bad father

I continue my war against all that is decent and joyful in my daughter with our most recent choice of bedtime stories, "Old Yeller."

 

"Old Yeller," for those who don't remember, is the classic story by Fred Gipson about a boy naed Travis and his dog, Old Yeller. Set in Texas in the mid-19th century, the story follows Travis' experiences the summer when he's fourteen and his father has left on a cattle drive. Soon after his father leaves, Old Yeller arrives. A thieving, one-eared dog who gets under Travis' skin something fierce, he soon becomes an indispensable part of the family, making it all the more painful when Travis has to shoot him because of rabies.

 

It's one of the books I remember most vividly from my childhood, which is why I wanted to share it with Evangeline. She's been enjoying it immensely, as I've been enjoying reading it with her. We've been reading a chapter a night; tonight, we're going to read two chapters, since I don't want to put her to bed on the note, "and then I shot my dog." That might be a little too hard for her.

 

Actually, I have to note that Gipson's given plenty of warning that Old Yeller's in for it. One of the first sentences of the book reveals that Travis had to shoot the dog; in the chapter we just read, where Ma and Lisbeth go off to burn the body of the rabid heifer Spot, Travis laments that he didn't stop them all from leaving after what happened afterward; and he's really been hammering home the hydrophobia scare and Old Yeller's weakened condition from the hog fight a couple chapters ago.

 

Still, I'm sure Evangeline is in for an upset tonight when we read about having to shoot the dog. Travis' father comes home in the next chapter and gives him some pretty sound advice on keeping the bad times of life in perspective, so I want to make sure we read that as well. She knows there's a movie version too, and wants to see it; I told her we'll see if she still wants to after we finish the book, with the caution that movies are almost never as good as the books they're based on.

 

And if "Old Yeller" doesn't get her down, we're going to start on Kafka and Soren Kirkegaard.