When I was nine years old, I wrote a story called “The Bravest Dachshund”. I don’t remember if this was a class project or something I decided to do on my own. I also have two older stories, things I wrote in my copy of “My Book About Me” (by Dr. Seuss, more or less).
“The Bravest Dachshund” was done up like a serious book: Five sheets of standard letter-size paper, folded in half and saddle-stitched, and bound in a fabric cover glued over it. I assume either a teacher or a parent helped with cutting the fabric and gluing it on, but the saddle-stitching itself is sloppy enough that I could well have done it myself.
I definitely did all the lettering, including the cover, which was made by stenciling the letters of the title in pencil on 24# yellowish paper. I cut those out and pasted them to the cover:
The title page:
The table of contents (for this and all following pages, I’ll include the image and the text, fixing any misspellings or other errors).
Table of Contents:
Introduction – 1
Man Trouble – 2
The Wild – 4
They Move Again – 9
Illustrations
Then he saw footprints and two people stood at the entrance of the doghouse – 3
There was a cloud of dust and some noises – 5
Fifteen minutes later, the noises stopped – 6
There was a cloud of dust and Frank growled again and again – 8
It kept changing colors – 10
The copyright page:
To my dogs, Ben (mixed breed) and Shurtze (St. Bernard/Labrador). Written in MCMLXXVII.
Introduction
There once was a dachshund that had eleven puppies. The story is about one of the puppies, named Frank. You never know when he will die, get hurt, hurt something else, or kill something else. If you are a dog lover, you will love this story. It’s funny and exciting. (The names of his brothers and sisters are, in alphabetical order: Albert, Ann, Barney, Betty, Don, Elizabeth, Harvey, Joan, Kevin, and Pauline.)
Now, read on.
Chapter I: Man Trouble
It was a cold night, and it was snowing. Frank was awake and walking around. His mother was just waking up. The ten other puppies were fast asleep. All of a sudden, Frank heard a sound! Then he saw footprints and two people stood at the entrance of the doghouse. They seemed to be looking for something. Then they stared at the doghouse. Frank barked a few times and then ran into one of the corners of the doghouse, shaking fiercely. His mother ran out of the doghouse, barking fiercely.
“Let’s get him, Fred,” said one of the men, reaching out for her.
“Okay, Al,” said the other, going to the truck for a net.
After a while, the men had cornered her. She was snapping, but it was just no use; they just came closer. All of a sudden,
Frank came out of the doghouse and bit one of the men on the leg and ran. The men ran after him, and his mother went to get the other children. Albert, Betty, Elizabeth, Harvey, and Pauline went after one man, and the others went after the other man. The man that got bit jumped into the truck, started the engine, called for his friend, and then shut his door.
The man scattered in and they drove away. The dogs chased the car for an hour to make sure it went far enough.
(Illustration with the caption: “Then he saw footprints and two people stood at the entrance of the doghouse.”)
Chapter II: The Wild
It took the rest of the day to get back home. When they got home, it was nearly midnight. Everybody fell asleep except Frank and his mother. Frank and his mother were both thinking about moving into the wild and living like wolves. They slept well that night and got up at 6:30 in the morning. Pauline was the first one up, followed by, in order: Harvey, Albert, Betty, Frank, Kevin, their mother, Ann, Don, Elizabeth, Barney, and Joan. They started for the wild as soon as they could. It was late when they were eighty miles away from their home. They fell asleep there.
Frank was the first one up. He waited for half an hour until they all were awake. They made better mileage that day. They went ninety miles that day. They were out of the city and there wasn’t a single living creature there except them. They were surrounded by trees, bushes, and the most beautiful flowers you had ever seen. But they were too sleepy that they couldn’t enjoy the beauty of the flowers.
That night a cobra came out from hiding and started toward them. Frank woke up from a terrible dream and saw the cobra. The cobra hissed and snarled. They came closer to each other. Frank snapped. There was a cloud of dust and some noises. Then the noise stopped. The dust slowly faded away. There on the ground was the cobra, dead. Frank was starting to limp and yelp.
(Illustration with the caption: There was a cloud of dust and some noises.)
In the morning, Frank slept until 9:00. When he woke they were eating raspberries. Then a wild boar came out of the bushes. Frank started to bark. The wild boar snorted as he came closer. There was a cloud of dust and some noises. Fifteen minutes later, the noises stopped. The dust faded after a few minutes. The boar was on the ground, dead. Frank was wilder than ever, barking fiercely.
(Illustration with caption: Fifteen minutes later, the noises stopped.)
That day, Frank explored the wilderness. After walking a little while, he saw something behind the bushes move. It was an antelope, the creature from his dreams. The antelope charged at Frank. Frank backed away. The antelope charged again. Frank started to charge. All of a sudden, the charging turned into a fight. Frank growled loudly. There was a cloud of dust and Frank growled again and again. Frank stopped growling as the dust faded away.
The antelope lay dead on the ground. Frank was limping. He limped all the way home.
When he got home, the rest of his family were eating raspberries. He started to eat raspberries also. He ate five raspberries before he fell asleep. He didn’t wake up again until morning.
(Illustration with the caption “There was a cloud of dust and Frank growled again and again.)
Chapter III: They Move Again
In the morning, they decided to move again, because they didn’t like the danger where they were. When they started out, there was a bad windstorm. Then it started raining cats and dogs. Lightning struck one of the trees. The tree just missed Frank. An hour and a half later, the storm stopped. They saw burnt trees all around them. They started onward; Frank was leading. It started snowing. Frank was fighting to get through the snow. A half an hour later everything was white. The snow was four feet deep and still coming down. It snowed for an hour more. When it stopped, it was twelve feet deep. Frank was digging
through the snow. He dug for ten days and nights. Then all of a sudden, he fell into a hole seventy feet deep. He saw a long tunnel. At the end of it was a light nothing like a light from the sky. It kept changing colors. Frank studied it carefully, motioning his family to stay back. When he got a quite bit closer, he saw two men fighting a porcupine. Frank charged at the porcupine. There was a cloud of dust and some
(Illustration: It kept changing colors.)
noises. The noises stopped. The dust faded away. The porcupine lay dead and Frank was limping from the quills. The two men pulled the quills out.
“You saved our lives, old boy,” said one of the men.
Well, it turned out that the men were the President’s butlers. They held a large parade for Frank. Frank got a medal and became the President’s dog.
THE END
This is a picture of me on the Benson Ford (a ship).
(Photograph of me at the wheel of a ship. The photo is dated May 76.)
Paul Kershaw is the author of this book. He’s in 4th grade and is nine years old. He goes to Washington Elementary.