Alpena Weekly Argus

No Dogs Allowed in the Cars.
It happened the other day on the
Lehigh Valley Railroad. The train
had just left Easton, and the con-
ductor was just making his first
round, when he observed a small
white dog, with a bushy tail and
bright, black eyes, sitting cosily on
the seat beside a young lady so
handsome that it made his heart
roll over like a lop-sided pumpkin.
But duty was duty, and he remark-
ed in his most deprecatory manner:
"I'm very sorry, madam, but it's
against the rules to have dogs in
the passenger cars."
"Oh, my! is that so?" and she
turned up two lovely brown eyes
at him beseechingly. "What in
the world will I do? I can't throw
him away, he is a Christmas pre-
sent from my aunt."
"By no means, miss. We'll put
him in the baggage-car, and he'll
be just as happy as a robin in
spring."
"What? put my nice, white dog
in a nasty, stuffy, dusty baggage-
car?"
"I'm awful sorry, miss, I do as-
sure you; but the rules of this
company are as inflexible as the
laws of the Medes and them other
fellows, you know. He shall have
my overcoat to lie on, and the
brakeman shall give him grub and
water every time he opens his
mouth."
"I just think it's awful mean, so
I do; and I know somebody will
steal it, so they will," and she
showed a half notion to cry that
nearly broke the conductor's heart;
but he was firm, and sang out to
the brakeman, who was playing a
solo on the stove,
"Here, Andy, take this dog over
into the baggage-car, and tell 'em
to take just the best kind of care
of him."
The young lady pouted, but the
brakeman reached over and picked
the canine up as tenderly as though
it had been a two-weeks'-old baby;
but as he did so a strange expres-
sion came over his face, like a wave
of cramp colic, and he said hastily
to the conductor:
"Here, you just hold him a min-
ute till I put this poker away," and
he trotted out at the car door and
held on to the brake-wheel, shak-
ing like a man with the ague.
The conductor no sooner had his
hands on the dog than he looked
around for a hole to fall through.
"Who-wh-why, this is a fur dog!"
"Yes, sir," said the little
lady demurely. "Didn't you know
it, miss?"
"No, I'm most awful sor-
ry to say I didn't know that."
And he laid it down in the owner's lap and stalked out on the platform, where he stood for half an hour in the cold, trying to think of an excuse to suit the worst scared man on the Lehigh Valley road.