MY FIRST SLEDGE JOURNEY 



"Half Way House," a tumble -down hut thirty 

 miles from anywhere, without fire and with nothing 

 but a few scraps of dried fish for food. His poor dogs 

 had to go hungry : but they were workers, and came 

 trotting up the slope to Hebron in a most business- 

 like way. With them came Shergo. 



Shergo was a remarkable character among dogs. 

 In the litter of plump black and white pups that 

 arrived in the late autumn, mothered by my beauti- 

 ful leading dog Geshe, there was a strange-looking 

 little yellow creature which we named Shergo 

 (meaning " by-and-by "). To which of her doggy 

 ancestors she harked back, I cannot say; but she 

 was an oddity, an utter freak. As soon as she 

 could toddle she began to wander. Any team that 

 appeared to be starting on a journey would do for 

 Shergo, and so she made a good many futile trips 

 to and fro with the wood sledges. Once she 

 thought the water sledge looked promising, and 

 went with that ; but came back looking sad and 

 wise and disappointed only three miles to run, and 

 a cold and shivery waiting for the tank to be filled, 

 and then the three miles home again. 



Shergo was not content to follow behind : no, 

 if she choose to go with a team she took her place 

 among them, and trotted with a grotesque air of 

 determination, as if half the weight were on her bony 

 ; little shoulders. I was not surprised when I saw 

 her come trotting into Hebron with the fourteenth 

 sledge. She had attached herself to that because it 

 was the slowest, and the easiest for her short legs. I 

 tried to befriend her, and hustled her off to where 

 jmy own dogs were waiting for their food ; but she 

 preferred to take care of herself, and was generally 



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