When a novel like Huckleberry Finn or The Yearling comes along it defiescustomary adjectives because of the intensity of the respouse it evokes in thereader. Su... » 

When a novel like Huckleberry Finn or The Yearling comes along it defiescustomary adjectives because of the intensity of the respouse it evokes in thereader. Such a book we submit is Old Yeller to read this eloIquently simplestory of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill country is an unforgettable anddeeply moving experience.The big ugly yellow dog showed up out of nowhere one night and stole a wholeside of hanging pork and when Travis went for him the next morning that dogstarted yelling like a baby before he was touched. Then he got into the springwater with fiveyearold Arliss Travis took an easy hate to Old Yeller asthey started to call him in fact he would have driven him off or killed himif it hadnt been for brother Arliss loud and violent protests So Yellerstayed and Travis soon found he couldnt have got along without him.Pa and Ma and Travis and Arliss lived on Birdsong Creek in the Texas hillcountry. It wasnt an easy life but they had a snug cabin that Pa had builthimself and they had their own hogs and their own cattle and they grew mostof what else they needed. The only thing they and the rest of the settlerslacked that year in the late 1860s was cash so the men decided to gettogether and drive all the cattle up to the new market in Abilene Kansas morethan six hundred miles away.Travis was only fourteen but he was proud of his new role as man of the familyand determined to live up to his responsibility. It was hard work too plowinguntil his legs ached chopping wood until his hands were raw and his head wasspinning weeding the garden in the hot sun toting the heavy buckets tip fromthe spring and trying to keep hismischievous little brother in line.But there were pleasant moments too his Ma treating him like a man and deerhunting in the earlymorning stillness and hot summer nights out in the cornpatch under the stars with Old Yeller trying to keep the coons and skunks outof «