hat stick and start for that dog as far
off as he could see him, spilling the Henry Clay Club out of the wagon
piecemeal as he went, and never stopping till he mixed up the strange
dog in a fight where it would have been hard to tell which was either
champion and which was the club wagon. When the fight was over Tip would
come smilingly back to the fragments of the Henry Clay Club, with pieces
of the vehicle sticking about him, and profess himself, in a dog's way,
ready to go on with the concert.

Any crowd of boys could get Tip to go off with them, in swimming, or
hunting, or simply running races. He was known through the whole town,
and beloved for his many endearing qualities of heart. As to his mind,
it was perhaps not much to brag of, and he certainly had some defects of
character. He was incurably lazy, and his laziness grew upon him as he
grew older, till hardly anything but the sight of a gun or a bone would
move him. He lost his interest in politics, and, though there is no
reason to suppose that he ever became indifferent to his principles, it
is certain that he no longer showed his early ardor. He joined the
Free-Soil movement in 1848, and supported Van Buren and Adams, but
without the zeal he had shown for Henry Clay. Once a year as long as the
family lived in the Boy's Town, the children were anxious about Tip when
the dog-law was put in force, and the constables went round shooting all
the dogs that were found running at large without muzzles. At this time,
when Tip was in danger of going mad and biting people, he showed a most
unseasonable activity, and could hardly be kept in bounds. A dog whose
sole delight at other moments was to bask in the summer sun, or dream by
the winter fire, would now rouse himself to an interest in everything
that was going on in the dangerous world, and make forays into it at all
unguarded points. The only thing to do was to muzzle him, and this was
done by my boy's brother with a piece of heavy twine, in such a manner
as to interfere with Tip's happiness as little as possible. It was a
muzzle that need not be removed for either eating, drinking, or
fighting; but it satisfied the law, and Tip always came safely through
the dog-days, perhaps by favor or affection with the officers who were
so inexorable with some dogs.

My boy long remembered with horror and remorse his part in giving up to
justice an unconscious offender, and seeing him pay for his
transgression with his life