Old Yeller by Fred Gipson Page B

didn’t grow close to the house. Along at the last, Mama had to go clear over to the Salt Licks to locate that kind.
    When Mama wasn’t waiting on me, she was taking care of Old Yeller. She waited on him just like she did me. She was getting up all hours of the night to doctor our wounds, bathe us in cold water, and feed us when she could get us to eat. On top of that, there were the cows to milk, Little Arliss to look after, clothes to wash, wood to cut, and old Jumper to worry with.
    The bad drouth that Bud Searcy predicted had come. The green grass all dried up tillJumper was no longer satisfied to eat it. He took to jumping the field fence and eating the corn that I’d never yet gotten around to gathering.
    Mama couldn’t let that go on; that was our bread corn. Without it, we’d have no bread for the winter. But it looked like for a while that there wasn’t any way to save it. Mama would go to the field and run Jumper out; then before she got her back turned good, he’d jump back in and go to eating corn again.
    Finally, Mama figured out a way to keep Jumper from jumping. She tied a drag to him. She got a rope and tied one end of it to his right forefoot. To the other end, she tied a big heavy chunk of wood. By pulling hard, Jumper could move his drag along enough to graze and get to water; but any time he tried to rear up for a jump, the drag held him down.
    The drag on Jumper’s foot saved the corn but it didn’t save Mama from a lot of work. Jumper was always getting his chunk of wood hung up behind a bush or rock, so that he couldn’t get away. Then he’d have himself a big scare and rear up, fighting the rope and falling down and pitching and bawling. If Mama didn’t hear himright away, he’d start braying, and he’d keep it up till she went and loosened the drag.
    Altogether, Mama sure had her hands full, and Little Arliss wasn’t any help. He was too little to do any work. And with neither of us to play with, he got lonesome. He’d follow Mama around every step she made, getting in the way and feeling hurt because she didn’t have time to pay him any mind. When he wasn’t pestering her, he was pestering me. A dozen times a day, he’d come in to stare at me and say: “Whatcha doin’ in bed, Travis? Why doncha get up? Why doncha get up and come play with me?”
    He nearly drove me crazy till the day Bud Searcy and Lisbeth came, bringing the pup.
    I didn’t know about the pup at first. I didn’t even know that Lisbeth had come. I heard Bud Searcy’s talk to Mama when they rode up, but I was hurting too bad even to roll over and look out the door. I remember just lying there, being mad at Searcy for coming. I knew what a bother he’d be to Mama. For all his talk of looking after the women and children of Salt Licks while the men were gone, I knew he’d never turn a hand to any real work. You wouldn’t catch him offeringto chop wood or gather in a corn crop. All he’d do was sit out under the dog run all day, talking and chewing tobacco and spitting juice all over the place. On top of that, he’d expect Mama to cook him up a good dinner and maybe a supper if he took a notion to stay that long. And Mama had ten times too much to do, like it was.
    In a little bit, though, I heard a quiet step at the door. I looked up. It was Lisbeth. She stood with her hands behind her back, staring at me with her big solemn eyes.
    “You hurting pretty bad?” she asked.
    I was hurting a-plenty, but I wasn’t admitting it to a girl. “I’m doing all right,” I said.
    “We didn’t know you’d got hog cut, or we’d have come sooner,” she said.
    I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything.
    “Well, anyhow,” she said, “I brung you a surprise.”
    I was too sick and worn out to care about a surprise right then; but there was such an eager look in her eyes that I knew I had to say “What?” or hurt her feelings, so I said “What?”
    “One of Miss Prissy’s pups!” she