Hubert Evans > Quotes

“To put all his strength into the chase, to give battle, these were the only desires his madness left him. Caution, unknown to any of the great-hearted clan of terriers, could never stay him now. To live gloriously and go down bravely was the only creed he knew. And sending him n and on was that strange urge which was in the earth smells and the tang of the autumn air, the urge which had lured him back to the wilds from which he sprang.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“Even now, as they stood in the shadows beside the mountain river, young Ed Sibley, ever prone to recklessness, found a primitive delight in ignoring the advice of the Indians. He belittled the danger to himself. For if he could read the heart of a dog, here was one that in spite of its savage strain could become a worthy comrade and perhaps a needed ally in those adventures which are ever close to the man who loves dim trails in the shadows of the austere peaks.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry’s Partner

“Old lad . . . good old lad,” Ed his eyes did not turn away from the from the flickering light, for he was thinking, planning, weighing the desperate odds against him, putting all his hard-earned knowledge of winter travel to work on the scheme to still beat Williams’ accomplice to Beaver Falls—to still win the race against dishonor. And as he crouched there with his arm thrown across the bloodstained shoulders of this loyal partner in a cause which was all but lost, Ed did not see the dancing flames. In spirit he was high above the ragged Ine of timber over the Beaver River range, fighting his way through the torturing miles of rocks and barrens and cruel wind of the altitudes. Eighteen hours without a fire, without hot food, without rest eighteen hours at least of heavy breaking through the treacherous, drifted snow of the divide. Yes, that was the best time he could make up there—and if he failed—”
― Hubert Evans, Derry's Partner

“What a team they’d make, he told himself. Derry, the dashing, high spirited Airedale; Mac, more cautious, repressed except at times like this by his inborn wariness, but friendly and staunch in spite of his seeming aloofness. Yes, here were dogs any man might be proud to have as comrades, a pair he would not trade for any two dogs in all the North. And they were his, not by mere right of purchase, but by that higher and more lasting right, the right of comradeship.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry’s Partner

“The poles were crude copies of his father’s totem pole out there near the point: grizzly bear, owl, wolf, beaver, all signifying descent and brave deeds of old. If you held to the old ways, the figures on a person’s totem pole were strictly his own. They were property as real as canoes and weapons and hunting grounds.”
― Hubert Evans, Mountain dog

“To have in this high-spirited terrier a partner on those distant trails - not to make him into a docile slave- this was what he longed for. What if the Airedale did sometimes transgress in trifling matters? Wasn’t it better to keep his joyousness of spirit, his gay recklessness, then risk killing it only to gain a sullen, unloving obedience?”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“For him, men and their ways were things that had never been and he was an untamed dog leading a ghostly pack as his kind had done when the world was young. Time and place had been turned back ten thousand years by the stirring magic which last night had cast its spell on him.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“While the rancher was talking, Ed’s eye fell on Derry, squatted alertly beside him, and vainly he tried to imagine the terrier slinking back to him as Neal’s had done. He felt sure his dog- untried on big game though he was- would never quit. For that very reason Derry must not be allowed to close with the big marauder. His very courage would betray him, for Derry, not knowing the meaning of surrender, would never cease battling until he had been killed – and a cougar that would not tree was a dangerous foe even for an experienced dog.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“And there is much more than merely a good story in this book. For in its pages you will find a great deal of information about how to manage a dog, how to correct his faults, and how to train him in good manners and usefulness. (From the summary on the dust jacket)”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“Absently Ed’s hand strayed to the head of the dog beside him. “Gold fever,” he grinned. ‘We're due for another epidemic.” ‘The massive dog pushed Ed’s knee with his muzzle as if he, whose ancestors had drawn the sleds of more than one gold-maddened horde, understood the vainness of the quest.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry’s Partner

“I want my pup to have a good time. This business of keeping a dog chained up and only letting him loose when he works for you, then chaining him again until you need him next time- that don’t strike me as shootin’ square. A dog like Derry, that’s just rarin’ to go - why keeping him locked up would either break his spirit or make him run away.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“My heart was in a steep place before I knew you would come home.”

The heart in the steep place, expressing trouble; the clean-inside heart, expressing joy. Among these people it was always the heart that spoke. Such warm, enfolding thankfulness came to Hal that he dared not trust his voice.”
― Hubert Evans, Mountain dog

“Had Derry been a human comrade of the trail whom he had deserted in the time of need, Ed’s abhorrence of his deed could have been no greater. But in the direct mind of the dog a crisis passed was a crisis forgotten and, while they mounted the wide ledge to the top of the cliff, the goat signs his eyes and nose found blurred all thoughts of happenings in the last few moments.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier

“All his contacts with man became for Derry things which had never been real as the call of his wild past took possession of him. The unknown telepathy of the wilderness, the sprit of the changing seasons which had entered his blood the previous night, drew him madly on. He forgot Neal, forgot his master, forgot everything except that he was free and on the trail of an unknown foe.”
― Hubert Evans, Derry: Airedale of the Frontier