back yonder, where we passed along,"
remarked Fred; and as though in his mind an ounce of prevention might be
better than a pound of cure, he too hastened to pick tip a heavy billet
of wood, that was as large as an ordinary baseball club.

"But what makes dogs act that way, and go wild?" asked Bristles. "I
never knew of any doing such a queer stunt."

"It's this way," explained the other, quickly, as though he had recently
been reading the matter up, and was full of information. "Dogs are kin
to wolves and foxes, you know. Fact is, many a wolf I've seen looked
just like a dog."

"Yes, that's a fact, Fred!" admitted Bristles, nodding his head, and
still noting the fact that the chorus of barks, yelps and snarls seemed
to be gradually approaching all the time.

"Well, every once in a while some dog seems to hear the call of the wild.
He takes a dislike to confinement, hates human beings, and the first
chance he gets puts out for the woods, where he lives just as a wolf
would do, by the chase. Sometimes farmers' watchdogs that are thought to
be honest get this sheep-killing habit, and play tricks, covering their
tracks so they go a long time without being found out, and then only by
accident."

"Yes, I've heard all about that, too, Fred, but because one dog goes
wild, why should a whole lot of others follow after him, I want to know?"

"Well," continued the other, "as far as I understand it, here's the
reason. Every dog has that same nature about him. I've seen it proven
many times. We had an old dog named Mose, who was never known to chase
anybody. He used to lie there asleep on our front porch by the hour.
Then next door there was a little cur that somehow took to chasing after
wheels and wagons. You've heard how dogs yap-yap whenever they do that,
haven't you, Bristles?"

"Lots of times," assented the other, nodding, and still earnestly
listening.

"It's about like some of that racket we hear now," Fred went on to
explain. "They say it excites a dog like everything. When that little
cur next door would start down the street with a yap-yap-yap, I've seen
our poor old Mose jump up, as if he'd had a signal no living dog could
resist, and go rushing out of the yard, to join in with the cur and some
others that gathered like a flash. That's what it means."

"And these other dogs have got the fever in their veins by this time too,
eh, Fred?"

"Yes, and they are satisfied to chase around after the lead