Prince Jan, St. Bernard Part 8

"I'm not afraid of him. He won't bite. He isn't a bear to eat us all up, is he, Charlotte?"

"I--I--aren't afraid, either," Charlotte's voice was uncertain, but her hand touched the dog's big head. Then both children lost all fear of him and Jan forgot about William and the hours of suffering, for the two little girls curled close to him, and soon they were all three fast asleep.

The sun was almost setting when the father and mother tucked the basket and shawls into the automobile. Jan watched with puzzled eyes as they carefully put away some little boards. He had noticed when he woke from his doze that both the man and the woman were sitting on stools with these boards propped before them, and they were making marks on them.

The father was already in the machine and the little girls climbed in, then the mother put her foot on the step and Jan let out a wild howl that made them all start. He thought they were going to leave him behind and he knew that he could never run fast enough to follow them.

"Good gracious! What a howl!" exclaimed the man, laughing. "We won't leave you. Jump up, old chap!"

Jan lost no time scrambling into the automobile, then it ran swiftly along a smooth road which finally twisted through a beautiful canon.

Great trees were on all sides and a tiny stream bubbled and danced far below. Birds sang and rabbits dashed out of the brush with swift hops and jerks, but Jan did not want to eat the rabbits now. The children kept laughing and clapping their hands, calling to Jan, "Look, look, quick!" Sometimes their hands pressed his head to make him turn where they pointed.

Jan was very happy on that ride, but he still hoped that by and by he might get back home to Hippity-Hop and the captain.

Chapter X

THE HOME OF THE SUNBONNET BABIES

The home of Jan's new friends was perched high on the top of a mountain peak, far above the canon through which they had driven. Jan heard them call this place Topango Pa.s.s. The house stood alone with overhanging oak trees and a garden full of flowers that made him think of the yard in front of the captain's bungalow.

A big stone fireplace was near the house, and pink geraniums grew closely around the little home, while over the porch climbed yellow roses that looked as if the fairies had hidden their gold among the green leaves.

"This is Roseneath," announced Charlotte to Jan as the automobile stopped in front of the porch and the two girls jumped out, followed by the dog.

"Charlotte!" Ruth said suddenly, stopping halfway up the path, "we've got to find a name for that dog right away!"

It was a very serious matter, so the children sat on the lowest step of the porch and Jan squatted before them. He wished he could help by telling his name and about the Hospice, but all he could do was to sit still and look from one eager little face to the other. After trying several names they decided on "Bruin."

"Because he is so big and black, just like a bear!"

Jan rather liked the name. It sounded like Bruno, but of course, the sunbonnet children did not know anything about Bruno and the Hospice, so they said Jan was very smart to remember the new name without any trouble at all.

The next morning he was wakened early by the children's voices and hurried to meet them in front of the house. Charlotte had a tin bucket in her hand and Jan wondered if they were going to pick more berries.

But they went down a path that led to the stable and then he stood still in surprise.

Right in front of them was a strange creature about the size of a common dog. It had long, white hair, a white beard like a very old man's, two horns curved back over its head and its feet had sharp-pointed hoofs. It was tied by a rope and back of it was a smaller animal of the same kind.

Charlotte went past the larger one and sat down on a little wooden stool beside the smaller animal and soon the tin pail was full of milk. Back to the house trotted the children, and Jan, very much puzzled, kept beside them. In the kitchen they found the mother cooking breakfast. Jan lifted his nose and sniffed at the odor of broiling steak and hot biscuit.

"Milk for the berries we picked yesterday," the mother of the sunbonnet children said smiling. "Won't we have a fine breakfast this morning! And there's a nice bone in the steak for Bruin, too!"

She poured a little milk into a pan and placed it on the floor for Jan.

He knew that the white animal must have been a cow, yet it was not like the cow at the Pixleys' home, but when he tasted the milk, it was just as nice as the big, yellow cow's milk.

While breakfast was being eaten, the children and their parents chatted together and Jan looked about the place. The walls of the rooms were hung with beautiful pictures, among them many fat little babies with sunbonnets hiding their faces. He was sure that if the sunbonnets were pushed back he would see the faces of Ruth and Charlotte laughing at him.

As time went by Jan was quite happy and learned to love his gentle playmates very dearly. He grew accustomed to seeing the artists sitting before boards, painting pictures like those on the walls. Even the little girls, Ruth and Charlotte, sometimes sat on the ground and made him lie still while they worked away with pencils and pieces of paper and told him they were making his picture to put in a book. It did not quite explain matters to Jan when Ruth held up one of these papers in front of his nose and said, "You see, Bruin, we're going to be ill--us--trators like mother when we grow up, and then we'll put you in a book, maybe!"

After Jan had several good baths the ugly black dye began to wear off and his white s.h.i.+rt-front and paws and the white streak on his nose showed plainly. Then the rusty black fur on his entire body became its natural tawny red and grew rapidly. The Melvilles now realized that Jan had been stolen and often wondered who had lost him. They asked the few people they saw but none of them had heard of such a dog, so the family felt that Jan belonged to them.

Ruth and Charlotte were much interested when their parents told them that Bruin was a St. Bernard dog, and all about the n.o.ble animals that lived at the Hospice, for the two artists had visited the place many years before Ruth or Charlotte had been born. When their mother finished telling them these things, Ruth exclaimed, "Mother! Then you and daddy and Charlotte and me are all St. Bernard dogs, because we found Bruin when he was lost, didn't we?"

Jan was not the only pet of this family. The "Melville Menagerie" was what their mother called the collection of animals. There were two grown-up goats, named Captain Kidd and Mrs. Cream; two baby-goats, Peaches and Strawberry; a mother cat named Chicago, because she was smoke color, and her three kittens, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania.

Next was the canary bird, Pitty-Sing, and last, but not least, five horn-toads which were nameless, but who lived peacefully together in a box with sand to burrow in.

All of these members of the family interested Jan, but he wanted to be friends with the old cat and her kittens, because he missed Hippity-Hop.

Whenever he tried to go near them, the four jumped to their feet, arched their backs, and spat at him so rudely that he gave up making friends, and decided that only three-legged cats liked dogs.

Each day about three o'clock all work was put aside by the artists, for this was the time they went to visit "The Land of Make-Believe."

Sometimes they were gypsies, and supper was cooked over a campfire among the oak trees. Again, they pretended Jan was a big bear and he found it great fun to chase after the children while they ran away as though really afraid of him. Then it was "Little Red Riding Hood" with Jan for the wolf, but he did not eat any one, like the wolf did, for he knew he would have a nice piece of meat cooked over the wood fire as they all sat about on the ground and pretended they had no place to sleep excepting underneath the trees. When the stars began to twinkle, the sunbonnet children said that the angels were lighting the candles in Heaven, and very soon it was time to go home for the night.

Haying time in California is different from that of other parts of the world, for it is in May, and many months ahead of other places. The fields were dotted with little mounds of yellow hay drying in the sun, and one evening Mrs. Melville told the children she had a new game for the Land of Make-Believe. The next afternoon they could hardly wait until they reached the hay-fields.

"Now, children," said their mother, "these are the snow-covered peaks of the Alps that I told you about. Ruth must be a lost traveller and wander around among these mountains of snow until she is too tired to go any further. Then she must lie down and pull the hay over her and wait to be rescued from death in the snow."

As Ruth scampered away, Jan followed her, but Mrs. Melville called him back. He sat looking at her, but his head turned frequently toward the place he had last seen little Ruth. Several times he started to get up, but each time he sat down again and waited.

"You, Charlotte, are a monk from the Hospice and Bruin will go with you to search for lost travellers in this terrible snow-storm."

Jan stood very still, but his tail flapped around in circles while Mrs.

Melville fastened a canteen of water to his collar, then she said, "Now, Bruin, go find Ruth!"

"Woof! Woof!" rang out the big voice, just as the dogs of the Hospice called when they started on the trail. Followed closely by Charlotte, Jan led the way from one hay mound to another, poking his nose deeply into each. Charlotte kept calling, "Find Ruth, Bruin! Go find her! She's lost in the snow and will freeze to death if we don't find her soon!"

Jan forgot it was only the Land of Make-Believe, while he burrowed into the hayc.o.c.ks. As he ran from one to the other, his bark sounded again and again, for he remembered the lessons Brother Antoine had given him and Rollo, and the canteen that b.u.mped against his breast felt like the little wooden casket he had carried on the trail. At last he found the lost traveller. Jan lifted his head and uttered a sharp bark of triumph before his nose began tossing the hay that completely covered Ruth.

"He found her! He found her!" shrieked Charlotte in greatest excitement, just as though Ruth had really been lost in the snow-drifts.

Both parents ran to watch the game and Ruth's face appeared in the hay, like a pink Easter egg in a nest. She squinted up, saw her mother and father, Charlotte and Jan, then remembered that she was lost and shut her eyes quickly. Jan touched her cheek with his nose, and licked her face. She could not keep still any longer, because she wanted to sneeze and that would spoil the whole game. So she opened her eyes, put up her hand and unfastened the canteen from Jan's collar and swallowed such a big gulp of water that she almost choked. Her arms went about Jan's neck and while she clung, he moved slowly away from the mound, his tail waving rapidly and his big eyes full of pride. Ruth had been saved from a terrible death in the snow-drifts of the Alps!

The whole party of rescuers hastened to the Hospice under the trees, where supper was almost ready, and as they sat around the outdoor fireplace waiting the meal, they all declared that Bruin had acted just as if he had really lived at the Hospice and knew all about the dogs there and how they worked.

Three months after Jan went to live at Roseneath, the family sat reading one evening, and Jan sprawled at their feet. Ruth and Charlotte were deeply interested in the pictures of a new magazine for children, and Mr. Melville held a newspaper. He had been to the nearest town that day and had brought the mail home with him.

Suddenly he let the paper drop to his lap and sat looking at Prince Jan, then he picked up the paper again, saying, "Listen to this!"

All of them turned expectantly, for the parents always read aloud anything that might interest the children.

CAPTURED THIEF WORRIES OVER LOST DOG

John Leavitt, alias Shorty, now held as one of the two men who stole and wrecked an automobile belonging to Paul E. Wallace of Los Angeles, has made a confession implicating his half-brother, William Leavitt, formerly stableman at the beach-home of the Pixleys.

According to Shorty's statement, they had stolen a St. Bernard dog from Captain Smith, the Poundmaster, intending to sell the animal in Canada. Shorty became attached to the dog, Prince Jan, and in a quarrel with his brother over the muzzling of the dog, the machine was wrecked.

Leavitt evidently supposed Shorty was dead beneath the wreckage, and escaped. Shorty was found later, seriously injured, and his recovery was not expected. His one anxiety seems to be that Prince Jan, being muzzled, might have died of starvation. Any one knowing the fate of the dog is asked to communicate with Captain Smith, through this paper.