their evil
practices at a distance from their former homes, where, indeed,