Old Yeller

by Fred Gipson

  Then along about sundown, I rode down into Birdsong Creek, headed for the house. Up at the spring, I heard a splashing and hollering. I looked ahead. Sure enough, it was Little Arliss. He was stripped naked and romping in our drinking water again. And right in there, romping with him, was that bread-stealing speckled pup.

  I started to holler at them. I started to say: “Arliss! You get that nasty old pup out of our drinking water.”

  Then I didn’t. Instead, I went to laughing. I sat there and laughed till I cried. When all the time I knew that I ought to go beat them to a frazzle for messing up our drinking water.

  When finally I couldn’t laugh and cry another bit, I rode on up to the lot and turned my horse in. Tomorrow, I thought, I’ll take Arliss and that pup out for a squirrel hunt. The pup was still mighty little. But the way I figured it, if he was big enough to act like Old Yeller, he was big enough to start learning to earn his keep.

  About the Author

  With OLD YELLER, FRED GIPSON secured his place as one of the finest novelists in America. The book was published to instant acclaim and has become one of the most beloved children’s classics ever written. Since its publication in 1956, OLD YELLER has won countless awards, including the 1957 Newbery Honor. Mr. Gipson’s other works include both fiction and nonfiction. He grew up in the Texas hill country and died in 1973.

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  ALSO BY FRED GIPSON

  Curly and the Wild Boar

  Little Arliss

  Savage Sam

  Credits

  Cover art © 2004 by Gary Isaacs

  Cover design by Amy Ryan

  Cover © 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  Copyright

  OLD YELLER. Copyright © 1956 by Fred Gipson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Adobe Digital Edition July 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-196286-8

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