g them switches
in!" Those were hot times in old Salt Creek Valley!

One morning Turk, too, was seized with educational ambition, and
accompanied Will to school. We tried to drive him home, but he followed
at a distance, and as we entered the schoolhouse, he emerged from the
shrubbery by the roadside and crept under the building.

Alas for the scholars, and alas for the school! Another ambitious dog
reposed beneath the temple of learning.

Will, about that time, was having a bad quarter of an hour. An
examination into his knowledge, or lack of it, was under way, and he was
hard pressed. Had he been asked how to strike a trail, locate water,
or pitch a tent, his replies would have been full and accurate, but
the teacher's queries seemed as foolish as the "Reeling and Writhing,
Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision" of the Mock Turtle in
"Alice in Wonderland."

Turk effected an unexpected rescue. Snarls were heard beneath the
schoolhouse; then savage growls and yelps, while the floor resounded
with the whacks of the canine combatants. With a whoop that would not
have disgraced an Indian, Will was out of doors, shouting, "Eat him up,
Turk! Eat him up!"

The owner of the opposing dog was one Steve Gobel. 'Twixt him and Will
a good-sized feud existed. Steve was also on the scene, with a defiant,
"Sic 'em, Nigger!" and the rest of the school followed in his wake.

Of the twisting, yelping bundle of dog-flesh that rolled from under the
schoolhouse it was difficult to say which was Turk and which Nigger.
Eliza and I called to Turk, and wept because he would not hear. The
teacher ordered the children back to their studies, but they were
as deaf as Turk; whereat the enraged pedagogue hopped wildly about,
flourishing a stick and whacking every boy that strayed within reach of
it.

Nigger soon had enough of the fight, and striking his tail-colors, fled
yelping from the battle-ground. His master, Steve Gobel, a large youth
of nineteen or twenty years, pulled off his coat to avenge upon Will
the dog's defeat, but the teacher effected a Solomon-like compromise by
whipping both boys for bringing their dogs to school, after which the
interrupted session was resumed.

But Gobel nursed his wrath, and displayed his enmity in a thousand small
ways. Will paid no attention to him, but buckled down to his school
work. Will was a born "lady's man," and when Miss Mary Hyatt complicated
the feud 'twixt him and Steve, it hurr