Jim Bowie by Robert E. Hollmann

Chapter One
    The old dog wandered slowly across the yard to the little cabin. The hard-packed dirt of the front yard hurt his paws. The noonday sun was hot and the old dog was looking for a cool place to lie down. Stopping in front of a half filled bowl of water, he lapped up some. He looked at an old bone that lay next to the bowl, but there was no meat on it, so he walked on. He walked around the corner of the house and found a shady spot. The old dog stretched and lay down with his head on his paws. He yawned once and was soon asleep.
    “Grampa. Wake up.”
    The sudden noise startled the old dog and he jerked his head up. He yawned again as he searched for the source of the noise that had woken him up. Two small puppies were racing toward him. Their ears flapped and their tongues hung from the sides of their mouths as they ran. The old dog put his head back on his paws and closed his eyes.
    He felt the small dogs come to a stop beside him. He heard them panting. Finally one of them said, “Get up, Grampa. We want to play with you.”
    Slowly the old dog opened his eyes and looked at the puppies.
    “Go away. It’s too hot to play. Besides, I’m tired.”
    The girl puppy walked over and licked the old dog’s face.
    “Please, Grampa. We like to play with you.”
    The old dog stretched and slowly stood up.
    “Now, Princess, I like to play with you and Butch too. But it’s too hot right now. We would all get sick playing in this hot sun.”
    Butch jumped at a passing butterfly and then sat next to the old dog.
    “Well, there’s nothing to do. Daddy is out hunting and Momma is watching the sheep. We want to do something.”
    The old dog found a softer spot and lay down again.
    “You can take a nap with me.”
    “No. We don’t want to take a nap,” both puppies howled at once.
    “Well, I do. Now don’t bother me.” The old dog closed his eyes.
    Princess walked over and lay down beside him.
    “At least tell us a story.”
    Butch ran over and plopped down next to Princess.
    “Yeah. Tell us the one about when you were young and were friends with that big man.”
    The old dog opened one eye.
    “Big man? Oh, you must mean Jim Bowie. Why, I’ve told you that story a hundred times, don’t you want to hear something else?”
    “No.” Both puppies shook their heads. “We want to hear that one.”
    The old dog sat up and scratched his ear with his hind foot.
    “Well now, let’s see. That was a long time ago. I was no bigger than you are now. I was living in Louisiana. My parents had both died and I was all by myself in the swamps. It was hard to stay alive then. There was not much food that I could catch, and there were a lot of things that wanted to catch me.”
    Both of the puppies sat up and watched the old dog. He looked far away, looking at something from long ago.
    “I was walking through the swamps one day and I heard voices. Back then I didn’t know what humans were, so I hid in a bush by the riverbank. Pretty soon I saw two young men walking through the trees. They had a net and some rope and I could hear them talking. I was scared because I didn’t know what they were going to do. I lay down as low as I could under that bush and watched them walk by. They stopped right next to my bush and I heard them talking…”
    “Jim, you’re crazy to want to try and wrestle an alligator. Ma is going to skin you if she finds out.”
    “Well, Rezin, she won’t know if you don’t tell her. I think it’s fun to wrestle an alligator. Now, let’s go find one.”
    “I watched the two men walk away. They seemed like they were pretty nice. I decided to go after them and see what happened. I stood up and started to follow the men when I heard a sound behind me. I turned and saw a big alligator with his mouth wide open…coming right for me.”

Chapter Two
    The old dog laid his head back on his paws and closed his eyes.
    “Grampa,” Princess called out. “Wake up. Tell us the rest of the story.”
    The old dog