A Gentleman From France

by Clarence Hawkes

A Gentleman From France

An Airedale Hero

They galloped away.—Page 44.

A Gentleman from France

 

An Airedale Hero

 

By
Clarence Hawkes
Author of "Dapples of the Circus," "Pep, the Wilderness Dog," "Master Frisky," "Black Bruin," "The Trail to the Woods," "Piebald, King of Bronchos", etc.

 

Illustrated by
L. J. Bridgman

 

 

Boston
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

Copyright, 1924,
By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

---

All Rights Reserved

---

A Gentleman From France

 

Printed in U. S. A.

---

Norwood Press
Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass.

To every man, woman, and child in the whole world who loves a good dog, this book is fraternally dedicated::

Preface

Every reader of this book will be interested to know that Pierre was a real dog. As real as bone and muscle, and dog intelligence could make him.

His American friends described in these pages were the author and his wife.

Pierre came to us one Sunday morning while we were at breakfast just as described. We saw at once that he was a gentleman, in hard circumstances, and so took him in.

During the few months that he was with us he wriggled his way into the very depths of our hearts, although he worried us greatly as well. When we finally said good-bye to him, it was with tears in our eyes.

His life story both before and after his visit with us I have had to conjecture, as several links in this history are missing.

For that reason I have not used the real name of Pierre's mistress.

About twelve years ago, one May morning, an actress's palatial private car rolled into the station at Northampton, Massachusetts, which is three miles from my home. The car stood on a siding in the meadow city for two days while the actress played an important engagement in the Northampton theatre, before a brilliant Smith College audience. The day after the car left, a notice appeared in one of the local papers advertising for one of the great lady's dogs, which it stated had run away while the actress had been in the city. So far as I know, there were no answers to the advertisement.

Several months later a friend from Northampton who happened to be calling upon us exclaimed when she saw Pierre:

"Why, where in the world did you get Madame B.'s dog?"

"He isn't Madame's dog," I replied. "He's just a tramp, although a very distinguished one. He came to us last May and has had the best the house afforded ever since."

Then the friend told us of the actress's loss, while in the city, and of the advertisement. She also said that she had seen the dog on the rear platform of the car, and the maid combing him. She had likewise seen him half an hour later in a lively dog fight in another part of the city. When she called the attention of a policeman to the identity of the dog, he only laughed and refused to arrest the runaway, and that was why he was not recovered at the time.

Now the real name of the actress who played at Smith College on that occasion was Madame Sarah Bernhardt, but because some of the evidence establishing the fact that Pierre was her dog is missing, I have not used her name in the story. So with this incomplete pedigree of the Gentleman from France, I leave the reader to follow his fortunes to the happy end.

The Author.

Contents

Chapter		Page
	Introductory. My Dog	14
I.	The Little Corporal	17
II.	Pierre	28
III.	Pierre Goes Up to Paris	37
IV.	A War Dog	46
V.	Pierre Comes to America	67
VI.	The Life of a Tramp	74
VII.	Pierre Meets the Killer	90
VIII.	A Sorry Adventure	104
IX.	Pierre Makes New Friends	116
X.	Pierre Again Smells Powder	148
XI.	An Honorable Discharge	188

Illustrations

 

They galloped away (Page 44)		Frontispiece
		Facing page
The old man came bowing and smiling to the car		24
He slipped his collar and ran for freedom		72
He fled down the regimental street		84
"You a War Dog, a hero!"		100
The general stood before Pierre and read from a paper		192