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A Dog's Tale · The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain

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Speaker 1: Section three of The thirty thousand Dollar Bequest and Other Stories.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The thirty thousand Dollar Bequest and
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Speaker 1: Other Stories by Mark Twain, Section three, A Dog's Tale,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one. My father was a Saint Bernard. My mother
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Speaker 1: was a colleague. But I am a Presbyterian. That is
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Speaker 1: what my mother told me. I do not know these
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Speaker 1: nice distinctions myself. To me, they are only fine, large
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Speaker 1: words meaning nothing. My mother had a fondness for such.
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Speaker 1: She liked to say them and see other dogs look
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Speaker 1: surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education.
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Speaker 1: But indeed it was not real education. It was only show.
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Speaker 1: She got the words by listening in the dining room
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Speaker 1: and drawing room when there was company, and by going
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Speaker 1: with the children to Sunday school and listening there. And
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Speaker 1: whenever she heard a large word, she said it over
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Speaker 1: to herself many times, and so was able to keep
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Speaker 1: it until there was a dogmatic gathering in the neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: Then she would get it off in surprise and distress them.
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Speaker 1: All from pocket pup to mastiff, which rewarded her for
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Speaker 1: all her trouble. If there was a stranger, he was
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Speaker 1: nearly sure to be suspicious, and when he got his
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Speaker 1: breath again, he would ask her what it meant, and
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Speaker 1: she always told him. He was never expecting this, but
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Speaker 1: thought he would catch her, so when she told him,
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Speaker 1: he was the one that looked ashamed, whereas he had
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Speaker 1: thought it was going to be She. The others were
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Speaker 1: always waiting for this, and glad of it and proud
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Speaker 1: of her, for they knew what was going to happen
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Speaker 1: because they had had experience when she told the meaning
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Speaker 1: of the big word. They were also taken up with
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Speaker 1: admiration that it never occurred to any dog to doubt
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Speaker 1: if it was the right one. And it was natural
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Speaker 1: because for one thing, she answered up so promptly that
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Speaker 1: it seemed like a dictionary speaking. And for another thing,
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Speaker 1: where could they find out whether it was right or not?
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Speaker 1: For she was the only cultivated dog there was, By
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Speaker 1: and by, when I was older, she brought home the
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Speaker 1: word unintellectual one time and worked it pretty hard all
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Speaker 1: the week at different gatherings, making much unhappiness and despondency
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Speaker 1: and it was at this time that I noticed that
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Speaker 1: during that week she was asked for the meaning at
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Speaker 1: eight different assemblages and flashed out a fresh definition every time,
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Speaker 1: which showed me that she had more presence of mind
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Speaker 1: than culture, though I said nothing. Of course, she had
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Speaker 1: one word which she always kept on hand and ready,
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Speaker 1: like a life preserver, a kind of emergency word to
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Speaker 1: strap on when she was likely to get washed overboard
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Speaker 1: in a sudden way. That was the word synonymous. When
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Speaker 1: she happened to fetch out a long word which had
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Speaker 1: had its day weeks before, and its prepared meanings gone
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Speaker 1: to her dump pile. If there was a stranger there,
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Speaker 1: of course, it knocked him groggy for a couple of minutes.
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Speaker 1: Then he would come too, and by that time she
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Speaker 1: would be away down wind on another tack and not
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Speaker 1: expecting anything. So when he'd hail and ask her to
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Speaker 1: cash in, I, the only dog on the inside of
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Speaker 1: her game, could see her canvas flicker a moment, but
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Speaker 1: only just a moment. Then it would belly out, toad
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Speaker 1: and full, and she would say, as calm as a
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Speaker 1: summer's day. Its synonymous was supererogation, or some godless lung
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Speaker 1: reptile of a word like that, and go placidly about
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Speaker 1: and skim away on the next tack, perfectly comfortable, you know,
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Speaker 1: and leave that stranger looking profane and embarrassed, and the
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Speaker 1: initiated slatting the floor with their tails in unison and
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Speaker 1: their faces transfigured with a holy joy. And it was
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Speaker 1: the same with phrases. She would drag home a whole phrase,
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Speaker 1: if it had a grand sound, and play it six
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Speaker 1: knights and two matinees, and explain it a new way
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Speaker 1: every time, which she had to, for all she cared
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Speaker 1: for was the phrase. She wasn't interested in what it meant,
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Speaker 1: and knew those dogs hadn't wit enough to catch her anyway. Yes,
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Speaker 1: she was a daisy, she got so she wasn't afraid
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Speaker 1: of anything, and had such confidence in the ignorance of
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Speaker 1: those creatures. She even brought anecdotes that she had heard
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Speaker 1: the family and the dinner guests laugh and shout over.
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Speaker 1: And as a rule, she got the nub of one
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Speaker 1: chestnut hitched on to another chestnut, where of course it
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Speaker 1: didn't fit and hadn't any point. And when she delivered
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Speaker 1: the nub she fell over and rolled on the floor
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Speaker 1: and laughed and barked in the most insane way, while
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Speaker 1: I could see that she was wondering to herself why
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Speaker 1: it didn't seem as funny as it did when she
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Speaker 1: first heard it. But no harm was done. The others
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Speaker 1: rolled and barked, too, privately, ashamed of themselves for not
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Speaker 1: seeing the point and never suspecting that the fault was
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Speaker 1: not with them, and there wasn't any to see. You
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Speaker 1: can see by these things that she was of a
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Speaker 1: rather vain and frivolous character. Still she had virtues and
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Speaker 1: enough to make up. I think she had a kind
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Speaker 1: heart and gentle ways, and never harbored resentments for injuries
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Speaker 1: done her, but put them easily out of her mind
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Speaker 1: and forgot them. And she taught her children her kindly way,
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Speaker 1: And from her we learned also to be brave and
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Speaker 1: prompt in time of danger, and not to run away,
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Speaker 1: but faced the peril that threatened friend or stranger, and
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Speaker 1: help him the best we could, without stopping to think
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Speaker 1: what the cost might be to us. And she taught
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Speaker 1: us not by words only, but by example. And that
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Speaker 1: is the best way, and the surest and the most lasting.
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Speaker 1: Why the brave things she did, the splendid things. She
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Speaker 1: was just a soldier, and so modest about it. Well,
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Speaker 1: you couldn't help admiring her, and you couldn't help imitating her.
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Speaker 1: Not even a King Charles Spaniel could remain entirely despicable
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Speaker 1: in her society. So as you see, there was more
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Speaker 1: to her than her education. Chapter two. When I was
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Speaker 1: well grown at last, I was sold and taken away,
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Speaker 1: and I never saw her again. She was broken hearted,
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Speaker 1: and so was I, and we cried. But she comforted
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Speaker 1: me as well as she could, and said, we were
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Speaker 1: sent into this world for a wise and good purpose,
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Speaker 1: and must do our duties without repining, take our life
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Speaker 1: as we might find it, live it for the best
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Speaker 1: good of others, and never mind about the results. They
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Speaker 1: were not our affair, she said. Men who did like
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Speaker 1: this would have a noble and beautiful reward by and
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Speaker 1: bye in another world. And although we animals would not
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Speaker 1: go there, to do well and write without reward, would
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Speaker 1: give to our brief lives a worthiness and dignity, which
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Speaker 1: in itself would be a reward. She had gathered these
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Speaker 1: things from time to time when she had gone to
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Speaker 1: the Sunday school with the children, and had laid them
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Speaker 1: up in her memory more carefully than she had done
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Speaker 1: with those other words and phrases, and she had studied
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Speaker 1: them deeply for her good and hours. One may see
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Speaker 1: by this that she had a wise and thoughtful head.
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Speaker 1: For all there was so much lightness and vanity in it.
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Speaker 1: So we set our farewells and looked our last upon
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Speaker 1: each other through our tears. And the last thing she said,
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Speaker 1: keeping it for the last, to make me remember it
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Speaker 1: the better, I think, was in memory of me. When
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Speaker 1: there is a time of danger to another, do not
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Speaker 1: think of yourself, think of your mother, and do as
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Speaker 1: she would do. Do you think I could forget that? No?
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Speaker 1: Chapter three. It was such a charming home, my new one,
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Speaker 1: a fine great house with pictures and delicate decorations and
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Speaker 1: rich furniture, and no gloom anywhere, but all the wilderness
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Speaker 1: of dainty colors lit up with flooding sunshine, and the
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Speaker 1: spacious grounds around it, and the great garden, oh greensword
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Speaker 1: and noble trees and flowers, no end. And I was
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Speaker 1: the same as a member of the family. And they
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Speaker 1: loved me and petted me, and did not give me
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Speaker 1: a new name, but called me by my old one.
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Speaker 1: That was dear to me because my mother had given
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Speaker 1: it me. I Lean mauvareine. She had got it out
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Speaker 1: of a song. And the Grays knew that song and
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Speaker 1: said it was a beautiful name. Missus Gray was thirty
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Speaker 1: and so sweet and so lovely you cannot imagine it.
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Speaker 1: And Sadie was ten and just like her mother, just
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Speaker 1: a darling, slender little copy of her, with auburn tails
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Speaker 1: down her back in short frocks. And the baby was
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Speaker 1: a year old and plump and dimpled and fond of me,
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Speaker 1: and never could get enough of hauling on my tail
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Speaker 1: and hugging me and laughing out its innocent happiness. And
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Speaker 1: mister Gray was thirty eight and tall and slender and handsome,
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Speaker 1: a little bald in front, alert, quick in his movements,
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Speaker 1: business like prompt, decided unsentimental, and with that kind of
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Speaker 1: trim chiseled face that just seems to glint and sparkle
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Speaker 1: with frosty intellectuality. He was a renowned scientist. I do
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Speaker 1: not know what the word means, but my mother would
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Speaker 1: know how to use it and giddy facts. She would
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Speaker 1: know how to depress a rat terrier with it, and
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Speaker 1: make a lap dog look sorry. He came, but that
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Speaker 1: is not the best one. The best one was laboratory.
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Speaker 1: My mother could organize a trust on that one that
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Speaker 1: would skin the tax collars off the whole herd. The
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Speaker 1: laboratory was not a book or a picture, or a
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Speaker 1: place to wash your hands in, as the college president's
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Speaker 1: dog said, No, that is the lavatory. The laboratory was
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Speaker 1: quite different, and is filled with jars and bottles and
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Speaker 1: electrics and wires and strange machines. And every week other
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Speaker 1: scientists came there and sat in the place and used
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Speaker 1: the machines, and discussed and made what they called experiments
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Speaker 1: and discoveries. And often I came too, and stood round
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Speaker 1: and listened and tried to learn for the sake of
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Speaker 1: my mother and in loving memory of her, although it
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Speaker 1: was a pain to me as realizing that she was
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Speaker 1: losing out of her life and I gaining nothing at all,
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Speaker 1: For try as I might, I was never able to
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Speaker 1: make anything out of it at all. Other times I
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Speaker 1: lay on the floor in the mistress's work room and slept,
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Speaker 1: she gently using me for a footstool, knowing it pleased
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Speaker 1: me for it was a caress. Other times I spent
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Speaker 1: an hour in the nursery and got well, tussled and
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Speaker 1: made happy. Other Times I watched by the crib there
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Speaker 1: when the baby was asleep and the nurse out for
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Speaker 1: a few minutes on the baby's affairs. Other Times I
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Speaker 1: romped and raced through the grounds in the garden with
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Speaker 1: Sadie till we were tired out, then slumbered on the
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Speaker 1: grass in the shade of a tree while she read
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Speaker 1: her book. Other times I went visiting among the neighbor dogs,
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Speaker 1: for there were some most pleasant ones not far away,
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Speaker 1: and one very handsome and courteous and graceful one, a
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Speaker 1: curly haired Irish setter by the name of Robin Adair,
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Speaker 1: who was a Presbyterian like me, and belonged to the
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Speaker 1: Scotch Minister. The servants in our house were all kind
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Speaker 1: to me and were fond of me, And so as
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Speaker 1: you see, mine was a pleasant life. There could not
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Speaker 1: be a happier dog that I was, nor a gratefuller one.
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Speaker 1: I will say this for myself, for it is only
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Speaker 1: the truth. I tried in always to do well and right,
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Speaker 1: and honor my mother's memory and her teachings, and earn
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Speaker 1: the happiness that had come to me. As best I
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Speaker 1: could by, and by came my little puppy, and then
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Speaker 1: my cup was full, My happiness was perfect. It was
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Speaker 1: the dearest little waddling thing, and so smooth and soft
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Speaker 1: and velvety, and had such cunning, little awkward paws, and
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Speaker 1: such affectionate eyes, and such a sweet and innocent face.
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Speaker 1: And it made me so proud to see how the
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Speaker 1: children and their mother adored it and fondled it and
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Speaker 1: exclaimed over every little wonderful thing it did. It did
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Speaker 1: seem to me that life was just too lovely to
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Speaker 1: Then came the winter. One day I was standing a
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Speaker 1: watch in the nursery. That is to say, I was
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Speaker 1: asleep on the bed. The baby was asleep in the crib,
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Speaker 1: which was alongside the bed, on the side next the fireplace.
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Speaker 1: It was the kind of crib that has a lofty
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Speaker 1: tent over it, made of gazy stuff that you can
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Speaker 1: see through. The nurse was out and we two sleepers
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Speaker 1: were alone. A spark from the wood fire was shot
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Speaker 1: out and it lit on the slope of the tent.
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Speaker 1: I suppose a quiet interval followed. Then a scream from
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Speaker 1: the baby awoke me, and there was that tent flaming
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Speaker 1: up toward the ceiling. Before I could think, I sprang
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Speaker 1: to the floor in my fright, and in a second
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Speaker 1: was half way to the door. But in the next
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Speaker 1: half second my mother's farewell was sounding in my ears,
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Speaker 1: and I was back on the bed again. I reached
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Speaker 1: my head through the flames and dragged the baby out
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Speaker 1: by the waistband and tugged it along, and we fell
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Speaker 1: to the floor together in a cloud of smoke. I
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Speaker 1: snatched a new hold and dragged the screaming little creature
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Speaker 1: along and out at the door and around the bend
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Speaker 1: of the hall, and was still tugging away, all excited
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Speaker 1: and happy and proud, when the master's voice shouted, begone,
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Speaker 1: you cursed beast, and I jumped to save myself, but
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Speaker 1: he was furiously quick and chased me up, striking fearuriously
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Speaker 1: at me with his cane. I dodging this way and
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Speaker 1: that in terror, and at last a strong blow fell
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Speaker 1: upon my left fore leg, which made me shriek and
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Speaker 1: fall for the moment helpless. The cane went up for
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Speaker 1: another blow, but never descended, for the nurse's voice rang
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Speaker 1: wildly out, the nurseries on fire, and the master rushed
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Speaker 1: away in that direction, and my other bones were saved.
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Speaker 1: The pain was cruel, but no matter. I must not
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Speaker 1: lose any time. He must come back at any moment.
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Speaker 1: So I limped on three legs to the other end
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Speaker 1: of the hall, where there was a dark little stairway
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Speaker 1: leading up into a garret, where old boxes and such
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Speaker 1: things were kept, as I had heard say, and where
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Speaker 1: people seldom went. I managed to climb up there. Then
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Speaker 1: I searched my way through the dark among the piles
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Speaker 1: of things, and hid in the secretest place I could find.
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Speaker 1: It was foolish to be afraid there, Yet still I
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Speaker 1: was so afraid that I held in and hardly even whimpered,
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Speaker 1: though it would have been such a comfort to whimper,
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Speaker 1: because that eases the pain, you know. But I could
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Speaker 1: lick my leg, and that did some good. For half
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Speaker 1: an hour there was a commotion downstairs, and shoutings and
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Speaker 1: rushing footsteps, and then there was quiet again, quiet for
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Speaker 1: some minutes, And that was grateful to my spirit, for
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Speaker 1: then my fears began to go down. And fears are
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Speaker 1: worse than pains, oh much worse. Then came a sound
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Speaker 1: that froze me. They were calling me, calling me by name,
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Speaker 1: hunting for me. It was muffled by distance, but that
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Speaker 1: could not take the terror out of it. And it
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Speaker 1: was the most dreadful sound to me that I had
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Speaker 1: ever heard. It went all about everywhere down there, along
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Speaker 1: the halls, through all the rooms in both stories, and
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Speaker 1: in the basement and the cellar, then outside and farther
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Speaker 1: and farther away, then back and all about the house again,
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Speaker 1: and I thought it would never, never stop. But at
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Speaker 1: last it did, hours and hours after the vague twilight
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Speaker 1: of the garret had long ago been blotted out by
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Speaker 1: black darkness. Then in that blessed stillness, my terrors fell
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Speaker 1: little by little away, and I was at peace and slept.
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Speaker 1: It was a good rest I had, But I woke
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Speaker 1: before the twilight had come again. I was feeling fairly comfortable,
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Speaker 1: and I could think out a plan. Now. I made
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Speaker 1: a very good one, which was to creep down all
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Speaker 1: the way down the back stairs and hide behind the
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Speaker 1: cellar door, and slip out and escape when the iceman
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Speaker 1: came at dawn while he was inside filling the refrigerator.
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Speaker 1: Then I would hide all day and start on my
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Speaker 1: journey when night came. My journey, too well, anywhere where
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Speaker 1: they would not know me and betray me to the Master.
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Speaker 1: I was feeling almost cheerful now. Then suddenly I thought,
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Speaker 1: why what would life, life be without my puppy. That
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Speaker 1: was despair. There was no plan for me. I saw
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Speaker 1: that I must stay where I was, stay and wait
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Speaker 1: and take what might come. It was not my affair.
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Speaker 1: That was what life is. My mother had said it.
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Speaker 1: Then well, then the calling began again. All my sorrows
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Speaker 1: came back. I said to myself, the Master will never forgive.
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Speaker 1: I did not know what I had done to make
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Speaker 1: him so bitter and so unforgiving. Yet I judged it
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Speaker 1: with something a dog could not understand, but which was
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Speaker 1: clear to a man, and dreadful. They called and called
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Speaker 1: days and nights. It seemed to me so long that
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Speaker 1: the hunger and thirst near drove me mad, and I
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Speaker 1: recognized that I was getting very weak. When you are
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Speaker 1: this way, you sleep a great deal, and I did.
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Speaker 1: Once I woke in an awful fright, it seemed to
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Speaker 1: me that the calling was right there in the garret,
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Speaker 1: And so it was. It was Sadie's voice, and she
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Speaker 1: was crying. My name was falling from her lips, all broken,
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Speaker 1: poor thing, and I could not believe my ears for
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Speaker 1: the joy of it. When I heard her say, come
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Speaker 1: back to us, Oh, come back to us and forgive
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Speaker 1: it is all so sad without our I broke in
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Speaker 1: with such a grateful little yelp, And the next moment
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Speaker 1: Sadie was plunging and stumbling through the darkness and the
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Speaker 1: lumber and shouting for the family to hear. She's found,
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Speaker 1: She's found. The days that followed, well, they were wonderful,
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Speaker 1: the mother and Sadie and the servants. Why they just
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Speaker 1: seemed to worship me. They couldn't seem to make me
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Speaker 1: a bed that was fine enough, and as for food,
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Speaker 1: they couldn't be satisfied with anything but game and delicacies
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Speaker 1: that were out of season. And every day the friends
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Speaker 1: and neighbors flocked in to hear about my heroism. That
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Speaker 1: was the name they called it by, and it means agriculture.
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Speaker 1: I remember my mother pulling it on a kennel once
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Speaker 1: and explaining it in that way, but didn't say what
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Speaker 1: agriculture was, except that it was synonymous with intramural incandescence.
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Speaker 1: And a dozen times a day, missus Gray and Sadie
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Speaker 1: would tell the tale to newcomers and say, I risked
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Speaker 1: my life to save the babies, and both of us
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Speaker 1: had burns to prove it. And then the company would
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Speaker 1: pass me around and pet me and exclaim about me,
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Speaker 1: and you could see the pride in the eyes of
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Speaker 1: Sadie and her mother. And when the people wanted to
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Speaker 1: know what made me limp, they looked ashamed and changed
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Speaker 1: the subject. And sometimes when people hunted them this way
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Speaker 1: and that way with questions about it, it looked to
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Speaker 1: me as if they were going to cry. And this
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Speaker 1: was not all the glory. No, the Master's friends came
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Speaker 1: a whole twenty of the most distinguished people and had
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Speaker 1: me in the laboratory and discussed me as if I
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Speaker 1: was a kind of discovery. And some of them said
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Speaker 1: it was wonderful in a dumb beast, the finest exhibition
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Speaker 1: of instinct they could call to mind. But the Master said,
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Speaker 1: with vehemence, it's far above instinct its reason. And many
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Speaker 1: a man privileged to be saved and go with you
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Speaker 1: and me to a better world by right of its possession,
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Speaker 1: has less of it than this poor, silly quadruped that's
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Speaker 1: foreordained to perish. And then he laughed and said, why
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Speaker 1: look at me, I'm a sarcasm. Bless you with all
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Speaker 1: my grand intelligence. The only think I inferred was that
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Speaker 1: the dog had gone mad and was destroying the child,
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Speaker 1: Whereas but for the beast's intelligence its reason, I tell you,
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Speaker 1: the child would have perished. They disputed and disputed, and
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Speaker 1: I was the very center of subject of it all,
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Speaker 1: and I wished my mother could know that this grand
20:52
Speaker 1: honor had come to me. It would have made her proud.
20:57
Speaker 1: Then they discussed optics, as they called it, and whether
21:00
Speaker 1: a certain injury to the brain would produce blindness or not,
21:04
Speaker 1: but they could not agree about it, and said they
21:06
Speaker 1: must test it by experiment, by and by. And next
21:10
Speaker 1: they discussed plants, and that interested me because in the
21:14
Speaker 1: summer Sadie and I had planted seeds. I helped her
21:17
Speaker 1: dig the holes, you know, and after days and days
21:21
Speaker 1: a little shrub or a flower came up there. And
21:24
Speaker 1: it was a wonder how that could happen, but it did,
21:27
Speaker 1: And I wished I could talk. I would have told
21:30
Speaker 1: those people about it and shown them how much I knew,
21:33
Speaker 1: and been all alive with the subject. But I didn't
21:36
Speaker 1: care for the optics. It was dull and when they
21:39
Speaker 1: came back to it again, it bored me, and I
21:41
Speaker 1: went to sleep. Pretty soon it was spring and sunny
21:46
Speaker 1: and pleasant and lovely, and the sweet mother and the
21:49
Speaker 1: children patted me and the puppy good bye and went
21:52
Speaker 1: away on a journey and a visit to their kin.
21:55
Speaker 1: And the master wasn't any company for us. But we
21:58
Speaker 1: played together and had good times, and the servants were
22:02
Speaker 1: kind and friendly. So we got along quite happily and
22:05
Speaker 1: counted the days and waited for the family. And one
22:09
Speaker 1: day those men came again and said, now for the test,
22:13
Speaker 1: and they took the puppy to the laboratory, and I
22:16
Speaker 1: limped three leggedly along two feeling proud for any attention
22:20
Speaker 1: shown to the puppy was a pleasure to me. Of course.
22:24
Speaker 1: They discussed and experimented, and then suddenly the puppy shrieked,
22:29
Speaker 1: and they set him on the floor, and he went
22:31
Speaker 1: staggering around with his head all bloody, and the Master
22:35
Speaker 1: clapped his hands and shouted, there, I've won. Confess it.
22:39
Speaker 1: He's as blind as a bat. And they all said,
22:43
Speaker 1: it's so you've proved your theory, and suffering humanity owes
22:47
Speaker 1: you a great debt from henceforth, and they crowded around
22:51
Speaker 1: him and wrung his hand cordially and thankfully, and praised him.
22:56
Speaker 1: But I hardly saw or heard these things, for I
22:59
Speaker 1: ran at one to my little darling and snuggled close
23:02
Speaker 1: to it where it lay, and licked the blood, and
23:05
Speaker 1: put its head against mine, whimpering softly, And I knew
23:09
Speaker 1: in my heart it was a comfort to it in
23:11
Speaker 1: its pain and trouble to feel its mother's touch, though
23:14
Speaker 1: it could not see me. Then it dropped down presently,
23:18
Speaker 1: and its little velvet nose rested upon the floor, and
23:21
Speaker 1: it was still and did not move any more. Soon
23:25
Speaker 1: the master stopped discussing a moment and rang in the
23:28
Speaker 1: footman and said, bury it in the far corner of
23:32
Speaker 1: the garden, and then went on with the discussion. And
23:35
Speaker 1: I trotted after the footman, very happy and grateful, for
23:39
Speaker 1: I knew the puppy was out of its pain now,
23:41
Speaker 1: because it was asleep. We went far down the garden
23:45
Speaker 1: to the farthest end, where the children and the nurse
23:48
Speaker 1: and the puppy and I used to play in the summer,
23:51
Speaker 1: in the shade of a great elm, And there the
23:53
Speaker 1: footman dug a hole and I saw he was going
23:56
Speaker 1: to plant the puppy, and I was glad because it
24:00
Speaker 1: would grow and come up a fine handsome dog like
24:03
Speaker 1: Robin Adair, and be a beautiful surprise for the family
24:06
Speaker 1: when they came home. So I tried to help him dig,
24:10
Speaker 1: but my lame leg was no good being stiff, you know,
24:14
Speaker 1: and you have to have two or it is no use.
24:17
Speaker 1: When the footman had finished and covered little Robin up,
24:20
Speaker 1: he patted my head and there were tears in his eyes,
24:24
Speaker 1: and he said, poor little doggie, you saved his child.
24:29
Speaker 1: I have watched two whole weeks and he doesn't come up.
24:33
Speaker 1: This last week, a fright has been stealing upon me.
24:36
Speaker 1: I think there is something terrible about this. I do
24:39
Speaker 1: not know what it is, but the fear makes me sick,
24:43
Speaker 1: and I cannot eat, though the servants bring me the
24:46
Speaker 1: best of food, and they pet me so and even
24:49
Speaker 1: come in the night and cry and say, poor doggie,
24:52
Speaker 1: do give it up and come home. Don't break our hearts.
24:56
Speaker 1: And all this terrifies me all the more and makes
24:59
Speaker 1: me sure something has happened. And I am so weak
25:04
Speaker 1: since yesterday I cannot stand on my feet anymore. And
25:07
Speaker 1: within this hour. The servants, looking toward the sun where
25:11
Speaker 1: it was sinking out of sight, and the night chill
25:13
Speaker 1: coming on, said things I could not understand, but they
25:17
Speaker 1: carried something cold to my heart. Those poor creatures, they
25:22
Speaker 1: do not suspect. They will come home in the morning
25:25
Speaker 1: and eagerly ask for the little doggie that did the
25:28
Speaker 1: brave deed, And who of us will be strong enough
25:31
Speaker 1: to say the truth to them? The humble little friend
25:34
Speaker 1: is gone? Where go the beasts that perish? End of
25:39
Speaker 1: section three, recording by Tricia G.