Old Yeller

Burn Sanderson’s warnings about hydrophobia give Travis nightmares, but he soon forgets about the danger as he works locating and marking their free-range hogs. Travis knows that wild hogs are vicious when cornered and can easily kill a person. Mama is afraid of hogs, and when Papa was a baby, he was almost eaten by wild hogs. Still, Travis finds working with them exciting and “a lot of fun” (90). Old Yeller is a good hog dog, rounding up the hogs and keeping them at bay under a tree. From above, Travis lassos each shoat, hauls it into the tree, cuts their family mark on its ears, and castrates it. The scent of blood incenses the hogs. Their ferocity is enough to “chill your blood” (85), but Travis has trained himself not to succumb to fear. Working together, Travis and Old Yeller get all the hogs marked. 

Travis learns that he missed a group of hogs ranging far out in bat cave country, and he and Yeller go to mark them. Yeller gets the hogs in position below an undercut riverbank while Travis leans over the edge to rope them. The bank gives way, and Travis falls into the angry pack of hogs.