Latest / Classic Dog Stories / The Lost Dog, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

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The Lost Dog, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman · Classic Dog Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section thirteen of Best Dog Stories. This is a Liberox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All Liberoux recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit libroox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Dungee, Section thirteen. The Lost Dog by Mary E.
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  Speaker 1: Wilkins Freeman. The dog was pitting nose to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: He had missed his master early in the morning. Now
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  Speaker 1: it was late afternoon. But at last he thought he
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  Speaker 1: was on his track. He went like in wind, his
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  Speaker 1: ears pointed a head, his slender legs seemingly flat against
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  Speaker 1: his body. He was eagerness expressed by a straight line
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  Speaker 1: of impetuous motion. He had had nothing to eat all day.
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  Speaker 1: He was spent with anxiety and fatigue and hunger. But
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  Speaker 1: now now he believed he was on his master's track,
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  Speaker 1: and all that was forgotten. But all at once he stopped.
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  Speaker 1: His tail dropped between his legs, and he skulked away
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  Speaker 1: from the false track in an agony of mortification and despair.
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  Speaker 1: It had ended abruptly at a street corner where the
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  Speaker 1: man had taken a carriage. He doubled and went back
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  Speaker 1: for his life to the last place where he had
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  Speaker 1: seen his master in the morning. It was a crowded corner,
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  Speaker 1: and the people were passing and passing, weaving in and out,
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  Speaker 1: a great conquurse of humanity, following the wonderful maze of
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  Speaker 1: their own purposes. The dog sniffed at the heels of
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  Speaker 1: one and another. He followed and retreated, He dodged and skulked.
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  Speaker 1: He was a thing of abject apology, and felt no
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  Speaker 1: resentment at a kick when he got in the way
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  Speaker 1: of that tide of human progress. The dog without his
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  Speaker 1: master was like modesty without raiment, like a body without
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  Speaker 1: a soul. Without his master, he was not even a dog.
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  Speaker 1: He was a wandering intelligence only, and had fallen fallen
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  Speaker 1: below his inheritance of dog wheat. He yelped now and then,
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  Speaker 1: but his yell would have been unintelligible to another of
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  Speaker 1: his species. He put his nose to the ground. The
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  Speaker 1: confusion of sense and his despair made him, as it were,
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  Speaker 1: deep in his special acuteness. He blindly ran after this
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  Speaker 1: one and that one. Now and then he heard a
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  Speaker 1: voice which made his heart lip, and was after the
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  Speaker 1: owner at a bound, And it was never his master.
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  Speaker 1: The city lights were blazing out, and there all nights
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  Speaker 1: settling down on the corner were too steady, interweewing streams
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  Speaker 1: to the right and left of people going homeward, and
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  Speaker 1: all with the thought of shelter and foot and fire
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  Speaker 1: and west. Finally, the dog fastened his despairing eyes upon
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  Speaker 1: a man coming round the corner, and he followed him.
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  Speaker 1: He knew he was not his master, but there was
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  Speaker 1: that about him which awakened that wisdom of dependence which
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  Speaker 1: had come down to him through generations. He knew that
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  Speaker 1: here was a man who could love a dog. So
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  Speaker 1: he followed him on and on, moving swiftly at hell,
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  Speaker 1: keeping well in shadow. His eyes fixed anxiously upon the
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  Speaker 1: man's back, ready to be off at the first symptom
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  Speaker 1: of his turning. But the man did not see him
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  Speaker 1: until he had reached his home, which was a mile
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  Speaker 1: beyond the city limits, quite in the country. He went
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  Speaker 1: up to a solitary house set in a deep yard
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  Speaker 1: behind some fruit trees. There were no lights in the windows.
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  Speaker 1: The man drew a cave from his pocket and unlocked
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  Speaker 1: the door. Then he saw the dog. He looked hard
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  Speaker 1: at the dog, and the dog looked piteously at him.
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  Speaker 1: The dog wagged his tail in frantic circus of conciliation.
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  Speaker 1: The full moon was up, and there was a street lamp,
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  Speaker 1: so that could see each other quite distinctly. Both the
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  Speaker 1: dog and the man were thoroughbress. The dog saw a
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  Speaker 1: man young in shabby clothes, which he wore like a gentleman,
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  Speaker 1: with a dark and clear good face. The man saw
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  Speaker 1: a dog in a splendid suit of tony gold hair,
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  Speaker 1: with the completeness of the pure blood in every line
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  Speaker 1: and curve of his body. The man whistled, the dog
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  Speaker 1: pressed closer to him. His eyes upon his face were
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  Speaker 1: like a woman's. The man stopped and patted the dog
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  Speaker 1: on his tony gold head, then entered the house and
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  Speaker 1: whistled again, and the dog followed him. In that evening,
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  Speaker 1: the dog lay on an old skin rock before the
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  Speaker 1: hearth fire, but uneasily, for his new master was doing
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  Speaker 1: something which disturbed him. He was singing with a magnificent
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  Speaker 1: tener voice, and the dog was vaguely injured in his
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  Speaker 1: sensibilities by music. At first, he haled, but when the
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  Speaker 1: man bade him be quiet, he protested no longer, except
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  Speaker 1: for an occasional uneasy roll of a night or twitch
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  Speaker 1: of an ear at a new phrase. The dog had
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  Speaker 1: had a good supper. He had eaten rather more than
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  Speaker 1: the man. There was plenty of wood on the hearth,
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  Speaker 1: though the reserve was not large. But the man who
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  Speaker 1: sank had the optimism of a brave soul, which, when
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  Speaker 1: it is striving to its utmost cannot face the image
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  Speaker 1: of defeat without a feeling of disgrace. He was a
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  Speaker 1: great singer. He had been born to it, and he
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  Speaker 1: had worked for it. Some day the material fruits of it,
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  Speaker 1: the milk and honey of prosperity, would be his. In
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  Speaker 1: the meantime, there was his voice and his piano. And
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  Speaker 1: while there was wood, let his hearth fire blaze merrily.
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  Speaker 1: And while he had crushed, let him share it with
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  Speaker 1: the dog that was needy now an Then the man,
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  Speaker 1: in the intervals of his singing, patted the dog and
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  Speaker 1: spoke to him caressingly, and the dog looked at him
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  Speaker 1: with the gratitude which reached immensity through its unspeakableness. The
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  Speaker 1: dog wore no collar, and the man murveled at that.
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  Speaker 1: It was midnight when there came a step at the
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  Speaker 1: door and a ring, and the dog was on his
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  Speaker 1: feet with a valley of barks. He was ready to
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  Speaker 1: charge a whole army for the sake of this man,
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  Speaker 1: whom he had known only a few hours. But in
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  Speaker 1: this case he would have attacked not an enemy who
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  Speaker 1: threatened his master's safety, but a friend who brought him
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  Speaker 1: wealth and fame. When the man returned to the room,
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  Speaker 1: with the outdoors cold clinging to him, his face was
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  Speaker 1: ready and jubilant. The tenner who had been singing in
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  Speaker 1: the opera house had broken his engagement, and the manager
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  Speaker 1: had come for him. He told the dog, for lack
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  Speaker 1: of another companion. The dog reared himself on two legs,
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  Speaker 1: like a man in his ecstasy of joyful comradeship, and
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  Speaker 1: placed his paws on the man's shoulders and licked his
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  Speaker 1: young face. Then the man sat down at his piano
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  Speaker 1: and sank over and over his heart in the opera,
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  Speaker 1: and the dog gave only one low howl under his breath,
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  Speaker 1: then lay down on the skin rock with twitching ears,
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  Speaker 1: and back. That night, the man's clothing age began, and
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  Speaker 1: the dog shared it. His new master had his share
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  Speaker 1: of superstition and regarded the old saying that a dog
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  Speaker 1: following one brought luck, and had, besides his love for
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  Speaker 1: the animal, a species of gratitude and sense of obligation.
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  Speaker 1: In the days of luxurious living which followed, the dog
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  Speaker 1: was to the front with the man. He wrote with
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  Speaker 1: him in his softly cushioned carriage to the opera house,
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  Speaker 1: and slept in his dressing room while the music and
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  Speaker 1: the applause went on. Occasionally he would make a faint,
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  Speaker 1: protesting howl when a loud strain reached his ears. The
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  Speaker 1: dog loved the man for a love's sake alone. That
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  Speaker 1: which won the adulation man was his trial. He loved
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  Speaker 1: him not for his genius, but in spite of it.
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  Speaker 1: The dog, in his new life grew to his full
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  Speaker 1: possibility of beauty and strength. His coat shone like satin.
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  Speaker 1: He was a readiant outcome of appreciation and good food,
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  Speaker 1: but on year days still bare to come. One day
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  Speaker 1: the tender brought home a wife. Then the dog, for
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  Speaker 1: the first time, knew what it was to be the
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  Speaker 1: pet of a woman. Then he wore a great bow
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  Speaker 1: of blue satin on his silver collar, and often his
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  Speaker 1: coat smelled of violets. The new wife was a durable
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  Speaker 1: The touch of her little soft hands on the dog's
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  Speaker 1: head was ecstasy, and she did not sink, but talked
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  Speaker 1: to him and praised him with such sweet flattery that
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  Speaker 1: he used to roll his eyes at her like a lover,
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  Speaker 1: and thrust an appealing paw upon her silken lap. Then
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  Speaker 1: he grew to an appreciation of himself. All his objectness vanished.
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  Speaker 1: He became sure of himself and of love. He was
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  Speaker 1: a happy dog except for one thing. Always in his
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  Speaker 1: sleep he searched for his old lost master. He was
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  Speaker 1: never on the street, but down went his nose to
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  Speaker 1: the ground for the scent of those old footsteps. And
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  Speaker 1: one day, when he had been with his new friends
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  Speaker 1: two years, he found him. His mistress carriage was waiting,
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  Speaker 1: and he beside it. One day in spring, when they
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  Speaker 1: were selling daffodils and violets on the street, and doves
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  Speaker 1: were murmuring around their church towers, and the sparrows clamors,
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  Speaker 1: and everything which had life, in which all was not
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  Speaker 1: quite dead, was flying and darting and blossoming and creeping
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  Speaker 1: out into the sunlight. Then the dog saw his old
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  Speaker 1: master coming down the street, scraping the pavement with his
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  Speaker 1: heavy feet, an old man, mean and meanly glad, with
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  Speaker 1: no grace of body or soul, unless it might have
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  Speaker 1: been the memory of and regret for the dog him.
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  Speaker 1: He had loved after the best fashion which he knew.
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  Speaker 1: This splendid, brute thing, with his unquestioning devotion, had kept
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  Speaker 1: alive in him his bideous remnant of respect for self,
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  Speaker 1: and had been to him more than any one of
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  Speaker 1: his own kind, who had put him to shame and
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  Speaker 1: sunk him in the lowest depth of ignominy by forcing
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  Speaker 1: his realization of it. The dog stood still, with ears
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  Speaker 1: erect and tail stiff. Then was after his old master
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  Speaker 1: with a mind. Yet he bound. At first the man
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  Speaker 1: cursed and kicked at him, then looked again and swore
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  Speaker 1: towards his old dog, and stroked his hat with that
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  Speaker 1: yellow clutch of avarice, for his own possession and his
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  Speaker 1: own profit, rather than affection, which was the best his
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  Speaker 1: poor soul, cold compass. But the dog followed him, faithful
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  Speaker 1: not only to his old master, but to a nobler thing,
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  Speaker 1: the faithfulness which was in himself, and maybe by so doing,
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  Speaker 1: gained another level in the spiritual evolution of his race
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  Speaker 1: and of Section thirteen.