Hills in purple shadows sprawl,
Haze and fogginess cover all.
Thanks we give for peaceful sleep,
For a day in which to reap,
Crystal air and endless sky,
And for the wings that let us fly.
Spread we now our feathered wings,
Soaring soft and silent rings.
May this day bring us success
Finding a cure for hungriness.
Pretty strange, huh? I thought so, and when they finished the song, they all spread their big black wings, pushed off their respective limbs, and soared off into the morning sky, until there were only three of us left in the tree: me, Wallace, and Junior.
I began to realize that Wallace was glaring at me. Let me tell you, that’s a bad way to start the morning, with a buzzard glaring at you.
“Junior, wake up and look at your so-called friend. You said he was a buzzard from Abilene? Just happened to be wearin’ a pair of ears? Ha. Wake up and you’ll see what I tried to tell you last night but you wouldn’t listen, and never do.”
Junior yawned and blinked his eyes at me. “Oh m-my g-g-goodness, it’s our d-d-doggie friend, doggie friend!”
I gave him a nod. “Morning, Junior.”
“W-w-well, D-d-d-doggie, w-w-we have to g-g-go to w-w-work, go to work, and h-h-hunt some g-g-grub.”
“Well, glory be!” Wallace muttered. “I’d begun to wonder if you’d planned to order in a pizza. Let’s get airborne, son, we’re already behind.”
Wallace spread his wings and flapped away. Junior smiled, waved the tip-end of his wing, and flew away, leaving me all alone in the tree.
I jumped to the ground and trotted the last three miles to ranch headquarters. I was feeling pretty good about things. It was a beautiful morning. I had managed to dodge the cannibals and survive another night. And we mustn’t forget that I’d had a Big Fling in town and had even managed to pull my friend Ralph through a deep personal . . .
Wait a second, hold everything. Remember that story Ralph told me, about how the two bullies stole the weenies from him? Well, in the middle of the night, I woke up and realized that my restless mind had been working on that very case, even as my body got some well-deserved slumber. The pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place, and you just won’t believe what I figured out. Here, look at the evidence.
Evidence #1: Ralph burped, remember? And I smelled garlic.
Evidence #2: He burped again, and I smelled garlic again.
Evidence #3: Weenies are known to contain a lot of garlic.
Evidence #4: When Ralph walked away, I noted that he was fat and shaped like a weenie.
Do you see it now? You missed it the first time around, didn’t you? Well, he didn’t fool me, not for a . . . okay, he fooled me. The scrounge ate all my weenies, and I believed his silly, outrageous, unbelievable story!
But the important thing here was that I had learned a valuable Lesson on Life: Never trust your lunch with a jailhouse mutt. That had made the whole experience . . . phooey.
Case closed.
See you down the road.
Further Reading
Have you read all of Hank’s adventures?
1 The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
2 The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
3 It’s a Dog’s Life
4 Murder in the Middle Pasture
5 Faded Love
6 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
7 The Curse of the Incredible Priceless Corncob
8 The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse
9 The Case of the Halloween Ghost
10 Every Dog Has His Day
11 Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest
12 The Case of the Fiddle-Playing Fox
13 The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve
14 Hank the Cowdog and Monkey Business
15 The Case of the Missing Cat
16 Lost in the Blinded Blizzard
17 The Case of the Car-Barkaholic Dog
18 The Case of the Hooking Bull
19 The Case of the Midnight Rustler
21 The Case of the Vampire Cat
22 The Case of the Double Bumblebee Sting
23 Moonlight Madness
24 The Case of the Black-Hooded Hangmans
25 The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado
26 The Case of the Kidnapped Collie
27 The Case of the Night-Stalking Bone Monster
28 The Mopwater Files
29 The Case of the Vampire Vacuum Sweeper
30 The Case of the Haystack Kitties
31 The Case of the Vanishing Fishhook
32 The Garbage Monster from Outer Space
33 The Case of the Measled Cowboy
34 Slim’s Good-bye
35 The Case of the Saddle House Robbery
36 The Case of the Raging Rottweiler
37 The Case of the Deadly Ha-Ha Game
38 The Fling
39 The Secret Laundry Monster Files
40 The Case of the Missing Bird Dog
41 The Case of the Shipwrecked Tree
42 The Case of the Burrowing Robot
43 The Case of the Twisted Kitty
44 The Dungeon of Doom
45 The Case of the Falling Sky
46 The Case of the Tricky Trap
47 The Case of the Tender Cheeping Chickies
48 The Case of the Monkey Burglar
49 The Case of the Booby-Trapped Pickup
50 The Case of the Most Ancient Bone
51 The Case of the Blazing Sky
52 The Quest for the Great White Quail
53 Drover’s Secret Life
54 The Case of the Dinosaur Birds
55 The Case of the Secret Weapon
56 The Case of the Coyote Invasion
57 The Disappearance of Drover
58 The Case of the Mysterious Voice
59 The Case of the Perfect Dog
60 The Big Question
About the Author and Illustrator
John R. Erickson, a former cowboy, has written numerous books for both children and adults and is best known for his acclaimed Hank the Cowdog series. He lives and works on his ranch in Perryton, Texas, with his family.
Gerald L. Holmes has illustrated numerous cartoons and textbooks in addition to the Hank the Cowdog series. He lives in Perryton, Texas.