CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
149 
of the week. Their reason may be a purely psychological one, 
but whatever the reason is, it happens to be the particular con¬ 
cern of those performing this arduous labor. After all, it’s job 
work—the men being engaged to chip a crop of 10,000 faces 
for a specified consideration, and it makes little difference to 
his employer if the laborer did the work by bright moonlight, 
provided, of course, that the work was well done. He should 
lose no time if his crop was to be finished before nightfall, con¬ 
sequently he was hastening along down the lane, thinking only 
of the task before him. His meditations were suddenly brought 
to an abrupt end—he was startled by the noise of Pee Wee, his 
little fice dog, running to catch up. It caused him to marvel 
that so small a dog could make that much noise with only 
four tiny feet. The cause of the dog’s delay in starting was 
very simple, once explained—he had been devoting too much 
time and attention to a mellow hambone in the chimney corner, 
and too little to the departure of his master. Acting on one of 
his “hunches”—and he had them frequently—he forbade Pee 
Wee going along on this particular day, although he could 
assign no reason for feeling as he did. So, turning about in his 
tracks, he spake thus to the dog: “Pee Wee, I can’t let you go 
today, so ye might as well trot along back to the house.” The 
faithful little dog lost no time in carrying out the orders of his 
master, though he did look dreadfully dejected as he retraced 
his steps to the house. He seemed to understand everything 
his master ever said to him. Taking a hurried glance back¬ 
ward toward the house he saw his little dog standing upright 
on the inside of the split rail fence surrounding his shack, with 
paws resting upon the fourth rail, peering through the fifth 
crack. Calling back to him, he said, “Wall, come on, dern ye, 
a body can’t deny ye nuthin’, and ye a’standin’ thar with tears 
in yer eyes.” At the spoken leave of his master he came bound¬ 
ing with more speed and enthusiasm than when he first at¬ 
tempted to follow his master. 
All went well during the greater portion of the day. Pee 
Wee was having a great time. He had “treed” more than his 
usual number of “cottontails.” Neither he or any of his pro¬ 
genitors (called fice dogs by the older people) ever barked 
