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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