MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

good-night!"Whitey found a little frosted grass upon the common and remained there all night. In themorning he sought the shed where Abalene had kept him, but that was across the largeand busy town, and Whitey was hopelessly lost. He had but one eye; a feeble one; and hislegs were not to be depended upon; but he managed to cover a great deal of ground, tohave many painful little adventures, and to get monstrously hungry and thirsty before hehappened to look in upon Penrod and Sam.When the two boys chased him up the alley, they had no intention to cause pain; they hadno intention at all. They were no more cruel than Duke, Penrod's little old dog, whofollowed his own instincts, and, making his appearance hastily through a hole in the backfence, joined the pursuit with sound and fury. A boy will nearly always run after anythingthat is running, and his first impulse is to throw a stone at it. This is a survival ofprimeval man, who must take every chance to get his dinner. So, when Penrod and Samdrove the hapless Whitey up the alley, they were really responding to an impulsethousands and thousands of years old—an impulse founded upon the primordialobservation that whatever runs is likely to prove edible. Penrod and Sam were not "bad";they were never that. They were something which was not their fault; they were historic.At the next corner Whitey turned to the right into the cross-street; thence, turning to theright again and still warmly pursued, he zigzagged down a main thoroughfare until he