The Hound and the Wolves - An Abe Lincoln Tale

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln soon learned that many of the newly minted "generals" in his army were prone to making fantastic boasts of military acumen, bravery, and tactical wizardry - until they met the enemy.

The day after one of those braggarts had been embarrassingly defeated by the Confederates, a group of visitors to the White House mentioned him.

Lincoln responded:

"He reminds me of the fellow who owned a dog which, so he said, just hungered and thirsted to hunt and kill wolves. In fact, the owner declared, it was a difficult matter to keep that dog from devoting the entire twenty-four hours of each day to the destruction of wolves. He just 'hankered' to get at 'em.

One day, a group of his friends, all of whom hated the danger that wolf packs posed to a rural community, decided to put their friend's boasts to the test. They organized a hunting party and invited the owner and his 'killer' dog to go with them. They wanted to be there to see this wolf-killer in action.

Their friend, however, was not over-enthusiastic about the hunt. In fact, he pleaded that he was 'busy' that day, but as he was the most notorious of the town loafers, his excuse was treated with contempt. Therefore he had to go. The 'wolf-hound', on the other hand, was excited about the lark, and so the hunting party started out.

Since wolves were plentiful, a pack of them was soon discovered. The hound was released to give chase. He saw the ferocious pack, lost heart, and putting his tail between his legs, tried to slink away. After many tries, the dog was finally enticed to go into a small growth of underbrush where the pack had been driven. Almost immediately snarling, growling, and yelps of terror signaled the battle was on!

Quickly, the wolves and the dog fled the area. As they disappeared from view across the pasture, the wolves seemed frightened, and it looked like the dog had the savage creatures on the run. His owner's boasts were restored to public favor.

On horseback, the hunting party followed the din, but it wasn't until they arrived at a distant farmhouse that they finally learned how the battle was going.

'Have you seen anything of a hound and a pack of wolves around here?' they asked the farmer who stood idly leaning on his gate.

'Yep,' was the answer.

'How were they going?'

'Purty fast.'

Exasperated at the farmer's brevity, the dog's owner finally asked, 'What was going on when you saw them?'

'Well,' the old man drawled, 'the dog was a leetle bit ahead.'

"Now, gentlemen," concluded the President, "that's the position in which you'll find most of these bragging generals when they get into a fight with the enemy. That's why I want "doers" and not "boasters".

This was another tale from Abe Lincoln, storyteller.

Mac

Works Cited

[1] McClure, Alexander K. (1901). "Abe" Lincoln's Yarns and Stories. Philadelphia, PA: International Publishing Company.