CHAPTER VI

EXCITING EXPERIENCES AND NARROW ESCAPES

Most boys have some thrilling experiences and narrow escapes; that is mostly because they do not calculate on risks; they rush into danger without thinking carefully how it may result. Some are ex- cited to bravado by their companions, and some try to show how smart they are. Many boys and girls have lost their lives by their bold dating of danger, and lack'01C caution. It is brave and noble to risk one’s life to save another, but it is foolishness to risk one’s life for no

good purpose. Dandy and the Wildcat

We had a big dog we named Dandy, and he was all that the name implies. He was a large dog, tall, and strong, and swift. He had short glossy hair, with old gold-coloured marks over his eyes and down the middle of his forehead and throat. He was a good-natured dog; we loved him. The older boys trained him to go in harness and cart, or sled. He would gooff as, though delighted; his ears erect; his big long tail curled up, and swinging from side to side, and his body moving gracefully. My brothers made a wagon; the wheels of which were sawn off , the end of a stout hardwood log; it had an open box like an express wagon. One day some of my ”brothers harnessed Dandy and hitched him to this wagon and took me for a ride on the road to the woods.- I was then three or four years of age. The dog could draw the as though there was nothing in, the wagon. We went along de- lightfully until, what we supposed was a wild cat, ran across the road, a few yards in front of us; Dandy made a bound after it. We could not control him; the wagon and I were hurled over the hills on the side of the road. The end of my short life seemed at hand, whether I was carried into the woods. on the wagon or thrown out of it the danger was great. The speed was furious. Soon the wagon upset and

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