PYX, B. A. 



3»3 



CHAPTER II 



A FRIEND IN NEED 



My, what a fight that was ! I can feel my 

 hair rising up all along my back even now 

 when I thinkof it. I was about a year old then ; 

 my active life had developed my muscles so 

 that although I was small I was wonderfully 



lumberman call a. thoroughbred mongrel 

 (I had never heard of that breed before) that 

 I was very fond of. She was a, pretty little 

 thing, full of fun, and many tine games of 

 hide and seek we had among the piles of 

 lumber. We used to go off on long trips 

 about town together, and often when she 

 did not feel like going I would go off alone and 



TARO, THE HERO FROM YOKOHAMA 



strong. The streets had been my home for 

 over four months; I slept most of the time 

 in an old lumber yard, and my diet consisted 

 chiefly of street scraps and canned goods — 

 garbage cans. I had few friends of my 

 own kind: somehow we all seemed so busy 

 trying to get a living, honest or otherwise, 

 that we did not have much time for sociabil- 

 ity. But there was one little dog, I heard a 



never returned without some choice morsel 

 for her; often I would be so hungry that I 

 was greatly tempted to sit down in some 

 alley and enjoy it myself, but I would re- 

 member the secret she told me, and care- 

 fully guarded, I would lay the prize at her 

 feet. Sometimes it was only a fish or a dry 

 bone, but one day we had a great treat; I 

 guess it wasn't right, but I've heard it said 



