Transcript

Beautiful Joe · Beautiful Joe

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Preface. Beautiful Joe is a real dog, and Beautiful Joe is his real
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name. He belonged during the first part of his life to a cruel master
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who mutilated him in the manner described in the story. He was rescued from
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him and is now living in a happy home with pleasant surroundings, and enjoys
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a wide local celebrity. The character of Laura is drawn from life into the
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smallest detail is truthfully depicted. The Morris family has its counterparts in real life,
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and nearly all of the incidents of the story are founded on fact.
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The author and a preface introduction the wonderfully successful book entitled Black Beauty came like
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a living voice out of the animal kingdom. But it spake for the horse
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and many other books necessary. It led the way, the ready welcome that
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it received, and the good it has accomplished and is doing. It followed
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naturally that someone should be inspired to write a book to interpret the life of
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a dog to the humane feeling of the world. Such a story we have
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in Beautiful Joe. The story speaks not for the dog alone, but for
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the whole animal kingdom. Through it, we enter the animal world and are
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made to see as animals see, and to feel as animals feel. The
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sympathetic sight of the author in this interpretation is ethically the strong feature of the
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book. Such books as this is one of the needs of our progressive system
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of education. The day school, the Sunday School, and all libraries for
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the young demand the influence that shall teach the reader how to live in sympathy
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with the animal world, how to understand the languages of the creatures that we
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have long been accustomed to call dumb, and the sign language of the lower
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orders of these dependent beings. The Church owes it to her mission to preach
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and to teach the enforcement of the bird's nest commandment, the principle recognized by
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Moses in the Hebrew world, and echoed by Copper in English poetry and Burns
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in the Meadow Mouse, and by our own longfellow in Songs of Many Keys.
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Kindness to the animal kingdom is the first or a first principle in the
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growth of true philanthropy. Young Lincoln once waded across a half frozen river to
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rescue a dog, and stopped in a walk with a statesman to put back
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a bird that had fallen out of its nest. Such a heart was trained
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to be the leader of men and to be crucified for a cause. The
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conscience that runs to the call of an animal in distress is girding itself with
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power to do manly work in the world. The story of Beautiful Joe awakens
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an intense interest and sustained through a series of vivid incidents and episodes, each
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of which is a lesson. The story merits the widest circulation and the universal
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reading and response accorded to black beauty. To circulate it is to do good,
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to help the human heart as well as the creatures of quick feelings.
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In simple language, When as one of the committee to examine the manuscripts offered
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for prizes to the Humane Society, I read the story. I felt the
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writer had a higher motive than to compete for a prize. That the story
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was a stream of sympathy that flowed from the heart, that it was genuine,
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that it only needed a publisher who should be able to command a wide
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influence to make its merits known, to give it a strong educational mission.
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I am pleased that the manuscript has found such a publisher, and am sure
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that the issue of the story will honor the publication society in the development of
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the book. I believe that the humane cause has stood above any speculative thought
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or interest. The book comes because it is called for the times demand it.
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I think the publishers have a right to ask for a little unselfish service
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on the part of the public in helping to give it a circulation commensurate with
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its opportunity, need, and influence. Hezekiah Butterworth, end of Introduction,
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Chapter one. Only a cur. My name is beautiful Joe, and I
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am a brown dog of medium sized I am not called beautiful Joe because I
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am a beauty. Mister Morris, the clergyman in whose family I have lived
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for the last twelve years, says that he thinks I must be called beautiful
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Joe for the same reason his grandfather down south called a very ugly colored slave
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Lad Cupid, and his mother Venus. I do not know what he means
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by that, but when he says it, people always look at me and
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smile. I know that I am not beautiful, and I know that I'm
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not a thoroughbred. I am only a cur. When my mistress went every
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year to register me and pay my tax and the man in the office asked
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what breed I was. She said, part fox terrier and part bull terrier.
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But he always put me down a cur. I don't think she liked
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having him call me a cur. Still, I have heard her say that
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she preferred curs, for they have more character than well bred dogs. Her
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father said that she liked ugly dogs for the same reason that a nobleman at
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the court of a certain king did, namely, that no one else would.
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I am an old dog now and am writing, or rather getting a
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friend to write the story of my life. I have seen my mistress laughing
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and crying over a little book, but she says, is a story of
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a horse's life, and sometimes she puts the book down close to my nose
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to let me see the pictures. I love my dear mistress. I can
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say no more than that. I love her better than anyone else in the
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world, and I think it will please her if I write the story of
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a dog's life. She loves dumb animals, and it always grieves her to
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see them treated cruelly. I have heard her say that if all the boys
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and girls in the world were to rise up and say that there should be
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no more cruelty to animals. They could put a stop to it. Perhaps
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it will help a little if I tell a story. I am fond of
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boys and girls, and though I have seen many cruel men and women,
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I have seen few cruel children. I think the more stories there are written
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about dumb animals, the better it will be for us. In telling my
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story, I think I had better begin at the first and come right on
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to the end. I was born in a stable on the outskirts of a
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small town in Maine called Fairport. The first thing I remember was lying close
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to my mother and being very snug and warm. The next thing I remember
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was always being hungry. I had a number of brothers and sisters, six
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in all, and my mother never had enough milk for us. She was
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always half starved herself, so she could not feed us properly. I am
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very unwilling to say much about my early life. I have lived so long
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in a family where there is never a harsh word spoken, and where no
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one thinks of ill treating anybody or anything, that it seems almost wrong even
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to think or speak of such a matter as hurting a poor dumb beast.
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The man that owned my mother was a milkman. He kept one horse and
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three cows, and he had a shaky old cart that he used to put
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his milk cans in. I don't think there can be a worse man in
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the world than that milkman. It makes me shudder now to think of him.
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His name was Jenkins, and I am glad to think that he is
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getting punished now for his cruelty to pour dumb animals into human beings. If
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you think it is wrong that I am glad, you must remember that I
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am only a dog. The first notice that he took of me, when
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I was a little puppy just able to stagger about, was to give me
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a kick that sent me into a corner of the stable. He used to
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beat and starve my mother. I have seen him use his heavy whip to
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punish her till her body was covered with blood. When I got older,
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I asked her why she did not run away. She said she did not
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wish to. But I soon found out that the reason she did not run
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away was because she loved Jenkins. Cruel and savage as he was, she
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yet loved him, and I believe she would have laid down her life for
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him. Now that I am old, I know that there were more men
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in the world like Jenkins. They are not crazy, they are not drunkards.
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They simply seemed to be possessed with a spirit of wickedness. There are
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well to do people, yes, and rich people, who will treat animals
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and even little children, with such terrible cruelty that one cannot even mention the
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things they are guilty of. One reason for jenkins cruelty was his idleness.
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After he went his rounds in the morning with his milk hands, he had
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nothing to do till late in the afternoon but take care of his stable and
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yard. If he had kept them neat and groomed his horse, and cleaned
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the cows, and dug up the garden, it would have taken up all
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his time. But he never tidied the place at all, till his yard
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and stable got so littered up with things he threw down that he could not
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make his way about. His house and stables stood in the middle of a
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large field, and they were at some distance from the road. Passers by
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could not see how untidy the place was. Occasionally a man came to look
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at the premises and see that they were in good order, but Jenkins always
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knew when to expect him and had things cleaned up a little. I used
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to wish that some of the people that took milk from him would come and
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look at his cows. In the spring and summer he drove them out to
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pasture, but during the winter they stood all the time in the dirty,
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dark stable, where the chinks in the wall were so big that the snow
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swept through almost in drifts. The ground was always muddy and wet. There
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was only one small window on the north side, where the sun only shone
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in for a short time in the afternoon. They were very unhappy cows,
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but they stood patiently and never complained, though sometimes I know they must have
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nearly frozen in the bitter winds that blew through the stable on winter nights.
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They were lean and poor and were never in good health. Besides being cold,
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they were fed on very poor Jenkins used to come home nearly every afternoon
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with a great tub in the back of his cart that was full of what
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he called peelings. It was kitchen stuff that he asked the cooks at the
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different houses where he delivered milk to save for him. They threw rotten vegetables,
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fruit pairings, and scraps from the table into a tub, and gave
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them to him at the end of a few days. A sour, nasty
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mess, it always was, and not fit to give any creature. Sometimes,
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when he had not many pelings, he would go to town and get
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a load of decayed vegetables that the grocers were glad to have him take off
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their hands. This food, together with poor he made the cows give very
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poor milk, and Jenkins used to put some white powder in it to give
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it body. As he said, once a very sad thing happened about the
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milk, that no one knew about but Jenkins and his wife. She was
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a poor, unhappy creature, very frightened at her husband, and not daring
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to speak to him much. She was not a clean woman, and I
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never saw a worse looking house than she kept. She used to do very
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queer things that I know now no housekeeper should do. I have seen her
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catch up the broom to pound potatoes in the pot. She pounded with the
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handle, and the broom would fly up and down in the air, dropping
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dust into the pot where the potatoes were. Her pan of soft mixed bread
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she often left uncovered in the kitchen, and sometimes the hens walked in and
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sat in it. The children used to play in mud puddles about the door.
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It was the youngest of them that sickened with some kind of fever early
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in the spring, before Jenkins began driving the cows out to pasture. The
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child was very ill, and Missus Jenkins wanted to send for a doctor,
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but her husband would not let her. They made a bed in the kitchen
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close to the stove, and Missus Jenkins nursed the child as best she could.
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She did all her work nearby, and I saw her several times wiping
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the child's face with the cloth that she used for washing her milk pans.
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Nobody knew outside the family that the little girl was ill. Jenkins had such
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a bad name that none of the neighbors would visit them by and bye.
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The child got well, and a week or two later, Jenkins came home
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with a quite frightened face and told his wife that the husband of one of
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his customers was very ill with typhoid fever. After a time, the gentleman
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died, and the told Jenkins that the doctor wondered how he could have taken
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the fever, for there was not a case in town. There was a
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widow left with three orphans, and they never knew that they had to blame
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a dirty, careless milkman for taking a kind husband and father from them.
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End of chapter one only occur chapter two, The cruel Milkman. I have
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said that Jenkins spent most of his days in idleness. He had to start
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out very early in the morning in order to supply his customers with milk for
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breakfast. Oh how ugly he used to be When he came into the stable
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on cold winter mornings before the sun was up. He would hang his lantern
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on a hook and get out his milking stool, and if the cows did
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not step aside, just to suit him, he would seize a room or
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fork and beat them cruelly. My mother and I slept on a heap of
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straw in the corner of the stable, and when she heard his step in
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the morning, she always roused me so that we could run out doors.
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As soon as he opened the stable door. He always aimed a kick at
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us as we passed, but my mother taught me how to dodge him.
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After he finished milking, he took the pails of milk up to the house
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from missus Jenkins to strain and put in the cans, and he came back
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and harnessed his horse to the cart. His horse was called Toby, and
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a poor, miserable, broken down creature he was. He was weak in
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the knees, and weaken the back, and weak all over, and Jenkins
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had to beat him all the time to make him go. He had been
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a cab horse, and his mouth had been jerked and twisted and sawed at
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till one would think there could be no feeling left in it. Still I
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have seen him WinCE and curl up his lip when Jenkins thrown the frosty bit
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on a winter's morning. Poor old Toby, I used to lie on my
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straw sometimes, and wonder he did not cry out with pain. Cold and
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half starved he always was in the winter time, and often with raw swords
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on his body that Jenkins would try to hide by putting bits of cloth under
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the harness. But Toby never murmured, and he never tried to kick and
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bite, and he minded the least word from Jenkins, And if he swore
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at him, Toby would start back or step up quickly. He was so
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anxious to please him. After Jenkins put him in the cart and took in
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the cans, he set out on his rounds. My mother, whose name
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was Jess, always went with him. I used to ask her why she
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followed such a brute of a man, and she would hang her head and
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say that sometimes she got a bone from the different houses they stopped at,
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But that was not the whole reason. She liked Jenkins so much that she
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wanted to be with him. I had not her sweet and patient disposition,
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and I would not go with her. I watched her out of sight,
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and then ran up to the house to see if missus Jenkins had any scraps
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for me. I nearly always got something for She pitied me and often gave
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me a kind word or look with the bits of food that she threw to
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me. When Jenkins come home, I often coaxed Mother to run about and
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see some of the neighbor's dogs with me, but she never would, and
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I would not leave her. So from morning tonight we had to sneak about,
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keeping out of Jenkins's way as much as we could, and yet trying
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to keep him in sight. He always sauntered about with a pipe in his
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mouth and his hands in his pockets, growling first at his wife and children,
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and then his dumb creatures. I have not told what became of my
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brothers and sisters. One rainy day, when we were eight weeks old,
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Jenkins, followed by two or three of his ragged, dirty children, came
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into the stable and looked at us. Then he began to swear because we
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were so ugly, and said, if we had been good looking, he
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might have sold some of us. Mother watched him anxiously, and, fearing
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some danger to her puppies, ran and jumped in the middle of us and
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looked pleadingly up at him. It only made him swear the more. He
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took one pup after another, and right there before his children and my poor
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distracted mother, put an end to their lives. Some of them he seized
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by the legs and knocked against the stalls till their brains were dashed out.
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Others he killed with a fork. It was very terrible. My mother ran
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up and down the stable, screaming with pain, and I lay weak and
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trembling and expecting every instant that my turn would come next. I don't know
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why he spared me. I was the only one left. His children cried,
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and he sent them out of the stable and went out himself. Mother
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picked up all the puppies and brought them to our nest in the straw,
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and looked them and tried to bring them back to life, but it was
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of no use. They were quite dead. We had them in our corner
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of the stable for some days till Jenkins discovered them, and, swearing horribly
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at us, he took his stable fork and threw them out in the yard
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and put some earth over them. My mother never seemed the same after this.
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She was weak and miserable, and though she was only four years old,
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she seemed like an old dog. This was on account of the poor
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food she had been fed on. She could not run after Jenkins, and
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she lay on our heap of straw, only turning over with her nose the
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scraps of food I brought her to eat. One day, she licked me
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gently, wagged her tail, and died. As I sat by her,
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feeling lonely and miserable, Jenkins came into the stable. I could not fear
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to look at him. He had killed my mother. There she lay a
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little, gaunt, scarred creature, starved and worried to death by him.
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Her mouth was half open, her eyes were staring. She would never again
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look kindly at me, or curl up to me at night to keep me
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warm. Oh, how I hated her murderer. But I sat quietly,
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even when he went up and turned her over with his foot to see if
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she was really dead. I think he was a little sorry, for he
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turned scornfully toward me and said she was worth two of you. Why didn't
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you go instead? Still I kept quiet till he walked up to me and
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kicked at me. My heart was nearly broken and I could stand no more.
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I flew at him and gave him my savage fight on the ankle.
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Oh, he said, so you are going to be a little fighter,
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are you. I'll fix you for that. His face was red and furious.
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He seized me by the back of the neck and carried me out to
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the yard, where a log lay on the ground. Bill He called to
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one of his children bring me the hatchet. He laid my head on the
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log and pressed one hand on my struggling body. I was now a year
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old and a full sized dog. There was a quick, dreadful pain,
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and he had cut off my ear, not in the way they cut puppy's
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ears, but close to my head, so close that he cut off some
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of the skin beyond it. Then he cut off the other ear, and
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turning me swiftly round, cut off my tail close to my body. Then
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he let me go and stood looking at me as I rolled on the ground
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and yelped in agony. He was in such a passion that he did not
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think that people passing by on the road might hear me. And of chapter
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two, The Cruel Milkman. Chapter three, My Kind Deliverer and Miss Laura.
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There was a young man going by on a bicycle. He heard my
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screams, and, springing off his bicycle, came hurrying up the path and
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stood among us Before Jenkins caught sight of him. In the midst of my
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pain, I heard him say fiercely, what have you been doing to that
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dog? I've been unting is used for fighting, my young gentleman, said
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Jenkins. There's no law to prevent that, is there? And there is
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no law to prevent my giving you a beating, said the young man angrily.
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In a trice. He had seized Jenkins by the throat and was pounding
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him with all his might. Missus Jenkins came and stood at the house door,
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crying, but making no effort to help her husband bring me a towel.
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The young man cried to her. After he had stretched Jenkins bruised and
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frightened on the ground. She snatched off her apron and ran down with it,
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and the young man wrapped me in it, and, taking me carefully
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in his arms, walked down the path to the gate. There were some
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little boys standing there watching him, their mouths wide open with astonishment. Sonny,
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he said to the largest of them, if you will come behind and
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carry this dog, I will give you a quarter. The boy took me,
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and we said out. I was all smothered up in a cloth and
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moaning with pain, but still I looked out occasionally to see which way we
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were going. We took the road to the town and stopped in front of
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a house on Washington Street. The young man leaned his bicycle up against the
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house, took a quarter from his pocket and put it in the boy's hands,
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and, lifting me gently in his arms, went up a lane leading
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to the back of the house. There was a small stable there. He
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went into it, put me down on the floor, and uncovered my body.
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Some boys were playing about the stable, and I heard them say,
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in horrified tones, oh, cousin here, what's the matter with that dog?
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Hush, he said, don't make a fuss, you jack. Go
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down to the kitchen and ask Mary for a basin of warm water and a
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sponge, and don't let your mother or Laura hear you. A few minutes
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later, the young man had bathed my bleeding ears and tail and had rubbed
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something on them that was cool and pleasant, and had bandaged them firmly with
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strips of cotton. I felt much better and was able to look about me.
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I was in a small stable that was evidently not used for a stable,
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but more for a playroom. There were various kinds of toys scattered about,
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and a swing and bar such as boys loved to twist about on.
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In two different corners, and a box against the wall was a guinea pig
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looking at me in an interested way. This guinea pig's name was Jeff,
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and he and I became good friends. A long hair French rabbit was hopping
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about, and a tame white rat was perched on the shoulder of one of
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the boys and kept his foothold there no matter how suddenly the boy moved.
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There were so many boys, and the stable was so small that I suppose
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he was afraid he would get stepped on if he went on the floor.
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He stared hard at me with his little red eyes, and never even glanced
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at a queer looking gray cat that was watching me too, from her bed
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in the back of the vacant horse stall. Out in the sunny yard,
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some pigeons were pecking at grain, and a spaniel lay asleep in a corner.
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I had never seen anything like this before, and my wonder at it
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almost drove the pain away. Mother and I always chased rats and birds,
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and once we killed a kitten while I was puzzling over it. One of
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the boys out. Here's Laura, take that rag out of the way,
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said mister Harry, kicking aside the old apron I had been wrapped in,
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and that was stained with blood. One of the boys stuffed it into a
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barrel, and they all looked toward the house. A young girl, holding
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up one hand to shade her eyes from the sun, was coming up the
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walk that led from the house to the stable. I thought then that I
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had never seen such a beautiful girl, and I think so still. She
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was tall and slender, and had lovely brown eyes and brown hair and a
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sweet smile, and just to look at her was enough to make one love
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her. I stood in the stable door, staring at her with all my
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might. Why what a funny dog, she said, and stopped short to
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look at me. Up to this, I had not thought what a queer
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looking sight I must be. Now I twisted round my head, saw the
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white bandage on my tail, and, knowing I was not a fit spectacle
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for a pretty young lady like that, I slunk into a corner. Poor
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doggie, have I hurt your feelings? She said, and with a sweet
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smile like the boys, she passed by them and came up to the guinea
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pigs box, behind which I had taken refuge. What's the matter with your
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head, good dog, she said curiously, as she stooped over me.
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He has a cold in it, said one of the boys, with a
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laugh. So we put a nightcap on. She drew back and turned very
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pale. Cousin, Harry, there are drops of blood on this cotton.
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Who has hurt this dog? Dear Laura? And the young man coming up
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laid his hand on her shoulder. He got hurt, and I have been
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banded him who hurt him? I had rather not tell you, but I
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wish to know. Her voice was as gentle as ever, but she spoke
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so decidedly that the young man was obliged to tell her everything. All the
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time he was speaking, she kept touching me gently with her fingers. When
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he had finished his account of rescuing me from Jenkins, she said, quietly,
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you will have the man punished. What is the use that won't stop
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him from being cruel? It will put a check on his cruelty. I
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don't think it would do any good, said the young man, doggedly.
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Cousin Harry and the young girl stood up, very straight and tall, her
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brown eyes flashing, and one hand pointing at me. Will you let that
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pass? That animal has been wronged. It looks to you to write it.
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The coward who has maimed it for life should be punished. A child
30:03
has a voice to tell it's wrong. A poor dumb creature must suffer in
30:07
silence, in bitter, bitter silence. And eagerly, as the young man
30:14
tried to interrupt her, you were doing the man himself an injustice. If
30:18
he is bad enough to ill treat his dog, he will ill treat his
30:22
wife and children. If he is checked and punished now for his cruelty,
30:27
he may reform, and even if his wicked heart is not changed, he
30:33
will be obliged to treat them with outward kindness through fear of punishment. The
30:38
young man looked convinced, and almost as ashamed as if he had been the
30:44
one to crop my ears. What do you want me to do? He
30:48
said, slowly, and looking sheepishly at the boys who were staring open mouthed
30:52
at him and the young girl. The girl pulled a little watch from her
30:57
belt. You to report that men immediately. It is now five o'clock.
31:03
I will go down to the police station with you, if you like very
31:07
well, he said, his face brightening, and together they went off to
31:12
the house. End of chapter three, My Kind Deliverer and Miss Laura.
31:22
Chapter four, The Morris Boys add to my name. The boys watched them
31:30
out of sight. Then one of them, whose name I afterward learned was
31:33
Jack, and who came next to Miss Laura in age, gave a low
31:37
whistle and said, doesn't the old lady come out strong? When anyone or
31:44
anything gets abused. I'll never forget the day she found me setting Jim on
31:48
the black cat of the Wilsons. She's scolded me, and then she cried
31:52
till I didn't know where to look plague on it. How was I going
31:56
to know he killed the old cat. I only wanted to drive it out
32:00
of the yard. Come on, let's look at the dog. They all
32:05
came and bent over me as I lay on the floor in my corner.
32:08
I wasn't much used to boys, and I didn't know how they would treat
32:13
me. But I soon found by the way they handled me and talked to
32:16
me, that they knew a good deal about dogs and were accustomed to treat
32:22
them kindly. It seemed very strange to have them pat me and call me
32:27
good dog. No one had ever said that to me before today. He's
32:32
not much of a beauty us, he said one of the boys, whom
32:37
they called Tom. Not by a long shot, said Jack Morris, with
32:42
a laugh. Not any nearer the beauty mark than yourself. Tom. Tom
32:47
flew at him and they had a scuffle. The other boys paid no attention
32:52
to them, but went on looking at me. One of them a little
32:57
boy with eyes like Miss Lauras said, what did cousin Harry say? The
33:01
dog's name was? Joe? Answered another boy, the little chap that carried
33:08
him home, told him we might call him ugly Joe, then said a
33:15
lad with a round, fat face and laughing eyes. I wondered very much
33:19
who this boy was, and later on I found out that he was another
33:24
of Miss Laura's brothers, and his name was Ned. There seemed to be
33:30
no end to the Moors boys. I don't think Laura would like that,
33:35
said Jack Morris, suddenly coming up behind him. He was very hot and
33:39
was breathing fast, but his manner was as cool as if he had never
33:44
left the group about me. He had beaten Tom, who was sitting on
33:49
a box ruefully surveying a hole in his jacket. You see, he went
33:54
on gaspingly. If you call him ugly Joe, her Ladyship will say that
34:00
you were wounding the deer dog's feelings. Beautiful Joe would be more to her
34:05
liking. A shout went up from the boys. I didn't wonder that they
34:09
laughed, plain looking as I naturally was, but I must have been hideous
34:15
in those bandages. Beautiful Joe. Then let it be, they cried,
34:22
let us go and tell mother and ask her to give us something for our
34:25
beauty to eat. They all trooped out of the stable, and I was
34:30
very sorry, for when they were with me, I did not mind so
34:35
much the tingling in my ears and the terrible pain in my back. They
34:39
soon brought me some nice food, but I could not touch it, so
34:45
they went away to their play, and I lay in the box they put
34:47
me in, trembling with pain and wishing that the pretty young lady was there
34:52
to stroke me with her gentle fingers. By and bye. It got dark.
34:58
The boys finished their play and went into the house, and I saw
35:02
lights twinkling in the windows. I felt lonely and miserable in this strange place.
35:08
I would not have gone back to Jenkins for the world. Still,
35:14
it was the only home I had known, and though I felt that I
35:16
should be happy here, I had not yet gotten used to this change.
35:22
Then the pain all through my body was dreadful. My head seemed to be
35:28
on fire, and there were sharp darting pains up and down my backbone.
35:34
I did not dare to howl, lest I should make the big dog gem
35:38
angry. He was sleeping in a kennel out in the yard. The stable
35:45
was very quiet. Up in the loft above. Some rabbits that I had
35:49
heard running about had now gone to sleep. The guinea pig was nestling in
35:53
the corner of his box, and the cat and the tame rat had scampered
35:59
into the house long ago. At last, I could bear the pain no
36:02
longer. I sat up in my box and looked about me. I felt
36:07
as if I was going to die, And though I was very weak,
36:12
there was something inside me that made me feel as if I wanted to crawl
36:15
away somewhere out of sight. I slunk out into the yard in along the
36:22
stable wall, where there was a thick clump of raspberry bushes. I crept
36:27
in among them and lay down in the damp earth. I tried to scratch
36:31
off my bandages, but they were fastened on too firmly, and I could
36:36
not do it. I thought about my poor mother and wished she was here
36:42
to lick my sore ears. Though she was so unhappy herself, she never
36:47
wanted to see me suffer. If I had not disobeyed her, I would
36:52
not now be suffering so much pain. She had told me again and again
36:58
not to snipe at Jenkins, for it made him worse. In the midst
37:02
of my trouble, I heard a soft voice calling Joe, Joe. It
37:09
was Miss Laura's voice, but I felt as if there were weights on my
37:14
paws, and I could not go to her. Joe, Joe, she
37:20
said again and again. She was going up the walk to the stable,
37:25
holding up a lighted lamp in her hand. She had on a white dress,
37:30
and I watched her till she disappeared in the stable. She did not
37:35
stay long in there. She came out and stood on the gravel. Joe,
37:42
Joe, beautiful Joe, where are you? You were hiding somewhere,
37:47
but I shall find you. Then she came right to the spot where I
37:53
was, Poor doggie, she said, stooping down and patting me. Are
38:00
you very miserable? And did you crawl away to die? I have had
38:06
dogs to do that before, but I am not going to let you die,
38:10
Joe. And she set her lamp on the ground and took me in
38:15
her arms. I was very thin then, not nearly so fat as I
38:22
am now. Still I was quite an armful for her, but she did
38:27
not seem to find me heavy. She took me right into the house,
38:30
through the back door and down a long flight of steps, across the hall
38:36
and into a snug kitchen. For the lan sakes, miss Laura said a
38:42
woman who was bending over a stove. What have you got there? A
38:46
poor sick dog, Mary, said Miss Laura, seating herself on a chair.
38:53
Will you please warm a little milk for him? And have you a
38:58
box or a basket down here? He can lie in. I guess so,
39:02
said the woman. But he's awful dirty. You're not going to let
39:07
him sleep in the house, are you? Only? For tonight? He
39:12
is very ill. A dreadful thing happened to him, Mary, and Miss
39:17
Laura went on to tell her how my ears had been cut off. Oh
39:23
that's the dog the boys were talking about, said the woman, poor creature.
39:30
He's welcome to all I can do for him. She opened a closet
39:35
door and brought out a box and folded a piece of blanket for me to
39:38
lie on. Then she heeded some milk in a saucepan and poured it in
39:44
a saucer and watched me while Miss Laura went upstairs to get a little bottle
39:50
of something that would make me sleep. They poured a few drops of this
39:53
medicine into the milk and offered it to me. I lapped a little,
40:00
but could not finish it, even though Miss Laura coaxed me very gently to
40:05
do so. She dipped her finger in the milk and held it out to
40:08
me, and though I did not want it, I could not be ungrateful
40:13
enough to refuse to lick her finger as often as she offered it to me.
40:19
After the milk was gone, Mary lifted up my box and carried me
40:23
into the washroom that was off the kitchen. I soon fell sound asleep,
40:30
and I could not rouse myself through the night, even though I both smiled
40:36
and heard someone coming near me several times. The next morning I found out
40:42
that it was Miss Laura. Whenever there was a sick animal in the house,
40:46
no matter if it was only the tame wrap, she would get up
40:51
two or three times in the night to see if there was anything she could
40:54
do to make it more comfortable. End of chapter four. The Morris Boys
41:00
added to my name chapter five, My new Home and a selfish Lady.
41:10
I don't believe that a dog could have fallen into a happier home than I
41:15
did in a week, thanks to good nursing, good food, and kind
41:21
words. I was almost wail. Mister Harry washed and dressed my sore ears
41:28
and tail every day till he went home, and one day he and the
41:31
boys gave me a bath out in the stable. They carried out a tub
41:37
of warm water and stood me in it. I had never been washed before
41:42
in my life, and it felt very queer. Miss Laura stood by,
41:46
laughing and encouraging me not to mind the streams of water trickling all over me.
41:53
I couldn't help wondering what Jenkins would have said if he could have seen
41:58
me in that tub. That reminds me to say that. Two days after
42:04
I arrived at the Morrises, Jack, followed by all the other boys,
42:08
came running into the stable. He had a newspaper in his hand, and
42:14
with a great deal of laughing and joking, read this to me. Fearport
42:20
Daily News, June third. In the Police court this morning, James Jenkins,
42:24
for cruelly torturing and mutilating a dog, find ten dollars and costs.
42:31
Then he said, what do you think of that? Joe? Five dollars
42:36
a piece for your ears and your tail thrown in. That's all they're worth
42:40
in the eyes of the law. Jenkins has had his fun, and you'll
42:44
go through life worth about three quarters of a dog. I'd lash rascals like
42:49
that, tie them up and flog them till they were scarred and mutilated a
42:53
little bit themselves. Just wait till I'm president. But there's more, old
42:59
fellow, listen. Our reporter visited the house of the above mentioned Jenkins and
43:05
found a most deplorable state of affairs. The house, yard and stable were
43:09
indescribably filthy. His horse bears the marks of ill usage and is in an
43:16
emaciated condition. His cows are plastered up with mud and filth and are covered
43:22
with vermin. Where is our health Inspector that he does not exercise a more
43:28
watchful supervision over establishments of this kind. To allow milk from an unclean place
43:35
like this to be sold in the town is endangering the health of its inhabitants.
43:39
Upon inquiry, it was found that the man Jenkins bears a very bad
43:44
character. Steps are being taken to have his wife and children removed from him.
43:51
Jack threw the paper into my box, and he and the other boys
43:54
gave three cheers for the daily news and then ran away. How glad I
44:00
was. It did not matter so much for me, for I had escaped
44:05
him. But now that it had been found out what a cruel man he
44:08
was, there would be a restraint upon him, and poor Toby and Decals
44:14
could have a happier time. I was going to tell about the Morris family.
44:20
There were mister Morris, who was a clergyman and preached in a church
44:24
in Fairport. Missus Morris, his wife, Miss Laura, who was the
44:30
eldest of the family, then jack Ned, Carl and Willie. I think
44:36
one reason why they were such a good family was because Missus Morris was such
44:40
a good woman. She loved her husband and children and did everything she could
44:45
to make them happy. Mister Morris was a very busy man and rarely interfered
44:52
in household affairs. Missus Morris was the one who said what was to be
44:58
done and what was not to be done. Even then, when I was
45:02
a young dog, I used to think that she was very wise. There
45:08
was never any noise or confusion in the house, and though there was a
45:13
great deal of work to be done, everything went on smoothly and pleasantly.
45:19
And no one ever got angry and scolded as they did in the Jenkins family.
45:24
Missus Morris was very particular about money matters. Whenever the boys came to
45:30
her for money to get such things as candy and ice cream, expensive toys,
45:35
and other things that boys often crave, she asked them why they wanted
45:40
them. If it was for some selfish reason, she said firmly, no,
45:45
my children, we are not rich people, and we must save our
45:50
money for your education. I cannot buy you foolish things. If they asked
45:55
her for money for books, or something to make their pet animals more comfortable,
46:00
or for their outdoor games, she gave it to them willingly. Her
46:05
ideas about the bringing up of children I cannot explain as clearly as she can
46:10
herself, So I will give a part of a conversation that she had with
46:15
a lady who was calling on her. Shortly after I came to Washington Street.
46:21
I happened to be in the house at the time. Indeed, I
46:24
used to spend the greater part of my time in the house. Jack one
46:30
day looked at me and exclaimed, why does that dog stalk about? First
46:35
after one and then after another, looking at us with such solemn eyes.
46:40
I wished that I could speak to tell him that I had so long been
46:45
used to seeing animals kicked about and trodden upon that I could not get used
46:51
to the change. It seemed too good to be true. I could scarcely
46:55
believe that dumb animals had rights. But while it lasted, and human beings
47:01
were so kind to me, I wanted to be with them all the time.
47:07
Miss Laura understood. She drew my head up to her lap and put
47:13
her face down to me. You like to be with us, don't you.
47:16
Joe, stay in the house as much as you like. Jack doesn't
47:22
mind, though he speaks so sharply. When you get tired of us,
47:27
go out in the garden and have a romp with Jim. But I must
47:30
return to the conversation I referred to. It was one fine June day,
47:37
and missus Morris was sewing in a rocking chair by the window. I was
47:40
beside her, sitting on a hassock so that I could look out into the
47:45
street. Dogs love variety and excitement, and like to see what is going
47:51
on outdoors, as well as human beings. A carriage drove up to the
47:57
door, and a finely dressed lady got out and came up the steps.
48:01
Missus Morris seemed glad to see her and called her Missus Montague. I was
48:07
pleased with her, for she had some kind of perfume about her that I
48:13
liked to smell, so I went and sat on the hearth rug quite near
48:16
her. They had a little talk about things I did not understand, and
48:22
then the lady's eyes fell on me. She looked at me through a bit
48:27
of glass that was hanging by a chain from her neck, and pulled away
48:30
her beautiful dress lest I should touch it. I did not care any longer
48:37
for the perfume, and went away and sat very straight and stiff at Missus
48:43
Morris's feet. The lady's eyes still followed me. I beg your pardon,
48:50
Missus Morris, said she. But that is a very queer looking dog you
48:54
have there, Yes, said Missus Morris quietly. He is not a handsome
49:00
dog, and he is a new one, isn't he said Missus Montaigue.
49:07
Yes, and that makes two dogs, a cat, fifteen or twenty rabbits,
49:14
a rat, about a dozen kin earies, and two dozen goldfish.
49:17
I don't know how many pigeons, a few bantams, a guinea pig,
49:22
and well, I don't think there is anything more. They both laughed,
49:28
and Missus Montaigue said, you have quite a menagerie. My father would never
49:34
allow one of his children to keep a pet animal. He said it would
49:38
make his girls rough and noisy to rump about the house with cats, and
49:43
his boys would look like rowdies if they went about with dogs at their heels.
49:49
I have never found that it made my children more rough to play with
49:52
their pets, said Missus Morris. No I should think not, said the
50:00
lady languidly. Your boys are the most gentlemanly lads in Fairport. And as
50:07
for Laura, she is a perfect little lady. I like so much to
50:13
have them come and see Charlie. They wake him up and yet don't make
50:17
him naughty. They enjoyed their last visit very much, said Missus Morris.
50:24
By the way, I have heard them talking about getting Charlie a dog,
50:30
oh, cried the lady, with a little shudder, beg them not to.
50:35
I cannot sanction that. I hate dogs. Why do you hate them,
50:42
asked Missus Morris gently. They are such dirty things. They always smell
50:47
and have vermin on them. A dog, said Missus Morris, is something
50:53
like a child. If you want it clean and pleasant, you have got
50:58
to keep it so this dog's skin is as clean as yours are mine.
51:04
Hold still, Joe, And she brushed the hair on my back the wrong
51:07
way and showed Missus Montaigue how pink and free from dust my skin was.
51:15
Missus Montague looked at me more kindly, and even held out the tips of
51:20
her fingers to me. I did not look them, I only smelled them,
51:24
and she drew her hand back again. You have never been brought in
51:30
contact with the lower creation, as I have said, Missus Morris. Just
51:36
let me tell you in a few words, what a help dumb animals have
51:42
been to me in the upbringing of my children, my boys, especially when
51:46
I was a young married woman going about the slums of New York with my
51:52
husband. I used to come home and look at my two babies as they
51:55
lay in their little cots, and say to him, what are we going
52:00
to do to keep these children from selfishness, the curse of the world.
52:06
Get them to do something for somebody outside themselves, he always said. And
52:12
I have tried to act on that principle. Laura is naturally unselfish, with
52:17
her tiny baby fingers. She would take food from her own mouth and put
52:22
it into jacks if we did not watch her. I have never had any
52:28
trouble with her. But the boys were born selfish, tiresomely, disgustingly selfish.
52:35
They were good boys in many ways. As they grew older, they
52:38
were respectful, obedient. They were not untidy and not particularly rough. But
52:45
their one thought was for themselves, each one for himself, and they used
52:50
to quarrel with each other in regard to their rights. While we were in
52:54
New York, we had only a small backyard. When we came here,
53:00
I said, I am going to try an experiment. We got this house
53:05
because it had a large garden and a stable that would do for the boys
53:08
to play in. Then I got them together and had a little serious talk.
53:15
I said, I was not pleased with the way in which they were
53:17
living. They did nothing for anyone but themselves from morning to night. I
53:23
asked them to do an errand for me, and it was done unwillingly.
53:28
Of course, I knew they had their school for part of the day,
53:31
but they had a good deal of leisure time. When they might do something
53:36
for someone else. I asked them if they thought they were going to make
53:40
real manly Christian boys at this rate, and they said no. Then I
53:46
asked them what we should do about it. They all said, you tell
53:52
us, mother, and we'll do as you say. I proposed a series
53:55
of tasks, each one to do something for somebody outside and apart from himself,
54:02
every day of his life. They all agreed to this and told me
54:07
to allot the tasks. If I could have afforded it, I would have
54:10
gotten a horse and cow and had them take charge of them. But I
54:15
could not do that. So I invested in a pair of rabbits for Jack,
54:20
a pair of canaries for Carl, pigeons for Ned, and bantams for
54:24
Willie. I brought these creatures home, put them into their hands, and
54:30
told them to provide for them. They were delighted with my choice, and
54:35
it was very amusing to see them scurrying about to provide food and shelter for
54:38
their pets, and hear their consultations with other boys. The end of it
54:45
all is that I am perfectly satisfied with my experiment my boys in caring for
54:52
these dumb creatures have become unselfish and thoughtful. They had rather go to school
54:58
without their own breakfast, then have the inmates of the stable go hungry.
55:02
They are getting a humane education, a heart education, added to the intellectual
55:08
education of their schools. Then it keeps them at home. I used to
55:15
be worried with the lingering about street corners, the dawdling around with other boys,
55:21
and the idle often worse than idle talk indulged in. Now they have
55:27
something to do. They are men of business. They are always hammering and
55:31
pounding at boxes and partitions out there in the stable, or cleaning up.
55:37
And if they are sent out on an errand, they do it and come
55:39
right home. I don't mean to say we have deprived them of liberty.
55:45
They have their days for baseball and football and excursions to the woods, but
55:50
they have so much to do at home that they won't go away unless for
55:53
a specific purpose. While Missus Morris was talking, her visitor leaned forward in
56:00
her chair and listened attentively. When she finished, Missus Montaigue said, quietly,
56:08
thank you. I am glad you told me this. I shall get
56:13
to Charlie a dog. I am glad to hear you say that, replied
56:19
Missus Morris, it will be a good thing for your little boy. I
56:23
should not wish my boys to be without a good faithful dog. A child
56:29
can learn many a lesson from a dog. This one, pointing to me
56:35
might be held up as an example to many a human being. He is
56:39
patient, quiet, and obedient. My husband says that he reminds him of
56:45
three words in the Bible through much tribulation. Why does he say that,
56:52
asked Missus Monteig curiously, because he came to us from a very unhappy be
57:00
home. And Missus Morris went on to tell her friend what she knew of
57:05
my early days. When she stopped, Missus Montaigue's face was shocked and pained.
57:12
How dreadful to think that there are such creatures as that man Jenkins in
57:16
the world, And you say he has a wife and children, Missus Morris,
57:22
tell me plainly, are there many such unhappy homes in Fairport? Missus
57:29
Morris hesitated for a minute, then she said, earnestly, my dear friend,
57:35
if you could see all the wickedness and cruelty and vileness that is practiced
57:39
in this little town of ours. In one night you could not rest in
57:45
your bed. Missus Montague looked dazed. I did not dream it was as
57:51
bad as that. She said, Are we worse than other towns? No,
57:57
not worse, but guide enough. Over and over again, the saying
58:01
is true. One half the world does not know how the other half lives.
58:07
How can all this misery touch you? You live in your lovely house,
58:13
out of the town. When you come in, you drive about,
58:16
do your shopping, make calls, and go home again. You never visit
58:22
the poorer streets. The people from them never come to you. You were
58:27
rich, You were people before you were rich. You live in a state
58:30
of isolation. But that is not right, said the lady in a wailing
58:37
voice. I have been thinking about this matter lately. I read a great
58:43
deal in the papers about the misery of the lower classes, and I think
58:47
we richer ones ought to do something to help them. Missus Morris, what
58:52
can I do? The tears came in Missus Morris's eyes. She looked at
58:59
the little, frail lady and said, simply, dear, Missus Montaigue,
59:05
I think the root of the whole matter lies in this. The Lord made
59:10
us all one family. We are all brothers, and sisters. The lowest
59:15
woman is your sister and my sister. The man lying in the gutter is
59:21
our brother. What should we do to help these members of our common family
59:24
who are not as well off as we are? We should share our last
59:30
crust with them. You and I, but for God's grace in placing us
59:35
in different surroundings, might be in their places. I think it is wicked
59:40
neglect, criminal neglect in us to ignore this fact. It is, it
59:46
is, said Missus Montaigue in a despairing voice. I can't help feeling it
59:52
telling me something I can do to help some one. Missus Morris sank back
59:59
in her chair, her face very sad, and yet with something like pleasure
1:00:04
in her eyes as she looked at her collar. You are washerwoman, she
1:00:08
said, has a drunken husband and a crippled boy. I have often seen
1:00:15
her standing over her tub, washing your delicate muslins and laces, and dropping
1:00:20
tears into the water. I will never send her anything more. She shall
1:00:27
not be troubled, said Missus Montague hastily. Missus Morris could not help smiling.
1:00:35
I have not made myself clear. It's not the washing that troubles her.
1:00:39
It is her husband who beats her and her boy who worries her.
1:00:45
If you and I take our work from her, she will have that much
1:00:49
less money to depend on, and will suffer in consequence. She is a
1:00:55
hard working and capable woman and makes a fair living. I would not advise
1:01:00
you to give her money, for her husband would find out and take it
1:01:05
from her. It is sympathy that she wants. If you could visit her
1:01:09
occasionally and show that you are interested in her by talking or reading to her
1:01:15
poor foolish boy, or showing him a picture book. You have no idea
1:01:20
how grateful she would be to you, and how it would cheer her on
1:01:23
in a dreary way. I will go to see her tomorrow, said Missus
1:01:30
Montaigue. Can you think of anyone else? I could visit a great many,
1:01:36
said Missus Morris. But I don't think you had better undertake too much
1:01:39
at once. I will give you the addresses of three or four poor families.
1:01:45
We're an occasional Visit would do untold good. That is, it will
1:01:50
do them good if you treat them as you do your richer friends. Don't
1:01:53
give them too much money or too many presents till you find out what they
1:01:58
need. Try to feel interested in them, find out their ways of living,
1:02:04
in what they are going to do with their children, and help them
1:02:07
to get situations for them if you can, and be sure to remember that
1:02:12
poverty does not always take away one's self respect. I will, I will,
1:02:17
said missus Montague eagerly. When can you give me these addresses? Missus
1:02:23
Morris smiled again, and, taking a piece of paper and a pencil from
1:02:28
her work basket, wrote a few lines and handed them to Missus Montaigue.
1:02:34
The lady got up to take her leave, and in regard to the dog,
1:02:38
said Missus Morris, following her to the door, if you decide to
1:02:44
allow Charlie to have one, you had better let him come in and have
1:02:47
a talk with my boys about it. They seem to know all the dogs
1:02:52
that are for sale in the town. Thank you, I shall be most
1:02:57
happy to do so. He shall have his dog. When can you have
1:03:01
him tomorrow, the next day, any day at all? It makes no
1:03:08
difference to me. Let him spend an afternoon and evening with the boys.
1:03:14
If you do not object, it will give me much pleasure. And the
1:03:17
little lady bowed and smiled, and after stooping down to pat me, tripped
1:03:23
down the steps and got into her carriage and drove away. Missus Morris stood
1:03:30
looking after her with a beaming face, and I began to think that I
1:03:35
should like Missus Montague too, if I knew her long enough. Two days
1:03:39
later I was quite sure I should, for I had a proof that she
1:03:45
really liked me. When her little boy Charlie came to the house. He
1:03:51
brought something from me, done up in white paper. Missus Morris opened it
1:03:55
and there was a handsome nickel plated call with my name on it. Beautiful
1:04:02
Joe, Wasn't I pleased? They took off the little shabby leather strap that
1:04:09
the boys had given me when I came, and fastened on my new collar,
1:04:14
and then Missus Morris held me up to a glass to look at myself.
1:04:18
I felt so happy. Up to this time, I had felt a
1:04:24
little ashamed of my cropped ears and docked tail. But now that I had
1:04:30
a fine new collar, I could hold up my head with any dog.
1:04:34
Dear old Joe, said Missus Morris, pressing my head tightly between her hands.
1:04:41
You did a good thing the other day in helping me to start that
1:04:45
little woman out of her selfish way of living. I did not know about
1:04:50
that, but I knew that I felt very grateful to missus Montague for my
1:04:55
new collar, And ever afterward, when I met her in the sh I
1:05:00
stopped and looked at her. Sometimes she saw me and stopped her carriage to
1:05:05
speak to me. But I always wagged my tail, or rather my body,
1:05:11
for I had no tail to wag whenever I saw her, whether she
1:05:15
saw me or not. Her son got a beautiful Irish setter called Brisk.
1:05:23
He had a silky coat and soft brown eyes, and his young master seemed
1:05:29
very fond of him. End of Chapter five, My New Home and a
1:05:34
Selfish Lady. Chapter six the fox Terrier Billy. When I came to the
1:05:44
Morrises, I knew nothing about the proper way of bringing up a puppy.
1:05:48
I once heard of a little boy whose sister beat him so much that he
1:05:54
said he was brought up by hand. So I think, as Jenkins kicked
1:05:59
me so much, I might say I was brought up by foot. Shortly
1:06:03
after my arrival in my new home, I had a chance of seeing how
1:06:08
one should bring up a little puppy. One day I was sitting beside Miss
1:06:13
Laura in the parlor when the door opened and Jack came in. One of
1:06:18
his hands was laid over the other, and he said to his sister,
1:06:23
guess what I've got here? A bird? She said, Nope, a
1:06:29
rat, No, a mouse? No, a pup? Oh Jack,
1:06:35
she said, reprovingly, for she thought he was telling a story. He
1:06:41
opened his hands and there lay the tiniest morsel of a fox tarrier puppy that
1:06:46
I ever saw. He was white with black and tan markings. His body
1:06:53
was pure white, his tail black with a dash of tan, his ears
1:06:58
black, and his face eavenly marked with black and tan. We could not
1:07:02
tell the color of his eyes, as they were not open. Later on
1:07:08
they turned out to be a pretty brown. His nose was a pale pink,
1:07:13
and when he got older it became jet black. Why Jack, exclaimed
1:07:18
Miss Laura. His eyes aren't open. Why did you take him from his
1:07:23
mother? She's dead, said Jack. Poisoned left her pups to run about
1:07:30
the yard for a little exercise. Some brute had thrown over a piece of
1:07:33
poisoned meat, and she ate it. Four of the pups died. This
1:07:38
is the only one left, Mister Robinson, says, his man doesn't understand
1:07:43
raising pups without their mothers, and as he is going away, he wants
1:07:46
us to have it, for we always had such luck in nursing sick animals.
1:07:51
Mister Robinson, I knew, was a friend of the Morrises and a
1:07:57
gentleman who was fond of fancy stock, and then poured it a great deal
1:08:00
of it from England. If this puppy came from him, it was sure
1:08:04
to be a good one. Miss Laura took the tiny creature and went upstairs
1:08:11
very thoughtfully. I followed her and watched her get a little basket and line
1:08:15
it with cotton wool. She put the puppy in it and looked at him.
1:08:20
Though it was midsummer and the house seemed very warm to me, the
1:08:26
little creature was shivering and making low, murmuring noise. She pulled the wool
1:08:31
all over him and put the window down and set his basket in the sun.
1:08:38
Then she went to the kitchen and got some warm milk. She dipped
1:08:42
her finger in it and offered it to the puppy, but he went nosing
1:08:45
about it in a stupid way and wouldn't touch it. Too young Miss Laura
1:08:53
said she got a little piece of muslin and put some bread in it,
1:08:57
tied a string round it, and dipped it in the milk. When she
1:09:00
put this to the puppy's mouth, he sucked it greedily. He acted as
1:09:05
if he was starving, but Miss Laura only let him have a little Every
1:09:12
few hours. For the rest of the day, she gave him some more
1:09:15
milk, and I heard the boys say that for many nights she got up
1:09:20
once or twice and heated milk over a lamp for him. One night,
1:09:26
the milk got cold before he took it, and he swelled up and became
1:09:30
so ill that Miss Laura had to rouse her mother and get some hot water
1:09:35
to plunge him in. That made him well again, And no one seemed
1:09:41
to think it was too great a deal of trouble to take for a creature
1:09:45
that was nothing but a dog. He fully repaid them for all his care,
1:09:49
for he turned out to be one of the prettiest and most lovable dogs
1:09:55
that I ever saw. They called him Billy, and the two events of
1:10:00
his early life were the opening of his eyes and the swallowing of his muslin
1:10:05
rag. The rag did not seem to hurt him, but Miss Laura said
1:10:11
that as he had got so strong and so greedy, he must learn to
1:10:15
eat like other dogs. He was very amusing when he was a puppy.
1:10:20
He was full of tricks, and he crept about in a mischievous way when
1:10:26
one did not know he was near. He was a very small puppy and
1:10:30
used to climb inside Miss Laura's jersey sleeve up to her shoulder. When he
1:10:35
was six weeks old. One day, when the whole family was in the
1:10:40
parlor, mister Morris suddenly flung aside his newspaper and began jumping up and down.
1:10:46
Missus Morris was very much alarmed and cried out, my dear William,
1:10:53
what is the matter? There's a rat up my leg, he said,
1:10:58
shaking it violently. Just then Little Billy fell out on the floor and lay
1:11:03
on his back, looking up at mister Morris with a surprised face. He
1:11:09
had felt cold and thought it would be warm inside mister Morris's trousers leg.
1:11:15
However, Billy never did any real mischief thanks to Miss Laura's training. She
1:11:21
began to punish him just as soon as he began to tear in worry things.
1:11:27
The first thing he attacked was mister Morris's felt hat. The wind blew
1:11:32
it down the hall one day, and Billy came along and began to try
1:11:38
it with his teeth. I dare say it felt good to them, for
1:11:42
a puppy is very like a baby and love something to bite. Miss Laura
1:11:48
found him, and he rolled his eyes at her, quite innocently, not
1:11:53
knowing that he was doing wrong. She took the hat away, and,
1:11:58
pointing from it to him, she said, bad Billy. Then she gave
1:12:03
him two or three slaps with a bootlace. She never struck a little dog
1:12:08
with her hand or a stick. She said. Clubs were for big dogs
1:12:14
and switches for little dogs. If one had to use them, the best
1:12:18
way was to scold them. For a good dog feels a severe scolding as
1:12:24
much as a whipping. Billy was very much ashamed of himself. Nothing would
1:12:29
induce him even to look at a hat again, but he thought it was
1:12:34
no harm to worry other things. He attacked one thing after another, the
1:12:40
rugs on the floor, curtains, anything flying or fluttering, and Miss Laura
1:12:45
patiently scolded him for each one, till at last it dawned upon him that
1:12:51
he must not worry anything but a bone. Then he got to be a
1:12:56
very good dog. There was one thing that miss miss Laura was very particular
1:13:01
about, and that was to have him fed regularly. We both got three
1:13:06
meals a day. We were never allowed to go into the dining room,
1:13:11
and while the family was at the table, we lay in the hall outside
1:13:15
and watched what was going on. Dogs take a great interest in what anyone
1:13:21
gets to eat. It was quite exciting to see the morrises passing each other
1:13:27
different dishes and to smell the nice hot food. Billy often wished he could
1:13:32
get up on the table. He said that he would make things fly.
1:13:36
When he was growing, he hardly ever got enough to eat. I used
1:13:42
to tell him that he would kill himself if he could eat all he wanted
1:13:45
to. As soon as meals were over, Billy and I scampered after Miss
1:13:50
Laura to the kitchen. We each had our own plate for food. Mary
1:13:57
the cook, often laughed at Miss Laura because she would not let her dogs
1:14:00
dish together. Miss Laura said that if she did, the larger one would
1:14:05
get more than his share and the little one would starve. It was quite
1:14:11
a sight to see Billy eat He spread his legs apart to steady himself and
1:14:16
gobbled at his food like a duck. When he finished, he always looked
1:14:21
up for more, and Miss Laura would shake her head and say, no,
1:14:26
Billy, better longing than loathing. I believe that a great many little
1:14:30
dogs are killed by overfeeding. I often heard the Morrises speak of the foolish
1:14:38
way in which some people stuffed their pets with food and either killed them buy
1:14:43
it, or keep them in continual ill help. A case occurred in our
1:14:47
neighborhood. While Billy was a puppy. Some people called Dobson, who lived
1:14:54
only a few doors from the Morrises, had a fine bay mayor and a
1:14:58
little colt called They were very proud of this colt, and mister Dobson had
1:15:03
promised it to his son James. One day, mister Dobson asked mister Morris
1:15:11
to come in and see the colt, and I went too. I watched
1:15:15
mister Morris while he examined it. It was a pretty little creature, and
1:15:20
I did not wonder that they thought so much of it. When mister Morris
1:15:26
went home, his wife asked him what he thought of it. I think
1:15:30
he said that it won't live long, why, Papa, exclaimed Jack,
1:15:36
who overheard the remark, It is as fat as a seal. It would
1:15:43
have a better chance for life if it were lean and scrany, said mister
1:15:46
Morris, they are overfeeding it. And I told Dobson so, but he
1:15:51
wasn't inclined to believe me. Now, mister Morris had been brought up in
1:15:58
the country and knew a great deal animals, so I was inclined to think
1:16:02
he was right. And sure enough, in a few days we heard that
1:16:06
the colt was dead. Poor James Dobson felt very badly. A number of
1:16:14
the neighbor's boys went in to see him, and there he stood, gazing
1:16:17
at the dead colt and looking as if he wanted to cry. Jack was
1:16:23
there, and I was at his heels, and though he said nothing,
1:16:27
for a time I knew he was angry with the Dobsons for sacrificing the colt's
1:16:31
life. Presently he said, you won't need to have that colt stuffed now
1:16:38
he's dead. Dobson, what do you mean, Why do you say that,
1:16:43
asked the boy peevishly. Because you stuffed him while he was alive,
1:16:48
said Jack Salcily. Then we had to run for all we were worth.
1:16:54
For the Dobson boy was after us, and he was a big fellow.
1:16:58
He would have whipped Jack soundly. I must not forget to say that Billy
1:17:03
was washed regularly, once a week with nice smelling soap, and once a
1:17:09
month with strong, smelling, disagreeable carbolic soap. He had his own towels
1:17:15
and washcloths, and after being rubbed and scrubbed, he was rolled in a
1:17:19
blanket and put by the fire to dry. Miss Laura said that a little
1:17:24
dog that has been petted and kept in the house and has become tender,
1:17:29
should never be washed and allowed to run about with a wet coat unless the
1:17:33
weather was very warm, for he would be sure to take cold. Jim
1:17:40
and I were more hearty than Billy, and we took our bats in the
1:17:44
sea. Every few days. The boys took us down to the shore and
1:17:48
we went swimming with them. End of chapter six. The fox Terrier Billy
1:17:57
Chapter seven Training a ned dear said Miss Laura, one day, I wish
1:18:05
you would train Billy to follow and retrieve. He is four months old now,
1:18:10
and I shall soon want to take him out in the street. Very
1:18:15
well, Sister said mischievous Ned, and catching up a stick, he said,
1:18:20
come out into the garden. Dogs. Though he was brandishing his stick
1:18:25
fiercely, I was not at all afraid of him. And as for Billy,
1:18:30
he loved Ned. The Morris garden was not really a garden, but
1:18:35
a large piece of ground, with the grass worn bear in many places,
1:18:41
a few trees scattered about, and some raspberry and currant bushes along the fence.
1:18:46
A lady, who knew that mister Morris had not a large salary,
1:18:51
said one day, when she was looking out of her dining room window,
1:18:57
my dear missus Morris, why don't you have this garden? Dug up?
1:19:01
You could raise your own vegetables. It would be so much cheaper than buying
1:19:05
them. Missus Morris laughed in great amusement. Think of the hens and cats,
1:19:13
and dogs and rabbits, and above all the boys that I have.
1:19:17
What sort of a garden would there be? And do you think it would
1:19:20
be fair to take their playground from them? The lady said that no,
1:19:27
she did not think it would be fair. I'm sure I don't know what
1:19:30
the boys would have done without this strip of ground. Many a frolic and
1:19:35
game they had there in the present case, Ned walked around and around it
1:19:42
with his stick on his shoulder, Billy and I strolling after him. Presently,
1:19:47
Billy made a dash aside to get a bone. Ned turned around and
1:19:53
said firmly to Heal. Billy looked at him innocently, not knowing what he
1:20:00
meant to heal, exclaimed Ned again. Billy thought he wanted to play,
1:20:06
and putting his head on his paws, he began to bark. Ned laughed.
1:20:13
Still, he kept saying to Heal. He would not say another word.
1:20:18
He knew if he said come here, or follow or go behind,
1:20:24
it would confuse Billy. Finally, as Ned kept saying the words over and
1:20:30
over and pointing to me, it seemed to dawn upon Billy that he wanted
1:20:33
him to follow him. So he came beside me, and together we followed
1:20:40
Ned around the garden again and again. Ned often looked behind with a pleased
1:20:45
face, and I felt so proud to think I was doing well. But
1:20:50
suddenly I got dreadfully confused when he turned around and said hey out the more
1:21:00
says all used the same words and training their dogs, and I had heard
1:21:03
Miss Laura say this, but I had forgotten what it meant. Good Joe,
1:21:10
said Ned, turning around and patting me. You have forgotten. I
1:21:15
wonder where Jim is. He would help us. He put his fingers in
1:21:19
his mouth and blew a shrill whistle, and soon Jim came trotting up the
1:21:26
lane from the street. He looked at us with his large, intelligent eyes
1:21:30
and wagged his tails slowly, as if to say, well, what do
1:21:34
you want of me? Come and give me a hand at this training business?
1:21:40
Old sobersides, said Ned, with a laugh. It's too slow to
1:21:45
do it alone, now, young gentlemen, attention to hell. He began
1:21:53
to march around the garden again, and Jim and I followed closely at his
1:21:58
heels, while Little Bill, seeing that he could not get us to play
1:22:01
with him, came lagging behind. Soon Ned turned around and said, hey
1:22:10
out. Old Jim sprang ahead and ran off in front as if he was
1:22:15
after something. Now I remembered what hay out meant. We were to have
1:22:23
a lovely race wherever we liked. Little Billy loved this. We ran and
1:22:30
scampered hither and thither, and Ned watched us, laughing at our antics.
1:22:35
After tea, he called us out in the garden again and said he had
1:22:40
something else to teach us. He turned up a tub on the wooden platform
1:22:45
at the back door and sat on it, and then called Jim to him.
1:22:49
He took a small leather strap from his pocket. It had a nice,
1:22:54
strong smell. We all licked it, and each dog wished to have
1:22:59
it. No, Joe and Billy, said Ned, holding us both by
1:23:04
our collars, you wait a minute here, Jim. Jim watched him very
1:23:12
earnestly, and Ned threw the strap halfway across the garden and said, fetch
1:23:17
it. Jim never moved till he heard the words fetch it. Then he
1:23:24
ran swiftly, brought the strap and dropped it in Ned's hand. Ned sent
1:23:30
him after it two or three times. Then he said to Jim, lie
1:23:33
down, and turned to me. Here, Joe, it is your turn.
1:23:40
He threw the strap under the raspberry bushes and then looked at me and
1:23:44
said, fetch it. I knew quite well what he meant, and I
1:23:49
ran joyfully after it. I soon found it by the strong smell. But
1:23:55
the queerest thing happened when I got it in my mouth again, to gnaw
1:24:00
it and play with it, and When Ned called out, fetch it,
1:24:04
I dropped it and ran toward him. I was not obstinate, but I
1:24:11
was stupid. Ned pointed to the place where it was and spread out his
1:24:15
empty hands. That helped me, and I ran quickly and guide it.
1:24:21
He made me get it for him several times. Sometimes I could not find
1:24:27
it, and sometimes I dropped it, but he never stirred. He sat
1:24:31
still till I brought it back to him. After a while, he tried
1:24:36
Billy, but it soon got dark and we could not see, so he
1:24:41
took Billy and went into the house. I stayed out with Jim for a
1:24:45
while, and he asked me if I knew why Ned had thrown a strap
1:24:50
for us instead of a bone or something hard. Of course I did not
1:24:57
know, so Jim told me it was on his account. Out he was
1:25:00
a bird dog and was never allowed to carry anything hard in his mouth because
1:25:05
it would make him hard mouth, and he would be apt to bite the
1:25:10
birds when he was bringing them back to any person who was shooting with him.
1:25:15
He said that he had been so carefully trained that he could even carry
1:25:19
three eggs at a time in his mouth. I said to him, Jim,
1:25:26
how is it that you never go out shooting. I have always heard
1:25:30
that you were a dog for that, and yet you never leave home.
1:25:35
He hung his head a little and said he did not wish to go.
1:25:41
And then, for he was an honest dog, he gave me the true
1:25:45
reason. End of Chapter seven, Training a Puppy, Chapter eight A Ruined
1:25:55
Dog. I was a sporting dog, he said bitterly. For the first
1:26:01
three years of my life. I belonged to a man who keeps a livery
1:26:05
stable here in Fairport, and he used to hire me out to shooting parties.
1:26:12
I was a favorite with all the gentlemen. I was crazy with delight
1:26:16
when I saw the guns brought out, and would jump up and bite at
1:26:20
them. I loved to chase birds and rabbits, and even now when the
1:26:25
pigeons come near me, I tremble all over and have to turn away lest
1:26:30
I should seize them. I used often to be in the woods from morning
1:26:35
till night. I liked to have a heart search after a bird after it
1:26:41
had been shot, and to be praised for bringing it out without biting or
1:26:45
injuring it. I never got lost, for I am one of those dogs
1:26:49
that can always tell where human beings are. I did not smell them.
1:26:55
I would be too far away for that. But if my master was standing
1:26:59
in some place, and I took a long round through the woods, I
1:27:02
knew exactly where he was and could make a short cut back to him without
1:27:08
returning in my tracks. But I must tell you about my trouble. One
1:27:14
Saturday afternoon, a party of young men came to get me. They had
1:27:18
a dog with them, a cocker Spaniel named Bob, but they wanted another.
1:27:25
For some reason or other. My master was very unwilling to have me
1:27:29
go. However, he at last consented, and they put me in the
1:27:33
back of the wagon with Bob and the lunch baskets, and we drove off
1:27:39
into the country. This Bob was a happy, merry looking dog, and
1:27:44
as we went along he told me of the fine time we should have the
1:27:47
next day. The young men would shoot a little, then they would get
1:27:53
out their baskets and have something to eat and drink, and would play cards
1:27:58
and go to sleep under the tree, and we would be able to help
1:28:00
ourselves to legs and wings of chicken and anything we liked from the baskets.
1:28:06
I did not like this at all. I was used to working hard through
1:28:12
the week, and I liked to spend my sundays quietly at home. However,
1:28:16
I said nothing that night. We slept at a country hotel and drove
1:28:24
the next morning to the banks of a small lake, where the young men
1:28:28
were told there would be plenty of wild ducks. They were in no hurry
1:28:32
to begin their sport. They sat down in the sun on some flat rocks
1:28:36
at the water's edge and said they would have something to drink before setting to
1:28:42
work. They got out some of the bottles from the wagon and began to
1:28:46
take long drinks from them. Then they got quarrelsome and mischievous, and seemed
1:28:53
to forget all about their shooting. One of them proposed to have some fun
1:28:58
with the dogs, eyed us both to a tree, and throwing a stick
1:29:02
in the water, told us to go get it. Of course, we
1:29:06
struggled and tried to get free, and chafed our necks with the rope.
1:29:12
After a time, one of them began to swear at me and say that
1:29:16
he believed I was gun shy. He staggered to the wagon and got out
1:29:21
his fowling piece and said he was going to try me. He loaded it,
1:29:27
went to a little distance and was going to fire when the young man
1:29:31
who owned Bob said he wasn't going to have his dog's legs shot off,
1:29:38
and coming up, he unfastened him and took him away. You can imagine
1:29:43
my feelings as I stood there, tied to the tree, with that stranger
1:29:46
pointing his gun directly at me. He fired close to me a number of
1:29:53
times, over my head and under my body. The earth was cut up
1:29:57
all around me. I was tear rribly frightened, and howled and begged to
1:30:01
be freed. The other young men, who were sitting laughing at me,
1:30:06
thought it was such good fun that they got their guns too. I never
1:30:12
wished to spend such a terrible hour again. I was sure they would kill
1:30:16
me. I dare say they would have done so, for they were all
1:30:21
quite drunk by this time. If something had not happened, poor Bob,
1:30:28
who was almost as frightened as I was, and who lay shivering under the
1:30:31
wagon, was killed by a shot by his own master, whose hand was
1:30:38
the most unsteady of all. He gave one loud howl, kicked convulsively,
1:30:45
then turned over on his side and lay quite steel. It sobered them all.
1:30:51
They ran up to him, but he was quite dead. They sat
1:30:57
for a while, quite silent. Then they threw the rest of the bottles
1:31:01
into the lake, dug a shallow grave for Bob, and putting me in
1:31:06
the wagon, drove slowly back to town. They were not bad young men.
1:31:13
I don't think they meant to hurt me, nor to kill Bob.
1:31:16
It was the nasty stuff in the bottles that took away their reason. I
1:31:21
was never the same dog again. I was quite deaf in my right ear,
1:31:27
and though I strove against it, I was so terribly afraid of even
1:31:31
the sight of a gun that I would run and hide myself whenever one was
1:31:35
shown to me. My master was very angry with those young men, and
1:31:42
it seemed as if he could not bear the sight of me. One day
1:31:45
he took me very kindly and brought me here and asked mister Morris if he
1:31:50
did not want a good natured dog to play with the children. I have
1:31:56
a happy home here, and I love the Morris boys, but I often
1:32:00
wish I could keep from putting my tail between my legs and running home every
1:32:05
time I hear the sound of a gun. Never mind that Gium, I
1:32:11
said, you should not fret over a thing for which you are not to
1:32:15
blame. I am sure you must be glad for one reason that you have
1:32:20
left your old life. What is that, he said? On account of
1:32:27
the birds? You know, Miss Laura thinks it is wrong to kill the
1:32:31
pretty creatures that fly about in the woods. So it is, he said,
1:32:38
unless one kills them at once. I have often felt angry with men
1:32:43
for only half killing a bird. I hated to pick up the little warm
1:32:47
body and see the bright eye looking so reproachfully at me, and feel the
1:32:54
flutter of life. We animals, or rather most of us, kill mercifully.
1:33:00
It's only human beings who butcher their prey, and seem some of them
1:33:05
to rejoice in their agony. I used to be eager to kill birds and
1:33:11
rabbits, but I did not want to keep them before me long after they
1:33:15
were dead. I often stop in the street and look up at fine ladies
1:33:19
bonnets, and wonder how they can wear little dead birds in such dreadful positions.
1:33:25
Some of them have their heads twisted under their wings and over their shoulders,
1:33:30
and looking toward their tails, and their eyes are so horrible that I
1:33:35
wish I could take those ladies into the woods and let them see how easy
1:33:40
and pretty a life bird is, and how unlike the stuffed creatures they wear.
1:33:46
Have you ever had a good run in the woods, Joe, No,
1:33:50
never, I said, someday I will take you. And now it
1:33:57
is late and I must go to bed. Are you going to sleep in
1:34:00
the kennel with me or in the stable? I think I will sleep with
1:34:04
you, Jim. Dogs like company, you know, as well as human
1:34:09
beings. I curled up in the straw beside him, and soon we were
1:34:15
fast asleep. I have known a good many dogs, but I don't think
1:34:20
I ever saw such a good one as Jim. He was gentle and kind,
1:34:26
and so sensitive that a hard word hurt him more than a blow.
1:34:30
He was a great pet with Missus Morris, and as he had been so
1:34:34
well trained, he was able to make himself very useful to her. When
1:34:40
she went shopping. He often carried a parcel in his mouth for her.
1:34:45
He would never drop it, nor leave it anywhere. One day she dropped
1:34:49
her purse without knowing it, and Jim picked it up and brought it home
1:34:54
in his mail. She did not notice him, for he always walked behind
1:34:59
her When she got to her own door, she missed the purse, and
1:35:03
turning around, saw it in Jim's mouth. Another day, a lady gave
1:35:09
Jack Morris a canary cage as a present for Carl. He was bringing it
1:35:14
home when one of the little seed boxes fell out. Jim picked it up
1:35:18
and carried it a long way before Jack discovered it. End of Chapter eight,
1:35:27
A Ruined Dog. Chapter nine, The Parrot Bella. I often used
1:35:34
to hear the Morris says speak about vessels that ran between Fairport and a place
1:35:41
called the West Indies, carrying cargoes of lumber and fish, and bringing home
1:35:46
molasses, spices, fruit, and other things. On one of these vessels,
1:35:54
called the Mary. Jane was a cabin boy who was a friend of
1:35:58
the Morris boys and often brought them presents. One day, after I had
1:36:03
been with the Morrises for some months, this boy arrived at the house with
1:36:09
a bunch of green bananas in one hand and a parrot in the other.
1:36:14
The boys were delighted with the parrot and called their mother to see what a
1:36:18
pretty bird she was. Missus Morris seemed very touched by the boy's thoughtfulness and
1:36:25
bringing a present such a long distance to her boys and thanked him warmly.
1:36:30
The cabin boy became very shy, and all he could say was go away,
1:36:38
over and over again, in a very awkward manner. Missus Morris smiled
1:36:45
and left him with the boys. I think that she thought he would be
1:36:49
more comfortable with them. Jack put me up on the table to take a
1:36:55
look at the parrot. The boy held her by a string tight around one
1:37:00
of her legs. She was a gray parrot with a few red feathers in
1:37:04
her tail, and she had bright eyes and a very knowing air. The
1:37:11
boys said he had been careful to buy a young one that could not speak,
1:37:15
for he knew the Morris boys would not want one chattering foreign gibberish,
1:37:20
nor yet one that would swear. He had kept her in his bunk in
1:37:26
the ship and has spent all his leisure time in teaching her to talk.
1:37:30
Then he looked at her anxiously and said, show off, now, can't
1:37:35
ye. I didn't know what he meant by all this until afterward. I
1:37:42
had never heard of such a thing as birds talking. I stood on the
1:37:47
table staring hard at her, and she stared hard at me. I was
1:37:53
just thinking that I would not like to have her sharp little beak fastened in
1:37:58
my skin. When I heard someone say, beautiful Joe. The voice seemed
1:38:04
to come from the room, but I knew all the voices there, and
1:38:09
this was one I had never heard before, so I thought I must be
1:38:13
mistaken, and it was someone in the hall. I struggled to get away
1:38:17
from Jack to run and see who it was, but he held me fast
1:38:23
and laughed with all his might. I looked at the other boys, and
1:38:28
they were laughing too. Presently I heard it again, beautiful Joe, beautiful
1:38:34
Joe. The sound was close by, and yet it did not come from
1:38:40
the cabin boy, for he was all doubled up, laughing, his face
1:38:45
as red as a beat. It's the parrot, Joe cried, ned look
1:38:50
at her, you baby. I did look at her, and with her
1:38:56
head on one side and the sauciest air and world, she was saying,
1:39:01
beautiful Joe, beautiful Joe. I had never heard a bird talk before,
1:39:09
and I felt so sheepish that I tried to get down and hide myself under
1:39:14
the table. Then she began to laugh at me. Ha ha ha,
1:39:19
good dog, sick boy, rats, rats, beautiful Joe, beautiful Joe,
1:39:25
she cried, rattling off the words as fast as she could. I
1:39:30
never felt so queer before in my life. And the boys were just roaring
1:39:36
with delight at my puzzled face. Then the parrot began calling for Jim.
1:39:43
Where's Jim, where's good old Jim, poor old dog? Give him a
1:39:46
bone. The boys brought Jim in the parlor, and when he heard her
1:39:53
funny, little cracked voice calling him, he nearly went crazy. Jimmy,
1:39:59
Jim, James Augustus, she said, which was Jim's long name. He
1:40:04
made a dash out of the room, and the boy screamed so that mister
1:40:10
Morris came down from his study to see what the noise meant. As soon
1:40:15
as the parrot saw him, she would not utter another word. The boys
1:40:20
told him, though, what she had been saying, and he seemed much
1:40:25
amused to think that the cabin boy should have remembered so many sayings his boys
1:40:30
made use of and taught them to the parrot. Clever Polly, he said,
1:40:36
kindly, good Polly. The cabin boy looked at him shyly, and
1:40:43
Jack, who was a very sharp boy, said quickly, is not that
1:40:47
what you call her? Henry? No said the boy. I call her
1:40:53
Bell short for Belle's a bob. I beg your pardon, said Jack,
1:40:59
very polite lightly Belle short for Belzebub, repeated the boy. You see,
1:41:06
I thought you'd like a name from the Bible. Being a minister's sons,
1:41:11
I had in my Bible with me on this cruise, saving your presence,
1:41:15
and I couldn't think of any girls' names out of it but Eve or Queen
1:41:19
of Shiva, and they didn't seem very fit. So I asked me mates,
1:41:25
and he says, for his part, he guessed Beelzebub was a pretty
1:41:29
girl's name as any. So I governed that twould have been better to let
1:41:33
you name her. But yes see, twouldn't have been handy not to call
1:41:38
her something where I was teaching her every day. Jack turned away and walked
1:41:44
to the window, his face a deep scarlet. I heard him mutter Beelzebub,
1:41:50
prince of devils. So I supposed the cabin boy had given his bird
1:41:56
a bad name. Mister Morris looked kindly at the cabin boy. Do you
1:42:01
ever call the parrot by her whole name? No, sir, he replied,
1:42:06
I always give her Bell, but she calls herself Bella. Bella,
1:42:12
repeated, mister Morris, that's a very pretty name. If you keep her,
1:42:15
boys, I think you had better stick to that. Yes, father,
1:42:20
they all said, and then mister Morris started to go back to his
1:42:25
study. On the door seal, he paused to ask the cabin boy when
1:42:30
his ship sailed, Finding that it was to be in a few days,
1:42:34
he took out his pocket book and wrote something in it. The next day
1:42:40
he asked Jack to go to town with him, and when they came home,
1:42:44
Jack said that his father had bought an oilskin coat for Henry Smith and
1:42:49
a handsome bible in which they were all to write their names. After mister
1:42:56
Morris left the room, the door opened and Miss Laura came in. She
1:43:01
knew nothing about the parrot, and was very much surprised to see it.
1:43:06
Seating herself at the table, she held out her hands to it. She
1:43:11
was so fond of pets of all kinds that she never thought of being afraid
1:43:16
of them. At the same time, she never laid her hands suddenly on
1:43:21
any animal. She held out her fingers and talked gently, so that if
1:43:27
it wished to come to her it could she looked at the parrot as if
1:43:31
she loved it, and the queer little thing walked right up and nestled its
1:43:35
head against the lace in the front of her dress. Pretty lady, she
1:43:42
said, in a cracked whisper, give Bella a kiss. The boys were
1:43:49
so pleased with this and set up such a shout that their mother came into
1:43:55
the room and said they had better take the parrot out to the stable.
1:44:00
Bella seemed to enjoy the fun. Come on, blaz she screamed, as
1:44:05
Henry Smith lifted her on his finger. Ha, ha, ha, come
1:44:11
on, let's have some fun. Where's the guinea pig? Where's Davy the
1:44:15
rat? Where's pussy? Pussy Pussy, come here, pussy pussy, dear
1:44:18
pretty pussy. Her voice was shrill and distinct, and very like the voice
1:44:26
of an old woman who came out to the house for rags and bones.
1:44:30
I followed her out to the stable and stayed there until she noticed me and
1:44:34
screamed out, ha, Joe, beautiful Joe, where's your tail? Who
1:44:40
cut your ears off? I don't think it was kind in the cabin boy
1:44:45
to teach her this, and I think she knew it teased me, for
1:44:49
she said it over and over again, and laughed and chuckled with delight.
1:44:55
I left her and did not see her till the next day, when the
1:45:00
the boys had got a fine, large cage for her. The place for
1:45:04
her cage was by one of the hall windows, but everybody in the house
1:45:10
got so fond of her that she was moved about from one room to another.
1:45:15
She hated her cage and used to put her head close to the bars
1:45:18
and plead let Bella out. Bella will be good girl, Bella won't run
1:45:24
away. After a time, the Morrises did let her out, and she
1:45:30
kept her word and never tried to get away. Jack put a little handle
1:45:34
on her cage door so that she could open and shut it herself, and
1:45:39
it was very amusing to hear her say in the morning, clear the track,
1:45:44
children, Bella's going to take a walk, and see her turn the
1:45:48
handle with her claw and come out into the room. She was a very
1:45:54
clever bird, and I have never seen any creature but a human being that
1:46:00
could reason as she did. She was so petted and talked to that she
1:46:04
got to know a great many words, and on one occasion she saved the
1:46:10
Morrises from being robbed It was in the winter time. The family was having
1:46:15
tea in the dining room at the back of the house, and Billy and
1:46:19
I were lying in the hall watching what was going on. There was no
1:46:25
one in the front of the house. The hall lamp was lighted and the
1:46:30
hall door closed but not locked. Some sneak thieves, who had been doing
1:46:35
a great deal of mischief in Fairport, crept up the stamps and into the
1:46:41
house, and, opening the door of the hall closet, laid their hands
1:46:45
on the boy's winter overcoats. They thought no one saw them, but they
1:46:51
were mistaken. Bella had been having a nap upstairs and had not come down
1:46:58
when the tea bell rang. Now she was hopping down on her way to
1:47:02
the dining room, and, hearing the slight noise below, stopped and looked
1:47:08
through the railing. Any pet creature that lives in a nice family hates a
1:47:14
dirty, shabby person. Bella knew that those beggar boys had no business in
1:47:19
that closet. Bad boys, she screamed angrily, get out, get out
1:47:27
here, Jojo, beautiful, Joe, come quick, Billy, Billy,
1:47:30
rats, hay out, Jim sickon boys, where's the police? Call?
1:47:34
The police. Billy and I sprang up and pushed open the door leading to
1:47:41
the front hall. The thieves, in a terrible fright, were just rushing
1:47:46
down the front steps. One of them got away, but the other one
1:47:51
fell, and I caught him by the coat till mister Morris ran and put
1:47:56
his hand on his shoulder. He was a young fellaw about Jack's age,
1:48:00
but not one half so manly, and he was sniffling and scolding about that
1:48:05
pesky parrot. Mister Morris made him come back into the house and had a
1:48:11
talk with him. He found out that he was a poor, ignorant lad,
1:48:15
half starved by a drunken father. He and his brother stole clothes and
1:48:20
sent them to his sister in Boston, who sold them and returned part of
1:48:25
the money. Mister Morris asked him if he would not like to get his
1:48:30
living in an honest way, and he said he had tried to, but
1:48:34
no one would employ him. Mister Morris told him to go home and take
1:48:40
leave of his father, and get his brother and bring him to Washington Street
1:48:45
the next day. He told him plainly that if he did not, he
1:48:48
would send a policeman after him. The boy begged mister Morris not to do
1:48:55
that, and early the next morning he appeared with his brother. Missus Morris
1:49:00
gave them a good breakfast and fitted them out with clothes, and they were
1:49:05
sent off in the train to one of her brothers, who was a kind
1:49:09
farmer in the country, and who had been telegraphed to that these boys were
1:49:14
coming, and wished to be provided with situations where they would have a chance
1:49:18
to make honest men of themselves. End of chapter nine The Parrot Bella,
1:49:27
Chapter ten. Billy's training continued. When Billy was five months old, he
1:49:34
had his first walk in the streets. Miss Laura knew that he had been
1:49:41
well trained, so she did not hesitate to take him into the town.
1:49:45
She was not the kind of young lady to go into the street with a
1:49:49
dog that would not behave himself, and she was never willing to attract attention
1:49:56
to herself by calling out orders to any of her pets. As soon as
1:50:00
we got down the front steps, she said quietly to Billy to hill,
1:50:08
it was very hard for little playful Billy to keep close to her when he
1:50:14
saw so many new and wonderful things about him. He had gotten acquainted with
1:50:19
everything in the house and garden. But this outside world was full of things
1:50:26
he wanted to look at and smell of, and he was fairly crazy to
1:50:30
play with some of the pretty dogs he saw running about, but he did
1:50:34
just as he was told. Soon we came to a shop and miss Laura
1:50:41
went in to buy some ribbons. She said to me, stay out,
1:50:45
but Billy she took in with her. I watched them through the glass door
1:50:50
and saw her go to a counter and sit down. Billy stood behind her
1:50:56
till she said, lie down, and then he curled himself at her feet.
1:51:02
He lay quietly even when she left him and went to another counter,
1:51:08
but he eyed her very anxiously till she came back and said up to him.
1:51:14
Then he sprang up and followed her out to the street. She stood
1:51:18
in the shop door and looked lovingly down on us as we fawned on her
1:51:25
good dogs. She said softly, you shall have a present. We went
1:51:30
behind her again, and she took us to a shop where we both lay
1:51:34
beside the counter. When we heard her ask the clerk for solid rubber balls
1:51:40
we could scarcely keep steal. We both knew what ball meant. Taking the
1:51:45
parcel in her hand. She came out into the street. She did not
1:51:50
do any more shopping, but turned her face toward the sea. She was
1:51:55
going to give us a nice walk along the beach. Although it was a
1:52:00
dark, disagreeable, cloudy day, when most young ladies would have stayed in
1:52:04
the house, the Morris children never minded the weather. Even in the pouring
1:52:11
rain. The boys would put on rubber boots and coats and go out and
1:52:15
play. Miss Laura walked along the high wind, blowing her cloak and dress
1:52:20
about, and when we got past the houses, she had a little run
1:52:25
with us. We jumped and frisked and barked till we were tired, and
1:52:30
then we walked quietly along. A little distance ahead of us were some boys
1:52:38
throwing sticks in the water for two Newfoundland dogs. Suddenly a quarrel sprang up
1:52:44
between the dogs. They were both powerful creatures and fairly matched as regarded sighs.
1:52:50
It was terrible to hear their fears growling, and to see the way
1:52:57
in which they tore at each other's throats. I looked at Miss Laura.
1:53:01
If she had said a word, I would have run in and helped the
1:53:04
dog that was getting the worst of it, but she told me to keep
1:53:09
back and ran on herself. The boys were throwing water on the dogs and
1:53:15
pulling their tails and hurling stones at them, but they could not separate them.
1:53:20
Their heads seemed to be locked together, and they went back and forth
1:53:25
over the stones, the boys crowding round them, shouting and beating and kicking
1:53:30
at them. Stand back, boys, said Miss Laura, I'll stop them.
1:53:36
She pulled a little parcel from a purse, bent over the dogs,
1:53:42
scattered a powder on their noses, and the next instant the dogs were yards
1:53:47
apart, nearly sneezing their head off. I say, missus, what'd you
1:53:53
do? What's that stuff? Woo, it's pepper, the boys exclaimed.
1:54:00
Laura sat down on a flat rock and looked at them with a beery,
1:54:03
pale face. Oh, boys, she said, why did you make these
1:54:09
dogs fight? It's so cruel. They were playing happily till you set them
1:54:15
on each other. Just see how they have torn their handsome coats, and
1:54:18
how the blood is dripping from them. Tain't my fault, said one of
1:54:24
the lads, sullenly. Jim Jones there said his dog could lick my dog,
1:54:28
And I said he couldn't, and he couldn't neither. Yes he could,
1:54:32
cried the other boy. And if you say he couldn't, I'll smash
1:54:38
your head. The two boys began sidling up to each other with clenched fists,
1:54:45
and the third boy, who had a mischievous face, seized the paper
1:54:48
that had the pepper in it, and, running up to them, shook
1:54:51
it in their faces. There was enough left to put all thoughts of fighting
1:54:57
out of their heads. They begin to cough and choke and splutter, and
1:55:02
finally found themselves beside the dogs, where the four of them had a lively
1:55:08
time. The other boys yelled with the light, pointing their fingers at them,
1:55:14
a sneezing concert. Thank you, gentlemen, uncore, uncore. Miss
1:55:20
Laura laughed too, she could not help it, and even Billy and I
1:55:26
curled up our lips. After a while, they sobered down, and then,
1:55:30
finding that the boys hadding a handkerchief between them, Miss Laura took her
1:55:35
own soft one, and, dipping it in a spring of fresh water nearby,
1:55:41
wiped the red eyes of the sneezers. Their ill humor had gone,
1:55:46
and when she turned to leave them and said, coaxingly, you won't make
1:55:51
these dogs fight anymore, will you? They said, no, Sirvey Bob.
1:55:58
Miss Laura went slowly home, and ever afterward when she met any of
1:56:02
those boys they called her Miss Pepper. When we got home, we found
1:56:09
Willie curled up by the window in the hall reading a book. He was
1:56:14
too fond of reading, and his mother often told him to put away his
1:56:18
book and run about with the other boys. This afternoon, Miss Laura laid
1:56:25
her hand on his shoulder and said, I was going to give the dogs
1:56:29
a little game of ball, but I'm rather tired. Gimmin in spinach,
1:56:34
he replied, shaking off her hand. You're always tired. She sat down
1:56:41
in a hall chair and looked at him. Then she began to tell him
1:56:45
about the dog fight. He was much interested, and the book slipped to
1:56:50
the floor. When she finished, he said, you're a daisy every day.
1:56:57
Go now and rest yourself. Snatching the balls from her, he called
1:57:02
us and ran down to the basement, but he was not quick enough though
1:57:08
to escape her arm. She caught him to her and kissed him repeatedly.
1:57:14
He was the baby and the pet of the family, and he loved her
1:57:17
dearly. Though he spoke impatiently to her oftener than either of the other boys.
1:57:25
We had a grand game with Willie. Miss Laura had trained us to
1:57:30
do all kinds of things with the balls, jumping for them, playing hide
1:57:34
and seek, and catching them. Billy could do more things than I could.
1:57:40
One thing he did, which I thought was very clever, he played
1:57:45
ball by himself. He was so crazy about ball play that he never could
1:57:49
get enough of it. Miss Laura played all she could with him, but
1:57:55
she had to help her mother with the sewing and the housework, and do
1:57:59
her less with her father, for she was only seventeen years old and had
1:58:03
not left off studying. So Billy would take the ball and go off by
1:58:08
himself. Sometimes he rolled it over the floor, and sometimes he threw it
1:58:14
in the air and pushed it through the staircase railings to the hall below.
1:58:18
He always listened till he heard it drop, and then he ran down and
1:58:24
brought it back and pushed it through again. He did this till he was
1:58:29
tired, and then he brought the ball and laid it at Miss Laura's feet.
1:58:33
We both had been taught a number of tricks. We could sneeze and
1:58:38
cough and be dead dogs and say our prayers, and stand on our heads
1:58:43
and mount a ladder and say the alphabet. This was the hardest of all,
1:58:47
and it took Miss Laura a long time to teach us. We never
1:58:51
began till a book was laid before us. Then we stared at it,
1:58:58
and Miss Laura said, begin, Joe and Billy say a for a We
1:59:04
gave a little squeal. B was louder. C was louder. Still.
1:59:11
We barked for some letters and growled for others. We always turned a somersault
1:59:16
for s. When we got to Z. We gave the book a push
1:59:21
and had a frolic around the room. When anyone came in and Miss Laura
1:59:27
had us show off any of our tricks, the remark always was, what
1:59:31
clever dogs. They are not like other dogs. That was a mistake.
1:59:39
Billy and I were not any brighter than many a miserable cur that skulped about
1:59:45
the streets of Fairport. It was kindness and patience that did it all.
1:59:49
When I was with Jenkins, he thought I was a very stupid dog.
1:59:54
He would have laughed at the idea of anyone teaching me anything. But I
2:00:00
was only sullen and obstinate because I was kicked about so much. If he
2:00:05
had been kind to me, I would have done anything for him. I
2:00:11
loved to wait on miss Laura and Missus Morris, and they taught both Billy
2:00:15
and me to make ourselves useful about the house. Missus Morris didn't like going
2:00:21
up and down the three long staircases, and sometimes we just raced up and
2:00:27
down waiting on her. How often I have heard her go into the hall
2:00:31
and say, please send me down a clean duster. Laura, Joe,
2:00:36
you go get it. I would run gaily up the steps, and then
2:00:42
would come Billy's turn. Billy, I'd forgotten my keys, go get them.
2:00:47
After a time, we began to know the names of different articles and
2:00:51
where they were kept, and could get them ourselves. On sweeping days,
2:00:57
we worked very hard and enjoyed the fun. If Missus Morris was too far
2:01:01
away to call Mary for what she wanted, she wrote the name on a
2:01:05
piece of paper and told us to take it to her. Billy always took
2:01:11
the letters from the postman and carried the morning paper up to mister Morris's study.
2:01:16
And I always put away the clean clothes after they were mended. Missus
2:01:21
Morris folded each article and gave it to me, mentioning the name of the
2:01:27
owner, so that I could lay it on his bed. There was no
2:01:30
need for her to tell me the names. I knew by the smell.
2:01:34
All human beings have a strong smell to a dog, even though they mayn't
2:01:40
notice it themselves. Missus Morris never knew how she bothered me by giving away
2:01:45
Miss Laura's clothes to poor people. Once I followed her track all through the
2:01:51
town, and at last found it was only a pair of her boot on
2:01:56
a ragged child in the gutter. I must say a word about Billy's tail
2:02:00
before I close this chapter. It is the custom to cut off the ends
2:02:05
of fox terrier's tails, but leave their ears untouched. Billy came to Miss
2:02:11
Laura so young that his tail had not been cut off, and she would
2:02:15
not have it done. One day, mister Robinson came in to see him,
2:02:20
and he said, you have made a fine looking dog of him,
2:02:24
but his appearance is ruined by the length of his tail. Mister Robinson said,
2:02:30
Missus Morris, patting little Billy who lay on her lap, don't you
2:02:33
think this little dog has a beautifully proportioned body. Yes, I do,
2:02:39
said the gentleman. His points are all correct save that one. But she
2:02:45
said, if our creator made that beautiful little body, don't you think he
2:02:50
is wise enough to know what length of tail would be in proportion to it.
2:02:56
Mister Robinson would not answer her. He only like and said that he
2:03:00
thought she and Miss Laura were both cranks. End of Chapter ten. Billy's
2:03:08
training continued Chapter eleven. Goldfish and Canaries. The Morris boys were all different.
2:03:17
Jack was bright and clever, Ned was a wag, Willie was a
2:03:21
bookworm, and Carl was a born trader. He was always exchanging toys and
2:03:28
books with his schoolmates, and they never got the better of him in a
2:03:32
bargain. He said that when he grew up he was going to be a
2:03:38
merchant, and he had already begun to carry on a trade in canaries and
2:03:42
goldfish. He was very fond of what he called his yellow pets, yet
2:03:48
he never kept a pair of birds or goldfish if he had a good offer
2:03:53
for them. He slept alone in a large sunny room at the top of
2:03:58
the house. By his request, It was barely furnished, and there he
2:04:03
raised his canaries and kept his goldfish. He was not fond of having visitors
2:04:10
come to his room because he said they frightened the canaries. After missus Morris
2:04:15
made his bed in the morning, the door was closed and no one was
2:04:19
supposed to go in till he came from school. Once, Billy and I
2:04:25
followed him upstairs without his knowing it, but as soon as he saw us
2:04:30
he sent us down in a great hurry. One day, Bella walked into
2:04:35
his room to inspect the canaries. She was quite a spoiled bird by this
2:04:41
time, and I heard Carl telling the family afterward that it was as good
2:04:45
as a play to see Miss Bella strutting in with her breath stuck out in
2:04:50
her little conceited air, and hear her say, shrilly, good morning,
2:04:56
birds, good morning, how do you do Carl glad to you boy?
2:05:00
Well, I'm not glad to see you, he said decidedly, And don't
2:05:05
you ever come up here again. You've frightened my canaries to death, and
2:05:10
he sent her flying downstairs. How cross she was. She came shrieking to
2:05:15
Miss Laura. Bella loves birds. Bella wouldn't hurt birds. Carl's a bad
2:05:20
boy. Miss Laura petted and soothes her, telling her to go find Davy
2:05:27
and he would play with her. Bella and the rat were great friends.
2:05:31
It was very funny to see them going about the house together. From the
2:05:36
very first, she had liked him and coaxed him into her cage, where
2:05:42
he soon became quite at home, so much so that he always slept there
2:05:48
about nine o'clock every evening. If he was not with her, she went
2:05:53
all over the house crying Davy. Davy came to go to bed, come
2:05:59
sleep, and Bella cake. He was very fond of the nice sweet cakes
2:06:03
she got to eat, but she never could get him to eat coffee grounds,
2:06:08
the food she liked best. Miss Laura spoke to Karl about Bella and
2:06:14
told him he had hurt her feelings, so he petted her a little to
2:06:17
make up for it. Then his mother told him that she thought he was
2:06:24
making a mistake and keeping his canaries so much to themselves. They had become
2:06:29
so timid that when she went into the room, they were uneasy till she
2:06:34
left it. She told him that petted birds or animals are sociable and like
2:06:40
company unless they are kept by themselves. When they become shy. She advised
2:06:45
him to let the other boys go into the room and occasionally to bring some
2:06:50
of his pretty singers downstairs, where all the family could enjoy seeing and hearing
2:06:56
them, and where they would get used to other people besides himself. Carl
2:07:01
looked thoughtful, and his mother went on to say that there was no one
2:07:05
in the house, not even the cat, that would harm his birds.
2:07:11
You might even charge admission for a day or two, said Jack gravely,
2:07:15
and introduce us to them and make a little money. Carl was rather annoyed
2:07:20
at this, but his mother calmed him by showing him a letter she had
2:07:26
just gotten from one of her brothers asking her to let one of her boys
2:07:30
spend his Christmas holidays in the country with him. I want you to go,
2:07:34
Carl, she said. He was very much pleased, but looked sober
2:07:41
when he thought of his pets. Laura and I will take care of them,
2:07:45
said his mother, and start the new management of them very well,
2:07:51
said Carl. I will go. Then. I've got no young ones now,
2:07:56
so you will not find them much trouble. I thought it was a
2:08:00
great deal of trouble to take care of them. The first morning after Carl
2:08:05
left. Billy and Bella and Davy and I followed Miss Laura upstairs. She
2:08:11
made us sit in a row by the door, lest we should startle the
2:08:15
canaries. She had a great many things to do. First, the canaries
2:08:20
had their baths. They had to get them at the same time every morning.
2:08:24
Miss Laura filled the white dishes with water and put them in the cages,
2:08:30
and then came and sat on a stool by the door. Bella and
2:08:35
Billy and Davy climbed into her lap, and I stood close by her.
2:08:39
It was so funny to watch those canaries. They put their heads on one
2:08:45
side and looked first at their little baths, and then at us. They
2:08:50
knew we were strangers. Finally, as we were all very quiet, they
2:08:54
got into the water, and what a good time they had, fluttering their
2:09:00
and splashing and cleaning themselves so nicely. Then they got up on their perches
2:09:07
and sightened the sun, shaking themselves and picking out their feathers. Miss Laura
2:09:13
cleaned each cage and gave each bird some mixed raping canary seed. I heard
2:09:18
Carl tell her before he left not to give them much hemp seed, for
2:09:24
that was too fattening. He was very careful about their food during the summer.
2:09:28
I had often seen him take up nice green things to them celery,
2:09:33
chickweed, tender cabbage, peaches, apples, pears, bananas, and now
2:09:39
at Christmas time he had green stuff growing in pots on the window ledge.
2:09:46
Besides that, he gave them crumbs of coarse bread, crackers, lumps of
2:09:50
sugar, cuttlefish to peck at, and a number of other things. Miss
2:09:56
Laura did everything just as he told her, but I I think she talked
2:10:01
to the birds more than he did. She was very particular about their drinking
2:10:05
water and washed out the little glass cups that held it most carefully. After
2:10:09
the canaries were clean and comfortable, Miss Laura sat their cages in the sun
2:10:15
and turned to the goldfish. They were in large glass globes on the window
2:10:20
seat. She took a long handled tin cup and dipped out the fish from
2:10:24
one into a basin of water. Then she washed the globe thoroughly and put
2:10:31
the fish back and scattered wafers of fish food on the top. The fish
2:10:35
came up and snapped at it and acted as if they were glad to get
2:10:39
it. She did each globe, and then her work was over for one
2:10:43
morning. She went away for a while, but every few hours through the
2:10:48
day she ran up to Carl's room to see how the fish and canaries were
2:10:52
getting on. If the room was too chilly, she turned on more heat,
2:10:56
but she didn't keep it too warm, for that would make the bird
2:11:00
tender. After a time, the canaries got to know her and hopped gaily
2:11:05
around their cages and chirped and sang whenever they saw her coming. Then she
2:11:11
began to take some of them downstairs and let them out of their cages for
2:11:16
an hour or two every day. They were very happy little creatures and chased
2:11:20
each other about the room and flew on Miss Laura's head and pecked saucily at
2:11:26
her face as she sat sewing and watching them. They were not at all
2:11:31
afraid of me, nor of Billy, and it was quite a sight to
2:11:35
see them hopping up to Bella. She looked so large beside them. One
2:11:41
little bird became ill while Carl was away, and Miss Laura had to give
2:11:46
it a great deal of attention. She gave it plenty of hemp seed to
2:11:50
make it fat, and very often the yolk of a hard boiled egg,
2:11:56
and kept a nail in its drinking water, and gave it a few drops
2:12:00
of alcohol in its bath every morning to keep it from taking cold. The
2:12:05
moment the bird finished taking its bath, Miss Laura took the dish from the
2:12:09
cage, for the alcohol made the water poisonous. Then vermin came on it,
2:12:15
and she had to write Carl and ask him what to do. He
2:12:18
told her to hang a muslin bag full of sulfur over the swing so that
2:12:24
the bird would dust it down on her feathers. That cured the little thing,
2:12:30
and when Carl came home he found it quite well again. One day,
2:12:35
just after he got back, Missus Montaigue drove up to the house with
2:12:39
a canary cage carefully done up in a shawl. She said that a bad
2:12:45
tempered housemaid in cleaning the cage that morning, had gotten angry with the bird
2:12:50
and struck it, breaking its leg. She was very much annoyed with the
2:12:56
girl for her cruelty, and had dismissed her, and now she wanted Carl
2:13:00
to take the bird and nurse it, as she knew nothing about canaries.
2:13:05
Carl had just come in from school. He threw down his books, took
2:13:09
the shawl from the cage and looked in. The poor little canary was sitting
2:13:15
in a corner. Its eyes were half shut, one leg hung loose,
2:13:20
and it was making faint chirps of distress. Carl was very much interested in
2:13:26
it. He got Miss Montague to help him, and together they split matches,
2:13:31
tore up strips of muslin, and bandaged the broken leg. He put
2:13:37
the little bird back in the cage, and it seemed more comfortable. I
2:13:41
think he will do now, he said to Miss Montague. But hadn't you
2:13:45
better leave him with me for a few days. She gladly agreed to this
2:13:50
and went away, after telling him that the bird's name was Dick. The
2:13:54
next morning, at the breakfast table, I heard Carl telling his mother that
2:13:58
it soon as he woke up, he sprang out of bed to see how
2:14:03
his canary was. During the night, poor foolish Dick had picked off the
2:14:07
splints from his leg, and now it was as bad as ever. I
2:14:13
shall have to perform a surgical operation, he said. I did not know
2:14:18
what he meant, so I watched him when after breakfast he brought the bird
2:14:22
down to his mother's room. She held it while he took a pair of
2:14:26
sharp scissors and cut its leg right off a little way above the broken place.
2:14:33
Then he put some basoline on the tiny stump, bounded up, and
2:14:37
left Dick in his mother's care. All the morning she sat sewing. She
2:14:43
watched him to see that he did not pick the bandage away. When Carl
2:14:48
came home, Dick was so much better that he had managed to fly up
2:14:52
on his perch and was eating seeds quite gaily. Poor Dick, said Carl.
2:15:00
Lag and a stump. Dick imitated him with a few little chirps.
2:15:05
A leg and a stump. Why he is saying it, too, exclaimed
2:15:09
Carl, and burst out laughing. Dick seemed cheerful enough, but it was
2:15:15
very pitiful to see him dragging his poor little stump around the cage and resting
2:15:20
it against the perch to keep him from falling. When missus Montague came the
2:15:24
next day, she could not bear to look at him. Oh dear,
2:15:30
she exclaimed, I cannot take that disfigured bird home. I could not help
2:15:37
thinking how different she was from Miss Laura, who loved any creature all the
2:15:41
more for having some blemish about it. What shall I do, said Miss
2:15:46
Montague? I miss my little bird so much, I shall have to get
2:15:52
a new one. Carl, will you sell me one? I will give
2:15:56
you one, Missus Montague, said the boy eagerly. I would like to
2:16:01
do so. Missus Morris looked pleased to hear Carl say this. She used
2:16:07
to fear sometimes that in his love for making money, he would become selfish.
2:16:13
Missus Montague was very kind to the Morris family, and Carl seemed quite
2:16:18
pleased to do her a favor. He took her up to his room and
2:16:22
let her choose the bird she liked best. She took a handsome yellow one
2:16:26
called Berry. He was a good singer and a great favorite of Carl's.
2:16:33
The boy putting him in the cage, wrapped it up well, for it
2:16:35
was a cold, snowy day, and carried it out to Missus Montague's sleigh.
2:16:43
She gave him a pleasant smile and drove away, and Carl ran up
2:16:48
the steps into the house. It's all right, mother, he said,
2:16:52
giving Missus Morris a hearty, boyish kiss as she stood waiting for him.
2:16:56
I don't mind letting her have it. But you expected to sell that one,
2:17:01
didn't you, she asked. Missus Smith said maybe she'd take it when
2:17:05
she came home from Boston, but I dare say she'd changed her mind and
2:17:09
get one there. How much were you going to ask for him? Well,
2:17:15
I wouldn't sell Berry for less than ten dollars, or rather I wouldn't
2:17:20
have sold him, and he ran out to the stable. Missus Morris sat
2:17:26
on the hall chair, patting me as I rubbed against her in a rather
2:17:30
absent minded way. Then she got up and went into her husband's study and
2:17:35
told him what Carl had done. Mister Morris seemed very pleased to hear about
2:17:41
it, but when his wife asked him to do something to make up the
2:17:43
loss to the boy, he said, I'd rather not do that. To
2:17:48
encourage a child to do a kind action and then to reward him, for
2:17:52
it is not always a sound principle to go upon. But Carl did not
2:17:58
go without his reward. Lord. That evening, Missus Montague's coachman brought a
2:18:03
note to the house addressed to mister Carl Morris. He read it aloud to
2:18:07
the family, My dear Carl, I am charmed with my little bird,
2:18:13
and he has whispered to me one of the secrets of your room. You
2:18:16
want fifteen dollars very much to buy something for it. I'm sure you won't
2:18:22
be offended with an old friend for supplying you the means to get this something.
2:18:28
Adam Montaigue, just the thing for my stationary tank for the goldfish,
2:18:33
exclaimed Carl. I've wanted it for a long time. It isn't good to
2:18:39
keep them in globes. But how in the world did she find out?
2:18:43
I've never told anyone. Missus Morris smiled and said Perry must have told her.
2:18:50
As she took the money from Carl and put it away for him.
2:18:54
Missus Montague got to be very fond of her new pet. She took take
2:19:00
care of him herself, and I have heard her tell Missus Morris the most
2:19:03
wonderful stories about him, stories so wonderful that I should say they were not
2:19:09
true if I did not know how intelligent dumb creatures get to be under this
2:19:15
kind of treatment. She only kept him in his cage at night, and
2:19:18
when she began looking for him at bedtime to put him there, he always
2:19:22
hid himself. She would search a short time and then sit down, and
2:19:28
he always came out of his hiding place, chirping in a saucy way to
2:19:31
make her look at him. She said he seemed to take the light in
2:19:35
teasing her. Once, when he was in the drawing room with her,
2:19:39
she was called away to speak to someone at the telephone. When she came
2:19:45
back, she found that one of her servants had come into the room and
2:19:48
left the door open, leading to a verandah. The trees outside were full
2:19:54
of yellow birds, and she was in despair, thinking that Barry had flown
2:19:58
out with the She looked out, but could not see him then, lest
2:20:05
he had not left the room, She got a chair and carried it about,
2:20:09
standing on it to examine the walls and see if Barry was hidden among
2:20:13
the pictures in brick of brack, But there was no Berry there. She
2:20:18
at last sank down, exhausted on a sofa. She heard a wicked little
2:20:24
peep, and looking up, saw Berry sitting on one of the rounds of
2:20:28
the chair that she had been carrying about to look for him. He had
2:20:33
been there all the time. She was so glad to see him that she
2:20:37
never thought of scolding him. He was never allowed to fly about the dining
2:20:43
room during meals, and the table maid drove him out before she set the
2:20:48
table. It always annoyed him, and he perched on the staircase, watching
2:20:52
the door through the railings. If it was left open for an instant.
2:20:58
He flew in evening before tea. He did this, there was a chocolate
2:21:03
cake on the sideboard, and he liked the look of it so much that
2:21:07
he began to peck at it. Missus Montague happened to come in and drove
2:21:13
him back to the hall. While she was having tea that evening with her
2:21:16
husband and little boy, Barry flew into the room again. Missus Montague told
2:21:22
Charlie to send him out, but her husband said, wait, he's looking
2:21:26
for something. He was on the sideboard peering into every dish and trying to
2:21:33
look under the covers. He is after the chocolate cake, exclaimed Missus Montague.
2:21:39
Here Charlie put this on these stadcakes for him. She cut off a
2:21:43
little scrap, and when Charlie took it to the hall, Barry flew after
2:21:48
him and ate it up. As for poor little Lane Dick, carl never
2:21:54
sold him, and he became a family pet. His cage hung in the
2:21:58
parlor, and from morning till night, his cheerful voice was heard chirping and
2:22:03
singing as if he had not a trouble in the world. They took great
2:22:07
care of him. He was never allowed to be too hot or too cold.
2:22:13
Everybody gave him a cheerful word in passing his cage, and if his
2:22:16
singing was too loud, they gave him a little mirror to look at himself
2:22:20
in. He loved this mirror and often stood before it for an hour at
2:22:26
a time. End of Chapter eleven, Goldfish and Canaries. Chapter twelve,
2:22:35
Malta the Cat. The first time I had a good look at the Morris
2:22:41
cat, I thought she was the queerest looking animal I had ever seen.
2:22:48
She was dark gray, just the color of a mouse. Her eyes were
2:22:52
a yellowish green, and for the first few days I was at the Morrises,
2:22:58
they looked very unkindly at me. Then she got over her dislike and
2:23:05
we became very good friends. She was a beautiful cat, and so gentle
2:23:11
and affectionate that the whole family loved her. She was three years old,
2:23:16
and she had come to Fairport in a vessel with some sailors who had gotten
2:23:20
her in a far away place. Her name was Malta, and she was
2:23:24
called a Maltese cat. I have seen a great many cats, but I
2:23:31
never saw one as kind as Malta. Once she had some little kittens and
2:23:37
they all died. It almost broke her heart. She cried and cried about
2:23:43
the house till it made one feel so sad to hear her. Then she
2:23:48
ran away to the woods. She came back with a little squirrel in her
2:23:54
mouth and putting it in her basket. She nursed it like a mother till
2:23:58
it grew old enough to run away from her. She was a very knowing
2:24:03
cat and always came when she was called. Miss Laura used to wear a
2:24:09
little silver whistle that she blew when she wanted any of her pets. It
2:24:13
was a shrill whistle, and we could hear it a long way from home.
2:24:18
I have seen her standing at the back door whistling for Malta, and
2:24:22
the pretty creature's head would appear somewhere, always high up, for she was
2:24:28
a great climber, and she would come running along the top of the fence
2:24:31
saying yeah, yeall in a funny short way. Miss Laura would pet her,
2:24:39
or give her something to eat, or walk around the garden carrying her
2:24:43
on her shoulder. Malta was a most affectionate cat, and if Miss Laura
2:24:48
would not let her lick her face, she licked her hair with her little
2:24:52
rough tongue. Often Malta lay by the fire licking my coat or little Billy
2:25:00
to show her affection for us. Mary the cook was very fond of cats
2:25:05
and used to keep Malta in the kitchen as much as she could, but
2:25:09
nothing would make her stay down there if there was any music going on upstairs.
2:25:16
The Morris Pets were all fond of music. As soon as Miss Laura
2:25:20
sat down to the piano to sing or play, we came from all parts
2:25:26
of the house. Malta cried to get upstairs. Davy skimfer through the hall,
2:25:33
and Bella hurried after him. If I was outdoors, I ran in
2:25:37
the house, and Jim got on a box and looked through the window.
2:25:43
Davy's place was on Miss Laura's shoulder, his pink nose running the curls at
2:25:48
the back of her neck. I sat under the piano beside Malta and Bella,
2:25:54
and we never stirred till the music was over. Then we went quietly
2:25:58
away. Malta was a beautiful cat, there was no doubt about it.
2:26:05
While I was with Jenkins. I thought cats were vermin like rats, and
2:26:09
I chased them every chance I got. Missus Jenkins had a cat, a
2:26:16
gaunt, long legged yellow creature that ran whenever we looked at it. Malta
2:26:22
had been so kindly treated that she never ran from anyone, except from strange
2:26:28
dogs. She knew they would be likely to hurt her if they came upon
2:26:33
her. Suddenly she faced them, and she was a pretty good fighter when
2:26:37
she was put to it. I once saw her having a brush with a
2:26:41
big mastiff that lived a few blocks from us, and giving him a good
2:26:46
fright, which just served him right. I was shut up in the parlor.
2:26:52
Someone had closed the door and I could not get out. I was
2:26:56
watching Malta from the window as she dately picked her way across the muddy street.
2:27:03
She was such a soft, pretty amiable looking cat. She didn't look
2:27:07
that way, though. When the mastiff rushed out of the alleyway at her,
2:27:13
she sprang back and glared at him like a little fierce tiger. Her
2:27:18
tail was enormous, her eyes were like balls of fire, and she was
2:27:24
spitting and snarling, as if to say, if you touch me, I'll
2:27:28
tear you to pieces. The dog, big as he was, did not
2:27:33
dare attack her. He walked around and around like a great clumsy elephant,
2:27:39
and she turned her small body as he turned his, and kept up a
2:27:45
dreadful hissing and spitting. Suddenly I saw a Spitt's dog hurrying down the street.
2:27:52
He was going to help the mastif, and Malta would be badly hurt.
2:27:56
I had barked and no one had come to let me out, so
2:28:01
I sprang through the window. Just then there was a change. Malta had
2:28:07
seen the second dog, and she knew she must get rid of the mastiff.
2:28:11
With an agile bound. She sprang on his back, dug her sharp
2:28:16
claws in till he put his tail between his legs and ran up the street,
2:28:22
howling with pain. She rode a little way, then sprang off and
2:28:26
ran up the lane to the stable. I was very angry and wanted to
2:28:31
fight something, so I pitched into the spitz dog. He was a snarly,
2:28:37
cross grained creature, no friend to gem and me, and he would
2:28:43
have been only too glad of a chance to help kill Malta. I gave
2:28:48
him one of the worst beatings he had ever had. I don't suppose it
2:28:52
was quite right for me to do it, for Miss Laura says dogs should
2:28:56
never fight. But he had worried Malta before, and he had no business
2:29:03
to do it. She belonged to our family. Jim and I never worried
2:29:09
his cat. I had been longing to give him a shaking for some time,
2:29:13
and now I felt for his throat through his thick hair and dragged him
2:29:18
all around the street. Then I let him go, and he was a
2:29:22
civil dog ever Afterward. Malta was very grateful and licked the little place where
2:29:28
the spits had bit me. I did not get scolded for the broken window.
2:29:33
Mary had seen me from the kitchen window and told Missus Morris that I
2:29:39
had gone to help Malta. Malta was a very wise cat. She knew
2:29:45
quite well that she must not harm the parrot or the canaries, and she
2:29:50
never tried to catch them, even though she was left alone in the room
2:29:54
with them. I have seen her lying in the sun, blinking sleepily,
2:30:00
listening with great pleasure to Dick singing. Miss Laura even taught her not to
2:30:05
hunt the birds outside. For a long time, she had tried to get
2:30:11
it into Malta's head that it was a cruel thing to catch the little sparrows
2:30:16
that came about the door, and just after I came, she succeeded in
2:30:20
doing so. Malta was so fond of Miss Laura that whenever she caught a
2:30:26
bird, she came and laid it at her feet. Miss Laura always picked
2:30:31
up the little dead creature, pitied it, and stroked it, and scolded
2:30:37
Malta till she crept into a corner. Then Miss Laura put the bird on
2:30:41
the limb of a tree, and Malta watched her attentively from her corner.
2:30:48
One day, Miss Laura stood at the window looking out into the garden.
2:30:52
Malta was lying on the platform, staring at the sparrows that were picking up
2:30:58
crumbs from the ground. She trembled and half roze every few minutes, as
2:31:03
if to go after them. Then she lay down again. She was trying
2:31:09
very hard not to creep on them. Presently, a neighbor's cat came stealing
2:31:13
along the fence, keeping one eye on Malta and the other on the sparrows.
2:31:20
Malta was so angry she sprang up and chased her away, and then
2:31:26
came back to the platform, where she lay down again and waited for the
2:31:31
sparrows to come back. For a long time she stayed there and never once
2:31:35
tried to catch them. Miss Laura was so pleased she went to the door
2:31:41
and said softly, come here. Malta. The cat put up her tail,
2:31:48
and, meowing gently, came into the house. Miss Laura took her
2:31:52
up in her arms, and, going down to the kitchen, asked Mary
2:31:58
to give her a saucer of her feary sweetest milk for the best cat in
2:32:03
the United States of America. Malta got great praise for this, and I
2:32:09
never knew of her catching a bird afterward. She was well fed in the
2:32:13
house and had no need to hurt such harmless creatures. She was very fond
2:32:20
of her home and never went far away, as Jem and I did.
2:32:24
Once, when Willie was going to spend a few weeks with a little friend
2:32:28
who lived fifty miles from Fairport, he took it into his head that Malta
2:32:33
should go with him. His mother told him that cats did not like to
2:32:37
go away from home, but he said he would be good to her and
2:32:41
begged so hard to take her that at last his mother consented. He had
2:32:48
been a few days in this place when he wrote home to say that Malta
2:32:52
had run away. She had seemed very unhappy, and though he had kept
2:32:58
her with him all the time, she acted as if she wanted to get
2:33:01
away. When the letter was read to mister Morris, he said, Malta
2:33:07
is on her way home. Cats have a wonderful cleverness in finding their way
2:33:11
to their own dwelling. She will be very tired. Let us go out
2:33:16
and meet her. Willie had gone to this place and a coach. Mister
2:33:20
Morris got a buggy and took Miss Laura and me with him, and we
2:33:24
started out. We went slowly along the road. Every little while Miss Laura
2:33:31
blew her whistle and called Malta, Malta, and I barked as loudly as
2:33:37
I could. Mister Morris drove for several hours. Then we stopped at a
2:33:43
house, had dinner, and then set out again. We were going through
2:33:48
a thick wood where there was a pretty straight road when I saw a small
2:33:52
dark creature away ahead, triting toward us. It was Malta. I gave
2:34:00
a joyful bark, but she did not know me, and plunged into the
2:34:05
wood. I ran in after her, barking and yelping, and Miss Laura
2:34:11
blew her whistle as loudly as she could. Soon there was a little gray
2:34:16
head peeping at us from the bushes, and Malta found it out, gave
2:34:22
me a look of surprise, and then leaped into the buggy on Miss Laura's
2:34:26
lap. What a happy cat she was. She furreed with the light and
2:34:33
lit Miss Laura's gloves over and over again. Then she ate the food they
2:34:39
had brought and went sound asleep. She was very thining, and for several
2:34:45
days after getting home she slept most of the time. Malta did not like
2:34:50
dogs, but she was very good to cats. One day, when there
2:34:56
was no one about and the garden was very quiet, I saw her go
2:35:00
stealing into the stable and come out again, followed by a sore eyed,
2:35:05
starved looking cat that had been deserted by some people that lived in the next
2:35:09
street. She led this cat up to her catnip bed and watched her kindly
2:35:16
while she rolled and rubbed herself in it. Then Malta had a roll in
2:35:20
it herself, and they both went back to the stable. Catnip is a
2:35:26
favorite plant with cats, and Miss Laura always kept some of it growing for
2:35:31
Malta. For a long time, this sick cat had a home in the
2:35:35
stable. Malta carried her food every day, and after a time Miss Laura
2:35:41
found out about her and did what she could to make her well. In
2:35:45
time, she got to be a strong, sturdy looking cat, and Miss
2:35:50
Laura got a home for her. With an invalid lady. It was nothing
2:35:54
new for the Morrises to feed deserted cats. Some summers, Missus Morris said
2:36:01
she had a dozen to take care of. Careless and cruel people would go
2:36:05
away for the summer, shutting up their houses and making no provision for the
2:36:09
poor cats that had been allowed to sit snugly by the fire all winter.
2:36:16
At last, Missus Morris got into the habit of putting a little notice in
2:36:20
the fairprit paper asking people who were going away for the summer to provide for
2:36:26
their cats during their absence. End of Chapter twelve, Malta the Cat.
2:36:33
Chapter thirteen, The beginning of an Adventure. The first winter I was at
2:36:41
the Morris's, I had an adventure. It was a week before Christmas and
2:36:46
we were having cold, frosty weather, not much snow had fallen, but
2:36:52
there was plenty of skating, and the boys were off every day with their
2:36:56
skates on a little lake near Fair. Jim and I often went with them,
2:37:03
and we had great fun scampering over the ice after them and slipping at
2:37:07
every step. On this Saturday night, we had just gotten home. It
2:37:13
was quite dark outside and there was a cold wind blowing, so when we
2:37:20
came in the front door and saw the red light from the big hall stove
2:37:24
and the blazing fire in the parlor, they looked very cheerful. I was
2:37:31
quite sorry for Jim that he had to go to his kennel. However,
2:37:35
he didn't mind. The boys got a plate of nice warm meat for him
2:37:41
and a bowl of milk and carried them out, and afterwards he went to
2:37:46
sleep. Jim's kennel was a very snug one. Being a spaniel, he
2:37:52
was not a very large dog, but his kennel was as roomy as if
2:37:56
he was a great dane. He told me that mister Morris and the boys
2:38:03
made it, and he liked it very much because it was large enough for
2:38:07
him to get up in the night and stretch himself when he got tired of
2:38:11
lying in one position. It was raised a little from the ground, and
2:38:16
it had a thick layer of straw over the floor. Above was a broad
2:38:22
shelf, wide enough for him to lie on, and covered with an old
2:38:26
catskin sleigh robe. Jim always slept here in cold weather because it was farther
2:38:33
away from the ground to return to. This December evening, I can remember
2:38:39
yet how hungry I was. I could scarcely lie stilled till Miss Laura finished
2:38:45
her teeth. Missus Morris, knowing that her boys would be very hungry,
2:38:50
had Merry broiled some beef steak and roast some potatoes for them. And didn't
2:38:56
they smell good? They ate all the steak and potatoes. It didn't matter
2:39:03
to me, for I wouldn't have gotten any if they had been left.
2:39:07
Missus Morris could not afford to give the dogs good meat that she had gotten
2:39:13
for her children, so she used to get the butcher to send her liver
2:39:16
and bones and tough meat, and Mary cooked them and made soup and broth
2:39:22
and mixed porridge with them for us. We never got meat three times a
2:39:28
day. Miss Laura said it was all very well to feed hunting dogs on
2:39:33
meat, but dogs that are kept about a house get ill if they are
2:39:37
fed too well. So we had meat only once a day, and bread
2:39:43
and milk, porridge or dog biscuits for our other meals. I made a
2:39:50
dreadful noise when I was eating. Ever since Jenkins cut my ears off,
2:39:56
I had had trouble breathing the flaps that I kept the wind and dust from
2:40:01
the inside of my ears. Now that they were gone, my head was
2:40:05
stuffed up all the time. The cold weather made me worse, and sometimes
2:40:11
I had such trouble to get my breath that it seemed as if I would
2:40:16
choke. If I had opened my mouth and breathe through it, as I
2:40:20
have seen some people doing, I would have been more comfortable. But dogs
2:40:26
always liked to breathe through their noses. You have taken more cold, said
2:40:31
Miss Laura this night, as she put my plate of food on the floor
2:40:35
from me. Then ish your meat and then come sit by the fire with
2:40:39
me. What do you want more? I gave a little bark, so
2:40:46
she filled my plate for the second time. Miss Laura never allowed anyone to
2:40:52
meddle with us when we were eating. One day she found really teasing me
2:40:58
by snatching out a bone. I was not, Willie. She said,
2:41:03
what would you do if you were just sitting down to the table feeling very
2:41:07
hungry, and just as you begin to eat your meat and potatoes, I
2:41:09
would come along and snatch the plate from you. I don't know what i'd
2:41:15
do, he said, laughingly, but I'd want to wallop you. Well,
2:41:22
she said, I'm afraid that Joe will wallop you someday if you worry
2:41:26
him about his food. For even a gentle dog will sometimes snap at anyone
2:41:33
who disturbs him at his meals, so you had better not try his patience
2:41:37
too far. Willy never teased me after that, and I was very glad
2:41:43
for two or three times I had been tempted to snarl at him. After
2:41:46
I finished my tea, I followed Miss Laura upstairs. She took up a
2:41:52
book and sat down in a low chair, and I lay down on the
2:41:56
hearth rug beside her. Do you know, oh Joe, she said,
2:42:01
with a smile, why you scratch with your paws when you lie down,
2:42:05
as if to make yourself a hollow bed, and turn around a great many
2:42:09
times before you lie down. Of course I did not know, so I
2:42:15
only stared at her years and years ago. She went on gazing down at
2:42:20
me. There weren't any dogs living in people's houses as you are, Joe.
2:42:26
They were all wild creatures running about the woods. They always scratched among
2:42:31
the leaves to make a comfortable bed for themselves. And the habit has come
2:42:35
down to you, Joe, for you are descended from them. This sounded
2:42:43
very interesting, and I think she was going to tell me some more about
2:42:46
my wild forefathers, but just then the rest of the family came in.
2:42:52
I always thought that this was the snuggest time of the day, when the
2:42:58
family all sat around the fire, Missus Morris sewing, the boys reading or
2:43:03
studying, and mister Morris with his head buried in a newspaper, and Billy
2:43:09
and I on the floor at their feet. This evening, I was feeling
2:43:13
very drowsy and had almost dropped asleep when Ned gave me a push with his
2:43:18
foot. He was a great tease, and he delighted in getting me to
2:43:24
make a simpleton of myself. I tried to keep my eyes on the fire,
2:43:28
but I could not, and just had to turn and look at him.
2:43:33
He was holding his book up between himself and his mother and was opening
2:43:37
his mouth as wide as he could, and throwing back his head and pretending
2:43:41
to howell. For the life of me, I could not help giving a
2:43:46
loud howell. Missus Morris looked up and said, bade Joe keep still.
2:43:54
The boys were all laughing behind their books, for they knew what Ned was
2:44:00
doing. Presently he started off again, and I was just beginning another howl
2:44:07
that might have made missus Morris send me out of the room when the door
2:44:11
opened and a young girl called Bessie Drury came in. She had a cap
2:44:16
on and a shawl thrown over her shoulders, and she had just run across
2:44:22
the street from her father's house. Oh, Miss Morris, she said,
2:44:26
will you let Laura come over and stay with me tonight? Mama has just
2:44:30
gotten a telegram from Bungora seeing her aunt, missus Cole, is very ill
2:44:35
and she wants to see her, and Papa is going to take her there
2:44:39
by tonight's train, and she is afraid I will be lonely if I don't
2:44:41
have Laura. Can you not come and spend the night here, said Miss
2:44:46
Morris. No, thank you, I think Mama would rather have me stay
2:44:50
in our house. Very well, said Missus Morris, I think Laura would
2:44:56
like to go. Yes, indeed, said Laura, smiling at her friend.
2:45:03
I will come over in half an hour, Thank you so much,
2:45:07
said miss Bessie, and she hurried away. After she left, mister Morris
2:45:13
looked up from his paper. There will be someone in the house besides those
2:45:18
two girls. Oh, yes, said Missus Morris. Missus Drury has her
2:45:24
old nurse who has been with her for twenty years, and there are two
2:45:26
maids besides Anne Donald, the coachman who sleeps over at the stable. So
2:45:33
they are well protected. Very good, said mister Morris, and he went
2:45:37
back to his paper. Of course, dumb animals do not understand all they
2:45:43
here spoken of, But I think human beings would be astonished if they knew
2:45:48
how much we can gather from their looks and voices. I knew that mister
2:45:52
Morris did not quite like the idea of having his daughter go to the drearies
2:45:58
when the master and mistress of the house were away, so I made up
2:46:03
my mind that I would go with her. When she came downstairs with her
2:46:07
little satchel on her arm, I got up and stood beside her. Dear
2:46:13
old Joe. She said, you must not come. I pushed myself out
2:46:18
the door beside her, after she had kissed her mother and father and the
2:46:22
boys. Go back, Joe, she said firmly. I had to step
2:46:28
back then, but I cried and whined, and she looked at me in
2:46:33
astonishment. I will be back in the morning, Joe, she said gently,
2:46:39
don't squeal in that way. Then she shut the door and went out.
2:46:45
I felt dreadfully. I walked up and down the floor and ran to
2:46:50
the window and howled without having to look at ned. Missus Morris peered over
2:46:56
her glasses at me in utter surprise. Boy, please, she said,
2:47:01
did you ever see Joe acting that way before? No, Mother, they
2:47:07
all said, mister Morris was looking at me very intently. He had always
2:47:13
taken more notice of me than any other creature about the house, and I
2:47:16
was very fond of him. Now I ran up and put my paws on
2:47:22
his knees. Mother, he said, turning to his wife, let the
2:47:26
dog go very well, She said, in a puzzled way. Jack,
2:47:33
just run over with him and tell him this is dreary how he is acting,
2:47:37
and that I will be very much obliged if she will let him stay
2:47:39
all night with Laura. Jack sprang up, seized his cap, and raced
2:47:46
down the front steps, across the street, through the gate, and up
2:47:50
the graveled walk, where the little stones were all hard and fast in the
2:47:56
frost. The Drearies lived in a large white house with trees all around it
2:48:01
into garden at the back. They were rich people and had a great deal
2:48:07
of company through the summer. I had often seen carriages at the door,
2:48:11
and ladies and gentlemen in light clothes walking over the lawn, and sometimes I
2:48:18
smelled nice things they were having to eat. They did not keep any dogs,
2:48:22
nor were pets of any kind, so Jim and I never had an
2:48:28
excuse to call there. Jack and I were soon at the front door,
2:48:33
and he rang the bell and gave me in charge of the maid who opened
2:48:37
it. The girl listened to his message from missus Drury. Then she walked
2:48:43
upstairs, smiling and looking at me over her shoulder. There was a trunk
2:48:48
in the upper hall, and an elderly woman was putting things in it.
2:48:52
A lady stood watching her, and when she saw me, she gave a
2:48:56
little scream, Oh, nurse, look at that award dog. Where did
2:49:03
he come from? Put him out. Susan, I stood quite still,
2:49:09
and the girl who had brought me upstairs gave her Jack's message. Certainly,
2:49:16
certainly, said the lady, when the maid finished speaking. If he is
2:49:20
one of the Morris dogs, he is sure to be a well behaved one.
2:49:24
Tell the little boy to thank his mama for letting Laura come over,
2:49:28
and say that we will keep the dog with pleasure. Now, Nurse,
2:49:33
we must hurry. The cab will be here in five minutes. I walked
2:49:37
softly into a front room, and there I found my dear Miss Laura.
2:49:43
Miss Vessie was with her, and they were cramming things into a portmanteau.
2:49:50
They both ran out to find out how I came there, and just then
2:49:54
a gentleman came hurriedly upstairs and said the cab had come. There was a
2:50:01
scene of great confusion and hurry, but in minutes it was all over.
2:50:05
The cab had rolled away and the house was quiet. Nurse, you must
2:50:11
be tired. You had better go to bed, said Miss Bessie, turning
2:50:16
to the elderly woman as we all stood in the hall, Susan, will
2:50:22
you bring some supper to the dining room for Miss Morris and me. What
2:50:24
will you have, Laura? Well, what are you going to have?
2:50:28
Asked Miss Laura with a smile. Hot chocolate and tea biscuits. Then I
2:50:35
will have the same. Bring some cake to Susan, said Miss Bessie.
2:50:41
And something for the dog. I dare say he would like some of that
2:50:43
turkey that was left from dinner. If I had had any ears, I
2:50:50
would have pricked them up at this, for I was very fond of foul
2:50:54
and I never got any at the Morrises, unless it might be a shit
2:51:00
drey bone or two. What fun we had over our supper. The two
2:51:05
girls sat at the big dining table and sipped their chocolate and laughed and talked.
2:51:11
And I had the skeleton of a whole turkey on a newspaper that Susan
2:51:16
spread on the carpet. I was very careful not to drag it about,
2:51:22
and Miss Bessie laughed at me till the tears came in her eyes. That
2:51:28
dog is such a gentleman, she said. See how he holds bones on
2:51:33
the paper with his paws and strips all the meat off with his teeth.
2:51:37
Oh, Joe, Joe, you are a funny dog, and you were
2:51:43
having a funny supper. I have heard of quell on toast, but I
2:51:46
never heard of turkey on newspaper. Hadn't we better go to bed, said
2:51:54
Miss Laura when the hall clock struck eleven. Yes, I suppose we had,
2:52:00
said Miss Bessie. Where is this animal to sleep? I don't know,
2:52:05
said Miss Laura. He sleeps in the stable at home, or in
2:52:09
the kennel with Jim. Suppose Susan makes him a nice bed by the kitchen
2:52:15
stove, said Miss Bessie. Susan made the bed, but I was not
2:52:20
willing to sleep in it. I barked so loudly when they shut me up
2:52:26
alone that they had to let me go upstairs with them. Miss Laura was
2:52:31
almost angry with me, but I could not help it. I had come
2:52:37
over there to protect her, and I wasn't going to leave her if I
2:52:41
could help it. Miss Bessie had a handsomely furnished room with a soft carpet
2:52:46
on the floor and pretty curtains at the windows. There were two single beds
2:52:52
in it, and the two girls dragged them close together so that they could
2:52:56
talk after they gotten dead. Before Miss Bessie put out the light, she
2:53:03
told Miss Laura not to be alarmed if she heard anyone walking about in the
2:53:07
night, for the nurse was sleeping across the hall from them, and she
2:53:11
would probably come in once or twice to see if they were sleeping comfortably.
2:53:16
The two girls talked for a long time, and then they fell asleep.
2:53:22
Just before Miss Laura dropped off, she forgave me and put down her hand
2:53:26
for me to lick as I lay on a fur rug close by her bed.
2:53:31
I was very tired, and I had a very soft and pleasant bed,
2:53:37
so I soon fell into a heavy sleep. But I waked up at
2:53:41
the slightest noise. Once Miss Laura turned in bed, and another time Miss
2:53:48
Bessie laughed in her sleep. And again there were queer crackling noises in the
2:53:54
frosty limbs of the trees outside that made me start up quickly out of my
2:54:00
sleep. There was a big clock in the hall, and every time it
2:54:03
struck, I waked up. Once, just after it had struck some hour,
2:54:09
I jumped up out of a sound nap. I had been dreaming about
2:54:15
my early home. Jenkins was after me with a whip, and my limbs
2:54:20
were quivering and trembling as if I had been trying to get away from him.
2:54:26
I sprang up and shook myself. Then I took a turn around the
2:54:30
room. The two girls were breathing gently. I could scarcely hear them.
2:54:35
I walked to the door and looked out into the hall. There was a
2:54:39
dim light burning there. The door of the nurse's room stood open. I
2:54:46
went quietly to it and looked in. She was breathing heavily and muttering in
2:54:52
her sleep. I went back to my rug and tried to go to sleep,
2:54:56
but I could not. Such an uneasy feeling was upon me that I
2:55:01
had to keep walking about. I went out into the hall again and stood
2:55:07
at the head of the staircase. I thought I would take a walk through
2:55:11
the lower hall and then go to bed again. The Dreary's carpets were all
2:55:18
like velvet, and my paws did not make a rattling on them, as
2:55:22
they did on the oil cloth at the morrises. I crept down the stairs
2:55:28
like a cat and walked along the lower hall, smelling under all the doors,
2:55:33
listening as I went. There was no night light burning down here,
2:55:37
and it was quite dark. But if there had been any strange person about,
2:55:43
I would have smelled him. I was surprised when I got near the
2:55:48
farther end of the hall to see a tiny gleam of light shine for an
2:55:52
instant from under the dining room door. Then it went away again. The
2:55:58
dining room was the place to eat. Surely none of the people in the
2:56:01
house would be there after the supper we had. I went and sniffed under
2:56:07
the door. There was a smell there, a strong smell like beggars and
2:56:13
poor people. It smelled like Jenkins. It was Jenkins' end of chapter thirteen,
2:56:24
the beginning of an adventure, Chapter fourteen, How we caught the burglar?
2:56:33
What was the wretch doing in the house with my dear miss Laura.
2:56:39
I thought I would go crazy. I scratched at the door and barked and
2:56:43
yelped. I sprang up on it, and though I was quite a heavy
2:56:48
dog by this time, I felt as light as a feather. It seemed
2:56:52
to me that I would go mad if I could not get that door open.
2:56:58
Every few seconds I stopped and put my head down to the door seal
2:57:01
to listen. There was a rushing about inside the room, and a chair
2:57:07
fell over, and someone seemed to be getting out of the window. This
2:57:11
made me worse than ever. I did not stop to think that I was
2:57:16
only a medium sized dog, and that Jenkins would probably kill me if he
2:57:20
got his hands on me. I was so furious that I thought only of
2:57:26
getting hold of him. In the midst of the noise that I made,
2:57:31
there was a screaming and a rushing to and fro upstairs. I ran up
2:57:35
and down the hall, and halfway up the stairs and back again. I
2:57:41
did not want Miss Laura to come down, But how was I to make
2:57:45
her understand? There she was in her white gown, leaning over the railing
2:57:52
and holding back her long hair, Her face a picture of surprise and alarm.
2:57:58
The dog has gone mad, screamed Miss Bessie. Nurse pour a picture
2:58:03
of water on him. The nurse was more sensible. She ran downstairs,
2:58:09
her nightcap flying in a blanket that she had seized from her bed, trailing
2:58:15
her. There are thieves in the house, she shouted at the top of
2:58:18
her voice, and the dog has bounded out. She did not go near
2:58:24
the dining room door, but threw open the front one, crying, policeman,
2:58:30
policeman, help help thieves murder Such a screaming as that old woman made
2:58:39
she was worse than I was. I dashed by her out through the hall
2:58:43
door and away down to the gate, where I heard someone running. I
2:58:48
gave a few loud yelps to call Jim, and leaped the gate as the
2:58:54
man before me had done. There was something savage in me that night.
2:58:58
I think it must have been the smell of Jenkins. I felt as if
2:59:03
I could tear him to pieces. I have never felt so wicked since I
2:59:11
was hunting him as he had hunted me and my mother, and the thought
2:59:16
gave me pleasure. Old Jim soon caught up with me, and I gave
2:59:20
him a push with my nose to let him know I was glad he had
2:59:24
come. We rushed swiftly on and at the corner caught up with the miserable
2:59:31
man who was running away from us. I gave an angry growl, and,
2:59:37
jumping up, bit at his leg. He turned around, and though
2:59:41
it was not a very bright night, there was enough light for me to
2:59:46
see the ugly face of my old master. He seemed so angry to think
2:59:54
that Jim and I dared to snape at him. He caught up a handful
2:59:58
of stone, and with some bad words, threw them at us. Just
3:00:03
then away in front of us was a queer whistle, and then another one
3:00:09
like it behind us. Jenkins made a strange noise in his throat and started
3:00:13
to run down a side street away from the direction of the two whistles.
3:00:20
I was afraid that he was going to get away, and though I could
3:00:24
not hold him, I kept springing up on him, and once I tripped
3:00:28
him up. Oh how furious he was. He kicked me against the side
3:00:33
of a wall and gave me two or three hard blows with a stick that
3:00:39
he caught up and kept throwing stones at me. I would not give up,
3:00:46
though I could scarcely see him for the blood that was running over my
3:00:50
eyes. Old Jim got so angry whenever Jenkins touched me that he ran up
3:00:56
behind and nipped his cows to make him turn on him. Soon, Jenkins
3:01:01
came to a high wall where he stopped and, with a hurried look behind,
3:01:07
began to climb over it. The wall was too high for me to
3:01:11
jump. He was going to escape. What shall I do? I barked
3:01:16
as loudly as I could for someone to come, and then sprang up and
3:01:20
held him by the leg as he was getting over. I had such a
3:01:26
grip that I went over the wall with him and left Jim on the other
3:01:30
side. Jenkins fell on his face in the earth. Then he got up
3:01:35
and, with a look of deadly hatred on his face, pounced upon me.
3:01:41
If help had not come, I think he would have dashed my brains
3:01:45
against the wall as he dashed out my poor little brothers against the horse's stall.
3:01:52
But just then there was a running sound. Two men came down the
3:01:56
street and sprang upon the wall just where Jim was leaping up and barking in
3:02:01
distress. I saw it once by their uniform and the clubs in their hands
3:02:05
that they were policemen. In one short instant they had hold of Jenkins.
3:02:11
He gave up then, but he stood snarling at me like an ugly dog.
3:02:16
If it hadn't been for that cur I'd have never been caught. Why
3:02:22
And he staggered back and uttered a bad word. It's me own dog.
3:02:30
More shame to you, said one of the policemen, sternly. What have
3:02:35
you been up to at this time of night to have your own dog in
3:02:37
a quiet minister's spaniel dog chasing you through the street. Jenkins began to swear
3:02:45
and would not tell them anything. There was a house in the garden,
3:02:50
and just at this minute someone opened a window and called out, hello there,
3:02:56
what are you doing. We're catching a thief, sir, said one
3:03:01
of the policemen. Leastwise, I think that's what he's been up to.
3:03:05
Could you throw us down a bit of rope. We've no handcuffs here,
3:03:09
and one of us has to go to the lock up, and the other
3:03:11
to Washington Street, where there's a woman yelling blue murder and hurry up,
3:03:16
please, sir. The gentleman threw down a rope, and in two minutes
3:03:22
Jenkins's wrists were tied together, and he was walked through the gate, saying
3:03:26
bad words as fast as he could to the policeman who was leading him.
3:03:31
Good dogs, said the other policeman to Jim and me. Then he ran
3:03:37
up the street and we followed him. As we hurried along Washington Street and
3:03:43
came near our house, we saw lights gleaming through the darkness and heard people
3:03:48
running to and fro. The nurses shrieking had alarmed the neighborhood. The Morris
3:03:54
Boys were all out in the street, only half clad and shivering with cold,
3:03:58
and the Dreary's coachman, with no hat on and his hair sticking up
3:04:03
all over his head, was running about with a lantern. The neighbors houses
3:04:09
were all lighted up, and the good many people were hanging out of their
3:04:13
windows and opening their doors and calling to each other to know what all this
3:04:18
noise meant. When the policeman appeared, with Jim and me at his heels,
3:04:24
quite a crowd gathered around him to hear his part of the story.
3:04:30
Jim and I dropped on the ground, panting as hard as we could,
3:04:33
and with little streams of water running from our tongues. We were both pretty
3:04:39
well used up. Jim's back was bleeding in several places from the stones that
3:04:45
Jenkins had thrown at him, and I was a mass of bruises. Presently
3:04:50
we were discovered, and then what a fuss was made over us? Brave
3:04:56
dogs, noble dogs. Everybody said and it and praised us. We were
3:05:01
very proud and happy and stood up and wagged our tails. At least Jim
3:05:07
did, and I wagged what I could. Then they found what a state
3:05:11
we were in. Missus Morris cried and catching me up in her arms,
3:05:16
ran in the house with me, and Jack followed with Old Jim. We
3:05:22
all went to the parlor. There was a good fire there, and Miss
3:05:26
Laura and Miss Bessie were sitting over it. They sprang up when they saw
3:05:31
us, and right there in the parlor washed our wounds and made us lie
3:05:37
down by the fire. You saved her silver braid, Joe said, Miss
3:05:43
Bessie. Just wait till my poppa and Mama come home and see what they
3:05:46
will say. Well, Jack, what is the latest? As the Morris
3:05:50
boys came trooping into the room. The policeman has been questioning your nurse and
3:05:56
examining the dining room, and has gone down to the station to make his
3:06:01
report. And do you know what he has found out? Said Jack excitedly.
3:06:07
No, what, asked Miss Bessie. Why that villain was going to
3:06:13
burn your house? Miss Bessie gave a little shriek. Why what do you
3:06:18
mean, well, said Jack, They think by what they discovered that he
3:06:26
planned to pack his bag with silver and carry it off, but just before
3:06:30
he did so, he would pour oil all around the room and set fire
3:06:33
to it so people would not find out he had been robbing you. Why
3:06:39
we might have all been burnt to death, said Miss Bessie. He couldn't
3:06:43
burn the dining room without setting fire to the rest of the house. Certainly
3:06:48
not, said Jack. That shows what a villain he is. Do they
3:06:54
know this for certain? Jack asked Miss Laura. Well, I suppose so
3:07:00
they found some bottles of oil along with the bag he had for the silver.
3:07:05
How horrible you, darling old Joe. Perhaps you saved our lives.
3:07:11
And pretty miss Bessie kissed my ugly swollen head. I could do nothing but
3:07:18
lick her little hand. But always after that I thought a great deal of
3:07:22
her. It is now some years since all this happened, and I might
3:07:28
as well tell the end of it. The next day, the Drearies came
3:07:33
home and everything was found out about Jenkins. The night they left Fairport,
3:07:39
he had been hanging about the station. He knew just who were left in
3:07:43
the house, for he had once supplied them with milk, and he knew
3:07:48
all about their family. He had no customers at this time, for after
3:07:52
mister Harry rescued me and that piece came out in the paper about him,
3:07:58
he found that no one would take milk from him. His wife died and
3:08:03
some kind people put his children in an asylum, and he was obliged to
3:08:09
sell Toby in the cows. Instead of learning a lesson from all this and
3:08:13
leading a better life, he kept sinking lower. He was therefore ready for
3:08:20
any kind of mischief that turned up. And when he saw the Drearies going
3:08:24
away in the train, he thought he would steal a bag of silver from
3:08:28
their sideboard, then set fire to the house and run away and hide the
3:08:33
silver. After a time he would take it to some city and sell it.
3:08:39
He was made to confess all this then, for his wickedness, he
3:08:45
was sent to prison for ten years. And I hope he will get to
3:08:48
be a better man there and be one after he comes out. I was
3:08:54
sore and stiff for a long time, and one day Miss Drury came over
3:08:58
to see me. She did not love dogs as the Morrises did. She
3:09:05
tried to, but she could not. Dogs can see the fun in things
3:09:09
as well as people can. And I buried my muzzle in the hearth rug
3:09:13
so she would not see how I was curling up my lip and smiling at
3:09:18
her. You are a good dog, she said, slowly, you are.
3:09:26
Then she stopped and could not think of anything else to say to me.
3:09:31
I got up and stood in front of her. For a well bred
3:09:35
dog should not lie down when a lady speaks to him. I wagged my
3:09:41
body a little, and I would gladly have said something to help her out
3:09:45
of her difficulty, but I couldn't. If she had stroked me, it
3:09:48
might have helped her, but she didn't want to touch me, and I
3:09:52
knew she didn't want me to touch her, so I just stood looking at
3:09:58
her. Mis Morris, she said, turning from me with a puzzled face.
3:10:03
I don't like animals, and I can't pretend to, for they always
3:10:09
find me out. But can't you let that dog know that I shall feeling
3:10:15
tonally grateful to him for saving not only our property, for that is a
3:10:20
trifle, but my darling daughter from fright and annoyance and possible injury or loss
3:10:26
of life. I think he understands, said missus Morris. He is a
3:10:33
very wise dog, and smiling in great amusement. She called me to her
3:10:39
and put my paws on her lap. Look at that, lady, Joe,
3:10:43
she gets pleased with you for driving Jenkins away from her house. You
3:10:48
remember Jenkins, I barked angrily and limped to the window. How intelligent he
3:10:56
is, said Missus Dreary. My husband has sent to New York for a
3:11:01
watch dog, and he says that from this on our house shall never be
3:11:07
without one. Now I must go. Your dog is happy, Missus Morris,
3:11:11
and I can do nothing for him except to say that I shall never
3:11:16
forget him. And I wish he would come over occasionally to see us.
3:11:22
Perhaps when we get our dog, he will. I shall tell my cook
3:11:26
whenever she sees him, to give him something to eat. This is a
3:11:30
souvenir for Laura of that dreadful night. I feel under a deep obligation to
3:11:35
you, so I am sure you will allow her to accept it. The
3:11:41
end, she gave Missus Morris a little box and went away. When Miss
3:11:46
Laura came in, she opened the box and found in it a handsome diamond
3:11:52
ring. On the inside of it was engraved Laura in memory of December twentieth
3:11:58
eighteen blank from her grateful friend Bessie. The diamond was worth hundreds of dollars,
3:12:07
and Missus Morris told Miss Laura that she had rather she would not wear
3:12:13
it. Then, while she was a young girl, it was not suitable
3:12:16
for her, and she knew Miss Drury did not expect her to do so.
3:12:22
She wished to give her a valuable present, and this would always be
3:12:26
worth a great deal of money. End of Chapter fourteen, How We Caught
3:12:31
the Burglar. Chapter fifteen Our Journey to Riverdale. Every other summer the Morris
3:12:41
children were sent to some place in the country so that they could have a
3:12:46
change of are and see what country life was like. As there were so
3:12:52
many of them, they usually went different ways the summer after I came to
3:12:56
them. Jack and Carl when to an uncle in Vermont, Miss Laura went
3:13:03
to another in New Hampshire, and Ned and Willie went to visit a maiden
3:13:07
aunt who lived in the White Mountains. Mister and Missus Morris stayed at home.
3:13:13
Fairport was a lovely place in the summer, and many people came there
3:13:18
to visit. The children took some of their pets with them, and the
3:13:22
others they left at home for their mother to take care of. She never
3:13:28
allowed them to take a pet anywhere unless she knew it would be perfectly welcome.
3:13:33
Don't let your pets be a worry to other people. She often said
3:13:37
to them, or they will dislike them and you too. Miss Laura went
3:13:45
away earlier than the others, for she had run down through the spring and
3:13:50
was pale and Thinin one day early in June, we set out I saved
3:13:56
we for after my adventure with Jenkins. Miss Laura said that I should never
3:14:01
be parted from her. If anyone invited her to come and see them and
3:14:07
didn't want me, she would stay at home. The whole family went to
3:14:11
the station to see us off. They put a chain on my collar and
3:14:16
took me to the baggage office and got two tickets for me. One was
3:14:20
tied to my collar and the other Miss Laura put in her purse. Then
3:14:26
I was put in a baggage car and chained in a corner. I heard
3:14:31
mister Morris say that as we were only going a short distance, it was
3:14:35
not worthwhile to get an express ticket for me. There was a dreadful noise
3:14:41
and bustle at the station. Whistles were blowing and people were rushing up and
3:14:46
down the platform. Some men were tumbling baggage so fast into the car where
3:14:52
I was that I was afraid some of it would fall on me. For
3:14:58
a few minutes miss Laura. I stood by the door and looked in,
3:15:01
but soon the men had piled up so many boxes and trunks that she could
3:15:07
not see me. Then she went away. Mister Morris asked one of the
3:15:13
men to see that I did not get hurt, and I heard some money
3:15:16
rattle. Then he went away too. It was the beginning of June and
3:15:22
the weather had suddenly become very hot. We had a long cold spring,
3:15:28
and not being used to the heat, it seemed very hard to bear.
3:15:33
Before the train started, the doors of the baggage car were closed, and
3:15:37
it became quite dark inside. The darkness and the heat, and the close
3:15:43
smell and the noise as we went rushing along made me feel sick and frightened.
3:15:50
I did not dare to lie down, but sat up, trembling and
3:15:56
wishing that we might soon come to Riverdale Station. But we did not get
3:16:01
there for some time, and I was to have a great fright. I
3:16:05
was thinking of all the stories that I knew of animals traveling. In February,
3:16:11
the Drurys Newfoundland watchdog Pluto had arrived from New York, and he told
3:16:18
Jim and me that he had a miserable journey a gentleman friend of mister Drury's,
3:16:24
had brought him from New York. He saw him chained up in his
3:16:28
car, and he went into his pullman first, tipping the baggage master handsomely
3:16:35
to look after him. Pluto said that the baggage master had a very red
3:16:39
nose, and he was always getting drinks for himself when they stopped at the
3:16:45
station, but he never once gave him a drink or anything to eat,
3:16:50
from the time they left New York till they got to Fairport. When the
3:16:54
train stopped there and Pluto's chain was unfastened, he sprang on the platform and
3:17:01
nearly knocked mister Drury down. He saw some snow that had sifted through the
3:17:05
station roof, and he was so thirsty he began to lick it up.
3:17:11
When the snow was all gone, he jumped up and looked the frost on
3:17:15
the windows. Mister Drury's friend was so angry. He found the baggage master
3:17:22
and said to him, what did you mean by coming into my car every
3:17:26
few hours to tell me the dog was dead? And what uncomfortable I shall
3:17:31
report you. He went into the office at the station and complained of the
3:17:37
man and told that he was a drinking man and was going to be dismissed.
3:17:43
I was not afraid of suffering like Pluto, because it was only going
3:17:46
to take us a few hours to get to Riverdale. I found that we
3:17:50
always went slowly before we came into a station. In one time, when
3:17:56
we began to slacken speed, I thought that she really we must be at
3:18:01
our journey's end. However, it was not Riverdale. The car gave a
3:18:07
kind of jump. Then there was a crashing sound ahead, and we stopped.
3:18:13
I heard men shouting and running up and down, and I wondered what
3:18:16
had happened. It was all dark and still in the car, and nobody
3:18:22
came in, but the noise kept up outside, and I knew something had
3:18:26
gone wrong with the train. Perhaps Miss Laura had got hurt. Something must
3:18:33
have happened, or she would come to me. I bought and pulled at
3:18:39
the chain till my neck was sore. But for a long long time I
3:18:43
was there alone. The men running about outside must have heard me. If
3:18:50
I ever hear a man in trouble and crying for help, I go to
3:18:54
him and see what he wants. After such a long time that it seemed
3:19:00
to me. It must be the middle of the night. The door at
3:19:03
the end of the car opened and a man looked in. This is all
3:19:07
baggage for New York. Miss I heard him say, they wouldn't put your
3:19:13
dog in here. Yes they did. I am sure this is the car.
3:19:18
I heard the voice I knew so well. And won't you get him
3:19:22
out please? He must be terribly frightened. The man stooped down and unfastened
3:19:30
my chain, grumbling to himself because I had not been put in another car.
3:19:35
Some folks tumble a dog round as if he was a junk of coal,
3:19:39
he said, patting me kindly. I was nearly wild with delight to
3:19:45
get with Miss Laura again. But I had barked so much and pressed my
3:19:50
neck so hard with my collar that my voice was all gone. I fawned
3:19:56
on her and wagged myself about, and opened and sho up my mouth,
3:20:01
but no sound came out of it. It made Miss Laura nervous. She
3:20:05
tried to laugh and cry at the same time, and then bit her lip
3:20:09
hard and said, oh, Joe, don't he's lost his bark, hasn't
3:20:16
he said the man, looking at me curiously. It's a wicked thing to
3:20:22
confine an animal in a dark, enclosed car, said Miss Laura, trying
3:20:28
to see her way down the steps through her tears. The man put out
3:20:33
his hand and helped her. He's not suffered much, miss, he said.
3:20:37
Don't distress yourself now. If you've been a braakman on a Chicago train,
3:20:43
as I was a few years ago, and seeing the animals running for
3:20:46
the stockyards, you might talk about cruelty. Cars that ought to hold a
3:20:50
certain number of pigs or sheep or cattle gemmed full with twice as many,
3:20:56
and half of them thrown out, choked and smothered to death. I've seen
3:21:00
man running up and down, raging and swearing because the railway people hadn't let
3:21:03
him get in to tend to his pigs on the road. Miss Laura turned
3:21:09
and looked at the man with a very white face. Is it like that
3:21:13
now, she asked, A no, no, he said hastily. It's
3:21:18
better now. They've got new regulations about taking care of the stock. But
3:21:22
mind you, miss, the cruelty to animals isn't all done on the railways.
3:21:28
There's a great lot of dumb creatures suffering all round everywhere, And if
3:21:33
they could speak, twould be a hard showing for some other people besides the
3:21:37
railway men. He lifted his cap, and hurrying down the platform, and
3:21:43
Miss Laura, her face very much troubled, picked her way among the bits
3:21:46
of coal and woods scattered about the platform, and went into the waiting room
3:21:52
of the little station. She took me up to the fielter and let some
3:21:56
water run in her hand and gave it to me lap. Then she sat
3:22:01
down and I leaned my head against her knees, and she stroked my throat
3:22:05
gently. There were some people sitting about the room, and from their talk
3:22:11
I found out what had taken place. There had been a freight train on
3:22:16
a sidetrack at this station waiting for us to get by. The switchman had
3:22:22
carelessly left the switch open after this train went by, and when we came
3:22:26
along afterward, our train, instead of running in by the platform, went
3:22:33
crashing into the freight train. If we had been going fast, great damage
3:22:39
might have been done. As it was, our engine was smashed so badly
3:22:43
that it could not take us on. The passengers were frightened, and we
3:22:48
were having a tedious time waiting for another engine to come and take us to
3:22:52
Riverdale after the accident. The train men were so busy that Miss Laura I
3:23:00
could get no one to release me. When I sat by her, I
3:23:03
noticed an old gentleman staring at us. He was such a queer looking old
3:23:09
gentleman. He looked like a poodle. He had bright brown eyes and a
3:23:13
pointed face, and a shock of white hair that he shook every few minutes.
3:23:20
He sat with his hands clasped on top of his cane, and he
3:23:24
scarcely took his eyes from Miss Laura's face. Suddenly he jumped up and came
3:23:31
and sat down beside her. An ugly dog that, he said, pointing
3:23:37
to me. Most young ladies would have resented this, but Miss Laura only
3:23:43
looked amused. He seems beautiful to me, she said gently, Because he's
3:23:50
your dog, said the old man, darting a sharp look at me.
3:23:54
What's the matter with him? This is his first journey by rail. He's
3:24:00
a little frightened. No wonder, the Lord only knows the suffering of animals
3:24:05
and transportation, said the old gentleman. My dear young lady, if you
3:24:11
could see what I've seen, you never eat another bit of meat all the
3:24:15
days of your life. Miss Laura wrinkled her forehead. I know I have
3:24:22
heard she faltered. It must be terrible, terrible, It's awful, said
3:24:28
the gentleman. Think of the cattle on the western plains, choked with thust
3:24:33
in the summer, and starved and frozen in the winter. Dehorned and goaded
3:24:39
onto trains and steamers, tossed about and wounded and suffering on voyages, many
3:24:45
of them dying and being thrown into the sea. Others landed, sick and
3:24:48
frightened. Some of them slaughtered on docks and wharves to keep them from dropping
3:24:52
dead in their tracks. What kind of food does their flesh make? It's
3:24:56
rank poison. Three of my family they have died of cancer. I'm a
3:25:01
vegetarian. The strange old gentleman darted from his seat and began to pace up
3:25:07
and down the room. I was very glad he had gone, for Miss
3:25:13
Laura hated to hear of cruelty of any kind, and her tears were dropping
3:25:18
thick and fast on my brown coat. The gentleman had spoken very loudly,
3:25:24
and everyone in the room had listened to what he said. Among them was
3:25:30
a very young man with a cold, handsome face. He looked as if
3:25:35
he was annoyed that the older man should have made Miss Laura cry. Don't
3:25:39
you think, sir, He said, as the old gentleman passed near him
3:25:43
and walking up and down the floor, that there is a great deal of
3:25:48
mock sentiment about this business of taking care of the dumb creation. They were
3:25:52
made for us. They've got to suffer and be killed to supply our once.
3:25:58
The cattle and sheep and other animals would overrun the earth if we didn't
3:26:01
kill them, granted, said the old man, stopping right in front of
3:26:07
him. Granted, young man, if you take out that word suffer.
3:26:11
The Lord made the sheep and the cattle and the pigs. They are his
3:26:15
creatures just as much as we are. We can kill them, but we
3:26:18
know right to make them suffer. But we can't help it suck. Yes,
3:26:24
yes we can, my young man. It's a possible thing to raise
3:26:28
help the stock, treat it, kindly, kill it, moscifully eat it
3:26:31
decently. When men do that, I, for one, will cease to
3:26:37
be a vegetarian. You're only a boy. You haven't traveled as I have.
3:26:41
I've been from one end of this country to the other up north,
3:26:46
down, south, and out west. I've seen sights that made me shudder.
3:26:50
And I tell you the Lord will punish this great American nation if it
3:26:54
doesn't change its treatment of the dumb animals committed to its care. Man looked
3:27:00
thoughtful and did not reply. A very sweet faced old lady sitting near him
3:27:07
answered the old gentleman. I don't think I have ever seen such a fine
3:27:13
looking old lady as she was. Her hair was snowy white, and her
3:27:18
face was deeply wrinkled. Yet she was tall and stately, and her expression
3:27:24
was as pleasing as my dear miss Laura's. I do not think we are
3:27:28
a wicked nation, she said softly. We are a younger nation than many
3:27:33
of the nations of the earth, and I think many of our sins arise
3:27:37
from ignorance and thoughtlessness. Yes, madam, Yes, madam, said the
3:27:43
fiery old gentleman, staring hard at her. I agree with you, dare
3:27:48
She smiled very pleasantly at him, and went on, I too have been
3:27:52
a traveler, and I have talked to many great, wise and good people
3:27:56
on the subject of the cruel treatment of animals, and I find that many
3:28:01
of them have never thought about it. They themselves never knowingly ill treat a
3:28:07
dumb creature, and when they are told stories of inhumane conduct, they say
3:28:11
in surprise, why these things surely can't exist. You see, they have
3:28:16
never been brought in contact with them. As soon as they learn about them,
3:28:22
they begin to agitate and say, we must have this thing stopped.
3:28:26
Where is the remedy? What is it, madam? In your opinion,
3:28:30
said the old gentleman, pawing the floor with impatience. Just the remedy that
3:28:35
I would propose for the great evil of intemperance, said the old lady,
3:28:39
smiling at him. Legislation and education, legislation for the old and hardened,
3:28:46
and education for the young and tender. I would tell the schoolboys and schoolgirls
3:28:50
that alcohol will destroy the framework of their beautiful bodies, and that cruelty to
3:28:56
any of God's living creatures will blight and destroy their inn young souls. The
3:29:01
young man spoke out again. Don't you think he said that your temperance and
3:29:09
humane people lay too much stress upon the education of our youth. In all
3:29:13
lofty and noble sentiments, the human heart will always be wicked. Your Bible
3:29:18
tells you that, doesn't it you can't educate all the badness out of children.
3:29:24
We don't expect to do that, said the old lady, turning her
3:29:28
pleasant face toward him. But even if the human heart is desperately wicked,
3:29:33
shouldn't that make us much more eager to try to educate, too ennoble to
3:29:37
restrain. However, as far as my experience goes, and I have lived
3:29:43
in this wicked world for seventy five years, I find that the human heart,
3:29:48
though wicked and cruel as you say, has yet some soft and tender
3:29:52
spots, And the impressions made upon it in youth are never never effaced.
3:29:56
Do you not remember, better than anything else, standing at your mother's knee,
3:30:01
the pressure of her hand, her kiss on your forehead. By this
3:30:05
time our engine had arrived, a whistle was blowing, and nearly everyone was
3:30:13
rushing from the room, and the impatient old gentleman among the first Miss Laura,
3:30:18
was hurriedly trying to do up her shawl strap, and I was standing
3:30:22
by, wishing that I could help her. The old lady and the young
3:30:28
man were the only other people in the room, and we could not help
3:30:31
hearing what they said. Yes I do, he said in a thick voice.
3:30:37
His face got very red. She is dead to now. I have
3:30:41
no mother, poor boy, And the old lady laid her hand on his
3:30:48
shoulder. They were standing up, and she was taller than he was.
3:30:52
May God bless you. I know you have a kind heart. I have
3:30:56
four stalwart boys, and you remind me of the youngest. If you were
3:31:01
ever in Washington, come to see me. She gave him some name,
3:31:05
and he lifted his hat and looked as if he was astonished to find out
3:31:09
who she was. Then he too went away, and she turned Miss Laura.
3:31:16
Shall I help you, my dear, if you please, said my
3:31:20
young mistress, I can't fasten this strap. In a few seconds, the
3:31:26
bundle was done up and we were joyfully hastening to the train. It was
3:31:31
only a few miles to Riverdale, so the conductor let me stay in the
3:31:35
car when Miss Laura, she spread her coat out on the seat in front
3:31:41
of her, and I sat on it and looked out of the car window
3:31:45
as we sped along through a lovely country, all green and fresh in the
3:31:50
June sunlight. How light and pleasant this car was so different from the baggage
3:31:56
car. What frightens an animal? Most all things is not to see where
3:32:01
it is going, not to know what is going to happen to it.
3:32:07
I think that they are very like human beings in this respect. The lady
3:32:13
had taken a seat beside Miss Laura, and as we went along, she
3:32:18
too looked out of the window and said, in a low voice, what
3:32:22
is so rare as a day in June? Then if ever come perfect days?
3:32:28
That is very true, said Miss Laura. How sad that the autumn
3:32:33
must come and the cold winter? No, my dear, not sad.
3:32:39
It is but a preparation for another summer. Yes, I suppose it is,
3:32:43
said Miss Laura. Then she continued a little shyly as her companion leaned
3:32:50
over to stroke my cropped ears. You seem very fond of animals. Plam,
3:32:56
my dear. I have four horses, two cows, a tames worl,
3:33:00
three dogs and a cat. You should be a very happy woman,
3:33:05
said Miss Laura, with a smile. I think I am. I must
3:33:09
not forget my horned toad, Diego, that I got in California. I
3:33:13
keep him in the greenhouse, and he is very happy catching flies and holding
3:33:18
his horny head to be scratched Whenever one comes near. I don't see how
3:33:24
anyone can be unkind to animals, said Miss lou thoughtfully. Nor I,
3:33:30
my dear child. It has always caused me intense pain to witness the torture
3:33:35
of dumb animals. Nearly seventy years ago, when I was a little girl
3:33:39
walking the streets of Boston, I would tremble and grow thank at the cruelty
3:33:43
of drivers to overloaded horses. I was timid and did not dare to speak
3:33:48
to them very often. I ran home and flung myself in my mother's arms
3:33:52
with a burst of tears, and asked her if nothing could be done to
3:33:56
help the poor animals with mistake motherly kindness, she tried to put the subject
3:34:03
out of my thoughts. I was carefully guarded from seeing or hearing of any
3:34:07
instances of cruelty. But the animals went on suffering just the same, And
3:34:11
when I became a woman, I saw my cowardice. I agitated the matter
3:34:16
among my friends and told them that our whole dumb creation was groaning together in
3:34:22
pain, and would continue to groan unless merciful human beings were willing to help
3:34:26
them. I was able to assist in the formation of several societies for the
3:34:31
prevention of cruelty to animals, and they have done good service. Good service
3:34:37
not only to the horses and cows, but to the nobler man. I
3:34:41
believe that in saying to a cruel man, you shall not overwork, torture,
3:34:46
mutilate, nor kill your animal, or neglect to provide it with proper
3:34:50
food and shelter. We are making him a little nearer the Kingdom of Heaven
3:34:54
than he was before. For whatsoever a man so with, he shall allso
3:35:00
so reap. If he sows seeds of unkindness and cruelty to man and beast,
3:35:03
No one knows what the blackness of the harvest will be. His poor
3:35:07
horse, quivering under his blow, is not the worst sufferer. Oh,
3:35:13
if people would only understand that their unkind deeds will recoil upon their own heads
3:35:18
with tenfold force. But my dear child, I am fancying that I am
3:35:22
addressing a drawing room meeting. And here we are at your station. Goodbye,
3:35:28
keep your happy face and gentle ways. I hope that we may meet
3:35:33
again someday. She pressed Miss Laura's hand, gave me a farewell pat and
3:35:39
the next minute we were outside on the platform, and she was smiling through
3:35:43
the window at us end Chapter fifteen, Our Journey to Riverdale, Chapter sixteen,
3:35:54
Dingley Farm, My dear niece and us stout middle aged woman with a
3:36:01
red, lively face, threw both her arms around Miss Laura. How glad
3:36:07
I am to see you. And this is the dog good Joe, I
3:36:11
have a bone waiting for you. Here is uncle John, A tall,
3:36:16
good looking man stepped up and put out a big hand in which my mistress's
3:36:22
little fingers were quite swallowed up. I'm glad to see you, Laura.
3:36:26
Well Joe, how do you do, old boy? I've heard about you.
3:36:31
It made me feel very welcome to have them both notice me, and
3:36:35
I was so glad to be out of the train that I frisked for joy
3:36:39
around their feet as we went to the wagon. It was a big double
3:36:43
one with an awning over it to shelter it from the sun's rays, and
3:36:48
the horses were drawn up in the shade of a spreading tree. They were
3:36:54
two powerful black horses, and as they had no blinders on, they could
3:37:00
see us coming. Their faces lighted up and they moved their ears and pauled
3:37:05
the ground and winnied. When mister Wood went up to them, they tried
3:37:09
to rub their heads against him, and I saw plainly that they loved him.
3:37:15
Steady there, Cleave and Pacer, he said, now back up,
3:37:18
back up. By this time missus Wood, Miss Laura, and I were
3:37:24
in the wagon. Then mister Wood jumped in, took up the reins,
3:37:30
and off we went. How the two black horses did spin along. I
3:37:35
sat on the seat beside mister Wood and sniffed in the delicious air and the
3:37:41
lovely smell of flowers and grass. How glad I was to be in the
3:37:46
country. What long races I should have in the green fields. I wished
3:37:52
that I had another dog to run with me, and wondered very much whether
3:37:56
mister Wood kept one. I knew I should soon find out, for whenever
3:38:03
Miss Laura went to a place, she wanted to know what animals there were
3:38:07
about. We drove a little more than a mile along a country road where
3:38:11
there were scattered houses. Miss Laura answered questions about her family and asked questions
3:38:18
about mister Harry, who was away at college and hadn't got home. I
3:38:24
don't think I've said before that mister Harry was Missus Wood's son. She was
3:38:30
a widow with one son when she married mister Wood, so that mister Harry,
3:38:35
though the Morrises called him cousin, was not really their cousin. I
3:38:39
was very glad to hear them say that he was soon coming home, for
3:38:45
I had never forgotten that. But for him, I should never have known
3:38:50
Miss Laura and gotten into my pleasant home. By and bye, I heard
3:38:56
Miss Laura say, Uncle John, have you a dog? Yes, Laura,
3:39:03
he said, I have one today, but shan't have one tomorrow.
3:39:07
Oh uncle, what do you mean, she asked, Well, Laura,
3:39:13
he replied, you know, animals are pretty much like people. There are
3:39:16
some good ones and some bad ones. Now, this dog is a snarling,
3:39:22
cross grained, contankerous beast. And when I heard that Joe was coming,
3:39:26
I said, now we'll have a good dog about the place, and
3:39:31
here's an end to the bad one. So I tied Bruno up, and
3:39:33
tomorrow I shall shoot him. Something's got to be done or he'll be biting
3:39:39
someone, Uncle said, miss Laura. People don't always die when they are
3:39:45
bitten by dogs, do they? No, certainly not, replied mister Wood.
3:39:52
In my humble opinion, there's a great lot of nonsense talked about the
3:39:56
poison of a dog's bite and people dying of hydrophobe. Ever since I was
3:40:01
born, I've had dogs snap at me and stick their teeth in my flesh,
3:40:05
and I've never had a symptom of hydrophobia, and I never intend to
3:40:09
have. I believe half the people that are bitten by dogs frighten themselves into
3:40:13
thinking they are fatally poisoned. I was reading the other day about the policemen
3:40:18
in the big city in England that have to catch straight dogs and dogs supposed
3:40:22
to be mad, and to all kinds of dogs, and they get bitten
3:40:26
over and over again and never think anything about it. But let a lady
3:40:31
or a gentleman walking along the street have a dog bit them, and they
3:40:35
worry themselves to their blood is in a fever and they have to hurry across
3:40:39
the France to get pasture to cure them. They imagine they've got hydrophobia,
3:40:45
and they've got it because they imagine it. I believe if I fixed my
3:40:48
attention on that right thumb of mine and thought I had a sore there,
3:40:52
and picked at it and worried it in a short time, a sore would
3:40:54
come and I'd be off to the doctor to have it cured. At the
3:40:58
same time, dogs have no business to bite, and I don't recommend anyone
3:41:03
to get bitten. But uncle said, Miss Laura. Isn't there a such
3:41:09
thing as hydrophobia? Oh? Yes, I dare say there is. I
3:41:13
believe that a careful examination of the records of death reports in Boston from hydrophobia
3:41:18
for the space of thirty two years shows that two people actually died from it.
3:41:24
Dogs are like all other animals. They're liable to sickness, and they've
3:41:28
got to be watched. I think my horses would go mad if I starved
3:41:31
them or over fed them, or overworked them, or let them stand in
3:41:37
laziness, or kept them dirty, or didn't give them water enough, they'd
3:41:41
get some disease. Anyway, If a person owns an animal, let them
3:41:45
take care of it and it's all right. If it shows signs of sickness,
3:41:50
shut it up and watch it. If the sickness is incurable, kill
3:41:54
it. Here's a sure way to prevent hydrophobia. Kill off all ownerless and
3:41:58
fishcous dogs. If you can't do that, have plenty of water where they
3:42:03
can get it. A dog that has all the water he wants will never
3:42:07
go mad. This dog of mine has not one single thing the matter with
3:42:11
him but pure ugliness. Yet if I let him loose and he ran through
3:42:16
the village with his tongue out, I'll warrant you there'd be a cry of
3:42:22
mad dog. However, I'm going to kill him. I've no use for
3:42:26
a bad dog. Have plenty of animals, I say, and treat them
3:42:30
kindly, But if there's a vicious one among them, put it out of
3:42:33
the way, for it is a constant danger to man and beast. It's
3:42:37
queer how ugly some people are about their dogs. They'll keep them no matter
3:42:43
how they worry other people, and even when they're snatching the bread out of
3:42:46
their neighbor's mouths. But I say that it is not the fault of the
3:42:50
four legged dog. A human dog is the worst of all. There's a
3:42:54
band of sheep killing dogs here in Riverdale that their owners can't or won't keep
3:43:01
out of mischief. Me looking fellows some of them are. The owners go
3:43:05
to bed at night, and the dogs pretend to go too. But when
3:43:09
the house is quiet and the family asleep, off goes rover or fido to
3:43:13
worry poor defenseless creatures that can't defend themselves. Their taste for sheep's blood is
3:43:18
like the taste for liquor and men and the dogs will travel as far to
3:43:22
get their fun as the men will travel for theirs. They've got it in
3:43:26
them, and you can't get it out. Mister Wyndham cured his dog,
3:43:33
said missus Wood. Mister Wood burst into a hearty laugh. So we did,
3:43:39
so we did. I must tell Lauria about that. Wyndham is a
3:43:43
neighbor of ours. Then last summer I kept telling him that his collie was
3:43:48
worrying my Shropshars. He wouldn't believe me, but I knew I was right.
3:43:52
And one night, when here he was home, he lay in wait
3:43:56
for the dog and lassoed him. I tied him up and sent for Wyndham.
3:44:01
You should have seen his face and the dog's face. He said two
3:44:05
words, you scoundrel, and the dog cowered at his feet as if he
3:44:09
had been shot. He was one fine dog, but he'd got corrupted by
3:44:15
evil companions. Then Wyndam asked me where my sheep were. I told him
3:44:20
in the pasture. He asked me if I still hide my old ram Bolton.
3:44:24
I said yes, and then he wanted eight or ten feet of rope.
3:44:28
I gave it to him and wondered what on earth he was going to
3:44:31
do with it. He tied one end of it to the dog's collar,
3:44:35
and holding the other in his hand, set out for the pasture. He
3:44:39
asked us to go with him, and when he got there he told Harry
3:44:43
he'd like to see him catch Bolton. There wasn't any need to catch him.
3:44:46
He'd come to us like a dog. Harry whistled, and when Bolton
3:44:50
came up, Wyndam fastened the rope's end to his horns and let him go.
3:44:56
The ram was frightened and ran, dragging the dog with him. We
3:45:01
let them out of the pasture into an open field, and for a few
3:45:03
minutes there was such a racing and chasing over that field as I never saw
3:45:07
before. Harry leaned up against the bars and laughed till the tears rolled down
3:45:13
his cheeks. Then Bolton got mad and began to make battle with the dog,
3:45:18
pitching into him with his horns. We soon stopped that, for the
3:45:22
spirit had all gone out of dash. Wyndham unfastened the rope and told him
3:45:26
to get home. And if I ever saw a dog run, that one
3:45:31
did. Missus Wyndham set great store by him, and her husband didn't want
3:45:35
to kill him, but he said Dash had got to give up his sheep
3:45:41
killing if he wanted to live. That cured him. He's never worried a
3:45:46
sheep from that day to this. And if you offer him a bit of
3:45:48
sheep's wool, now he tucks his tail between his legs and runs for home.
3:45:54
Now I must stop my talk, for we're in sight of the farm.
3:45:56
Yadder's our boundary line, and there's the house. You'll see a difference
3:46:01
in the trees since you were here before. We had come to a turn
3:46:05
in the road where the ground sloped gently upward. We turned in at the
3:46:11
gate and drove between rows of trees up to a long, low, red
3:46:16
house with a veranda all around it. There was a wide lawn in front,
3:46:22
and away on our right were the farm buildings. They too were painted
3:46:26
red, and there were some trees by them that mister Wood called his windbreak
3:46:33
because they kept the snow from drifting in the wintertime. I thought it was
3:46:37
a beautiful place. Miss Laura had been here before, but not for some
3:46:43
years, so she too was looking about quite eagerly. Welcome to Dingley Farm,
3:46:50
Joe, said missus Wood with her jolly laugh as she watched me jump
3:46:56
from the carriage seat to the ground. Come on in and I'll introduce you
3:47:01
to pussy Aunt Hattie. Why is the farm called Dingley Farm, said miss
3:47:07
Laura as we went into the house. It ought to be Wood Farm.
3:47:13
Dingley is made out of dingle, Laura. You know that pretty hollow back
3:47:18
of the pasture. It's what they call a dingle. So this farm was
3:47:22
called Dingle farm till the people around about got saying Dingley instead. I suppose
3:47:28
they found it easier. Why here is Lolo coming to see Joe. Walking
3:47:35
along the wide hall that ran through the house was a large tortoise shell cat.
3:47:41
She had a prettily marked face, and she was waving her tail like
3:47:45
a flag and mewing kindly to greet her mistress. But when she saw me,
3:47:50
what a face she made. She flew on the hall table and putting
3:47:56
up her back till it almost lifted her feet from the ground, begin to
3:48:01
spit at me and bristle with rage. Poor Lo Loo, said Missus Wood,
3:48:07
going up to her. Joe is a good dog, and not like
3:48:11
Bruno. He won't hurt you. I wagged myself about a little and looked
3:48:16
kindly at her, but she did nothing but say bad words to me.
3:48:22
It was weeks and weeks before I made friends with that cat. She was
3:48:26
a young thing and had only known one dog, and he was a bad
3:48:31
one, so she supposed all dogs were like him. There was a number
3:48:37
of rooms opening off the hall, and one of them was a dining room
3:48:41
where they had teeth. I lay on a rug outside the door and watched
3:48:45
them. There was a small table spread with a white cloth, and it
3:48:50
had pretty dishes and glassware on it, and a good many different kinds of
3:48:54
things to eat. A little French girl called Adele kept coming and going from
3:49:00
the kitchen to give them hot cakes and fried eggs and hot coffee. As
3:49:05
soon as they finished their tea, Missus Wood gave me one of the best
3:49:09
meals that I have ever had in my life. End of chapter sixteen.
3:49:16
Dingley Farm, Chapter seventeen Mister Wood and his horses. The morning after we
3:49:26
arrived in Riverdale, I was up very early and walking around the house I
3:49:31
slept in the wood shed and could run out doors whenever I liked. The
3:49:37
wood shed was at the back of the house, and near it was the
3:49:41
tool shed. Then there was a carriage house and a plank walk leading to
3:49:48
the barnyard. I ran up this walk and looked into the first building I
3:49:52
came to. It was the horse stable. A door stood open, and
3:49:58
the morning sun was glancing in. There were several horses there, some with
3:50:03
their heads toward me, and some with their tails. I saw that instead
3:50:09
of being tied up, there were gates outside their stalls, and they could
3:50:13
stand in any way they liked. There was a man moving about at the
3:50:18
other end of the stable, and long before he saw me, I knew
3:50:22
that it was mister Wood. What a nice, clean stable he had.
3:50:28
There was always a foul smell coming out of Jinkin's stable, but here the
3:50:35
air seemed as pure inside as outside. There was a number of little gratings
3:50:41
in the wall to let in the fresh air, and they were so placed
3:50:45
that drafts would not blow on the horses. Mister Wood was going from one
3:50:50
horse to another, giving them hay and talking to them in a cheerful voice.
3:50:56
At last he spied me and cried out out the top of the morning
3:51:01
to you, Joe, you're up early. Don't come too near the horses.
3:51:05
Good dog. As I walked in beside him, they might think you
3:51:11
are another Bruno and give you a sly bite or kick. I should have
3:51:16
shot him long ago. Tis hard to make a good dog suffer for a
3:51:20
bad one, but that's the way of the world. Well, old fellow,
3:51:24
what do you think of my horse table? Pretty fair, isn't it.
3:51:28
And mister Wood went on talking to me as he fed and groomed his
3:51:31
horses, till I soon found out that his chief pride was in them.
3:51:37
I like to have human beings talk to me. Mister Morris often reads his
3:51:43
sermons to me, and Miss Laura tells me secrets that I don't think she
3:51:48
would tell to anyone else. I watched mister Wood carefully while he groomed a
3:51:54
huge gray cart horse that he called Dutchman. He took a brush in his
3:52:01
right hand and at curry comb in his left, and he curried and brushed
3:52:05
every part of the horse's skinion, and afterward wiped him with a cloth.
3:52:11
A good grooming is equal to two quarts of oats, Joe, he said
3:52:16
to me. Then he stooped down and examined the horse's hoofs. Your shoes
3:52:22
are too heavy, Dutchman, he said. But that pig headed blacksmith thinks
3:52:26
he knows more about horses than I do. Don't cut the sole nor the
3:52:31
frog, I say to him, don't pare the hoof so much, and
3:52:35
don't grasp it, and fit your shoe to the foot and not the foot
3:52:39
to the shoe. And he looks at me as if he wanted to say,
3:52:43
mind your own business. We'll not go to him again. Tis hard
3:52:48
to teach an old dog new tricks. I got you to work for me,
3:52:52
not to wear out your strength and lifting about his weighty shoes. Mister
3:52:58
Wood stopped talking for a few minutes and whistled a tune. Then he began
3:53:03
again. I've made a study of horses, Joe, over forty years.
3:53:07
I've studied them, and it's my opinion that the average horse knows more than
3:53:11
the average man. That drives him. When I think of the stupid fools
3:53:16
that are goading patient horses about beating them and misunderstanding them and thinking they are
3:53:20
only clods of earth with a little life in them. I'd like to take
3:53:26
their horses out of the shafts and harness them in, and I'd trot them
3:53:30
off at a pace and slash them and jerk them till I guess they'd come
3:53:33
out with a little less patience than does the animal. Look at this dutchman,
3:53:39
see the size of him. You'd think he hadn't any more nerves than
3:53:43
a bit of granite. Yet he's got a skin as sensitive as a girl's.
3:53:48
See how he quivers if I run the currycomb too harshly over him.
3:53:52
The idiot I got him from didn't know what was the matter with him.
3:53:56
He bought him for a reliable horse, and there he was kicking, stamping
3:54:00
whenever the boy went near him. Your boy's got too heavy a hand,
3:54:03
Deacon Jones said I, when he described the horse's actions to me, you
3:54:09
may depend upon it. A four legged creature, unlike a two legged one,
3:54:13
has a reason for everything he does. But he's only a drive horse,
3:54:16
said Deacon Jones. Draft horse or no draft horse, said I.
3:54:22
You're describing a horse with a tender skin to me, and I don't care
3:54:26
if he's as big as an elephant. Well, the old man grumbled and
3:54:30
said he didn't want any Thoroughbred airs in his stable, so I bought you
3:54:35
didn't die a Dutchman, and mister Wood stroked him kindly and went to the
3:54:39
next stall. In each stall was a small tank of water with a sliding
3:54:45
cover, and I found out afterward that these covers were put on when a
3:54:50
horse came in too heated to have a drink. At any other time,
3:54:54
he could drink all he liked. Mister Wood believed in having plenty of pure
3:55:00
There were water for all his animals, and they all had their own place
3:55:03
to get a drink. Even I had a little bowl of water in the
3:55:09
wood shed, though I could easily have run up to the barnyard when I
3:55:13
wanted to drink. As soon as I came, missus Wood asked Adele to
3:55:18
keep it there for me, and when I looked up gratefully at her,
3:55:22
she said, every animal should have its own feeding place, and it's on
3:55:28
sleeping place, Joe, that is only fair. The next horses mister Wood
3:55:33
groomed were the black ones, Cleave and Pacer. Pacer had something wrong with
3:55:39
his mouth, and mister Wood turned back his lips and examined it carefully.
3:55:46
This he was able to do, for there were large windows in the stable
3:55:50
and it was as light as mister Wood's house. Was No dark corners here,
3:55:54
a Joe, said mister Wood, as he came out of the stall
3:56:00
and passed me to get a bottle from a shelf. When this table was
3:56:03
built, I said, no dirt holes for careless men here. I want
3:56:09
the sun to shine in the corners. And I don't want my horses to
3:56:11
smell bad smells, for they hate them, and I don't want them starting
3:56:16
when they go into the light of day, just because they've been kept in
3:56:20
a black hole of a stable. And I've never had a sick horse yet.
3:56:26
He poured something from a bottle into a saucer and went back to Pacer
3:56:31
with it. I followed him and stood outside. Mister Wood seemed to be
3:56:37
washing a sore in the horse's mouth. Pacer WinCE the little and mister Wood
3:56:43
said, steady, steady, my beauty, tw will soon be over.
3:56:46
The horse fixed his intelligent eyes on his master and looked as if he knew
3:56:52
that he was trying to do him good. Just look at these lips,
3:56:56
Joe, said mister Wood. Delicate and fine like our own, and yet
3:57:03
there are brutes that will jerk them just as if they were made of iron.
3:57:07
I wish the Lord would give horses voices just for one week. I
3:57:11
tell you, they'd scare some of us. Now, Pacer, that's over.
3:57:15
I'm not going to dose you much, for I don't believe in it.
3:57:18
If a horse has got a serious trouble, get a good horse,
3:57:22
doctor, say I. If it's a simple thing, tri remedy. There's
3:57:26
been many a good horse drugged and dosed to death. Well, scamp,
3:57:31
my beauty, how are you this morning? In the stall? Next to
3:57:35
Pacer was a small, jet black Mayor with a lean head, slender legs,
3:57:41
and a curious, restless manner. She was a regular greyhound of a
3:57:46
horse, no spare flesh, yet wiry and able to do a great deal
3:57:50
of work. She was a wicked looking little thing, so I thought I
3:57:56
had better keep a safe distance from her heels. Wood petted her a great
3:58:01
deal, and I saw that she was his favorite saucebox, he exclaimed when
3:58:07
she pretended to bite him. You know, if you bite me, I'll
3:58:11
bite back again. I think I've conquered you, he said proudly, as
3:58:16
he stroked her glossy neck. But what a dance you led me? Do
3:58:22
you remember how I bought you for a mere song? Because you had a
3:58:24
bad habit of turning around like a flash in front of anything that frightened you
3:58:30
and bolting off the other way. And how did I cure you, my
3:58:33
beauty, beat you and make you stubborn? Not I? I let you
3:58:39
go round and round. I turned you and twisted you, the oftener the
3:58:43
better for me, till I at last guide it into your pretty head that
3:58:48
turning and twisting was addling your brains and you had better let me be master.
3:58:54
You've minded me from that day, haven't you? Horse or man or
3:58:58
dog aren't much good till they learned to obey. And I've thrown you down,
3:59:03
and I'll do it again if you bite me, so take care.
3:59:07
Scamp tossed her pretty head and took little pieces of mister Wood's shirts, leaving
3:59:11
her mouth, keeping her cunning brown eye on him, as if to see
3:59:16
how far she could go. But she did not bite him. I think
3:59:20
she loved him, for when he left her she winy trellly, and he
3:59:26
had to go back and stroke and caress her. After that, I often
3:59:31
used to watch her as she went about the farm. She always seemed to
3:59:35
be tugging and striving at her load and trying to step out fast and do
3:59:41
a great deal of work. Mister Wood was usually driving her. The men
3:59:46
didn't like her and couldn't manage her. She had not been properly broken in.
3:59:52
After mister Wood finished his work, he went out and stood in the
3:59:56
doorway. There were six horses all together, Dutchman, Cleve, Pacer Scamp,
4:00:05
a bay mayor called Ruby, and a young horse belonging to mister Harry
4:00:09
whose name was Fleetfoot. What do you think of them all? Said mister
4:00:15
Wood, looking down at me. A pretty fine looking lot of horses,
4:00:20
aren't they? Not a thoroughbred there? But worth as much to me as
4:00:24
if each had a pedigree as long as this plank walk. There's a lot
4:00:28
of humbug about this pedigree business. And horses mine have their manes and tails
4:00:33
anyway, and the proper use of their eyes, which is more liberty than
4:00:37
some thoroughbreds get. I'd like to see the man that would persuade me to
4:00:41
put blinders or check reins, or any other instrument of torture on my horses.
4:00:48
Don't the simpletons know that blinders are the cause of well, I wouldn't
4:00:52
like to say how many of our accidents, Joe, for fear you think
4:00:58
me extravagant. And the check rein drags up a horse's head out of its
4:01:03
fine natural curve and presses sinews, bones and joints together till the horse is
4:01:09
well nigh mad Ah, Joe, this is a cruel world for man or
4:01:13
beast. You're a standing token of that with your missing ears and tail.
4:01:18
And now I've got to go and be cruel and shoot that dog. He
4:01:22
must be disposed of before anyone else is astir how I hate to take life.
4:01:30
He sauntered down the walk to the tool shed, went in, and
4:01:33
soon came out leading a large brown dog by a chain. This was Bruno.
4:01:41
He was snapping and snarling and biting at his chain as he went along,
4:01:46
though mister Wood led him very kindly, and when he saw me he
4:01:50
acted as if he could have torn me to pieces. After mister Wood took
4:01:56
him behind the barn, he came back and got his gun. I ran
4:02:01
away so that I would not hear the sound of it, for I could
4:02:05
not help feeling sorry. For Bruno. Miss Laura's room was on one side
4:02:11
of the house, and in the second story. There was a little balcony
4:02:16
outside it, and when I got near, I saw that she was standing
4:02:20
out on it, wrapped in a shawl. Her hair was streaming over her
4:02:24
shoulders, and she was looking down into the garden, where there were a
4:02:28
great many white and yellow flowers in bloom. I barked, and she looked
4:02:35
at me, dear old Joe, I will get dressed and come down.
4:02:39
She hurried into her room, and I lay on the veranda till I heard
4:02:45
her step. Then I jumped up. She unlocked the front door, and
4:02:50
we went for a walk down the lane to the road until we heard the
4:02:54
breakfast veale. As soon as we heard it, we ran back to the
4:02:58
house, and Miss Laura had such an appetite for her breakfast that her aunt
4:03:03
said the country had done her good already. End of chapter seventeen. Mister
4:03:11
Wood and his Horses. Chapter eighteen, missus Wood's poultry. After breakfast,
4:03:20
missus Wood put on a large apron, and, going into the kitchen,
4:03:24
said, have you any scraps for the hens? A deal? Be sure,
4:03:28
and not give me anything salty. The French girl gave her a dish
4:03:33
of food. Then missus Wood asked Miss Laura to go see her chickens,
4:03:37
and away we went to the poultry house. On the way we saw mister
4:03:43
Wood. He was sitting on the step of the tool shed cleaning his gun.
4:03:48
Is the dog dead, asked Miss Laura. Yes, he said,
4:03:56
huh. She sighed and said, poor creature. I am sorry he had
4:04:01
to be killed. Uncle. What is the most merciful way to kill a
4:04:05
dog? Sometimes when they get old, they should be put out of the
4:04:09
way. You can shoot them, he said, or you can poison them.
4:04:16
I shot Bruno threw his head into his neck. There's a right place
4:04:20
to aim at. It's a little one side of the top of the school.
4:04:22
If you'll remind me, I'll show you a circular I have in the
4:04:26
house. It tells the proper way to kill animals. The American Humane Education
4:04:31
Society in Boston puts it out and it's a merciful thing. You don't know
4:04:37
anything about the slaughtering of animals, Laura, And it's well you don't.
4:04:41
There's an awful amount of cruelty practiced, and practiced by some people that think
4:04:46
themselves pretty good. I wouldn't have my lambs killed the way my father had
4:04:50
his. For a kingdom. I'll never forget the first one I saw butchered.
4:04:54
I wouldn't feel worse at a hanging now. And that white awe hattie,
4:05:01
you remember my telling you about him, he had to be killed,
4:05:03
and father sent for the butcher. I was only a lad, and I
4:05:07
was all of a shudder to have the life of the creature I had known
4:05:11
taken from him. The butcher, stupid clown, gave him eight blows before
4:05:16
he struck the right place. The ox bellowed and turned his great black eyes
4:05:20
on my father, and I fell in a faint. Miss Laura turned away,
4:05:26
and Missus wood followed her, saying, if you ever want to kill
4:05:31
a cat, Laura, give it cyanide of potassium. I killed a poor,
4:05:35
old, sick cat for Missus Wyndham the other day. We put a
4:05:39
half teaspoonful of pure cyanide of potassium and a long handled wooden spoon and dropped
4:05:46
it on the cat's tongue as near the throat as we could. Poor pussy.
4:05:50
She died in a few seconds. Do you know I was reading such
4:05:54
a funny thing the other day about getting cat's medicine. They hate it,
4:05:58
and one can scarcely force it into their mouths on account of their sharp teeth.
4:06:03
The way is to smear it on their sides, and they lick it
4:06:07
off. A good idea, isn't it? Here? We are at the
4:06:09
hen house, or rather one of the hen houses. Don't you keep your
4:06:15
hens altogether, asked Miss Laura, Only in the winter time, said missus
4:06:20
wood. I divide my flock in the spring, part of them stay here,
4:06:24
in part go to the orchard to live in little movable houses that we
4:06:28
put about in different places. I feed each flock morning and evening at their
4:06:33
own little house. They know they'll get no food even if they come to
4:06:37
my house, so they stay at home, and they know they'll get no
4:06:41
food between times, So all day long they pick and scratch in the orchard
4:06:45
and destroy so many bugs and insects that it more than pays for the trouble
4:06:50
of keeping them there. Doesn't this flock want to mix up with the other,
4:06:54
ask Miss Laura as she stepped into the little wooden house. No,
4:07:00
they seem to understand. I keep my eye on them for a while at
4:07:03
first, and they soon find out that they're not to fly either over the
4:07:07
garden fence or the orchard fence. They roam over the farm and pick up
4:07:13
what they can get. There's a good deal of sens and hens if one
4:07:16
manages them properly. I loved them because they're such good mothers. We were
4:07:22
in the little wooden house by this time, and I looked around it with
4:07:26
surprise. It was better than some of the poor people's houses in Fairport.
4:07:31
The walls were white and clean, so were the little ladders that led up
4:07:35
to different kinds of roosts where the fowls sat at night. Some roosts were
4:07:41
thin and round, and some were broad and flat. Missus Woods said that
4:07:46
the broad ones were for a heavy fowl called Brahma. Every part of the
4:07:52
little house was almost as light as it was outdoors, on account of the
4:07:56
large windows. Miss Laura spoke of it. Why Antie, I never saw
4:08:01
such a light henhouse. Missus Wood was diving into a partly shut in place
4:08:09
where it was not so light, and where the nests were. She straightened
4:08:13
herself up, her face redder than ever, and looked at the windows with
4:08:18
a pleased smile. Yeah, there's not a hen house in New Hampshire,
4:08:22
with such big windows. Whenever I look at them, I think of my
4:08:26
mother's hens and wish they could have had a place like this. They would
4:08:31
have thought themselves in a hen's paradise. When I was a girl, we
4:08:35
didn't know that hens loves light and heat, and all winter they used to
4:08:41
sit in a dark hen coop, and the cold was so bad that their
4:08:45
combs would freeze stiff, and the tops of them would drop off. We
4:08:48
never thought about it. If we'd had any sense, we might have watched
4:08:52
them on a fine day go and sit on the compost heap and some themselves,
4:08:58
and then have concluded that they liked light and heat outside they'd like it
4:09:03
inside. Poor bitties. They were so cold that they wouldn't lay us any
4:09:07
eggs in winter. You take a great interest in poultry, don't you,
4:09:13
auntie, said Miss Laura. Yes indeed, and well I may. I'll
4:09:18
show you my brown leghorn Jenny that lays eggs enough in a year to pay
4:09:24
for the newspapers I take to keep myself posted in poultry matters. I buy
4:09:28
all my own clothes with my hen money, and lately I've started a bank
4:09:33
account for I want to save up enough to start a few stands of bees.
4:09:37
Even if I didn't want to be kind to my hens, it would
4:09:41
pay me to be so for the sake of the profit they yield. Of
4:09:45
course, there are quite a lot of trouble. Sometimes they get vermin on
4:09:48
them, and I have to grease them and dust carbolic acid on them,
4:09:52
and try some of my numerous cures. Then I must keep ashes and dust
4:09:58
wallows for them, and be very particular about my eggs when hens are sitting,
4:10:03
and see that the hens come off regularly for food and exercise. Oh,
4:10:07
there are a hundred things I have to think of, But I always
4:10:11
say to anyone that thinks of raising poultry, if you are going into the
4:10:16
business for the purpose of making money, it pays to take care of them.
4:10:20
There's one thing I notice, said Miss Laura, and that is that
4:10:24
your drinking fountains must be a great deal better than the shallow pans that I
4:10:28
have seen. Some people give their hens water in dirty things they are,
4:10:33
said missus Wood, I wouldn't use one of them. I don't think there
4:10:39
is anything worse for hens than drinking dirty water. My hens must have as
4:10:43
clean water as I drink myself, and in winter I heat it for them.
4:10:48
If it's poured boiling into the fountains in the morning, it keeps warm
4:10:52
till night. Speaking of shallow drinking dishes, I wouldn't use them. Even
4:10:56
before I ever heard of a drinking fountain. John made me something that we
4:11:01
read about. He used to take a powder keg and bore a little hole
4:11:05
in the side about an inch from the top, and then fill it with
4:11:09
water and cover with a pan a little larger round than the keg. Then
4:11:15
he turned the keg upside down without taking away the pan. The water ran
4:11:18
into the pan only as far as the hole in the keg, and it
4:11:22
would have to be used before more would flow in. Now let us go
4:11:26
and see my beautiful bronze turkeys. They don't need any houses, for they
4:11:31
roost in the trees the year round. We found the flock of turkeys,
4:11:37
and Miss Laura admired their changeable colors very much. Some of them were very
4:11:43
large, and I did not like them, for the gobblers ran at me
4:11:46
and made a dreadful noise in their throats. Afterward, missus Wood showed us
4:11:52
some ducks that she had shut up in a yard. She said that she
4:11:56
was feeding them on vegetable food, give their flesh a pure flavor, and
4:12:01
by and by she would send them to market and get a high price for
4:12:07
them. Every place she took us was as clean as possible. No one
4:12:13
can be successful in raising poultry in large numbers, she said, unless they
4:12:18
keep their quarters clean and comfortable. As yet, we had seen no hens
4:12:24
except a few on the nests. And Miss Laura said, where are they?
4:12:28
I should like to see them. They are coming, said missus Wood.
4:12:33
It is just their breakfast time, and they are as punctual as clockwork.
4:12:37
They go off early in the morning to scratch about a little for themselves.
4:12:41
First, as she spoke, she stepped off the plank walk and looked
4:12:46
off towards the fields. Miss Laura burst out, laughing away beyond the barns.
4:12:52
The hens were coming. Seeing missus Wood standing there, they thought they
4:12:58
were late, and begin to run and fly, jumping over each other's backs
4:13:03
and stretching out their necks in a state of great excitement. Some of their
4:13:07
legs seemed sticking straight out behind. It was very funny to see them.
4:13:13
They were a fine looking lot of poultry, mostly white with glossy feathers and
4:13:18
bright eyes. They greedily ate the food scattered to them, and missus Wood
4:13:24
said, they think I've changed their breakfast time, and tomorrow they'll come a
4:13:28
good bit earlier. And yet some people say hens have no sense. End
4:13:35
of Chapter eighteen, missus Wood's Poultry. Chapter nineteen, A Band of Mercy.
4:13:43
A few evenings after we came to Dingley Farm, missus Wood and Miss
4:13:50
Laura were sitting out on the verandah, and I was lying at their feet.
4:13:56
Auntie said, Miss Laura, what do those lasts mean on that silver
4:14:01
pin that you wear with that piece of ribbon. You know what the white
4:14:05
ribbon means, don't you? Asked missus Wood. Yes, that you are
4:14:11
a temperance woman, doesn't it? It does? And the star pin means
4:14:16
that I am a member of a band of mercy. Do you know what
4:14:20
a band of mercy is? No, said Miss Laura. How strange I
4:14:28
should think that you would have several In Fairport. A crippled boy, the
4:14:33
son of a Boston artist, started this one here. It has done a
4:14:37
great deal of good. There is a meeting tomorrow and I will take you
4:14:41
to it if you like it. Was on Monday that Missus Wood had this
4:14:46
talk with Miss Laura. In the next afternoon, after all the work was
4:14:50
done, they got ready to go to the village. May Joe go,
4:14:56
asked Miss Laura. Suddenly said missus Wood. He is such a good dog
4:15:03
that he won't be any trouble. I was very glad to hear this,
4:15:09
and trotted along by them down the lane to the road. The lane was
4:15:13
a very cool and pleasant place. There were tall trees growing on each side,
4:15:20
and under them among the grass, pretty wildflowers were peeping out to look
4:15:26
at us as we went by. Missus Wood and miss Laura talked all the
4:15:31
way about the Band of Mercy. Miss Laura was much interested and said that
4:15:39
she would like to start one in Fairport. It's a very simple thing,
4:15:43
said missus Wood. All you have to do is to write the pledge at
4:15:48
the top of a piece of paper. I will try to be kind to
4:15:54
all harmless living creatures and try to protect them from cruel usage, and to
4:16:00
get thirty people to sign it. That makes a band. I have formed
4:16:06
two or three bands by keeping slips of paper ready and getting people that come
4:16:11
to visit me to sign them. I call them corresponding bands, for they
4:16:17
are too far apart to meet. I send the members Band of Mercy papers
4:16:22
and I get such nice letters from them telling me of kind things they do
4:16:27
for animals. A band of mercy in a place is a splendid thing.
4:16:33
There's the greatest difference in Riverdale since this one was started a few years ago.
4:16:40
When a man beat or raced his horse and anyone interfered, he said,
4:16:45
this horse is mine, I'll do what I like with him. Most
4:16:51
people thought he was right. But now they're all for the poor horse.
4:16:56
And there isn't a man anywhere around who would dare to abuse any animal.
4:17:03
It's all the children. They're doing a grand work, and I say it's
4:17:07
a good thing for them. Since we've studied the subject, it's enough to
4:17:11
frighten one to read what has sent us about our American boys and girls.
4:17:18
Do you know, Laura, that with all our brag about our schools and
4:17:22
colleges that really are wonderful, we're turning out more criminals than any other civilized
4:17:29
country in the world except Spain and Italy. The cause of it is said
4:17:34
to be lack of proper training for the youth of our land. Immigration has
4:17:40
something to do with it too. We're thinking too much about educating the mind
4:17:45
and forgetting about the heart and soul. So I say, now, while
4:17:49
we've got all our future population in our schools, saints and sennas good people
4:17:56
and bad people, let us try to slip something between the geography and history
4:18:03
and grandmar that will go a little deeper and touch them so much that when
4:18:07
they are grown up and go out in the world, they will carry with
4:18:11
them lessons of love and goodwill to men. Hey, little child, it's
4:18:17
such a tender thing. You can bend it any way you like. Speaking
4:18:21
of this heart education of children as set over against mind education, I see
4:18:27
that many school teachers say there is nothing better than to give them lessons on
4:18:33
kindness to animals. Children who are taught to love and protect dumb creatures will
4:18:40
be kind to their fellow men when they grow up. I was very much
4:18:45
pleased with this talk between missus Wood and Miss Laura, and kept close to
4:18:49
them so that I would not miss a word. As we went along,
4:18:56
houses begin to appear here and there, set back from the road among the
4:19:00
trees. Soon they got quite close together, and I saw some shops.
4:19:07
This was the village of Riverdale, and nearly all the buildings were along this
4:19:11
winding street. The river was away back of the village. We had already
4:19:18
driven there several times. We passed the school on our way. It was
4:19:23
a square white building standing in the middle of a large yard. Boys and
4:19:30
girls with their arms full of books, were hurrying down the steps and coming
4:19:34
into the street. Two quite big boys came behind us, and Missus Wood
4:19:40
turned around and spoke to them and asked if they were going to the Bend
4:19:44
of Mercy. Oh, yes, said the younger one. I've got a
4:19:48
recitation, don't you remember. Yes, yes, excuse me for forgetting said
4:19:55
missus Wood, with her jolly laugh. And here are Dolly and Jenny and
4:20:00
Martha. She went on, as some little girls came running out of a
4:20:04
house that we were passing. The little girls joined us and looked so hard
4:20:10
at my head and stump of a tail and my fine collar that I felt
4:20:15
quite shy and walked with my head against Miss Laura's dress. She stooped down
4:20:23
and patted me, and then I felt as if I didn't care how much
4:20:27
they stared. Miss Laura never forgotten me, no matter how earnestly. She
4:20:33
was talking, or playing a game, or doing anything. She always stopped
4:20:40
occasionally to give me a word or look to show that she knew I was
4:20:45
near. Missus Wood paused in front of a building on the main street.
4:20:51
A great many boys and girls were going in, and we went with them.
4:20:56
We found ourselves in a large room with a platform at one end of
4:21:00
it. There were some chairs on this platform and a small table. A
4:21:04
boy stood by this table with his hand on a veil. Presently he rang
4:21:11
it, and then everyone kept steal Missus Wood whispered to Miss Laura that this
4:21:17
boy was the president of the band, and the young man with the pale
4:21:22
face and curly hair who sat in front of him was mister Maxwell, the
4:21:26
artist's son who had formed this band of mercy. The lad who presided had
4:21:33
a ringing, pleasant voice. He said that they would begin their meeting by
4:21:38
singing a hymn. There was an organ near the platform, and a young
4:21:44
girl played on it while all the other boys and girls stood up and sang
4:21:48
very sweetly and clearly. After they had sung the hemn, the president asked
4:21:55
for the report of their last meeting. A little girl, blushing and hanging
4:22:00
her head, came forward and read what was written on a paper that she
4:22:06
held in her hand. The President made some remarks after she had finished,
4:22:11
and then everyone had to vote. It was just like a meeting of grown
4:22:15
people, and I was surprised to see how good those children were. They
4:22:21
did not frolic or laugh, but all seemed sober and listened attentively. After
4:22:27
the voting was over, the President called upon John Turner to give a recitation.
4:22:33
This was the boy whom we saw on the way there. He walked
4:22:37
up to the platform, made a bow, and said that he had learned
4:22:42
two stories for his recitation out of the paper Dumb Animals. One story was
4:22:49
about a horse and the other was about a dog, and he thought that
4:22:53
they were two of the best animal stories on record. He would tell them
4:23:00
horse story first. A man in Missouri had to go to Nebraska to see
4:23:04
about some land. He went on horseback on a horse that he had trained
4:23:08
himself, and that came at his whistle like a dog. On getting into
4:23:14
Nebraska, he came to a place where there were two roads. One went
4:23:18
by a river and the other went over the hill. The man saw that
4:23:22
the travel went over the hill but thought he'd take the river road. He
4:23:26
didn't know that there was a quicksand across it, and that people couldn't use
4:23:32
it in spring and summer. There used to be a signboard to tell strangers
4:23:36
about it, but it had been taken away. The man got off his
4:23:40
horse to let him graze, and walked along till he got so far ahead
4:23:44
of the horse that he had to sit down and wait for him. Suddenly
4:23:48
he found that he was on a quicksand his feet had sunk in the sand,
4:23:55
and he could not get them out. He threw himself down and whistled
4:23:59
for his horse and shouted for help, but no one came. He could
4:24:03
hear some young people singing out on the river, but they could not hear
4:24:07
him. The terrible sand drew him in almost to his shoulders, and he
4:24:12
thought he was lost. At that moment, the horse came running up and
4:24:17
stood by his master. The man was too low down to get hold of
4:24:22
the saddle or bridle, so he took hold of the horse's tail and told
4:24:26
him to go. The horse gave an awful pull and landed his master on
4:24:30
safe ground. Everybody clapped his hands and stamped. When this story was finished
4:24:37
and called out the dog story. The dog story. The boie boled and
4:24:45
smiled and began again. You all know what a roundup of cattle is,
4:24:49
so I need not explain. Once a man down south was going to have
4:24:55
one, and he and his boys and friends were talking it over. There
4:24:57
was an ugly black so steer in the herd, and they were wondering whether
4:25:02
their old yellow dog would be able to manage him. The dog's name was
4:25:07
Tige, and he lay and listened wisely to their talk. The next day
4:25:11
there was a scene of great confusion. The steer raged and tore about and
4:25:17
would allow no one to come within a whips touch of him. Tige,
4:25:22
who had always been brave, skulked about for a while, and then,
4:25:26
as if he had got up a little spirit, he made a run at
4:25:29
the steer. The steer sighted him, gave a bellow, and, lowering
4:25:33
his horns, ran at him. Tige turned tail, and the young men
4:25:38
that owned him were frantic. They'd been praising him and thought they were going
4:25:42
to have it proven faults. Their father called out, don't shoot Tige till
4:25:48
you see where he's running to. The dog ran right to the cattle pin.
4:25:53
The steer was so enraged that he never noticed where he was going,
4:25:57
and dashed in after him. Tage leaped the wall and came back to the
4:26:03
gate, barking and yelping for the men to come in and shut the steer
4:26:07
in. They shut the gate and petted Tage and bought him a collar with
4:26:11
a silver plate. The boy was loudly cheered and went to his seat.
4:26:17
The President said he would like to have remarks made about these two stories.
4:26:22
Several children put up their hands, and he asked each one to speak in
4:26:27
turn. One said that if that man's horse had had a docked tail,
4:26:33
his master wouldn't have been able to reach it and would have perished. Another
4:26:38
said that if the man hadn't treated his horse kindly, he would have never
4:26:44
come at his whistle and stood over him to see what he could do to
4:26:48
help him. A third child said that the people on the river weren't as
4:26:52
quick at hearing the voice of the man in trouble as the horse was.
4:26:57
When this talk was over, the President called for some stories of foreign animals.
4:27:03
Another boy came forward, made his bow, and said, in a
4:27:08
short, abrupt voice, my uncle's name is Henry. Worthington. He is
4:27:14
an Englishman and once he was a soldier in India. One day, when
4:27:18
he was hunting in the Punjab, he saw a mother monkey carrying a little
4:27:22
dead baby monkey. Six months after, he was in the same jungle saw
4:27:27
the same monkey, still carrying dead baby monkey, all shriveled up. Mother
4:27:33
monkey loved her baby monkey and wouldn't give it up. The boy went to
4:27:38
his seat, and the President, with a queer look in his face,
4:27:42
said, that's a very good story, Ronald, if it is true.
4:27:48
None of the children laughed, but missus Wood's face got like a red poppy,
4:27:53
and Miss Laura bit her lip, and mister Maxwell buried his head in
4:27:59
his awn arms, his whole frame shaking. The bowie who told the story
4:28:04
looked very angry. He jumped up again. My uncle's a true man and
4:28:11
never told a lion his life. The President remained standing, his face a
4:28:18
deep scarlet, and a tall boy at the back of the room got up
4:28:22
and said, mister President, what would be impossible in this climate might be
4:28:29
possible in a hot country like India, doesn't heat. Sometimes draw up and
4:28:33
preserve things. The President's face cleared, thank you for the suggestion, He
4:28:40
said, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but you know there is
4:28:44
a rule in the band that only true stories are to be told. Here
4:28:48
we have five more minutes for foreign stories. Has anyone else won? End
4:28:56
of Chapter nineteen A Band of Mercy, Chapter twenty stories about animals. A
4:29:07
small girl with twinkling eyes and the merry face got up just behind Miss Laura
4:29:14
and made her way to the front. My dream fatter says. She began
4:29:21
in a piping little voice that when he was a little boy, his father
4:29:27
brought him a little monkey from the West Indies. The naughty boys in the
4:29:33
village used to tease the little monkey, and he runned up a tree one
4:29:38
day day was throwing stones at him, and the man that was painting the
4:29:45
house droven away. The monkey runned down the tree and shook hands with the
4:29:52
man. My dran Fotter saw him, she said, with a shake of
4:29:57
her head at the present, as if he was afraid he would doubt her.
4:30:03
There was great laughing and clapping of hands. When this little girl took
4:30:07
her seat, she hopped right up again and ran back. Oh, I
4:30:12
fordot she went on in her squeaky little voice that my drand Fatter says that
4:30:22
afterward the monkey upset the painter's can of oil and rolled in it, and
4:30:26
then jumped down my Dranfatter's flower barrel. The President looked very much amused and
4:30:36
said, we have had some good stories about monkeys. Now let us have
4:30:41
some more about our home animals. Who can tell us another story about a
4:30:45
horse? Three or four boies jumped up, but the President said they would
4:30:52
take one at a time. The first one was this A Riverdale bowie was
4:30:57
walking along the bank of a canal in Whickville. He saw a bowie driving
4:31:03
two horses, which were towing a canal boat. The first horse was lazy,
4:31:10
and the boy got angry and struck him several times over the head with
4:31:15
his whip. The Riverdale boy shouted across to him, begging him not to
4:31:22
be so cruel, but the boy paid no attention. Suddenly the horse turned,
4:31:29
seized his tormentor by the shoulder, and pushed him into the canal.
4:31:34
The water was not deep, and the boy, after floundering about for a
4:31:40
few seconds, came out, dripping with mud and fill, and sat down
4:31:45
on the towpath and looked at the horse with such a comical expression that the
4:31:51
Riverdale boy had to stuff his handkerchief in his mouth to keep from laughing.
4:31:57
It is hoped that he would learn the lesson, said the President, and
4:32:03
be kinder to his horse in the future. Now, Bernard, howe your
4:32:07
story. The boy was a brother to the little girl who had told the
4:32:12
monkey story, and he too had evidently been talking to his grandfather. He
4:32:19
told two stories, and Miss Laura listened eagerly, for they were about Fairport.
4:32:26
The boy said that when his grandfather was young, he lived in Fairport,
4:32:33
Maine. On a certain day he stood in the market square to see
4:32:37
their first stage coach put together. It had come from Boston in pieces,
4:32:45
for there was no one in Fairport that could make one. The coach went
4:32:49
away up into the country one day and came back the next. For a
4:32:56
long time, no one understood driving the horse properly, and they came in
4:33:02
day after day with the blood streaming from them. The whiffle tree would swing
4:33:07
round and hit them, and when their callers were taken off, their necks
4:33:12
would be raw and bloody. After a time, the men got to understand
4:33:18
how to drive a coach, and the horses did not suffer so much.
4:33:23
The other story was about a tame boat, not a steamboat. More than
4:33:30
seventy years ago they had no steamers running between Fairport and the island opposite where
4:33:37
people went for the summer. But they had what they called a tame boat,
4:33:44
that is, a boat with machinery to make it go that could be
4:33:48
worked by horses. There were eight horses that went around and around and made
4:33:55
the boat go. One afternoon, two dancing mass who were wicked fellows that
4:34:02
played the fiddle and never went to church on Sundays, got on the boat
4:34:07
and sat just where the horses had to pass them as they went around.
4:34:11
Every time the horses went by, they jabbed them with their penknives. The
4:34:18
man who was driving the horses at last saw the blood dripping from them,
4:34:25
and the dancing masters were found out. Some young men on the boat were
4:34:30
so angry that they caught up a rope's end and gave the dancing masters a
4:34:36
lashing, and then threw them into the water and made them swim to the
4:34:41
island. When this boy took a seat, a young girl read some verses
4:34:47
that she had clipped from a newspaper. Don't kill the toads, the ugly
4:34:53
toads that hop around your door. Each meal, the little toad doth eat
4:35:00
a hundred bugs or more. He sits around with a spect meat until the
4:35:06
bug hath neared, then shoots he forth his little tongue like lightning, double
4:35:12
geared. And then he soberly doth wink and shut his ugly mug, and
4:35:19
patiently doth wait until there comes another bug. Mister Maxwell told a good dog
4:35:27
story. After this, he said the President need not have any fears as
4:35:33
to which truth, for it had happened in his boarding house in the village,
4:35:37
and he had seen it himself. Monday, the day before being washed
4:35:42
day, his landlady had put out a large washing. Among the clothes on
4:35:49
the line was a gray flannel shirt belonging to her husband. The young dog
4:35:56
belonging to the house had pulled the shirt from the and torn it to pieces.
4:36:02
The woman put it aside and told him master would beat him. When
4:36:07
the man came home to his dinner, he showed the dog the pieces of
4:36:11
the shirt and gave him a severe whooping. The dog ran away, visited
4:36:18
all the clothes lines in the village till he found a gray shirt very much
4:36:25
like his master's. He seized it and ran home, laying it at his
4:36:30
master's feet, joyfully wagging his tail. Meanwhile, mister Maxwell's story done,
4:36:41
A bright faced bowie called Simon Gray got up and said, you all know
4:36:48
our old gray horse ned. Last week? Father sold him to a man
4:36:52
in Pointville, and I went to the station where he was shipped. He
4:36:57
was put in a box car. The doors were left a little open to
4:37:02
give him air, and were locked in that way. There was a narrow
4:37:07
sliding door four feet from the floor of the car, and in some way
4:37:11
or other Old Ned pushed this door open, crawled through it, and tumbled
4:37:17
out on the ground. When I was coming home from school, I saw
4:37:21
him walking along the track. He hadn't hurt himself except for a few cuts.
4:37:26
He was glad to see me and followed me home. He must have
4:37:32
gotten off the train when it was going full speed, for he hadn't been
4:37:36
seen at any of the stations, and the train men were astonished to find
4:37:41
the doors locked and the car empty. When they got to Wheatville. Father
4:37:47
got the man who bought him to release him from his bargain, for he
4:37:52
says, if Ned is so fond of Riverdale, he shall stay here.
4:37:56
The president asked the boys and girls to give three cheers for old Ned,
4:38:03
and then they had some more singing. After they had all taken their seats,
4:38:08
he said he would like to know what the members had been doing for
4:38:11
animals during the past fortnight. One girl had kept her brother from shooting two
4:38:21
owls that came about their barnyard. She told him that the owls would destroy
4:38:26
the rats and mice that bothered him in the barn, but if he hunted
4:38:30
them, they would go to the woods. A boy said that he had
4:38:37
persuaded some of his friends who were going fishing to put their bait worms into
4:38:41
a dish of boiling water to kill them before they started, and also to
4:38:48
promise him that as soon as they took their fish out of the water,
4:38:52
they would kill them by a sharp blow on the back of the head.
4:38:56
They were all the more ready to do this when he told them that their
4:39:02
fish would taste better when cooked if they had been killed as soon as they
4:39:06
were taken from the water into the air. A little girl had gotten her
4:39:11
mother to say that she would never again put lobsters into cold water and slowly
4:39:18
boil them to death. She had also stopped a man in the street who
4:39:22
was carrying a pair of fowls with their heads down, and asked him if
4:39:29
he would kindly reverse their position. The man told her that the fowls didn't
4:39:34
mine, and she pursed up her small mouth and showed the band how.
4:39:41
She said to him, I would prefer the opinion of the hens, then,
4:39:47
she said. He had laughed at her and said, certainly, little
4:39:52
lady, and had gone off carrying them as she wanted him to. She
4:39:57
had also reasoned with different bowlies outside the village who were throwing stones at birds
4:40:03
and frogs and sticking butterflies, and had invited them to come to the Band
4:40:10
of Mercy. This child seemed to have done more than anyone else for dumb
4:40:17
animals. She had taken around a petition to the village boys asking them not
4:40:22
to search for birds eggs, and she had even gone into her father's stable
4:40:29
and asked him to hold her up so that she could look into the horse's
4:40:34
mouths to see if their teeth wanted feeling or were decayed. When her father
4:40:41
laughed at her, she told him that horses often suffer terrible pain from their
4:40:47
teeth, and that sometimes a runaway is caused by a metal bit striking against
4:40:52
the exposed nerve, and the tooth of a horse that has become almost frantic
4:40:57
with pain. She was a fairy, gentle girl, and I think by
4:41:03
the way that she spoke that her father loved her dearly. For she told
4:41:10
how much trouble he had taken to make some tiny houses for her that she
4:41:15
wanted for the wrens that came about the farm. She told him that those
4:41:21
little birds are so good at catching insects that they ought to give all their
4:41:26
time to it and not have any worry about making houses. Her father made
4:41:33
their homes very small, so that the English sparrows could not get in and
4:41:38
crowd them out. A boy said that he had gotten a pot of paint
4:41:45
and painted in large letters on the fences around his father's farm, Spare the
4:41:52
toads, don't kill the birds. Every bird killed is a loss to the
4:41:57
country. That reminds me, said the president to ask the girls what they
4:42:04
have done about the millinery business. I have told my mother, said a
4:42:11
tall, serious faced girl, that I think it is wrong to wear bird
4:42:15
feathers, and she has promised to give up wearing any of them except ostrich
4:42:21
plumes. Missus Wood asked permission to say a few words just here, and
4:42:26
the President said, certainly, we are always glad to hear from you.
4:42:33
She went up on the platform and faced the roomful of children, dear boys
4:42:40
and girls, she began, I have had some papers sent me from Boston
4:42:47
giving some facts about the killing of our birds, and I want to state
4:42:52
a few of them to you. You all know that's nearly every tree and
4:42:56
plant that grows swarms within life, and that they couldn't grow if the birds
4:43:03
didn't eat the insects that would devour their foliage all day long. The little
4:43:10
beaks of the birds are busy. The dear little rose breasted gross beak carefully
4:43:17
examines the potato plants and picks off the beetles. The martins destroy weevil.
4:43:23
The quail and grass family eat the chinchbug. The woodpeckers dig the worms from
4:43:30
the trees, and many other birds eat the flies and gnats and mosquitoes that
4:43:36
torment us. No flying or crawling creature escapes their sharp little eyes. A
4:43:41
great Frenchman says that if it weren't for the birds, human beings would perish
4:43:48
from the face of the earth. They are doing all this for us,
4:43:53
and how are we rewarding them? All over America they are hunting and killed.
4:44:00
Five million birds must be caught every year for the American women to wear
4:44:07
in their hats and bonnets. Just think of it, girls, isn't it
4:44:11
dreadful? Five million innocent, hard working, beautiful birds killed that thoughtless girls
4:44:19
and women may ornament themselves with their little dead bodies. One million Bobbo links
4:44:27
have been killed in one month near Philadelphia. Seventy songbirds were sent from one
4:44:34
Long Island village to New York milliners in Flora, cruel men shoot the mother
4:44:42
birds on their nest while they are rearing their young because their plumage is prettiest
4:44:48
at that time. The little ones cry pitifully and starve to death. Every
4:44:56
bird of the rarer kind that is killed, such as h birds, orioles
4:45:00
and kingfishes, means the death of several others. That is, the young
4:45:07
that starve to death, the wounded that fly away to die, and those
4:45:11
whose plumage is so torn that it is not fit to put in a lady's
4:45:17
fine bonnet. In some cases where birds have gay wings and the hunters do
4:45:23
not wish the rest of the body. They tear off the wings from the
4:45:27
living bird and throw it away to die. I am sorry to tell you
4:45:33
such painful things, but I think you ought to know them. You will
4:45:38
soon be men and women. Do what you can to stop this horrid trade.
4:45:45
Our beautiful birds are being taken from us, and the insect pests are
4:45:49
increasing. The state of Massachusetts has lost over one hundred thousand dollars because it
4:45:56
did not protect its birds. The gypsy moth stripped the trees near Boston,
4:46:03
and the state had to pay out all this money, and even then could
4:46:07
not get rid of the moths. The birds could have done it better than
4:46:11
the state, but they were all gone. My last words to you are
4:46:17
protect the birds. Missus Wood went to her seat, and though the boys
4:46:23
and girls had listened very attentively, none of them cheered her. Their faces
4:46:30
looked sad, and they kept quiet for a few minutes. I saw one
4:46:36
or two little girls wiping their eyes. I think they felt sorry for the
4:46:41
birds. Has any boy done anything about blinders and check reins? Asked the
4:46:48
president. After a time, A brown faced boy stood up. I had
4:46:55
a picnic last Monday, he said, fin to let me cut off all
4:47:00
the blindness off our headstalls with my pen knife. How did you get him
4:47:04
to consent to that, asked the President. I told him, said the
4:47:11
boy, that I couldn't get to sleep for thinking of him. You know,
4:47:17
he drives a good deal late at night. I told him that every
4:47:21
dark night he came from Sudbury, I thought of the deep ditch alongside the
4:47:26
road and wished his horses hadn't blind us on. And every night he comes
4:47:32
from the junction and has to drive along the river bank where the water has
4:47:37
washed away the earth, till the wheels of the wagon are within a foot
4:47:40
or two of the edge. I wished again that his horses could see each
4:47:45
side of them, for I knew they'd have sense enough to keep out of
4:47:48
danger if they could see it. Father said that might be very true.
4:47:53
Yet his horses had been broken in with blinders, and didn't I think they
4:47:59
were be inclined to shy if he ever took them off, And wouldn't they
4:48:02
be frightened to look around and see the wagon wheels so near? I told
4:48:07
him that for every accident that happened to a horse without blinders, several happened
4:48:12
to a horse with them, and then I gave him mister Wood's opinion.
4:48:18
Mister Wood out at Dingla Farm, he says that the worst thing against blinders
4:48:23
is that a frightened horse never knows when he has passed the thing that scared
4:48:29
him. He always thinks it is behind him. The blinders are there,
4:48:33
and he can't see he has passed it, and he can't turn his head
4:48:37
to have a good look at it. So often he goes tearing madly on,
4:48:41
and sometimes lives are lost on account of a little bit of lother fastened
4:48:47
over a beautiful eye that ought to look out, full and free at the
4:48:52
world. That finished. Father. He said he'd take off his blindness,
4:48:56
and if he had an accident, he'd send the bill for damages to mister
4:49:00
Wood. But we had no accident. The horses did act rather queerly at
4:49:07
first and started a little, but they soon got over it, and now
4:49:11
they go as steady without blind as as they ever did with them. The
4:49:18
boy sat down, and the President said, I think it's time that the
4:49:22
whole nation threw off this foolishness of half covering their horses eyes. Just put
4:49:29
your hands up to your eyes. Members of the band half cover them,
4:49:33
and see how shut in you will feel, and how curious you will be
4:49:38
to know what is going on beside you. Suppose a girl saw a mouse
4:49:42
with her eyes half covered, wouldn't she run? Everybody laughed, and the
4:49:48
President asked someone to tell him who invented blinders? An English noblemen shouted a
4:49:57
boy who had a a wall eyed horse. He wanted to cover up the
4:50:03
defect. And I think it is a great shame that all the American horses
4:50:07
have to suffer because that English one had an ugly eye. So do I
4:50:14
said the president. Three groans for blinders. Boys. All the children in
4:50:21
the room made three dreadful noises away down in their throats. Then they had
4:50:27
another good laugh, and the President became sober again. Seven more minutes,
4:50:34
he said, this meeting has got to be let out. At five sharp.
4:50:41
A tall girl at the back of the room rose and said, my
4:50:47
little cousin has two stories she would like to tell. The band very well,
4:50:52
said the President, bring her right along. The big girl came forward,
4:50:59
leaving a time child that she placed in front of the boys and girls.
4:51:03
The child stared up into her cousin's face, turning and twisting her white
4:51:10
pinafore through her fingers. Every time the big girl took her pinafore away from
4:51:15
her, she picked it up again. Begin Nanny said the big girl kindly.
4:51:25
Well, Cousin Eleanor said the child, you know Topsy Graham's pony.
4:51:33
Well, Topsy would run away, and a big big man came out to
4:51:40
Papa and said he would train Topsy. So he drove her every day and
4:51:48
beats her and beats her till he was tired, but still Topsy would run
4:51:55
away. Then Papa said he would not have to pull pony whipped so much,
4:52:02
and he took her out a piece of bread every day, and he
4:52:06
petted her. And now Topsy is very gentle and never runs away. Tell
4:52:15
about Tiger, said the girl. Well, Cousin Eleanor said the child.
4:52:22
You know Tiger, our big dog. He used to be a bad dog,
4:52:29
and when Doctor Fairchild drove up to the house, he jumped up and
4:52:33
bit at him. Doctor Fairchild used to speak kindly to him and throw out
4:52:41
bits of meat. And now when he comes Tiger follows behind and wags his
4:52:48
tail. Now, give me a kiss, the girl had to give her
4:52:53
a kiss right up there before everyone, and what a stamping the boys made.
4:53:02
The larger girl blushed and hurried back to her seat, with the child
4:53:07
clinging to her hand. There was one more story about a brave Newfoundland dog
4:53:14
that saved eight lives by swimming out to a ret sailing vessel and getting a
4:53:22
rope by which the men came ashore. And then a lad got up,
4:53:26
whom they all greeted with cheers and cries of the poet. The poet,
4:53:33
I didn't know what they meant till missus Wood whispered to Miss Laura that he
4:53:37
was a boy who made rhymes, and the children had rather hear him speak
4:53:42
than anyone else in the room. He had a snub nose and freckles,
4:53:49
and I think he was the plainest boy there, but that didn't matter if
4:53:56
the other children loved him. He saunter up to the front with his hands
4:54:02
behind his back, in a very grand manner. The beautiful poetry recited here
4:54:08
today he drawled, put some verses in my mind that I never had till
4:54:15
I came here today. Everyone present cheered wildly, and he began in a
4:54:22
sing song voice. I am a band of mercy boy. I would not
4:54:29
hurt a fly. I always speak to dogs and cats whenever I passed them
4:54:36
by. I always let the booties sing. I never throw a stone.
4:54:42
I always give a hungry dog a nice, fat, meaty bone. I
4:54:48
wouldn't drive a bob tailed horse, nor hurry up a cow. I then
4:54:56
he forgot the raist. The boys and girls were so sorry. They called
4:55:03
out pig, goat, calf, sheep, hens, ducks, and all
4:55:11
the other animals' names they could think of, but none of them was right,
4:55:17
and as the boy had just made up the poetry, no one knew
4:55:21
what the next could be. He stood for a long time, staring at
4:55:26
the ceiling. Then he said, I guess I'll have to give it up.
4:55:32
The children looked dreadfully disappointed. Perhaps you'll remember it by our next meeting,
4:55:41
said the president anxiously. Possibly, said the boy, but probably not.
4:55:48
I think it is gone forever, and he went to his seat.
4:55:53
The next thing was to call for new members. Miss Laura got up and
4:56:00
said she would like to join their Band of Mercy. I followed her up
4:56:04
to the platform while they pinned a little badge on her, and everyone laughed
4:56:11
at me. Then they sang God bless our native land, and the President
4:56:18
told us that we might all go home. It seemed to me a lovely
4:56:23
thing for those children to meet together to talk about kindness to animals. They
4:56:30
all had bright and good faces, and many of them stopped to pat me
4:56:36
as I came out. One little girl gave me a biscuit from her school
4:56:41
bag. Missus Wood waited at the door till mister Maxwell came limping out on
4:56:48
his crutches. She introduced him to Miss Laura and asked him if he wouldn't
4:56:53
go and take tea with them. He said he would be very happy to
4:56:59
do so, and then missus Wood laughed and asked him if he hadn't better
4:57:04
empty his pockets first. She didn't want a little toad jumping over her tea
4:57:11
table as one did last time he was there. End of Chapter twenty Stories
4:57:18
about Anna Moles. Chapter twenty one Mister Maxwell and mister Harry. Mister Maxwell
4:57:29
wore a coat with loose pockets, and while he was speaking, he rested
4:57:34
on his crutches and began to slap them with his hands. No, there's
4:57:41
nothing here today, he said. I think I emptied my pockets before I
4:57:45
went to the meeting. Just as he said that, there was a loud
4:57:49
squeal. Oh, my guinea pig, he exclaimed, I forgot him,
4:57:56
and he pulled out a little spotted creature a few inches long. Poor,
4:58:02
deary, did I hurt you? And he soued it very tenderly. I
4:58:08
stood and looked at mister Maxwell, for I had never seen anyone like him.
4:58:15
He had thick, curly hair and a white face, and he looked
4:58:19
just like a girl. While I was staring at him, something peeped up
4:58:26
out of one of his pockets and ran out its tongue at me so fast
4:58:30
that I could scarcely see it, and then drew back again. I was
4:58:37
thunderstruck. I had never seen such a creature before. It was long and
4:58:42
thin, like a boy's cane, int of a bright green color like grass,
4:58:48
and it had a queer, shiny eyes. But its tongue was the
4:58:55
strangest part of it. It came and went like lightning. I was uneasy
4:59:02
about it and begin to bark. What's the matter, Joe, said,
4:59:07
missus Wood. The pig won't hurt you. But it wasn't the pig I
4:59:12
was afraid of, and I kept on barking, and all the time that
4:59:18
strange live thing kept sticking up its head and putting out its tongue at me,
4:59:23
and neither of them noticed it. It's getting on towards six, said
4:59:30
missus Wood. We must be going home. Come, mister Mixwell. The
4:59:36
young man put the guinea pig in his pocket, picked up his crutches,
4:59:41
and we started down the sunny village street. He left his guinea pig at
4:59:47
his boarding house as he went by, and he said nothing about the other
4:59:52
creature, so I knew he did not know it was there. I was
4:59:57
very much taken with mister ma Axwell. He seemed so bright and happy in
5:00:03
spite of his lameness, which kept him from running about like other young men.
5:00:10
He looked a little older than Miss Laura. In one day, a
5:00:15
week or two later, when they were sitting on the Verandah, I heard
5:00:18
him tell her that he was just nineteen. He told her too, that
5:00:26
his lameness made him love animals. They never laughed at him or slighted him,
5:00:33
or got impatient because he could not walk quickly. They were always good
5:00:38
to him, And he said he loved all animals, while he liked very
5:00:45
few people. On this day, as he was limping along, he said
5:00:52
to missus Wood, I am getting more absent minded every day. Have you
5:00:56
heard of my latest escapade? No, she said, I am glad,
5:01:03
he replied. I was afraid it would be all over the village by this
5:01:08
time. I went to church last Sunday with my poor guinea pig in my
5:01:12
pocket. He hasn't been well, and I was attending to him before church
5:01:18
and put him in there to get warm, and forgot about him. Unfortunately,
5:01:22
I was late and the back seats were all full, so I had
5:01:26
to sit farther up than I usually do. During the first hymn, I
5:01:32
happened to strike Piggy against the side of the seat. Such an ear splitting
5:01:37
squeal he set up. It sounded as if I was murdering him. The
5:01:41
people stared and stared, and I had to leave the church, overwhelmed with
5:01:47
confusion. Missus Wood and Miss Laura laughed, and then they got talking about
5:01:55
other matters that were not so interesting to me. So I did not listen,
5:02:00
but I kept close to Miss Laura, for I was afraid that green
5:02:04
thing might hurt her. I wondered very much what its name was. I
5:02:11
don't think I should have feared it so much if I had known what it
5:02:15
was. There's something the matter with Joe, said Miss Laura when we got
5:02:22
into the lane. What is it, dear old fellow. She put down
5:02:27
her little hand and I licked it and wished so much that I could speak.
5:02:34
Sometimes I wish very much that I had the gift of speech, and
5:02:40
then at other times I see how little it would profit me, and how
5:02:45
many foolish things I should often say. And I don't believe human beings would
5:02:51
love animals as well if they could speak. When we reached the house,
5:02:56
we got a joyful surprise. There was a trunk standing on the verandah,
5:03:02
and as soon as missus Wood saw it, she gave a little shriek.
5:03:07
My dear boy, mister Harry was there sure enough, and stepped out through
5:03:15
the open door. He took his mother in his arms and kissed her.
5:03:21
Then he shook hands with Miss Laura and mister Maxwell, who seemed to be
5:03:26
an old friend of his. They all sat down on the verandah and talked,
5:03:30
and I lay at Miss Laura's feet and looked at mister Harry. He
5:03:36
was such a handsome young man and had such a noble face. He was
5:03:41
older and graver looking than when I saw him last, and he had a
5:03:48
light brown mustache that he did not have when he was in Fairport. He
5:03:53
seemed very fond of his mother, and of Miss Laura, and how her
5:04:00
grave his face might be. When he was looking at mister Maxwell, it
5:04:04
always lighted up when he turned to them. What dog is that? He
5:04:11
said at last, with a puzzled face and pointing to me. Why Harry,
5:04:17
exclaimed Miss Laura. Don't you know, beautiful Joe, that you rescued
5:04:22
from that wretched milkman? Is it possible? He said, that this well
5:04:30
conditioned creature is the bundle of dirty skin and bones that we nursed in Fairport.
5:04:36
Come here, sir, do you remember me? Indeed I did remember
5:04:41
him, and I licked his hands and looked up gratefully into his face.
5:04:48
You were almost handsome now, he said, caressing me with a firm,
5:04:53
kind hand, and of a solid bill too. You look like a fighter.
5:04:59
But I suppose you wouldn't let him fight, even if he wanted to.
5:05:03
Laura and he smiled and glanced at her. No, she said,
5:05:11
I don't think I should, But he can fight when the occasion requires it,
5:05:15
and she told him about our night with Jenkins. All the time she
5:05:22
was speaking, mister Harry held me by the paws and stroked my body over
5:05:27
and over again. When she finished, he put his head down to me
5:05:33
and murmured, good dog. And I saw that his eyes were red and
5:05:38
shining. That's a capital story. We must have it at the bend of
5:05:44
Mercy, said mister Maxwell. Missus Wood had gone to help prepare the tea,
5:05:51
so the two young men were alone with Miss Laura. When they had
5:05:56
done talking about me, she asked mister Harry a number of questions about his
5:06:02
college life and his trip to New York, for he had not been studying
5:06:07
all the time that he was away. What are you going to do with
5:06:11
yourself, Gray, when your college course is ended, I asked mister max
5:06:15
Wale. I'm gonna settle down right here, said mister Harry. What be
5:06:23
a farmer? Asked his friend? Yeah, why not? Nothing? Only
5:06:30
I imagined you would take a profession. The professions are overstocked, and we
5:06:36
have not farmers enough for the good of the country. There is nothing like
5:06:41
farming, to my mind. In no other employment have you a surer living?
5:06:47
I do not like the cities. The heat and dust, and crowds
5:06:49
of people and buildings over topping one another, and the rush of living take
5:06:55
my breath away. Suppose I did go to a city, I would sell
5:06:59
out my share of the farm and have a few thousand dollars. You know,
5:07:03
I am not an intellectual giant. I would never distinguish myself in any
5:07:07
profession. I would be a poor lawyer or doctor, living in the back
5:07:12
street all the days of my life, and never watch a tree or flower
5:07:17
grow, or tend to an animal, or have a drive unless I pay
5:07:22
for it, no thank you. I agree with President Elliott of Harvard.
5:07:27
He says, scarcely one person in ten thousand betters himself permanently by leaving his
5:07:33
rural home and settling in a city. If one is a millionaire, city
5:07:38
life is agreeable enough, for one can always get away from it. But
5:07:42
I am beginning to think that it is a dangerous thing in more ways than
5:07:48
one, to be a millionaire. I believe the safety of the country lies
5:07:52
in the hands of farmers, for they are selves and very poor or very
5:07:56
rich. We stand between the two dangers his classes, the wealthy and the
5:08:02
paupers. But most farmers lead such a dog's life, said mister Maxwell.
5:08:10
So they do. Farming isn't made one half as attractive as it should be,
5:08:15
said mister Harry. Mister Maxwell smiled, attractive farming just sketch an outline
5:08:22
of that. Will you gray in the first place, said mister Harry.
5:08:29
I would like to tear out of the heart of the farmer, the thing
5:08:33
that is as firmly implanted in him as it is in the heart of his
5:08:37
city brother, the thing that is doing more harm to our nation than anything
5:08:41
else under the sun. What is that, asked mister Maxwell curiously, The
5:08:49
thirst for gold. The farmer wants to get rich, and he works so
5:08:55
hard to do it that he wears himself out soul and body. And the
5:08:59
young people around him get so disgusted with that way of getting rich that they
5:09:03
go off to the cities to find some other way, or at least to
5:09:07
enjoy themselves. For I don't think many young people are animated by a desire
5:09:12
to heap up money. Mister max Wale looked amused. There is certainly a
5:09:18
great exodus from country places city word, he said, what would be your
5:09:25
plan for checking it? I would make the farm so pleasant that you couldn't
5:09:30
hire the boys and girls to leave it. I would have them work,
5:09:33
and work hard too. But when their work was over, I would let
5:09:37
them have some fun. That is what they go to the city for.
5:09:41
They want amusement in society and to get into some kind of crowd. When
5:09:47
their work is done. The young men and young women want to get together,
5:09:51
as is only natural. Now that could be done in the country.
5:09:55
If farmers would be contented with smaller profits and smaller farms, their houses could
5:10:00
be nearer together, their children would have opportunities of social intercourse. There could
5:10:06
be societies and clubs, and that would tend to a distribution of literature.
5:10:11
A farmer ought to take five or six papers and two or three magazines.
5:10:17
He would find it would pay him in the long run. And there ought
5:10:21
to be a law made compelling him to go to the post office once a
5:10:26
day. Mister Maxwelle burst out laughing, and another to make him mend his
5:10:33
roads as well as men his ways. I tell you, Gray, the
5:10:37
bad roads would put an end to all these fine schemes of yours. Imagine
5:10:42
farmers calling on each other on a dark evening after a spring freshet, I
5:10:48
can see them mirrored and bogged, and the house a mile ahead of them.
5:10:53
That is true, said mister Harry. The road question is a serious
5:11:00
one. Do you know how Father and I settle it? No, said
5:11:04
mister max Wale. We got so tired of the whole business, and the
5:11:11
farmers around here spent so much time in discussing the art of roadmaking as to
5:11:17
whether it should be viewed from the engineering point of view or the farmer's practical
5:11:21
point of view, and whether we would require this number of stump extractors or
5:11:26
that number, and how many shovels and crushers and ditches would be necessary to
5:11:32
keep our roads in order, and so on that we simply withdrew. We
5:11:37
keep our own roads in order. Once a year, Father gets a gang
5:11:41
of men and tackles every section of the road that borders upon our land,
5:11:45
and our roads are the best around here. I wish the government would take
5:11:51
up this matter of making roads and settle it. If we had good smooth
5:11:55
country roads, such as they have in some parts of Europe, we would
5:11:59
be able to travel comfortably over them all through the year, and our draft
5:12:03
animals would last longer, for they would not have to expend so much energy
5:12:08
in drawing their loads. End of Chapter twenty one. Mister Maxwell and mister
5:12:15
Harry, Chapter twenty two, What happened at the tea table. From my
5:12:26
station under Miss Laura's chair, I could see that all the time mister Harry
5:12:32
was speaking, mister Maxwell, although he spoke rather as if he was laughing
5:12:37
at him, was yet glancing at him admiringly. When mister Harry was silent,
5:12:45
he exclaimed, you are right, you are right, Gray. With
5:12:49
your smooth highways and plenty of schools and churches and libraries and meetings for young
5:12:56
people, you would make country life a paradise. And know you what you
5:13:00
would do too, You would empty the slums of the cities. It is
5:13:03
the slowness and dullness of country life, and not their poverty alone, that
5:13:08
keep the poor in dirty lanes and tenement houses. They want stir and amusement,
5:13:14
too, poor souls when their day's work is over. I believe they
5:13:18
would come to the country if it were made more pleasant for them. That
5:13:22
is another question, said mister Harry, a burning question in my mind.
5:13:29
The labor and capital one. When I was in New York, Maxwell.
5:13:33
I was in a hospital and saw a number of men who had been day
5:13:37
laborers. Some of them were old and people, and others were young men
5:13:41
broken down in the prime of life. Their limbs were shrunken and drawn.
5:13:47
They had been digging in the earth, and working on high buildings and confined
5:13:52
in dingy basements, and had done all kinds of hard labor for other men.
5:13:56
They had given their lives and strength for others, and this was the
5:14:00
end of it, to die poor and forsaken. I looked at them,
5:14:06
and they reminded me of the martyrs of old, ground down, living from
5:14:11
hand to mouth, separated from their families. In many cases they had had
5:14:15
a bitter lot. They had never had a chance to get away from their
5:14:19
fate. Anne had to work till they dropped. I tell you there is
5:14:23
something wrong. We don't do enough for the people that slave and toil for
5:14:29
us. We should take better care of them. We should not herd them
5:14:33
together like cattle, And when we get rich, we should carry them along
5:14:37
with us and give them part of our grains, for without them we would
5:14:41
be as poor as they are. Good, Harry, I'm with you,
5:14:45
There said a voice behind him, and looking around, we saw mister Wood
5:14:52
standing in the doorway, gazing down proudly at his step son, mister Henry
5:14:59
smile and getting up said won't you have my cheer, sir? No,
5:15:04
thank you. Your mother wishes us to come to tea. There are muffins,
5:15:10
and you know they won't improve with keeping. They all went to the
5:15:15
dining room, and I followed them on the way. Mister Woods said,
5:15:22
right on top of that talk of yours, Harry, I've got to tell
5:15:26
you of another person who is going to Boston to live. Who is it,
5:15:30
said mister Harry, Lazy Dan Wilson. I've been to see him this
5:15:37
afternoon. You know, his wife is sick and they're half starved. He
5:15:42
says he is going to the city for he hates the chop wood and work,
5:15:48
and he thinks maybe he'll get some light job there. Mister Harry looked
5:15:52
grave, and mister Maxwell said he will starve. That's what he will do.
5:16:00
Precisely, said mister Wood, spreading out his hard brown hands as he
5:16:07
sat down at the table. I don't know why it is, but the
5:16:11
present generation has a marvelous way of skimming around any kind of work with their
5:16:17
hands. They'll work their brains till they ain't got any more backbone than a
5:16:22
caterpillar. But as for manual labor, it's old timy and out of fashion.
5:16:27
I wonder how these farms would have ever been carved out of the backwoods
5:16:33
if the old Puritans had sat down on the rocks with their noses and a
5:16:37
lot of books and tried to figure out just how little work they could do
5:16:41
and yet exist. Now, father said missus Wood, you were trying to
5:16:48
insinuate that the present generation is lazy, and I'm sure it isn't. Look
5:16:55
it's Harry. He works as hard as you do. Isn't that like a
5:17:00
woman? Said mister Wood with a good natured laugh. The present generation consists
5:17:07
of her son and the past of her husband. I don't think all our
5:17:11
young people are lazy, hattie. But how in creation? Unless the Lord
5:17:17
reigns down a few farmers, are we going to support all our young lawyers
5:17:22
and doctors. They say the world is getting healthier and better, but we've
5:17:26
got to fight a little more and raise some more criminals, and we've got
5:17:30
to take to eating pies and doughnuts for breakfast again, or some of our
5:17:34
young sprouts from the colleges'll go a begging. You don't mean to undervalue
5:17:41
the advantages of a good education, do you, mister Wood, said mister
5:17:47
Maxwell. No, No, Look at Henry. There isn't he pegging away
5:17:52
at his studies with my hearty approval. And he's going to be nothing but
5:17:56
a plain common farmer. But he'll be a better one than I've been,
5:18:00
though, because he's got a trained mine. I found out when he was
5:18:06
a lad going to the village school. He'd lay out his little garden by
5:18:10
geometry and dig his ditches by algebra. Educations are help to any man.
5:18:17
What I'm trying to get at is this that, in some way or other,
5:18:22
we're running more to brains and less to hard work than our forefathers did.
5:18:29
Mister Wood was beating on the table with his forefinger while he talked,
5:18:33
and everyone was laughing at him. When you've quite finished speechifying, John said,
5:18:41
missus Wood, perhaps you'll serve the berries and past the cream and sugar.
5:18:47
Do you get yellow cream like this in the village, mister Mixwell,
5:18:52
no, Missus Wood, he said, ours is a much paler yellow.
5:18:57
And then there was a great inkling of china and passing of dishes, and
5:19:03
talking and laughing, and no one noticed that I was not in my usual
5:19:07
place in the hall. I could not get over my dread of the green
5:19:12
creature, and I had crept under the table so that if it came out
5:19:18
and frightened Miss Laura, I could jump up and catch it. When tea
5:19:23
was half over, she gave a little cry. I sprang up on her
5:19:27
lap, and there gliding over the table toward her was the wicked looking green
5:19:34
thing. I stepped on the table and had it by the middle before it
5:19:40
could get to her. My hind legs were in a dish of jelly,
5:19:45
and my front ones were in a plate of cake, and I was very
5:19:49
uncomfortable. The tail of the green thing hung in a milk picture, and
5:19:56
its tongue was still going at me, but I held it firmly and quite
5:20:00
still. Drop it Drop it, cried Miss Laura in tones of distress,
5:20:08
and mister Maxwell struck me on the back. So I let the thing go
5:20:15
and stood sheepishly looking about me. Mister Wood was leaning back in his chair,
5:20:22
laughing with all his might, and missus Wood was staring at her untidy
5:20:29
table with a rather long face. Miss Laura told me to jump on the
5:20:34
floor, and then she helped her aunt to take the spoiled things off the
5:20:40
table. I felt that I had done wrong, so I slunk out into
5:20:45
the hall. Mister Maxwell was sitting on the lounge, tearing his handkerchief in
5:20:52
strips and tying them around the creature where my teeth had stuck in in.
5:20:57
I had been careful not to hurt it much, for I knew it was
5:21:02
a pet of his. But he did not know that and scowled at me,
5:21:07
saying, you rascal, you've hurt my poor snake terribly. I felt
5:21:14
so badly to hear this that I went and stood with my head in a
5:21:18
corner. I had almost rather be whipped than scolded. After a while,
5:21:26
mister Maxwell went back into the room and they all went on with their tea.
5:21:33
I could hear mister Wood's loud, cheery voice. The dog get it
5:21:37
quite right. A snake is mostly a poisonous creature, and his instinct told
5:21:41
him to protect his mistress. Where is he, Joe, Joe? I
5:21:48
would not move till Miss Laura came and spoke to me. Dear old dog.
5:21:56
She whispered, you knew the snake was there all the time, didn't
5:22:00
you. Her words made me feel better, and I followed her to the
5:22:07
dining room, where mister Wood made me sit beside him and eat scraps from
5:22:11
his hand. All through the meal. Mister Maxwell had gotten over his ill
5:22:18
humor and was chatting in a lively way. Good Joe, he said,
5:22:25
I was cross to you, and I beg your pardon. It always riles
5:22:29
me to have any of my pets injured. You didn't know. My poor
5:22:33
snake was only after something to eat. Missus Wood has pinned him in my
5:22:37
pocket so he won't come out again. Do you know where I got that
5:22:41
snake, Missus Wood, No, she said, you never told me.
5:22:47
It was across the river by blue Ridge, he said. One day last
5:22:52
summer, I was out rowing and getting very hot. Tied my boat in
5:22:56
the shade of a big tree. Some village boys were in the woods and
5:23:00
hearing a great noise, I went to see what it was all about.
5:23:04
They were the band of Mercy Boys and finding a country boy beating a snake
5:23:10
to death. They were remonstrating with him for his cruelty, telling him that
5:23:14
some kinds of snakes were a help to the farmer and destroyed large numbers of
5:23:18
field mice and other vermin. The boy was obstinate he had found the snake,
5:23:23
and he insisted upon his right to kill it, and they were having
5:23:26
a rather lively time when I appeared. I persuaded them to make the snake
5:23:32
over to me. Apparently it was already dead. Thinking it might revive,
5:23:37
I put it on some grass in the bow of my boat. It lay
5:23:41
there motionless for a long time. I picked up my oars and started for
5:23:45
home. I had got half way across the river when I turned around and
5:23:49
saw that the snake was gone. It had just dropped into the water and
5:23:53
was swimming toward the bank we had left. I turned and followed it.
5:23:59
It swam slowly and with evident pain, lifting its head every few seconds high
5:24:03
above the water to see which way it was going on. Reaching the bank,
5:24:08
it coiled itself up, throwing up blood and water. I took it
5:24:14
up carefully, carried it home, and nursed it. It soon got better
5:24:18
and has been a pet of mine ever since. After Tea was over and
5:24:23
missus Wood and Miss Laura had helped the dale finish the work, they all
5:24:30
gathered in the parlor. The day had been quite warm, but now a
5:24:36
cool wind had sprung up, and mister Wood said that it was blowing up
5:24:41
rain. Missus Wood said she thought a fire would be pleasant, so they
5:24:47
lighted the sticks of wood in the open grate and all sat round the blazing
5:24:52
fire. Mister Maxwell tried to get me to make friends with the little snake
5:24:59
that he held in his hands toward the blaze. And now that I knew
5:25:03
it was harmless, I was not afraid of it. But it did not
5:25:07
like me and put out its funny little tongue whenever I looked at it.
5:25:15
By and by, the rain began to strike against the windows, and mister
5:25:19
Maxwell said, this is just the night for a story. Tell us something
5:25:26
out of your experience, won't you, mister Wood, What shall I tell
5:25:30
you? He said, good humoredly. He was sitting between his wife and
5:25:37
mister Harry, and had his hand on mister Harry's knee. Something about animals,
5:25:42
said mister Maxwell. We seem to be on that subject today, well,
5:25:49
said mister Wood. I'll talk about something that has been running in my
5:25:55
head for many a day. There is a good deal of talk nowadays about
5:25:59
kindness, tomestic animals. But I do not hear too much about kindness to
5:26:03
wild ones. The same creator formed them both. I do not see why
5:26:07
you should not protect one as well as the other. I have no more
5:26:11
right to torture it better than a cow. Our wild animals around here are
5:26:17
getting pretty well killed off, but there are lots in other places. I
5:26:22
used to be fond of hunting when I was a boy, but I've got
5:26:25
rather disgusted with killing these late years. And unless the wild creatures ran out
5:26:30
in our streets, I would lift no hand to them. Shall I tell
5:26:33
you some of the sport we had when I was a youngster? Yes?
5:26:38
Yes, they all exclaimed, end of chapter twenty two. What happened at
5:26:47
the tea table? Chapter twenty three trapping wild animals? Well, mister Wood
5:26:56
began. I was brought up, as y'all know, in the eastern part
5:27:02
of Maine, and we often used to go over into New Brunswick for our
5:27:06
sport. Moose were our best game. Did you ever see one, Laura?
5:27:11
No, uncle, she said, Well, when I was a boy,
5:27:17
there was no more beautiful sight to me in the world than a moose
5:27:22
with his dusky hide and long legs and branching antlers and shoulders, standing higher
5:27:27
than horses. Their legs are so long that they can't eat close to the
5:27:32
ground. They browse on the tops of plants and the tender shoots of leaves
5:27:37
and trees. They walk among the thick underbrush, carrying their horns adroitly to
5:27:41
prevent their catching in the branches. And they step so well and aim so
5:27:47
true that you'll scarcely hear a twig fall as they go. They're a timid
5:27:52
creature, except at times. Then they'll attack with hoops and antlers whatever comes
5:28:00
in their way. They hate mosquitoes, and when they're tormented by them,
5:28:04
it's just as well to be careful about approaching them. Like all other creatures,
5:28:11
the Lord has put into them a wonderful amount of sense. And when
5:28:14
a female moose has her one or two fohons, she goes into the deepest
5:28:18
part of the forest, or swims to islands in large lakes till they are
5:28:23
able to look out for themselves. Well, we used to like to catch
5:28:27
a moose, and we had different ways of doing it. One way was
5:28:32
to snare them. We'd make a loop and a rope and hide it on
5:28:37
the ground under the dead leaves in one of their paths. This was connected
5:28:41
with a young sapling whose top was meant down. When the moose stepped on
5:28:45
it, the loop would release the sapling and up it would bound, catching
5:28:49
them by the leg. These snares were always set deep in the woods,
5:28:55
and we couldn't visit them very often. Sometimes the moose would be there for
5:28:59
days, raging and tearing around and scratching the skin off his legs. That
5:29:04
was cruel. I wouldn't catch a moose in that way now for one hundred
5:29:08
dollars. Another way was to hunt them on snow shoes with dogs in February
5:29:15
and March, the snow was deep and would carry men and dogs. Moose
5:29:19
don't go together in herds. In the summer, they wander about over the
5:29:23
forest, and in the autumn they'd come together in small groups and select one
5:29:29
hundred or two of acas where there is plenty of heavy undergrowth, and to
5:29:33
which they usually confine themselves. They'd do this so that their tracks won't tell
5:29:37
their enemies where they are. Any of these places where there were several moose,
5:29:42
we called a moose yard. We went through the woods till we got
5:29:47
onto the tracks of some of the animals belonging to it. Then the dogs
5:29:52
smelled them and went ahead to start them. If I shut my eyes now
5:29:56
I can see one of our moose hunts. The moose running and plunging through
5:30:00
the snow crust and occasionally rising up and striking out the dogs that hang on
5:30:07
to his bleeding flanks and legs. The hunter's rifles going crack crack crack,
5:30:11
sometimes killing or wounding dogs as well as moose. That too was cruel.
5:30:18
Two other ways we had of hunting moose, calling and stalking. The calling
5:30:23
was done in this way. We took a bit of birch bark and rolled
5:30:27
it up in the shape of a horn. We took this horn and started
5:30:30
out, either on a bright moonlit night or just an evening or early in
5:30:36
the morning. The man who carried the horn hid himself and then began to
5:30:41
make a lowing sound like a female moose. He had to do it pretty
5:30:45
well to deceive them away. In the distance. Some moose would hit it
5:30:49
and with answer and grunts would start off to come to it. If a
5:30:55
young male moose was coming, he'd mind his steps. I can assure you,
5:30:59
on account of fear of the old ones. But if he was an
5:31:03
old fellow, you'd hear him stepping out bravely and wrapping his horns against the
5:31:07
trees and plunging into any water that came in his way. When he got
5:31:11
pretty near, he'd stop to listen, and then the collar had to be
5:31:15
very careful and put his trumpet down close to the ground so as to make
5:31:21
a lower sound. If the moose felt doubtful, he'd turn. If not,
5:31:26
he'd come on, and unlucky for him if he did, for he
5:31:30
got a warm reception, either from the rifles in our hands as we lay
5:31:33
hid near the collar, or from some of the party stationed at a distance
5:31:38
and stalking. We crept on them the way a cat creeps on a mouse.
5:31:42
In the daytime, a moose is usually lying down. We'd find their
5:31:48
tracks and places where they'd been nipping off the ends of branches and twigs,
5:31:52
and follow them up. They'd easily take the scent of man, and we'd
5:31:56
have to keep well to the leeward. Sometimes we come upon them lying down,
5:32:02
but if in walking along we've broken a twig or made the slightest noise,
5:32:07
they think it was one of their mortal enemies. A bear creeping on
5:32:11
them, and they'd be up and away. Their sense of hearing is very
5:32:15
keen, but they're not so quick to see. A fox is like that
5:32:19
too, his eyes aren't equal to his nose. Stalking is the most merciful
5:32:25
way to kill a moose. Then they haven't the frightened suffering of the chase.
5:32:30
I don't see why they need to be killed at all, said missus
5:32:34
Wood. If I knew that forest back of the mountains was full of wild
5:32:38
creatures, I think they'd be glad of it and not want to hunt them.
5:32:44
That is, if they were harmless and beautiful creatures like the deer.
5:32:48
You're a woman, said mister Wood. And women are more merciful than men.
5:32:53
Men want to kill and slay. They're like the Englishman who said,
5:32:57
what a fine day it is, let's go out and kill something. Please
5:33:03
tell us some more about the dogs that helped you catch the moose, uncle,
5:33:07
said miss Laura. I was sitting up very straight beside her, listening
5:33:14
to every word mister Wood said, and she was fondling my head. Well,
5:33:19
Laura, when we camped out on the snow and slept on spruce bows
5:33:25
while we were after the moose. The dogs used to be a great comfort
5:33:27
to us. They slept at our feet and kept us warm. Pulled brutes.
5:33:33
They mostly had a rough time of it. They enjoyed the running and
5:33:37
chasing as much as we did, but when it came to broken ribs and
5:33:41
sore heads, it was another matter. Then the porcupines bothered them. Our
5:33:48
dogs would never learn to let them alone. If they were going through the
5:33:52
woods where there was no signs of moose and found a porcupine, they'd kill
5:33:56
it. The quills would get in their mouths and necks and chests, and
5:34:02
we'd have to gag them and take bullet molds or nippers or whatever we had,
5:34:07
sometimes our jackknives and pull out the nasty things. If we got hold
5:34:11
of the dogs at once, we could pull out the quills with our fingers.
5:34:15
Sometimes the quills had walked in, and the dogs would go home and
5:34:19
lie by the fire with running sores till they worked out. I've seen quills
5:34:25
work right through dogs, go in one side and come out on the other.
5:34:30
Poor roots, said missus Wood. I wonder you took them. We
5:34:37
once lost a valuable hound while moves hunting, said mister Wood. The moon
5:34:42
struck him with his hoof, and the dog was terribly injured and laying the
5:34:47
woods for days till a neighbor of ours who was looking for timber, found
5:34:52
him and brought him home on his shoulders. Wasn't very rejoicing among us boys
5:34:56
to see old lion coming back. Took care of him and he got well
5:35:02
again. It was good sport to see the dogs when we were hunting a
5:35:06
bear with them. Bears are good runners, and when dogs get after them,
5:35:11
there is a great skirmishing. They knipped the bell behind, and when
5:35:15
they turned the dogs run like mad for a hug from a bear, meaning
5:35:21
sure death to a dog. If they got a slap from his paws over,
5:35:26
they'd go. Dogs new to the business were often killed by the bears.
5:35:30
Were there many bears near your home, mister Wood, asked mister max
5:35:36
Whale. Lots of them, more than we wanted. They used to bother
5:35:41
us fearfully about our sheep and cattle. I've often had to get up in
5:35:45
the night and run out to the cattle. The bears would come out of
5:35:48
the woods and jump on the young heifers and cows and strike them and beat
5:35:52
them down, and the cattle would roar as if the evil one had them.
5:35:57
If the cattle were too far away from the house for us to hear
5:36:00
them, the bears would worry them till they were dead. As for the
5:36:04
sheep, they never made any resistance. They'd meekly run in a corner when
5:36:08
they saw a bear coming and huddle together, and he'd strike at them and
5:36:14
scratch them with its claws, and perhaps wound a dozen before he got one
5:36:18
firmly. Then he'd seize it in his paws and walk off on its hind
5:36:23
legs, over fences and anything else that came in his way, till he
5:36:27
came to a nice retired spot, and there he'd sit down and skin that
5:36:33
sheep, just like a butcher. He'd gorge himself with the meat, and
5:36:37
in the morning we'd find the other sheep that he'd torn, and we'd bow
5:36:41
fingeance against that bell. He'd be almost sure to come back for more.
5:36:45
So for a while after that we always put the sheep in the barn at
5:36:48
nights and set a trap by the remains of the one he had eaten.
5:36:52
Everybody hated bears, and they hadn't much pity for them. Still, they
5:36:57
were only getting their meat as other wild animals do, and we'd no right
5:37:03
to set such cruel traps for them. As the steel ones, they had
5:37:07
a clog attached to them and have long, sharp teeth. We put them
5:37:11
on the ground and strode leaves over them and hung up some of the caucats
5:37:15
left by the bear nearby. When he attempted to get this meat, he
5:37:19
would tread on the trap and the teeth would spring together and catch him by
5:37:23
the leg. They always fought to get free. I once saw a bed
5:37:27
that had been making a desperate effort to get away. His leg was broken,
5:37:33
the skin and flesh were all torn away, and he was held by
5:37:36
the tendons. It was a fore leg that was caught, and he would
5:37:40
put his hind feet against the jaws of the trap and then draw by pressing
5:37:42
with his feet till he would stretch those tendons to their utmost extent. I
5:37:48
have known them to work away till they really pulled these tendons out of the
5:37:52
foot and got off. It was a great event in our neighborhood when a
5:37:56
bear was caught. Whoever caught him blew a home, and the men and
5:38:00
boys came trooping together to see the sight. I've known them to blow that
5:38:03
horn on a Sunday morning, and I've seen the men turn their backs on
5:38:07
the meeting house to go and see the bear. Was there no more merciful
5:38:12
way of catching them than by this trap, asked Miss Laura. Oh.
5:38:18
Yes, by the dead fall, that is, by driving heavy sticks into
5:38:22
the ground and making a box like place open on one side, where two
5:38:26
logs were so arranged with the other heavy logs upon them, that when the
5:38:30
bell seized the bait, the upper log fell down and crushed them to death.
5:38:34
Another way was to fix a bait and a suttin place with cords tied
5:38:38
to it, which cords were fastened the triggers of guns placed at a little
5:38:42
distance. When the bell took the bait, the guns went off and he
5:38:47
shot himself. Sometimes it took a good many bullets to kill them. I
5:38:51
remember one old fellow that we put elevin into before he killed over. It
5:38:56
was one fall over on Pike's Hill. The snow had come earlier than usual,
5:39:00
and this old bell hadn't gotten into his den for his winter sleep.
5:39:04
A lot of us started out after him. The hill was covered with beech
5:39:08
trees, and he'd been living all the fall on the nuts till he got
5:39:12
as fat as butter. We took the dogs and worried him, and ran
5:39:17
him from one place to another, and shot at him till at last he
5:39:21
dropped. We took his meat home and had his skin tan for a sleigh
5:39:26
road. One day I was in the woods and looking through the trees a
5:39:30
spied the bell. He was standing up on his hind legs, snuffing in
5:39:34
every direction, and just about the time I espied him, he espied me.
5:39:40
I had no dog and no gun, so I thought I had better
5:39:44
be getting home to my dinner. I was a small boy then, and
5:39:48
the bear, probably thinking I'd be a mouthful for him anyway, began to
5:39:52
come after me in a leisurely way. I can see myself now, going
5:39:56
through those woods hat gone. I could flying, arms out, eyes rolling
5:40:03
over my shoulder every little while to see if the bed was gaining on me.
5:40:07
He was a benevolent looking old fellow, and his face seemed to say,
5:40:11
don't hurry, little boy. He wasn't doing his prettiest, and I
5:40:15
soon got away from him. But I made up my mind then that it
5:40:19
was more fun to be the chaser than the chast Another time, I was
5:40:25
out in our cornfield and here in a rustling. Looked through the stalks and
5:40:29
saw a brown bed with two cubs. She was slashing down the corn with
5:40:33
her paws to get at the ears. She smelled me, and, getting
5:40:37
frightened, began to run. I had a dog with me this time,
5:40:41
and shouted and rapped on the fence and set him on her. He jumped
5:40:45
up and snapped at her flanks, and every few instants she'd turn and give
5:40:49
him a cuff that would send him yards away. I followed her up,
5:40:55
and just back of the farm, she and her cubs took into a tree.
5:40:59
I sent my dog home, and my father and some of the neighbors
5:41:03
came. It had gotten dark by this time, so we built a fire
5:41:07
under the tree and watched all night and told stories to keep each other awake.
5:41:11
Told morning we got sleepy, and the fire burnt low, and didn't
5:41:15
that old bear in one cub dropped right down among us and start off to
5:41:21
the woods. That waked us up. We built the fire to keep watch
5:41:25
so that the one cub steal in the tree couldn't get away until daylight.
5:41:30
The mother bell hung around, calling to the cub to come down. Did
5:41:34
you let it go? Uncle asked miss Lord. No, my dear,
5:41:40
we shot it. How cruel, cried missus Wood. Here. Weren't we
5:41:47
brutes? Said her husband, But there was some excuse for us, Hattie.
5:41:52
The bear has ruined our farms. This kind of hunting that hunts and
5:41:56
kills for the missake of slaughter is very from that. I tell you what
5:42:02
I've no patience with, and that's these English folks that dress themselves up and
5:42:07
take fine horses and packs of dogs and tear over the country after one little
5:42:11
fox or rabbit by It's contemptible. Now if they were hunting cruel man eating
5:42:18
tigers or animals that destroy property, it would be a different thing. End
5:42:23
of Chapter twenty three, Trapping Wild Animals. Chapter twenty four, The Rabbit
5:42:32
and the Hen. You had foxes up in Maine, I suppose, mister
5:42:37
wood hiding, you, asked mister Maxwell. Heaps of them. I always
5:42:42
want to life when I think of our foxes, for they were so cute.
5:42:48
Never a fox that I catch in a trap, though I'd set a
5:42:51
many a one, I'd take the caucass of some creature that had died,
5:42:55
a sheep, for instance, and put it in a field near the woods,
5:42:59
and the foxes would come and eat it. After they got accustomed to
5:43:03
come and eat, and no harm befell them, they would be unsuspecting.
5:43:07
So just before a snowstorm, I'd take a trap and put it in this
5:43:11
spot. I'd handle it with gloves and I'd smoke it and rub furbowels on
5:43:15
it to take away the human smell, and then the snow would come and
5:43:19
cover it up. And yet those foxes would know it was a trap and
5:43:23
walk around it. It's a wonderful thing, that sense of smelling animals.
5:43:29
If it is a sense of smell, Jo here has got a good bit
5:43:33
of it. What kind of traps were they, father, I asked mister
5:43:40
Harry, cruel ones, steel ones. They'd catch an animal by the leg
5:43:45
and sometimes break the bone. The leg would bleed, and below the jaws
5:43:51
of the trap it would freeze. There'll be in no circulation of blood.
5:43:56
Those steel traps are an abomination. The peace people around here use one made
5:44:02
on the same principle for catching rats. I wouldn't have them on my place
5:44:07
for any money, I believe we've got to give an account for all the
5:44:11
unnecessary suffering we put on animals. You'll have some to answer for, John,
5:44:17
according to your own story, said missus Wood. I've suffered already,
5:44:23
he said, many a night. I've lain on my bed and grown when
5:44:30
I thought of needless cruelties I'd put upon animals when I was a young,
5:44:33
unthinking boy, and I was pretty carefully brought up too, according to our
5:44:38
light in those days. I often think that if I was cruel with all
5:44:42
the instruction I had to be musciful. What can be expected of the children
5:44:48
that get no good teaching at all when they're young. Tell us some more
5:44:52
about the foxes, mister Wood, said mister max Wale. Well, we
5:44:57
used to have a red sport for hunting them with the fox hounds. I'd
5:45:03
often go off for the day with my hounds. Sometimes uly in the morning
5:45:07
they'd find a track in the snow. The lead of for cent would go
5:45:11
back and forth to find out which way the fox was going. I can
5:45:15
see him now all the time. He ran now one way and now another
5:45:19
on the track of the fox. He was silent, but kept his tail
5:45:22
aloft, wagging it as a signal. To the hounds behind. He was
5:45:27
leader in his scent, but he did not like bloody, dangerous fights.
5:45:33
By and bye, he would decide which way the fox had gone. Then
5:45:37
his tail, still kept high in the air, would wag more violently.
5:45:41
The rest followed him in single file, going pretty slow so as to enable
5:45:48
us to keep up to them. By and bye, they would come to
5:45:52
a place where the fox was sleeping for the day. As soon as he
5:45:55
was disturbed, he would leave his bed under some thick fur ors spruce branches
5:46:00
near the ground. This flung his fresh scent into the air. As soon
5:46:04
as the hound snipped it. They gave tongue in good earnest. It was
5:46:08
a mixed deep bay that made the blood quicken in my veins. While in
5:46:15
the excitement of his first fright, the fox would run for a mile or
5:46:18
two till he found it an easy mity to keep out of the way of
5:46:22
the hounds. Then he cunning creature would begin to bother them. He would
5:46:27
mount to the top pole of a worm fence dividing the fields from the woods.
5:46:33
He could trot along here quite a distance and then make a long jump
5:46:37
into the woods. The hounds would come up but could not walk the fence,
5:46:41
and they would have difficulty in finding where the fox had left it.
5:46:45
Then we saw General's ship. The hounds scattered in all directions and made long
5:46:52
detours into the woods and fields. As soon as the track was lost,
5:46:56
they ceased the bay, but the instant a hound founded again. He bade
5:47:00
to give signal to the others. All would hurry to the spot, and
5:47:04
off they would go, bathing as they went. Then mister Fox would try
5:47:10
a new trick. He would climb a leaning tree and then jump to the
5:47:14
ground. This trick would soon be found out. Then he'd try another.
5:47:18
He would make a circle of a quarter of a mile in circumference. By
5:47:22
making a loop in his course. He would come in behind the hounds and
5:47:27
puzzle them between the scent of his first and following tracks. If the snow
5:47:33
was deep, the hounds had made a good track for him. Over this
5:47:37
he could run easily and they would have to fuel their way along. For
5:47:41
after he had gone around the circle a few times, he would jump from
5:47:45
the beaten path as far as he could and make off to the other cover
5:47:48
in a straight line. Before this was done, it was my plan to
5:47:52
get near the circle, taking care to approach it on the leeward side.
5:47:57
If the fox got a sniff of human, he would leave his circle very
5:48:02
quickly and make tracks fast to be out of danger. By the baying of
5:48:06
the hounds, the circle in which the race was kept up could easily be
5:48:10
known. The last runs to get near enough to shoot had to be done
5:48:15
when the hounds baying came from the side of the circle nearest me, for
5:48:18
then the fox would be on the opposite side, farthest away. As soon
5:48:23
as I got near enough to see the hounds when they passed, I stopped
5:48:27
when they got on the opposite side. I then kept a bright lookout for
5:48:32
the fox. Sometimes, when the brush was thick, the sight of him
5:48:36
would be indistinct. The shooting had to be quick. As soon as the
5:48:40
report of the gun was hood, the hounds ceased to bay and made for
5:48:44
the spot. If the fox was dead, they enjoyed the scent of his
5:48:47
blood. If only wounded, they went after him with all speed. Sometimes
5:48:52
he was overtaken and killed, and sometimes he got into his burrow in the
5:48:56
earth, or in a hollow log, or among the rocks. One day,
5:49:02
I remember when I was standing on the outside of the circle. The
5:49:04
fox came in sight. I fired. He gave a shrill bark and came
5:49:08
toward me. Then he stopped in the snow and fell dead in his tracks.
5:49:14
I was a pretty good shot in those days, poor little fox,
5:49:19
said Miss Laura. I wish you had let him get away. Here's one
5:49:26
that nearly got away, said mister Wood. One winn'sday. I was chasing
5:49:30
him with the hounds. There was crust on the snow, and the fox
5:49:34
was light while the dogs were heavy. They ran along, the fox trotting
5:49:40
nimbly on the top of the crust, and the dogs breaking through. And
5:49:44
every few minutes that a fox would stop and sit down to look at the
5:49:47
dogs. They were in a fury, and the wickedness of the fox and
5:49:52
teasing them made me laugh so much that I was very unwilling to shoot him.
5:49:57
You said, you're still traps for cruel things. Uncle, said Miss
5:50:03
Laura. Why didn't you have a dead fall for the foxes as you had
5:50:07
for the bears. They were too cunning to go into dead falls. There
5:50:12
was a better way to catch them. Though. Foxes hate water and never
5:50:18
go into it unless they are obliged to, so We used to find a
5:50:21
place where a tree had fallen across the river and made a bridge for them
5:50:25
to go back and forth on. Here we set snails with spring poles that
5:50:29
would throw them into the river when they made struggles to get free, and
5:50:33
drown them. Did you ever hear of the fox, Laura, that wanted
5:50:37
to cross a river and lay down on the bank pretending he was dead.
5:50:40
And a countryman came along, and, thinking he had a prize, threw
5:50:44
him in his boat and rowed across. When the fox got up and ran
5:50:48
away. Now, uncle said miss Laura, you're laughing at me. That
5:50:55
couldn't be true. No, no, said mister Woodchuck. But they're mighty
5:51:02
cute at pretending they're dead. I went shot one in the morning, carried
5:51:06
him a long way on my shoulders, and started to skin him in the
5:51:08
afternoon, when he turned around and bit me enough to draw blood. At
5:51:14
another time, I dug one out of a hole in the ground. He
5:51:17
feigned death. I took him up and threw him down at some distance,
5:51:21
and he jumped up and ran away into the woods. What other animals did
5:51:26
you catch when you were a boy, asked mister Max Whale, oh,
5:51:30
a number otters and beavers. We caught them in dead falls and in steal
5:51:36
traps. The mink we usually took in dead falls, smaller, of course,
5:51:40
than the ones we used for the bears. The muskrat we caught in
5:51:44
box traps like a mouse trap. The wild cat we ran down like the
5:51:48
lamps set of the e. What kind of animal is that, asked mister
5:51:53
max Whale. It is a lynx belonging to the cat species. They used
5:51:59
to prowl about out the country, killing hens, geese, and sometimes sheep.
5:52:03
They'd fix their tushes in the sheep's neck and suck the blood. They
5:52:07
did not think much of the sheep's flesh. We ran them down with dogs.
5:52:11
They'd often run up trees and we'd shoot them. Then those were the
5:52:15
rabbits we caught, mostly in snails from us scraps. We'd put a patsnip
5:52:19
or an apple on the spindle of a box trap. When we sned a
5:52:22
rabbit, I always wanted to find it called around the neck and strangled to
5:52:26
death. If they got half through the snail and were caught around the body,
5:52:30
oh, by the hind legs, they'd live for some time and they'd
5:52:34
just cry like a child. I like shooting them better, just because I
5:52:38
hated to hear their pitiful cries. It's a bad business, this of killing
5:52:44
dumb creatures, and the older I get, the more chicken hearted I am
5:52:48
about it. Chicken hearted I should think you are, said missus Wood.
5:52:55
Do you know, Laura, he won't even kill a fowl for dinner.
5:52:59
He gives one of his men to do it. Blessed are the merciful,
5:53:04
said miss Laura, throwing her arms over her uncle's shoulders. I love you,
5:53:11
dear uncle John, because you are so kind to every living thing.
5:53:17
I'm going to be kind to you now, said her uncle, and send
5:53:22
you to bed. You look tired and very well, she said with a
5:53:26
smile, Then bidding them all good night, she went upstairs. Mister Wood
5:53:33
turned to mister Maxwell. You're going to stay all night with us, aren't
5:53:37
you so? Missus Wood says, replied the young man with a smile.
5:53:45
Of course, she said, I couldn't think of letting you go back to
5:53:49
the village such a night as this. It's raining cats and dogs. Oh
5:53:55
but I mustn't say that, or there'll be no getting you to stay.
5:53:57
I'll go and prepare your old room next to Harry's. And she bustled away.
5:54:06
The two young men went to the pantry for donuts and milk, and
5:54:11
mister Wood stood gazing down at me. Good dog, He said, you
5:54:18
look as if you since that talk tonight. Come get a bone, then
5:54:22
away to bed. He gave me a very large mutton bone, and I
5:54:29
held it in my mouth and watched him opening the woodshed door. I love
5:54:34
human beings, and the saddest time of day for me is when I have
5:54:41
to be separated from them while they sleep. Now go to bed and rest
5:54:47
well, beautiful Joe, said mister Wood. And if you hear any stranger
5:54:52
around the house, run out of bark. Don't be chasing wild animals in
5:54:56
your sleep. Though they say a dog is the only animal that dreams,
5:55:00
I wonder whether it's true. Then he went into the house and shut the
5:55:07
door. I had a sheepskin, the lown, and a very good bed.
5:55:12
It made I slept soundly for a long time. Then I waked up
5:55:18
and found that instead of rain pattering against the roof and darkness everywhere, it
5:55:26
was quite light. The rain was over and the moon was shining beautifully.
5:55:33
I ran to the door and looked out. It was almost as light as
5:55:37
day. The moon made it very bright around the house and farm buildings,
5:55:42
and I could look all about and see that there was no one stirring.
5:55:48
I took a turn around the yard and walked around to the side of the
5:55:52
house to glance up at Miss Laura's window. I always did this several times
5:56:00
i'm through the night, just to see if she was quite safe. I
5:56:04
was on my way back to bed when I saw two small white things moving
5:56:11
away down the lane. I stood on the veranda and watched them. When
5:56:17
I got nearer, I saw that there was a white rabbit hopping up the
5:56:22
road, followed by a white hen. It seemed to me a very strange
5:56:29
thing for these creatures to be out this time of night, and while were
5:56:33
they coming to Dingley Farm, this wasn't their home. I ran down on
5:56:38
the road and stood in front of them. Just as soon as the hen
5:56:44
saw me, she fluttered in front of the rabbit and, spreading out her
5:56:48
wings, clucked angrily and acted as if she would peck. My eyes aled
5:56:55
if I came nearer. I saw that they were harmless creep creatures, and
5:57:00
remembering my adventure with the snake, I stepped aside. Besides that, I
5:57:07
knew by their smell that they had been near mister Maxwell, so perhaps they
5:57:12
were after him. They understood quite well that I would not hurt them,
5:57:18
and passed by me. The rabbit went ahead again, and the hen fell
5:57:23
behind. It seemed to me that the hen was sleepy and didn't like to
5:57:29
be out so late at night, and was only following the rabbit because she
5:57:33
thought it was her duty. He was going along in a very queer fashion,
5:57:41
putting his nose to the ground and rising up on his hind legs and
5:57:45
sniffing the are first on this side and then on the other, and his
5:57:51
nose going going all the time. He smelled all around the house till he
5:57:57
came to mister max Well's room at the back. It opened on the veranda
5:58:03
by a glass door, and the door stood ajar. The rabbit squeezed himself
5:58:10
in, and the hen stayed out. She watched for a while, and
5:58:15
when he didn't come back, she flew upon the back of a chair that
5:58:19
stood near the door and put her head under her wing. I went back
5:58:25
to my bed, for I knew they would do no harm. Early in
5:58:30
the morning, when I was walking around the house, I heard a great
5:58:33
shouting and laughing from mister Maxwell's room. He and Harry had just discovered the
5:58:41
hen in the rabbit, and mister Harry was calling his mother to come and
5:58:45
look at them. The rabbit had slept on the foot of the bed.
5:58:52
Mister Harry was chaffing mister Maxwell very much and was telling him that anyone who
5:58:59
in aertained him was in for a traveling menagerie. They had a great deal
5:59:06
of fun over it, and mister Maxwell said that he had had that pretty
5:59:11
white hen as a pet for a long time in Boston. Once, when
5:59:17
she had some little chickens, a frightened rabbit that was being chased by a
5:59:22
dog ran into the yard. In his terror, he got right under the
5:59:27
hen's wings, and she sheltered him and pet got the dog's eyes and kept
5:59:33
him off till help came. The rabbit belonged to a neighbor's boy, and
5:59:40
mister Maxwell bought it from him. From the day the hen protected him,
5:59:45
she became his friend and followed him everywhere. I did not wonder that the
5:59:52
rabbit wanted to see his master. There was something about that young man that
5:59:57
made dumb animals just delight in him. When missus Wood mentioned this to him,
6:00:03
he said, I don't know why they should. I don't do anything
6:00:08
to fascinate them. You love them, she said, and they knew it.
6:00:15
That is the reason. End of chapter twenty four. The Rabbit and
6:00:23
the Henyon, Chapter twenty five. A happy horse. For a good while
6:00:32
after I went to Dingley Farm, I was very shy of the horses,
6:00:37
for I was afraid they might kick me, thinking that I was a bad
6:00:41
dog like Bruno. However, they all had such good faces and looked at
6:00:48
me so kindly that I was beginning to get over my fear of them.
6:00:53
Fleetfoot, mister Harry's colt, was my favorite, and one afternoon, when
6:00:59
mister Harry and Miss Laura were going out to see him, I followed them.
6:01:06
Fleetfoot was amusing himself by rolling over and over on the grass under a
6:01:11
tree, but when he saw mister Harry, he gave a shrill whinny,
6:01:17
and running to him, began nosing about his pockets. Wait a bit,
6:01:22
said mister Harry, holding him by the forelock. Let me introduce you to
6:01:27
this young lady, Miss Laura Morris. I want you to make her a
6:01:33
bow. He gave the colt some sign, and immediately he began to pall
6:01:38
the ground and shake his head. Mister Harry laughed and went on, here
6:01:45
is her dog, Joe. I want you to like him too. Come
6:01:48
here, Joe. I was not at all afraid, for I knew mister
6:01:55
Harry would not let him hurt me. So I stood in front of him
6:02:00
and for the first time had a good look at him. They called him
6:02:06
the colt, but he was really a full grown horse and had already been
6:02:11
put to work. He was of a dark chestnut color, and had a
6:02:15
well shaped body and a long, handsome head. And I never saw in
6:02:22
the head of a man or beast a more beautiful pair of eyes than that
6:02:26
colt had large, full brown eyes. They were that He turned on me,
6:02:33
almost as a person would. He looked me all over, as if
6:02:38
to say, are you a good dog, and will you treat me kindly?
6:02:44
Or are you a bad one like Bruno? And will you chase me
6:02:48
and snap at my heels and worry me so that I shall want to kick
6:02:52
you. I looked at him very earnestly, and wagged my body and lifted
6:02:59
myself on my hind legs toward him. He seemed pleased and put down his
6:03:04
nose to sniff at me. And then we were friends, friends, and
6:03:11
such good friends for next to Jim and Billy, I have loved Fleetfoot.
6:03:18
Mister Harry pulled some lumps of sugar out of his pocket, and giving them
6:03:22
to Miss Laura, told her to put them on the palm of her hand
6:03:27
and hold it out flat toward Fleetfoot. The colt ate the sugar, and
6:03:33
all the time eyed her with his quiet, observing glance that made her exclaim,
6:03:40
what a wise looking colt. He is, Like an old horse,
6:03:45
said mister Harry. When he hears a sudden noise, he stops and looks
6:03:51
all about him to find an explanation. He has been well trained, said
6:03:56
Miss Laura. I have brought him up carefully, said mister Harry. Really,
6:04:03
he has been treated more like a dog than a colt. He follows
6:04:07
me about the farm and smells everything I handle, and seems to want to
6:04:11
know the reason of things. Your mother says, replied Miss Laura, that
6:04:18
she found you both asleep on the lawn one day last summer, and the
6:04:23
colt's head was on your arm. Mister Harry smiled and threw his arm over
6:04:30
the colt's neck. We've been comrades, haven't we, fleet Foot. I've
6:04:36
been almost ashamed of his devotion. He has followed me to the village,
6:04:40
and he always wants to go fishing with me. He's four years old now,
6:04:45
so we ought to get over those coltish ways. I've driven him a
6:04:48
good deal. We're going out in the buggy this afternoon. Will you come
6:04:52
Where are you going, asked miss Laura. Just for a short drive by
6:05:00
of the river to collect some money for father. I'll be home long before
6:05:03
tea time. Yes, I should like to go, said miss Laura.
6:05:10
I will go to the house and get my hat. Come on, Fleetfoot,
6:05:15
said mister Harry, and he led the way from the pasture, the
6:05:21
colt following behind me. I waited about the verandah, and in a short
6:05:26
time mister Harry drove up to the front door. The buggy was black and
6:05:32
shining, and Fleetfoot had on a silver mounted harness that made him look very
6:05:37
fine. He stood gently, switching his long tail to keep the flies away,
6:05:44
and with his head turned to see who was going to get into the
6:05:48
buggy. I stood by him, and as soon as he saw that Miss
6:05:52
Laura and mister Harry had seated themselves, he acted as if he wanted to
6:05:57
be off. Mister Harry spoke to him, and away he went. I
6:06:04
racing down the lane by his side, so happy to thank you was my
6:06:08
friend. He liked having me beside him, and every few seconds put down
6:06:15
his head toward me. Animals can tell each other things without saying a word.
6:06:22
When Fleetfoot gave his head a little toss in a certain way, I
6:06:26
knew that he wanted to have a race. He had a beautiful even gait
6:06:33
and went very swiftly. Mister Harry kept speaking to him to check him.
6:06:40
You don't like him to go too fast, do you, said Miss Laura.
6:06:45
No, he returned, I think we could make a racer of him
6:06:49
if we liked. But Father and I don't go in for fast horses.
6:06:53
There is too much said about fast trotters and racehorses on some of the farmers
6:07:00
around here. The people have gone mad on breeding fast horses. An old
6:07:03
farmer out in the country had a common cart horse that he suddenly found out
6:07:08
had great powers of speed and endurance. He sold him to a speculator for
6:07:14
a big price, and it has set everybody wild. If the people who
6:07:18
give all their time to it can't raise fast horses, I don't see how
6:07:22
the farmers can. A fast horse on a farm is a ruination to the
6:07:26
boys, for it starts them racing and bedding. Father says he is going
6:07:32
to offer a prize for the fastest walker that can be bred in New Hampshire.
6:07:37
That Dutchman of ours, heavy as he is, is a fair walker,
6:07:41
and Cleve and Pacer can each walk four and a half miles an hour.
6:07:45
Why do you lay such stress on their walking fast, asked Miss Laura,
6:07:52
because so much of the farm work must be done at a walk,
6:07:56
plowing, teeming and drawing produce to the market, and going up and down
6:08:00
hills. Even for the cities, it is good to have fast walkers.
6:08:04
Trotting on city pavements is very hard on the dray horses. If they are
6:08:10
allowed to go at a quick walk, their legs will keep strong much longer.
6:08:15
It is shameful the way horses are used up in big cities. Our
6:08:18
pavements are so bad that cab horses are used up in three years. In
6:08:23
many ways we are a great deal better off in this new country than the
6:08:27
people in Europe. But we are not in respect of cab horses, for
6:08:32
in London and Paris they last five years. I have seen horses drop down
6:08:37
dead in New York just from hard usage. Poor brutes. There is a
6:08:41
better time coming for them, though, when electricity is more fully developed,
6:08:47
we'll see some wonderful changes. As it is. Last year, in different
6:08:52
places, about thirty thousand horses were released from those abominable horse cars by having
6:08:57
electricity introduced on the roads. Well, Fleetfoot, do you want another spin?
6:09:03
All right, my boy? Go ahead? Away we went again along
6:09:10
a bit of level road. Fleetfoot had no check rein on his beautiful neck,
6:09:17
and when he trotted he could hold his head in an easy natural position.
6:09:22
With his wonderful eyes and flowing mane and tail, and his glossy reddish
6:09:29
brown body, I thought he was the handsomest horse I had ever seen.
6:09:34
He loved to go fast, and when mister Harry spoke to him to slow
6:09:40
up again, he tossed his head with impatience, but he was too sweet
6:09:45
tempered to disobey. And all the years I have known Fleetfoot, I have
6:09:51
never once seen him refuse to do as his master told him. You have
6:09:56
forgotten your whip, haven't you, Harry, I heard Miss Laura say as
6:10:02
we jogged slowly along, and I ran by the buggy, panting and with
6:10:07
my tongue hanging out. I never use one, said mister Harry. If
6:10:14
I saw any man lay one on fleet Foot, I'd knock him down.
6:10:18
His voice was so severe that I glanced up into the buggy. He looked
6:10:25
just as he did the day that he stretched Jenkins on the ground and gave
6:10:30
him a beating. I am so glad you don't, said miss Laura.
6:10:37
You are like the Russians. Many of them control their horses by their voices
6:10:41
and call them such pretty names. But you have to use a whip for
6:10:45
some horses, don't you, cousin Harry, Yes, Laura, there are
6:10:51
many vicious horses that can't be controlled otherwise, And then with many horses,
6:10:56
one requires a whip in case of necessity for urging him forward. I suppose
6:11:02
Fleetfoot never balks, saying Miss Laura, No, replied mister Harry. Dutchman
6:11:11
does sometimes, and we have two cures for him, both equally good.
6:11:15
We take up a forefoot and strike his shoe two or three times with a
6:11:18
stone. The operation always interests him greatly, and he usually starts. If
6:11:25
he doesn't go for that, we pass the line around his forelegs at the
6:11:27
knee joint, then go in front of him and draw him the line.
6:11:32
Father won't let the men use a whip unless they are driven to it.
6:11:36
Fleetfoot has had a happy life, hasn't he saying, Miss Laura, looking
6:11:41
admiringly at him, How did he get to like you so much? Harry?
6:11:48
I broke him in after a fashion of my own. Father gave him
6:11:52
to me, and the first time I saw him on his feet, I
6:11:56
went up carefully and put my hands on him. His mother was rather shy
6:12:00
of me, for we hadn't had her long, and it made him shy
6:12:04
too, so I soon left him. The next time I stroked him.
6:12:10
The next time I put my arm around him. Soon he acted like a
6:12:15
big dog. I could lead him about a strap, and I made a
6:12:18
little halter and bridle for him. I didn't see why I shouldn't train him
6:12:22
a little while he was young and manageable. I think it is cruel to
6:12:26
let colts run till one has to employ severity in mastering them. Of course,
6:12:33
I did not let him do much work. Colts are like boys.
6:12:37
He boys shouldn't do a man's work. But he had exercise every day,
6:12:41
and I trained him to draw a light cart behind him. I used to
6:12:45
do all kinds of things to accustom him to unusual sounds. Father talked a
6:12:51
good deal to me about Reary, the great horse tamer, and it put
6:12:56
ideas into my head. He said he once saw Reary come on stage in
6:13:00
Boston with a timid horse that he was going to accustom to a loud noise.
6:13:04
First a bugle was blown, then some louder instrument, and so on,
6:13:10
so there was a whole brass band going. Rarey reassured the animal,
6:13:15
and yet was not afraid. You like horses better than any other animals,
6:13:21
don't you, Harry asked Miss Laura. I believe I do, though I
6:13:26
am very fond of that dog of yours. I think I know more about
6:13:30
horses than dogs. Have you noticed Scamp very much? Oh? Yes,
6:13:36
I often watch her. She is such an amusing little creature. She's the
6:13:41
most interesting one we've got. That is after fleetfoot. Father got her from
6:13:47
a man who couldn't manage her, and she came to us with a legion
6:13:51
of bad tricks. Father has taken solid comfort, though in breaking her of
6:13:55
them. She is his pet among our stock. I suppose, as you
6:14:00
know, that horses, more than any other animals, are creatures of habit.
6:14:03
If they do a thing once, they will do it again. When
6:14:07
she came to us, she had a trick of biting at a person who
6:14:11
gave her oats. She would do this without fail. So Father put a
6:14:15
little stick under his arm, and every time she would bite, he would
6:14:18
give her a rap over the nose. She soon got tired of biting and
6:14:22
gave it up. Sometimes now you'll see her make a snap at Father as
6:14:26
if she was going to bite, and then look under his arm to see
6:14:30
if the stick is there. He cured some of her tricks in one way
6:14:34
and some in another. One bad one she has was to start for the
6:14:38
stable the minute one of the traces was unfastened. When we were unharnessing,
6:14:44
she pulled Father over once, and another time she ran the shaft of the
6:14:48
sulky clean through the barn door. The next time Father brought her in,
6:14:52
he got ready for her. He twisted the lines around his hands, and
6:14:57
the minute she began to bolt. He gave a tremendous jerk that pulled her
6:15:03
back upon her haunches and shouted whoa. It cured her, and she never
6:15:08
started again till he gave her the word. Often now you'll see her throw
6:15:14
her head back when she is being unhitched. He only did it once.
6:15:18
Yet she remembers if we'd had the training of Scamp, she'd be a very
6:15:22
different animal. It's nearly all in the bringing up of a cult, whether
6:15:26
it will turn out vicious or gentle. If anyone were to strike Fleetfoot,
6:15:32
he would not know what it meant. He has been brought up differently from
6:15:36
Scamp. She was probably trained by some brutal man who inspired her with distrust
6:15:41
of the human species. She never bites an animal and seems attached to all
6:15:47
the other horses. She loves Fleetfoot and Cleave and Pacer. Those three are
6:15:52
her favorites. I'd love to go for drives with Cleve and Pacer, said
6:15:59
Miss Laura. They are so steady and good. Uncle says they are the
6:16:04
most trusty horses he has. He has told me about the man you had
6:16:10
who said those two horses knew more than most humans. That was old David's,
6:16:17
said mister Harry. When we had him, he was courting a widow
6:16:22
who lived over in Hoytville. About once a fortnight he'd ask her father for
6:16:26
one of the horses to go over and see her. He always stayed pretty
6:16:30
late, and on the way home he'd tie the reins to the whipstock and
6:16:34
go to sleep and never wake up till Cleave or Pacer, whichever one he
6:16:38
happened to have, would draw up in the barnyard. They would pass any
6:16:44
rigs they happened to meet, and turn out a little for a man.
6:16:48
If David's wasn't asleep, he could always tell by the difference in their gait
6:16:52
which they were passing. They'd go quickly past a man, and much slower,
6:16:56
with more of a turnout if it was a team. But I dare
6:17:00
say Father told you this. He has a great stock of horse stories,
6:17:04
and I'm almost as bad. You will have to cry halt when we bore
6:17:10
you. You never do, replied Miss Laura. I love to talk about
6:17:17
animals. I think the best story about Cleve and Pacer is the one that
6:17:22
Uncle told me last evening. I don't think you were there. It was
6:17:26
about stealing the oats. Cleave and Pacer never steal, said mister Harry,
6:17:33
don't you mean Stamp, she's the thief. No, it was Pacer that
6:17:38
stole. He got out of his box, Uncle says, and found two
6:17:44
bags of oats, and he took one in his teeth and dropped it before
6:17:48
Cleve and ate the other himself. And Uncle was so amused that he let
6:17:52
them eat a long time and stood and watched them. That was a clever
6:17:59
trick, mister Harry. Father must have forgotten to tell me. Those two
6:18:04
horses have been mates ever since I can remember, and I believe if they
6:18:08
were separated, they'd pine away and die. You have noticed how low the
6:18:14
partitions are between the boxes and the horse table. Father says. You wouldn't
6:18:18
put a lot of people in separate boxes in a room where they couldn't see
6:18:22
each other. And horses are just as fond of company as we are.
6:18:26
Cleve and Pacer are always nosing each other. A horse has a long memory.
6:18:32
Father has had horses recognize him that he has been parted from for twenty
6:18:37
years. Speaking of their memories reminds me of another good story about Pacer that
6:18:41
I never heard till yesterday, and that I would not talk about to anyone
6:18:45
but you and mother. Father wouldn't write me about it, for he will
6:18:49
never put a line on paper where anyone's reputation is concerned. End of Chapter
6:18:56
twenty five, A Happy Home Worse Chapter twenty six, The Box of Money.
6:19:07
This story, said mister Harry, is about one of the hired men
6:19:12
we had last winter, whose name was Jacob's. He was a cunning fellow
6:19:18
with a hangdog look and a great cleverness at stealing farm produce from father on
6:19:22
the sly and selling it. Father knew perfectly well what he was doing and
6:19:29
was wondering what would be the best way to deal with him, when one
6:19:32
day something happened that brought matters to a climax. Father had to go to
6:19:37
Sudbury for farming tools, and took pacer and the cutter. There are two
6:19:41
ways of going there, one the Sudbury Road and the other the old post
6:19:47
road, which is longer and seldom used. On this occasion, Father took
6:19:52
the post road. The snow wasn't deep, and he wanted to inquire after
6:19:56
an old man who had been robbed in half frightened to death. A few
6:20:00
days before. He was a miserable old creature known as miser Gerald, and
6:20:06
he lived alone with his daughter. He had saved a little money that he
6:20:11
kept in a box under his bed. When Father got near the place,
6:20:15
he was astonished to see by PACER's actions that he had been on this road
6:20:18
before, and recently too. Father is so sharp about horses that they never
6:20:23
do a thing that he doesn't attach meaning to, so he let the reins
6:20:27
hang a little loose and kept his eye on Pacer. The horse went along
6:20:33
the road, and, seeing Father didn't direct him, turned into the lane
6:20:37
leading to the house. There was an old redgate at the end of it,
6:20:41
and he stopped in front of it and waited for Father to get out.
6:20:45
Then he passed through, and instead of going up to the house,
6:20:48
turned around and stood with his head toward the road. Father never said a
6:20:52
word, but he was doing a lot of thinking. He went into the
6:20:56
house and found the old man sitting over the fire, rubbing his hands and
6:21:00
half crying about the few poor dollars that he said he had stolen from him.
6:21:08
Father had never seen him before, but he knew he had the name
6:21:12
of being half silly, and questioned him as much as he liked, he
6:21:15
could make nothing of him. The daughter said that they had gone to bed
6:21:21
at dark the night her father was robbed. She slept upstairs and he down
6:21:26
below. About ten o'clock she heard him scream, and running down the stairs,
6:21:30
she found him sitting up in bed and the window wide open. He
6:21:34
said a man had sprung in upon him, stuffed the bedclothes into his mouth,
6:21:40
and, dragging his box from under the bed, had made off with
6:21:44
it. She ran to the door and looked out, but there was no
6:21:47
one to be seen. It was dark and snowing a little, so no
6:21:51
traces of footsteps were to be perceived. In the morning, father found that
6:21:56
the neighbors were dropping in to bear the old man company, so he drove
6:22:00
on to Sudbury and then returned home. When he got back, he said
6:22:04
Jacobs was hanging around the stable in a nervous kind of way, and said
6:22:08
he wanted to speak to him. Father said, very good, but put
6:22:12
the horse in first. Jacob's unhitched, and father sat on one of the
6:22:18
stable benches and watched him till he came lounging along with a straw in his
6:22:22
mouth, and said he'd made up his mind to go west, and he'd
6:22:26
like to set off at once. Father said, again, very good.
6:22:30
But first he had a little account to settle with him. And he took
6:22:33
out of his pocket a paper where he had jotted down, as far as
6:22:37
he could every quart of oats, and every bag of grain, and every
6:22:42
quarter of a dollar of market money that Jacobs had defrauded him of. Father
6:22:49
said. The fellow turned all the colors of the rainbow, for he thought
6:22:52
he had covered up his tracks so cleverly that he would never be found out.
6:22:59
Then Father said, sit down, Jacobs, for I have got to
6:23:02
have a long talk with you. He had him there about an hour,
6:23:06
and when he finished, the fellow was completely broken down. Father told him
6:23:11
there were just two courses in life for a young man to take, and
6:23:15
he had gotten on the wrong one. He was a young, smart fellow,
6:23:19
and if he turned around right now there was a chance for him.
6:23:23
If he didn't, there was nothing but the state's prison ahead of him.
6:23:27
For he needn't think he was going to gull and cheat all the world and
6:23:33
never be found out. Father said he'd give him all the help in his
6:23:37
power if he had his word that he'd try to be an honest man.
6:23:41
Then he tore up the paper instead. There was an end of his indebtedness
6:23:45
to him. Jacobs is only a young fellow, twenty three or thereabout,
6:23:51
and father says he sobbed like a baby. Then, without looking at him,
6:23:56
Father gave an account of his afternoon's drive, just as if he was
6:24:00
talking to himself. He said that Pacer, never to his knowledge, had
6:24:04
been on that road before, and yet he seemed perfectly familiar with it,
6:24:08
and that he stopped and turned already to leave again quickly instead of going up
6:24:15
to the door, and how he looked over his shoulder and started on a
6:24:18
run down the lane the minute Father's foot was in the cutter. Again.
6:24:22
In the course of his remarks, Father mentioned the fact that on Monday,
6:24:26
the evening that the robbery was committed, Jacobs had borrowed Pacer to go to
6:24:30
the junction, but had come in with the horse steaming and looking as if
6:24:36
he had been driven a much longer distance than that. Father said that when
6:24:41
he got done, Jacobs had sunk down all in a heap on the stable
6:24:45
floor with his hands over his face. Father left him to have it out
6:24:49
with himself and went to the house. The next morning, Jacobs looked the
6:24:55
same as usual, and went about with the other men, doing his work,
6:24:59
but saying nothing about going west. Late in the afternoon, a farmer
6:25:03
going by held Father and asked if he had heard the news. Old miser
6:25:08
Gerald's box had been left on his doorsteps sometime through the night, and he
6:25:12
found it in the morning. The money was all there, but the old
6:25:17
fellow was so cute that he wouldn't tell anyone how much it was. The
6:25:22
neighbors had persuaded him to bank it, and he was coming to town the
6:25:25
next morning with it, and that night some of them were going to help
6:25:29
him mount guard over it. Father told the men at milking time, and
6:25:33
he said Jacobs looked as unconscious as possible. However, from that day there
6:25:38
was a change in him. He never told father in so many words that
6:25:42
he'd resolved to be an honest man, but his actions spoke for him.
6:25:47
He had been a kind of sullen, unwilling fellow, but now he turned
6:25:52
handy and obliging, and it was a real trial to Father to part with
6:25:56
him. Miss Laura was intensely interested in this story. Where is he now?
6:26:03
Cousin Harry she asked eagerly what became of him. Mister Harry laughed in
6:26:11
such an amusement that I stared up at him, and even fleet Foot turned
6:26:17
his head around to see what the joke was. We were going very slowly
6:26:22
up a long steep heel, and in the clear, still air we could
6:26:26
hear every word spoken in the buggy. The last part of the story is
6:26:33
the best, to my mind, said mister Harry, and as romantic as
6:26:37
even a girl could desire. The affair of the stolen box was much talked
6:26:42
about along Sudbury Way, and miss Gerald got to be considered quite a desirable
6:26:48
young person among some of the youth near there, though she is a frowsy
6:26:52
headed creature and not as neat in her personal attire as a young girl should
6:26:57
be. Among her suitors was Jacob's he cut out at blacksmith, and a
6:27:03
painter, and several young farmers, and Father said he never in his life
6:27:07
had such a time to keep a straight face as when Jacobs came to him
6:27:11
this spring and said he was going to marry old Miser Gerald's daughter. He
6:27:17
wanted to quit father's employ and he thanked him in a real manly way,
6:27:22
for the manner in which he'd always treated him well. Jacobs left, and
6:27:26
mother says that Father would sit and speculate about him as to whether he had
6:27:30
fallen in love with Eliza Jerrold, or whether he was determined to regain possession
6:27:34
of the box and was going to do it honestly, or whether he was
6:27:38
sorry for having frightened the old man into a greater degree of imbecility and was
6:27:44
marrying the girl so that he could take care of him, or whether it
6:27:48
was something else, and so on and so on. He had a dozen
6:27:52
theories, and then mother says he would burst out laughing and say it was
6:27:56
one of the cutest tricks he had ever heard of. In the end,
6:28:00
Jacobs got married, and father and mother went to the wedding. Father gave
6:28:03
the bridegroom a yoke of oxen, and mother gave the bride a lot of
6:28:07
household linen. And I believe they're as happy as the day is long.
6:28:11
Jacobs makes his wife comb her hair, and he waits on the old man
6:28:15
as if he was his son, And he is improving the farm that was
6:28:18
going to rack and ruin, and I hear he is going to build a
6:28:22
new house, Harry exclaimed, Miss Laura, can't you take me to see
6:28:29
them? Yes, indeed Mother often drives over to take them little things,
6:28:34
and we'll go too sometime. I'd like to see Jacobs myself now that he
6:28:40
is a decent fellow. Strange to say, though he hadn't the best of
6:28:44
character, no one has ever suspected him of the robbery, and he's been
6:28:48
cunning enough never to say a word about it. Father says, Jacobs is
6:28:52
like all the rest of us. There's a mixture of good and evil in
6:28:56
him, and sometimes one predominates and sometimes the other. But we must get
6:29:00
on and not talk here all day. Get up, fleetfoot. Where did
6:29:06
you say we were going, asked Miss Laura, as we crossed over the
6:29:10
bridge to the river. A little way back here in the woods, he
6:29:15
replied, there's an englishman on a small clearing that he calls Penhallow. Father
6:29:21
loaned him some money three years ago, and he won't pay either interest or
6:29:25
principle. I think I've heard of him, said Miss Laura. Isn't he
6:29:30
the man whom the boys call Lord Chesterfield? The same one? He's a
6:29:36
queer specimen of a man. Father has always stood up for him. He
6:29:40
has a great liking for the English. He says, we ought to be
6:29:42
as ready to help an Englishman as an American, for we spring from common
6:29:47
stock. Oh not englishmen only, said Miss Laura warmly, Chinamen and Negroes
6:29:56
and everybody. There ought to be a brotherhood of nations. Harry, yes,
6:30:03
miss enthusiasm, I suppose there ought to be. And looking up,
6:30:07
I could see that mister Harry was gazing admiringly into his cousin's face. Please
6:30:15
tell me some more about the Englishman, said Miss Laura. There isn't much
6:30:21
to tell. He loves alone, only coming occasionally to the village for supplies,
6:30:26
and though he is poorer than poverty, he despises every soul within a
6:30:30
ten mile radius of him, and looks upon us as no better than an
6:30:33
order of thrifty, well trained lower animals. Why is that, asked Miss
6:30:40
Laura in surprise. He is a gentleman, Laura, and we are only
6:30:45
common people. My father can't hand a lady in and out of a carriage
6:30:48
as Lord Chesterfield can, nor can he make so grand avow, nor does
6:30:52
he put on evening dress for a late dinner. And we never go to
6:30:56
the opera, nor to the theater, and know nothing of polite society,
6:31:00
nor can we tell exactly whom our great great grandfather sprang from. I tell
6:31:06
you there is a gulf between us and that englishman wider than the one young
6:31:11
courtisus leaped into Miss Laura was laughing merrily. How funny that sounds, Harry,
6:31:19
So he despises you, And she glanced at her good looking cousin and
6:31:26
his handsome buggy and well kept whrse, and Dean burst into another merry peal
6:31:32
of laughter. Mister Harry laughed too. It does seem absurd sometimes when I
6:31:38
pass him jogging along to town in his rickety old cart, and look at
6:31:42
his pale, cruel face, and know that he is a broken down gambler
6:31:48
and a man of the world, and yet considers himself infinitely superior to me,
6:31:52
a young man in the prime of life, with a good constitution and
6:31:56
happy prospects. It makes me turn away to hide a smile. By this
6:32:02
time we had left the river and the meadows far behind us, and we
6:32:07
were passing through a thick wood. The road was narrow and very broken,
6:32:12
and Fleetfoot was obliged to pick his way carefully. Why does the Englishman live
6:32:18
in this out of the place if he is so fond of city life,
6:32:23
ask Miss Laura. I don't know, said mister Harry. Father is afraid
6:32:30
that he has committed some misdeed and isn't hiding, but we say nothing about
6:32:34
it. We have not seen him for some weeks, and to tell the
6:32:37
truth, this trip is as much to see what has become of him as
6:32:41
to make a demand upon him for the money. As he lives alone,
6:32:45
he might lie there ill and no one would know anything about it. The
6:32:49
last time that we knew of his coming to the village was to draw quite
6:32:53
a sum of money from the bank. In annoyed father, for he said
6:32:56
he might take some of it to pay his debts. I think as relatives
6:33:00
in England supply him with funds. Here we are at the entrance to the
6:33:06
mention of Penhallow. I must get out and open the gate that will admit
6:33:10
us to the winding avenue. We had arrived in front of some bars which
6:33:15
were laid across an opening, and the snake fence that ran along one side
6:33:21
of the road. I sat down and looked about. It was a strange,
6:33:26
lonely place. The trees almost met overhead, and it was very dim
6:33:33
and quiet. The sun could only send little straggling beams through the branches.
6:33:38
There was a muddy pool of water before the bars that mister Harry was letting
6:33:44
down, and he got his feet wet in it. Confound that englishman.
6:33:49
He stayed backing out of the water and wiping his boots on the grass.
6:33:56
He hasn't even the gumption enough to throw down a load of stone. There.
6:34:00
Drive in, Laura, and I'll put up the bars. Fleetfoot took
6:34:04
us through the opening, and then mister Harry jumped into the buggy and took
6:34:10
up the reins again. We had to go beery slowly up a narrow rough
6:34:15
road. The bushes scratched and scraped against the buggy, and mister Harry looked
6:34:22
very much annoyed. No man liveth to himself, said miss Laura softly.
6:34:30
This man's carelessness is giving you trouble. Why doesn't he cut these branches that
6:34:36
overhang the road. He can't do it because his abominable laziness won't let him,
6:34:41
said mister Harry. I'd like to be behind him for a week,
6:34:45
and i'd make him step a little faster. We have arrived at last,
6:34:51
thank goodness. There was a small grass clearing in the midst of the woods.
6:34:57
Chips and bits of wool were littered about, and across the clearing was
6:35:03
a roughly built house of unpainted boards. The front door was propped open by
6:35:08
a stick. Some of the panes of glass and the windows were broken,
6:35:12
and the whole house had a melancholy, dilapidated look. I thought that I
6:35:19
had never seen such a sad looking place. It seems as if there was
6:35:26
no one about, said mister Harry, with a puzzled face, bearing,
6:35:30
must be away. Will you hold fleet foot, Laura while I go in
6:35:33
and see. He drew the buggy up near a small log building that had
6:35:40
evidently been used for a stable, and I lay down beside it and watched
6:35:45
Miss Laura end of Chapter twenty six, The Box of Money, Chapter twenty
6:35:52
seven, A neglected stable. I had not been on the ground more than
6:36:00
a few seconds before I turned my eyes from Miss Laura to the log hut.
6:36:07
It was deathly quiet. There was not a sound coming from it,
6:36:11
but the air was full of queer smells, and I was so uneasy that
6:36:18
I could not lie still there was something the matter with Fleetfoot too. He
6:36:23
was pawing the ground and whinnying and looking not after mister Harry, but toward
6:36:30
the log building. Joe said, Miss Laura, what is the matter with
6:36:37
you and Fleetfoot? Why don't you stand still? Is there any stranger about?
6:36:42
And she peered out of the buggy. I knew there was something wrong
6:36:48
somewhere, but I didn't know what it was. So I stretched myself up
6:36:53
on the step of the buggy and licked her hand, and barking to ask
6:36:59
her to excuse me. I ran off to the other side of the log
6:37:03
hood. There was a door there, but it was closed and propped firmly
6:37:10
up by a plank that I could not move scratch. As hard as I
6:37:15
liked, I was determined to get in, so I jumped against the door
6:37:19
and tore and bit at the plank till Miss Laura came to help me.
6:37:26
You won't find anything but rats in that rimshackle old place. Beautiful, Joe,
6:37:32
she said, as she pulled the plank away. And as you don't
6:37:36
hurt them, I don't see what you want to get in for. However,
6:37:41
you're a sensible dog and usually have a reason for having your own way,
6:37:45
so I am going to let you have it. The plank fell down
6:37:49
as she spoke, and she pulled open the rough door and looked in.
6:37:56
There was no window inside, only the light that streamed through the door,
6:38:00
so for an instant she could see nothing. Is anyone in here? She
6:38:07
asked in her clear, sweet voice. There was no answer except a low
6:38:15
moaning sound. Why some poor creature is in trouble, Joe, said Miss
6:38:22
Laura cheerfully. Let us see what it is, and she stepped inside.
6:38:29
I shall never forget seeing my dear Laura going into that wet and filthy log
6:38:34
house, holding up her white dress in her hands, her face a picture
6:38:41
of pain and horror. There were two rough stalls in it, and in
6:38:47
the first one was tied a cow with a calf lying beside her. I
6:38:52
could never have believed, if I had not seen it with my own eyes,
6:38:57
that an animal could get so thin as that cow was. Her backbone
6:39:03
rose up high and sharp, her hip bone stuuck way out, and all
6:39:08
her body seemed shrunken in. There were swords on her sides, and the
6:39:15
smell from her stall was terrible. Miss Laura gave one cry of pity.
6:39:22
Then, with a very pale face, she dropped her dress, and,
6:39:26
seizing a little pen knife from her pocket, she hacked at the rope that
6:39:30
tied the cow to the manger and cut it so the cow could lie down.
6:39:37
The first thing the poor cow did was to lick her calf, but
6:39:42
it was quite dead. I used to think Jenkins cows were thin enough,
6:39:48
but he never had one that looked like this. Her head was like the
6:39:53
head of a skeleton, and her eyes had such a famished look that I
6:40:00
turned away, sick at heart to think she had suffered. So when the
6:40:06
cow lay down, the moaning noise stopped, for she had been making it.
6:40:11
Miss Laura ran outdoors, snatched a handful of grass, and took it
6:40:18
in to her. The cow ate it gratefully, but slowly, for her
6:40:22
strength seemed all gone. Miss Laura then went into the other stall to see
6:40:30
if there was any creature there. There had been a horse, There was
6:40:34
now a lean, gaunt looking animal lying on the ground that seemed as if
6:40:41
he was dead. There was a heavy rope nodded round his neck and fastened
6:40:48
to his empty rack. Miss Laura stepped carefully between his feet, cut the
6:40:53
rope, and going outside the stall, spoke kindly to him. He moved
6:41:00
his ears, slightly, raised his head, tried to get up, fell
6:41:04
back again, tried again and succeeded, and staggering out doors after Miss Laura,
6:41:11
who kept encouraging him, and then he fell down on the grass.
6:41:17
Fleetfoot stared at the miserable looking creature as if he did not know what it
6:41:22
was. The horse had no sores on his body as the cow had,
6:41:29
nor was he quite so lean. But he was the weakest, most distressed
6:41:34
looking animal that I ever saw. The flies settled on him, and Miss
6:41:41
Laura had to keep driving them away. He was a white horse with some
6:41:45
kind of pale colored eyes, and whenever he turned them on Miss Laura she
6:41:52
would look away. She did not cry, as she often did over the
6:41:56
sick and suffering animals. Seem too bad for tears. She just hovered over
6:42:03
that poor horse, with her face as white as her dress and an expression
6:42:08
of fright in her ries. Oh, hal dirty he was. I would
6:42:15
never have imagined that a horse could get in such a condition. All this
6:42:21
had only taken a few minutes, and just after she got the horse out,
6:42:26
mister Harry appeared He came out of the house with a slow step that
6:42:32
quickened to a run. When he saw Miss Laura, Laura, he exclaimed,
6:42:38
what are you doing? Then he stopped and looked at the horse,
6:42:45
not in amazement, but very sorrowfully. Fearing is gone, he said,
6:42:52
and crumpling up a piece of paper, he put it in his pocket.
6:42:56
What is to be done for these animals? There is a cow, isn't
6:43:00
there? He stepped to the door of the log hut, glanced in and
6:43:07
said quickly, do you feel able to drive home? Yes, said Miss
6:43:12
Laura. You sure, and he eyed her anxiously. Yes, yes,
6:43:19
she returned, What shall I get? Just tell father that Fearan has run
6:43:25
away and left a starving pig, cow and horse. There's not a thing
6:43:30
to eat here. He'll know what to do. I'll drive you to the
6:43:33
road. Miss Laura got into the buggy and mister Harry jumped in after her.
6:43:41
He drove her to the road and put down the bars. Then he
6:43:45
said, go straight on. You'll be on the open road and there's nothing
6:43:49
to harm you. Joe will look after you. Meanwhile, I'll go back
6:43:52
to the house and heat some water. Miss Laura let fleetfoot go as fast
6:43:59
as he liked on the way home, and it seemed only minutes before we
6:44:03
drove into the yard. Adlee came to meet us. Where's uncle, asked
6:44:11
Miss Laura. Gone to the big meadow, said Adlee and Auntie. She
6:44:18
hadded the colds and chills and entered into the bed to keep warm. She
6:44:22
lose herself in sleep. Now you not go near her. Are there none
6:44:29
of the men about, asked Miss Laura. No, mademoiselle, they all
6:44:34
occupied way off. Then you help me, Adele like a good girl,
6:44:41
said miss Laura, hurrying into the house. We found a sick horse and
6:44:47
cow. What shall I take them? Nearly all animals like a debrand mash,
6:44:53
said Adele. Good cried Miss Laura. That is the very put in
6:45:00
the things to make it, will you please? And I would like some
6:45:03
vegetables for the cow, carrots, turnips, anything you have. Take some
6:45:10
of those you have prepared for dinner tomorrow. And please run up to the
6:45:14
barn of Dale and get some hay and corn and oats. Not much for
6:45:18
we'll be going back again, but a hurry for the poor things are starving.
6:45:22
And have you any milk for the pig? Put it in one of
6:45:26
those tin kettles with covers. For a few minutes, Miss Laura and a
6:45:32
Dale flew about the kitchen. Then we set off again. Miss Laura took
6:45:37
me in the buggy, for I was out of breath and wheezing greatly.
6:45:42
I had to sit on the seat beside her, for the bottom of the
6:45:47
buggy and the back were full of eatables for the poor sick animals. Just
6:45:52
as we drove into the road we met mister Wood. Are you running away
6:46:00
with the farm? He said, with a laugh, pointing to the car
6:46:04
at tops that were gaily waving over the dash forward. Miss Laura said a
6:46:11
few words to him, and with a very grave face, he got in
6:46:15
beside her. In a short time we were back on the lonely road.
6:46:22
Mister Harry was waiting at the gate for us, and when he saw Miss
6:46:26
Laura, he said, why did you come back again? You'll be tired
6:46:32
out. This isn't a place for a sensitive girl like you. I thought
6:46:37
I might be of some use, said she gently, So you can,
6:46:42
said mister Wood. You go into the house and sit down, and Harry
6:46:48
and I will come to you when we want cheering up. What have you
6:46:51
been doing Harry, I've watered them a little. I got a good fire
6:46:56
going. I scarcely think the cow will pull through, Think will save the
6:47:00
horse. I tried to get the cow outdoors, but she can't move.
6:47:04
Let her alone, said mister Wood. Give her some food and her strength
6:47:10
will come to her. What have you got here? And he began to
6:47:15
take the things out of the bugy. Bless the child. She thought of
6:47:19
everything, even the salt. Bring those things into the house, Harry,
6:47:23
and we'll make a bran mash. For more than an hour they were fussing
6:47:30
over the animals. They then they came in and sat down. The inside
6:47:34
of the Englishman's house was as untidy as the outside. There was no upstairs
6:47:41
to it, only one large room with a dirty curtain stretched across it.
6:47:48
On one side was a low bed with a heap of clothes on it,
6:47:52
a chair, and a washstand. On the other was a stove, a
6:47:57
table, a sh aachy rocking chair that Miss Laura was sitting in, a
6:48:03
few hanging shelves with some dishes and books on them, and two were three
6:48:08
small boxes that had evidently been used for seats. On the walls were tacked
6:48:15
some pictures of grand houses, and ladies and gentlemen in fine clothes, and
6:48:22
Miss Laura said that some of them were noble people. Well, I'm glad
6:48:27
this particular nobleman has left us, said mister Wood, seating himself on one
6:48:33
of the boxes. If nobleman he is, I should call him in plain
6:48:38
English, scoundrel. Did Harry show you his note? No, uncle,
6:48:45
said Miss Laura. Read it aloud, said mister Wood. I'd like to
6:48:51
hear it again. Miss Laura read jay Wood. Dear sir, it is
6:48:59
a matter of great regret to me that I am suddenly called away from my
6:49:03
place at Penhallow, and will therefore not be able to do myself the pleasure
6:49:08
of calling you and settling my little account. I sincerely hope that the possession
6:49:14
of my live stock, which I make entirely over to you, will more
6:49:18
than reimburse you for any trifling expense which you have incurred on my account.
6:49:23
If it is any gratification to you to know that you have rendered a slight
6:49:29
assistance to the son of one of England's noblest noblemen, you have it with
6:49:36
expressions of the deepest respect, and hoping that my stock may be in good
6:49:41
condition. When you take possession. I am, dear sir, ever devotedly
6:49:45
yours. Howard Algernon LeDuc Baron. Miss Laura dropped the paper, Uncle,
6:49:55
Did he leave those animals to starve? Didn't you notice? Said mister Wood
6:50:03
grimly, that there wasn't a wisp of hay inside that chanty, and that
6:50:07
where the poor beasts were tied up, the wood was gnawed and bitten by
6:50:11
them and their torture for food. Wouldn't he have sent me that note instead
6:50:15
of leaving it here on the table if he'd wanted me to know? The
6:50:19
note isn't dated. But I judge he's been gone five or six days.
6:50:23
He has had a spite against me ever since. I want him that hundred
6:50:27
dollars. I don't know why, for I've stood up for him when others
6:50:33
would have run him out of the place. He intended me to come here
6:50:37
and find every animal lying dead. He even had a rope around the pig's
6:50:41
neck. Harry, my boy, let us go and look after them again.
6:50:45
I love a dumb brute too well to let it suffer. But in
6:50:49
this case I'd give two hundred dollars more if I could make them live and
6:50:53
have bear and know it. They left the room, and miss lord,
6:51:00
we're a sad turning the sheet of paper over and over with a kind of
6:51:03
horror in her face. It was a very dirty piece of paper, and
6:51:10
by and by she made a discovery. She took it in her hand and
6:51:15
went outdoors. I am sure that the poor horse lying on the grass knew
6:51:21
her. He lifted his head in what a different expression he had, now
6:51:26
that his hunger had been partly satisfied. Miss Laura stroked and patted him.
6:51:33
Then she called to her cousin, Harry, will you look at this?
6:51:38
He took the paper from her and said, that is a crest shining through
6:51:45
the different strata of dust and grime, probably that of his own family.
6:51:51
We'll have it cleaned and it will enable us to track the villain. You
6:51:55
want him punished, don't you, he said, with a little sly laugh
6:52:00
at Miss Laura. She made a gesture in the direction of the suffering horse
6:52:06
and said, frankly, yes, I do. Well, my dear girl,
6:52:11
he said, Father and I are with you. If we can hunt
6:52:15
Bearn down, we'll do it. Then he muttered to himself as she turned
6:52:21
away, she is a real puritan, gentle and sweet and good, and
6:52:26
yet severe rewards for the virtuous, punishments for the vicious, and he repeated
6:52:33
some poetry. She was so charitable and so piteous. She would weep if
6:52:41
that she saw a mouse caught in a trap, if it were dead or
6:52:45
bled. Miss Laura saw that mister Wood and mister Harry were doing all that
6:52:52
could be done for the cow and the horse, so she wandered down to
6:52:56
the hollow at the back of the house where the Englishmen had kept his pig.
6:53:02
Just now he looked more like a greyhound than a pig. His legs
6:53:07
were so long, his nose so sharp, and hunger, instead of making
6:53:12
him stupid like the horse and cow, had made him more lively. I
6:53:18
think he had probably not suffered so much as they had, or perhaps he
6:53:23
had a greater store of fat to nourish him. Mister Harry said that if
6:53:30
he had been a girl, he would have laughed and cried at the same
6:53:33
time when he discovered that pig. He must have been asleep or exhausted when
6:53:38
he arrived, for there was not a sound out of him. But shortly
6:53:44
afterward he had set up a yelling that I attracted mister Harry's attention and made
6:53:49
him run down to him. Mister Harry said he was raging around his pen,
6:53:56
digging the ground with a snailt falling down and getting up again, and
6:54:03
by a miracle, escaping death by choking from the rope that was tied around
6:54:07
his neck. Now that his hunger had been satisfied, he was gazing contentedly
6:54:15
at his little trough that was half full of good, sweet milk. Mister
6:54:22
Harry said that a starving animal, like a starving person, should only be
6:54:26
fed a little out of time. But the Englishman's animals had always been fed
6:54:33
poorly, and their stomachs contracted so much so that they could not eat much.
6:54:40
At one time, Miss Laura got a stick and scratched the poor piggy's
6:54:47
back a little, and then she went back to the house. In a
6:54:51
short time we went home with mister Wood. Mister Harry was going to stay
6:54:56
all night with the sick animals, and his mother would send him things to
6:55:02
make him comfortable. She was better by the time we got home, and
6:55:07
was horrified to hear the tale of mister Baron's neglect. Later in the evening,
6:55:12
she sent one of the men over with a whole box full of things
6:55:18
for her, darling boie and nice hot tea done up for him in a
6:55:22
covered dish. When the man came home, he said that mister Harry would
6:55:29
not sleep in the Englishman's dirty house, but had slung a hammock out under
6:55:34
the trees. However, he would not be able to sleep much, for
6:55:38
he had his lantern by his side, all ready to jump up and attend
6:55:45
to the horse and cow. It was a very lonely place for him out
6:55:48
there in the woods, and his mother said she would be glad when the
6:55:53
sick animals could be driven to their own farm. End of chapter twenty seven
6:56:00
A Neglected Stable. Chapter twenty eight the end of the Englishman. In a
6:56:11
few days, thanks to mister Harry's constant care, the horse and the cow
6:56:18
were able to walk. It was a mournful procession that came into the yard
6:56:23
at Dingley Farm, the hollow eyed horse and lean cow and funny little thin
6:56:30
pig staggering along in such a shaky fashion. Their hooks were diseased and had
6:56:37
partly rided away so that they could not walk straight. Though it was only
6:56:44
a mile or two from Penhallow to Dingley Farm. They were tired out and
6:56:49
dropped down, exhausted on their comfortable beds. Miss Laura was so delighted to
6:56:57
think they had all leaved that she did not know what to do. Her
6:57:03
eyes were bright and shining, and she went from one to another with such
6:57:07
a happy face. The queer little pig that mister Harry had christened Daddy long
6:57:15
Legs had been washed, and he lay on his heap of straw in the
6:57:19
corner of his neat little pen and surveyed his clean trough and abundance of food
6:57:26
with the air of a prince. Why he would be clean and dry here
6:57:33
and all his life he had been used to dirty, damp pen Hollow,
6:57:37
with the trees hanging over him in his little feet in a mass of filth
6:57:44
and dead leaves. Happy little pig, his ugly eyes seemed to blink and
6:57:49
gleam with gratitude, and he knew Miss Laura and mister Harry as well as
6:57:56
I did. His tiny tail was curled so tight that it was almost in
6:58:03
a knot. Mister Woods said that was a sign that he was healthy and
6:58:07
happy, and that when poor Daddy was at pen Hollow he had noticed that
6:58:14
his tail hung as limp and as loose as the tail of a rat.
6:58:19
He came over and leaned over the pen with Miss Laura and had a little
6:58:25
talk with her about pigs. He said they were by no means the stupid
6:58:30
animals that some people considered them. He had had pigs that were as clever
6:58:36
as dogs. One little black pig that he had once sold to a man
6:58:42
away back in the country had found its way home through the woods across the
6:58:48
river Uphill and down Dale, and he'd been taken to the place with a
6:58:55
bag over his head. Mister Woods said that he kept that pig because he
6:59:00
knew so much. He said the most knowing pigs he ever saw were Canadian
6:59:07
pigs. One time he was having a trip on a sailing vessel and it
6:59:12
anchored in a long, narrow harbor in Canada where the tide came in with
6:59:18
a front four or five feet high, called the bore. There was a
6:59:25
village opposite the place where the ship was anchored, and every day at low
6:59:30
tide, a number of pigs came down to look for shellfish. Sometimes they
6:59:36
went out for half a mile over the mud flats, but always a few
6:59:41
minutes before the tide came rushing in, they turned and hurried to the shore.
6:59:48
Their instincts warned them that if they stayed any longer, they would be
6:59:52
drowned. Mister Wood had a number of pigs, and after a while Daddy
7:00:00
was put in with them, and a fine time he had of it,
7:00:03
making friends with the other little grunters. They were often let out in the
7:00:10
pasture or orchard, and when they were there I could always single out Daddy
7:00:15
from among them, because he was the smartest. Though he had been brought
7:00:22
up in such a miserable way, he soon learned to take very good care
7:00:27
of himself at Dingley Farm, and it was amusing to see him when a
7:00:33
storm was coming on, running about in a state of great excitement, carrying
7:00:38
little bundles of straw in his mouth to make himself a bad He was a
7:00:45
white pig and was always kept very clean. Mister Wood said that it is
7:00:52
wrong to keep pigs dirty. They liked to be clean as well as other
7:00:56
animals, and if they were kept so so, human beings would not get
7:01:02
so many diseases from eating their flesh. The cow, poor unhappy creature,
7:01:10
never as long as she'd lived on Dingly Farm, lost a strange melancholy look
7:01:17
from her eyes. I have heard it said that animals forget past unhappiness,
7:01:25
and perhaps some of them do. I know I have never forgotten my one
7:01:30
miserable year with Jenkins, and I have been a sober, thoughtful dog in
7:01:37
consequence of it, and not playful like some dogs who have never known what
7:01:42
it is to be really unhappy. It always seemed to me that the Englishman's
7:01:49
cow was thinking of her poor dead calf, starved to death by her cruel
7:01:56
master. She got well, her safe and came and went with the other
7:02:02
cows, seemingly as happy as they. But often when I watched her standing
7:02:08
and chewing her cud and looking away in the distance, I could see a
7:02:14
difference between her face and the faces of the cows that had always been happy
7:02:19
on Dingley Farm. Even the farm hands called her Old Melancholy, and soon
7:02:27
she got to be known by that name, or Mail for short. Until
7:02:33
she got well, she was put into a cow stable where mister Woods cows
7:02:38
all stood at night upon raised platforms of earth covered over with straw litter,
7:02:47
and she was tied with a Dutch halter, so that she could lie down
7:02:51
and go to sleep when she wanted to. When she got well, she
7:02:56
was put out the pasture with the other cows. The horse they named Scrub
7:03:03
because he could never, be, under any circumstance anything but a broken down,
7:03:10
plain looking animal. He was put into the horse stable in a stall
7:03:15
next to Fleetfoot, and as the partition was low, they could look over
7:03:21
at each other. In time, by dint of much doctoring, scrubs hooks
7:03:29
became clean and sound, and he was able to do some work. Miss
7:03:34
Laura petted him a great deal. She often took out apples to the stable,
7:03:41
and Fleetfoot would throw up his beautiful head and look reproachfully over the partition
7:03:48
at her, for she always stayed longer with Scrub than with him, and
7:03:53
Scrub always got the larger share of whatever good thing was going. Old Scrub
7:04:00
I think he loved Miss Laura. He was a stupid sort of a horse
7:04:07
and always acted as if he was blind. He would run his nose up
7:04:11
and down the front of her dress, nip at the buttons, and be
7:04:17
very happy if he could get a bit of her watchchain between his strong teeth.
7:04:22
If he was in the field, he never seemed to know her till
7:04:26
she was right under his pale colored eyes. Then he would be delighted to
7:04:32
see her. He was not blind, though for mister Woods said he was
7:04:37
not. He said he had probably not been an overbright horse to start with,
7:04:44
and had been made more dull by cruel usage. As for the Englishman,
7:04:51
the master of these animals, a very strange thing happened to him.
7:04:57
He came to a terror, but for a long time no one knew anything
7:05:04
about it. Mister Wood and mister Harry were so very angry with him that
7:05:11
they said they would leave no stone unturned to have him punished, or at
7:05:18
least to have it known what a villain he was. They sent the paper
7:05:23
with the crest on it to Boston. Some people there wrote to England and
7:05:30
found out that it was the crest of a noble and highly esteemed family,
7:05:36
and some earl was at the head of it. They were all honorable people
7:05:41
in this family, except one man, a nephew, not a son of
7:05:48
the late earl. He was the black sheep of them all. As a
7:05:52
young man he had led a wild and wicked life, and had ended by
7:05:59
foraging the name of one of his friends so that he was obliged to leave
7:06:03
England and take refuge in America. By the description of this man, mister
7:06:11
Wood knew that he must be mister Baron. So he wrote to these English
7:06:17
people and told them what a wicked thing their relative had done in leaving his
7:06:22
animals to starve. In a short time, he got an answer from them,
7:06:27
which was at the same time very proud and very touching. It came
7:06:34
from mister Baron's cousin, and he said quite frankly that he knew his relative
7:06:41
was a man of evil habits, but it seemed as if nothing could be
7:06:45
done to reform him. His family was accustomed to send a quarterly allowance to
7:06:52
him on condition that he led a quiet life in some retired place. Their
7:07:00
last remitutes to him was lying unclaimed in Boston, and they thought he must
7:07:06
be dead. Could mister Wood tell them anything about him? Mister Wood looked
7:07:14
very thoughtful when he got this letter. Then he said, Harry, how
7:07:18
long is it since Baron ran away? About eight weeks, said mister Harey.
7:07:26
That's strange, said mister Wood. The money these English people sent him
7:07:32
would get to Boston just a few days after he left here. He is
7:07:36
not the man to leave it long unclaimed. Something must have happened to him.
7:07:40
Where do you suppose he would go from Penhallow? I have no idea,
7:07:45
sir, said mister Harey. And how would he go, said mister
7:07:51
Wood. He did not leave Riverdale Station because he would have been spotted by
7:07:55
some of his creditors. Perhaps he would cut through the woods to the junction,
7:08:00
said mister Harry. Just what he would do, said mister Wood,
7:08:06
slapping his knee. I'll be driving over there tomorrow to see Thompson. I'll
7:08:11
make inquiries. Mister Harey spoke to his father the next night when he came
7:08:17
home, and asked him if he had found out anything. Only this,
7:08:22
said mister Wood. There's no one answering to Baron's description who has left Riverdale
7:08:27
Junction within a twelve month. He must have struck some other station. We'll
7:08:33
let him go. The Lord looks out for fellas like that. We will
7:08:37
look out for him if he ever comes back to Riverdale, said mister Harey
7:08:41
quietly. All through the village and in the country it was known what a
7:08:48
dastardly trick the Englishman had played, and he would have been roughly handled if
7:08:53
he dared return. Months passed away and nothing was heard of. Late in
7:09:00
the autumn, after Miss Laura and I had gone back to Fairport, missus
7:09:06
Wood wrote her about the end of the Englishman. Some Riverdale lads were beating
7:09:12
about the woods looking for lost cattle, and then their wanderings came to an
7:09:18
old stone quarry that had been disused for years. On one side there was
7:09:25
a smooth wall of rock many feet deep. On the other the ground and
7:09:30
rock were broken away, and it was quite easy to get into it.
7:09:34
They found that, by some means or other, one of their cows had
7:09:38
fallen into this deep pit over the steep side of the quarry. Of course,
7:09:45
the poor creature was dead, but the boys, out of curiosity,
7:09:49
resolved to go down and look at her. They clambered down, found the
7:09:55
cow, and to their horror and amazement, discover nearby the skeleton of a
7:10:02
man. There was a heavy walking step by his side, which they recognized
7:10:07
as the one that the Englishman had carried. He was a drinking man,
7:10:14
and perhaps he had taken something that he thought would strengthen him for his morning's
7:10:18
walk, but which had on the contrary bewildered him and made him lose his
7:10:25
way and fallen to the quarry. Or he might have started before daybreak,
7:10:30
and in the darkness have slipped and fallen down this steep wall of rock.
7:10:37
One leg was doubled under him, And if he had not been instantly killed
7:10:41
by the fall, he must have been so disabled that he could not move
7:10:48
in that lonely place he would call for help in vain. So he may
7:10:52
have perished by the terrible death of starvation, the death he had thought to
7:10:57
meet out to his suffering animals. Missus Wood said that there never was a
7:11:03
sermon preached in Riverdale that had the effect that the death of this wicked man
7:11:08
had, and it reminded her of a verse in the Bible. He made
7:11:14
a pit, and he digged it, and has fallen into the ditch which
7:11:18
he made. Missus Wood said that her husband had written about the finding of
7:11:22
mister Baron's body to his English relatives, and had received a letter from them
7:11:29
in which they seemed relieved to hear that he was dead. They thanked mister
7:11:34
Wood for his plane speaking and telling them of their relatives' misdeeds, and said
7:11:41
that from all they knew of mister Baron's past conduct, his influence would be
7:11:47
for evil and not for good in any place that he chose to live in.
7:11:52
They were having their money sent from Boston to mister Wood, and they
7:11:56
wished him to expend it in the way he thought best fitted to counteract the
7:12:03
evil effects of their namesakes doing in Riverdale. When this money came it amounted
7:12:11
to some hundreds of dollars, mister Wood would have nothing to do with it.
7:12:15
He handed it over to the Band of Mercy, and they formed what
7:12:19
is called the Barren Fund, which they drew upon when they wanted money for
7:12:25
buying and circulating humane literature. Missus Woods said that the fund was being added
7:12:32
to and the children were sending all over the state leaflets and little books which
7:12:37
preached the gospel of kindness to God's lower creation. A stranger picking one of
7:12:44
them up, and seeing the name of the Wicked Englishman printed on the title
7:12:48
page, would think that he was a friend and benefactor to the Riverdale people,
7:12:53
the very opposite of what he gloried in being end of chapter eight.
7:13:00
The end of the Englishman, Chapter twenty nine, a talk about sheep.
7:13:08
Miss Laura was very much interested in the sheep. On Dingley Farm, there
7:13:15
was a flock in the orchard near the house that she often went to see.
7:13:21
She always carried roots and vegetables to them, turnips particularly, for they
7:13:26
were very fond of them. But they would not come to her and get
7:13:30
them, for they did not know her voice. They only lifted their heads
7:13:36
and stared at her when she called them. But when they heard mister Wood's
7:13:41
voice, they ran to the fence, bleeding with pleasure and trying to push
7:13:48
their noses through to get the carrot or turnip or whatever he was handing them.
7:13:55
He called them his little South Downs, and he said he loved his
7:14:00
sheep, for they were the most gentle and inoffensive creatures that he had on
7:14:06
his farm. One day, when he came into the kitchen inquiring for salt,
7:14:12
Miss Laura said, is it for the sheep? Yes, he replied,
7:14:18
I'm going up to the woods pasture to examine my shroptures. You would
7:14:25
like to go to, Laura said, Miss Wood, take your hands right
7:14:30
away from that cake. I'll finish frosting it for you. Run along and
7:14:34
get your broad brimmed hat. It's very hot. Miss Laura danced out into
7:14:41
the hall and back again, and soon we were walking up back of the
7:14:45
holes along a path that led us through the fields to the pasture. What
7:14:52
are you going to do, uncle, she said? And what are those
7:14:56
funny things in your hands? Clippers, he replied, And I'm going to
7:15:03
examine the sheep's hoops. You know, we've had warm, moist weather all
7:15:07
through July, and I'm afraid of foot rot. And then there's sometimes trouble
7:15:12
with overgrown hoofs. What do you do if they get foot rot, asked
7:15:18
Miss Laura. I have various cures, he said, pairing and clipping and
7:15:25
dipping the hoof in blue vitriol and vinegar, or rubbing it on as the
7:15:30
English shepherds do. It destroys the diseased part but doesn't affect the sound.
7:15:37
Do sheep have many diseases? Asked Miss Laura. I know one of them
7:15:45
myself. That is the scab o A nasty thing, that, said mister
7:15:51
Wood vigorously. And a man that builds up a flock from a stockyard often
7:15:56
finds it out to his cost. What is it like, asked Miss Laura.
7:16:03
The sheep gets scabbed from a microbe under the skin, which causes them
7:16:07
to itch fearfully, and they lose their wool. And can't it be cured?
7:16:12
Oh? Yes, with time and detention. There are different remedies.
7:16:18
I believe petroleum is the best. By this time we had got to a
7:16:23
wide gate that opened into the pasture. As mister Wood let Miss Laura go
7:16:30
through and then closed it behind her, he said, you were looking at
7:16:36
that gate. Do you want to know why it's so long? Don't you?
7:16:41
Yes, uncle, she said, But I can't bear to ask so
7:16:45
many questions. Ask as many as you like, He said, good naturedly,
7:16:52
I don't mind answering them. Have you ever seen sheep pass through a
7:16:56
gate or door? Oh? Yes, often? And how do they act?
7:17:02
Oh so silly, uncle. They hang back, and one waits for
7:17:07
another, and finally they all try to go at once. Precisely when one
7:17:14
goes, they all want to go if it was to jump into a bottomless
7:17:18
pit. Many sheep are injured by overcrowding. So I have my gates and
7:17:23
doors very wide. Now let us call them up. There wasn't one in
7:17:29
sight, but when mister Wood lifted his voice up and cried, gone now
7:17:34
now, then black faces began to peer out from among the bushes, and
7:17:41
little black legs carrying white bodies came hurrying up to the stony paths from the
7:17:48
cooler parts of the pasture. Oh, how glad they were to get the
7:17:53
salt. Mister Wood. Let Miss Laura spread it on some flat rock.
7:18:00
Then they sat down on the log under a tree and watched them eating it
7:18:06
and licking the rocks. When it was all gone, Miss Laura sat fanning
7:18:11
herself with her hat and smiling at them few funny wooly things. She said,
7:18:19
You're not so stupid as some people think you are. Life still,
7:18:23
Joe. If you show yourself, they may run away. I crouched behind
7:18:29
the log and only lifted my head occasionally to see what the sheep were doing.
7:18:37
Some of them went back into the woods, for it was very hot
7:18:41
in this bare part of the pasture, But most of them would not leave
7:18:45
mister Wood and stood staring at him. That's a fine sheep, isn't it,
7:18:52
said Miss Laura, pointing to the one with the blackest face and the
7:18:57
blackest leg and the largest body of those near us. Yes, that's old
7:19:04
Jessica. Do you notice how she's holding her head close to the ground.
7:19:10
Yes, is there any reason for it. There is she's afraid of the
7:19:15
grub fly. You often see sheep holding their noses in that way in the
7:19:19
summertime. It is to prevent the fly from going into the nostrils and depositing
7:19:26
an egg, which will turn into a grub and annoy and worry them.
7:19:30
When the fly comes near, they give a sniff and run as if they
7:19:36
were crazy, still holding their noses close to the ground. When I was
7:19:40
a boy and sheep did that, we thought that they had colds into their
7:19:44
heads, and used to rub tar on their noses. We knew nothing about
7:19:48
the fly then, but the tar cured them, and that is just what
7:19:52
I use now. Two or three times a month, or in hot weather,
7:19:57
we put a few drops of it on the nose those of every sheep
7:20:00
in the flock. I suppose farmers are like other people and are always finding
7:20:07
better ways of doing their work, aren't they, uncle, said Miss Laura,
7:20:11
Yes, my child. The older I grow, the more I find
7:20:15
out, and the better care I take of my stock. My grandfather would
7:20:21
open his eyes in amazement and ask me if I was an old woman petting
7:20:25
of cats. If he was alive and it could know the care I give
7:20:29
my sheep. He used to let his flock run till the fields were covered
7:20:33
with snow, and bite as close as they liked, till there wasn't a
7:20:37
scrap of feed left. Then he would give them an open shed to run
7:20:42
under and throw down their hay outside grain. They scarcely knew the taste of
7:20:48
that. They would fall off in flesh, and half of them lose their
7:20:52
lambs, and the spring was an expected thing. He would say, I
7:20:57
had them kindled. If he could see my big closed sheds with the sunny
7:21:03
windows that my flocks spin the winter in. I even house them during the
7:21:07
bad fall storms they can run out again. Indeed, I like to get
7:21:12
them in and have a snack of dry food to break them into it.
7:21:18
They are in and out of those sheds all winter. You must go in,
7:21:22
Laura and see the self feeding racks. On bright winter days they get
7:21:29
a run in the corn fields. Cold doesn't hut sheep. It's the heavy
7:21:33
rain that soaks their fleeces. With my way, I seldom lose a sheep,
7:21:40
and they're the most profitable stock I have. If I could not keep
7:21:44
them, I think I'd give up farming. Last year my lambs netted me
7:21:49
eight dollars each. The fleeces of the ewes average eight pounds and sell for
7:21:56
two dollars each. That's something to brag of in these days when so many
7:22:00
are giving up the sheep industry. How many sheep have you, uncle,
7:22:07
asked Miss Laura. Only fifty now, twenty five here and twenty five down
7:22:14
below in the orchard. I've been selling a good money this spring. These
7:22:18
sheep are larger than those in the orchard, aren't they, said Miss Laura.
7:22:25
Yeah. I keep a few south Downs for their fine quality. I
7:22:30
don't make as much on them as I do on these Shropshires. For an
7:22:33
all around sheep, I like the Shropshire. It's good for mutton, for
7:22:38
wool and for rearing lambs. There's a great demand for mutton nowadays all through
7:22:45
our eastern cities. People want more and more of it, and it has
7:22:48
to be tender and juicy and finely flavored. So a person has to be
7:22:53
particular about the feed the sheep get. Don't you hate to have these creatures
7:23:00
killed that you have raised intended so carefully? Said Miss Laura with a little
7:23:07
shudder. I do, said her uncle. But never an animal goes off
7:23:12
my place that I don't know just how it's going to be put to death.
7:23:18
None of you are sending sheep to market with their legs tied together and
7:23:22
jammed in a cart and sweating and suffering. For me, They've got to
7:23:26
go standing comfortably on their legs, or go not at all. And I'm
7:23:30
going to know the butcher that kills my animals that have been petted like children.
7:23:37
I said to Davidson over there in Hoytville. If I thought you would
7:23:41
herd my sheep and lambs and calves together and take them one by one in
7:23:48
sight of the rest, and stick your knife into them, or stun them,
7:23:52
and have the others lowing and bleeding and crying in their misery, this
7:23:56
is the last consignment you would ever get me, he said. Would I
7:24:03
don't like my business, but on the word of an honest man, my
7:24:07
butchering is done as well as it can be. Come and see for yourself.
7:24:12
He took me to his slaughter house, and no, I didn't stay
7:24:17
long. I saw enough to convince me that he spoke the truth. He
7:24:21
has different pens and sheds, and the killing is done as quietly as possible.
7:24:26
The animals are taking in one by one and know the others suspect what
7:24:30
is going on. They can't see it. These sheep are a long way
7:24:36
from the house, said miss Lura. Don't the dogs that you were telling
7:24:41
me about attack them? No, For since I had that brush with Wyndham's
7:24:47
dog, I've trained them to go and come with the cows. It's a
7:24:51
queer thing. But cows that will run from a dog when they are alone
7:24:56
will fight him if he meddles with their cows or the sheep. There's not
7:25:00
a dog around that were dead to come into this pasture, for he knows
7:25:03
the cows would be after him with lowered horns and a business look in their
7:25:08
eyes. The sheep and the orchard are safe enough, for they're near the
7:25:12
house. And if a strange dog came around, Joe would settle him,
7:25:18
wouldn't you. Joe and mister Wood looked behind the log at me. I
7:25:25
got up and put my head on his arm, and he went on by.
7:25:30
And by the south downs will be changed up here, and the Shropshires
7:25:34
will go down to the orchard. I like to keep one flock under my
7:25:40
fruit trees, you know, there's an old proverb, the sheep has a
7:25:45
golden hoof. They saved me the trouble of plowing. I haven't plowed my
7:25:51
orchard in ten years, and don't expect to plow it for ten years more.
7:25:56
Then your Aunt Hattie's hens are so obliging that they keep me from the
7:26:00
worry of finding ticks at shearing time all the year round. I let them
7:26:04
run along the sheep, and they nab every tick they see. How closely
7:26:10
sheep bite, exclaimed Miss Laura, pointing to one that was nibbling almost at
7:26:17
his master's feet, very close. And they eat a good many things that
7:26:22
cows don't relish, bitter weeds and briars and shrubs, and the young ferns
7:26:27
that come up in the spring. I wish I could get a hold of
7:26:33
one of those dear little lambs, said Miss Laura. See that sweet little
7:26:38
blackie back in the alders. Could you not coax him up? He wouldn't
7:26:45
come up here, said her uncle kindly. But I'll try to get him
7:26:49
for you. He rose, and, after several efforts, succeeded in capturing
7:26:56
the black faced creature and bringing him up to the log. He was very
7:27:02
shy of miss Laura, but mister Wood held him firmly and let her stroke
7:27:07
his head as much as she liked. You call him little, said mister
7:27:14
Wood. If you put your arm around him, you'll find he's a pretty
7:27:18
substantial lamb. He was born in March. This is the last of July.
7:27:23
He'll be shorn the middle of next month. And think he's quite grown
7:27:27
up. Poor little animal. He had quite a struggle for life. The
7:27:33
sheep were turned out to pasture in April. They can't bear confinement as well
7:27:38
as the cows, and as they bite closer, they can be turned out
7:27:44
earlier and get on well by having good rations of corn in addition to the
7:27:48
grass, which is thin and poor. So early in the spring, this
7:27:53
young creature was running by his mother's side, rather a weak legged, poor
7:27:59
specimen of a lamb. Every night the flock was put under shelter, for
7:28:03
the ground was cold, and though the sheep might not suffer from lying outdoors,
7:28:08
the lambs would get chilled. One night, this fellow's mother got astray,
7:28:14
and as being neglected to make the count, she wasn't missed. I'm
7:28:18
always anxious about my lambs in the spring, and I often get up in
7:28:22
the night to look after them. That night, I went out about two
7:28:26
o'clock. I took it into my head for some reason or other, to
7:28:30
count them. I found a sheep and a lamb missing. I took my
7:28:36
lantern and Bruno, who was some good at tracking sheep, and started out.
7:28:41
Bruno barked and I called, and the foolish creature came to me,
7:28:45
the little lamb staggering after her. I wrapped the lamb in my coat,
7:28:51
took it to the house, made a fire, and heeded some milk.
7:28:55
Your aunt HATI hugged me and got up. She won't let me give break,
7:29:00
even to a dumb beast. So I put some ground ginger in,
7:29:03
which is just as good in the milk, and forced it down the lamb's
7:29:08
throat. Then we wrapped an old blanket round him and put him near the
7:29:12
stove, and the next evening he was ready to go back to his mother.
7:29:18
I petted him all through April and gave him extras different kinds of meal
7:29:22
till I found out what suited him best. Now he does me the credit,
7:29:29
dear little lamb, said Miss Laura, patting him. How can you
7:29:33
tell him from the other's Uncle, I know all the faces, Laura.
7:29:38
A flock of sheep is just like a crowd of people. They all have
7:29:42
different expressions, and they all have different dispositions. They all look alike to
7:29:49
me, said Miss Laura. I dare say you are not accustomed to them.
7:29:56
Do you know how to tell a sheep's age? Uncle, he'll open
7:30:02
your mouth, cass it, he said to the lamb that he still hailed.
7:30:07
At one year, they have two teeth in the center of the jaw.
7:30:11
They get two teeth more every year up to five years. Then we
7:30:17
say they have a full mouth. After that, you can't tell their age
7:30:22
exactly by the teeth. Now run back to your mother, and he let
7:30:26
the lamb go. Do they always know their own mothers, asked Miss Laura.
7:30:34
Usually sometimes you will not own her lamb. In that case, we
7:30:41
tie them up in a separate stall till she recognizes it. Do you see
7:30:45
that sheep over there by the blueberry bushes, the one with the very point
7:30:49
It is? Yes, uncle, said miss Laura. That lamb by her
7:30:56
side is not her own. Hers die, and we took its fleece and
7:31:00
wrapped it around a twin lamb that we took from another u and gave it
7:31:06
to her. She soon adopted it. Now, come this way and i'll
7:31:10
show you our movable feeding troughs. He got up from the log, and
7:31:15
Miss Laura followed him to the fiennants. These big troughs are for the sheep,
7:31:22
said mister Wood, And those shallow ones in the enclosure are for the
7:31:26
lambs. See there is just enough room for them to get under the fence.
7:31:33
You should see the small creatures rush to them whenever we appear with their
7:31:37
oats and wheat or bread or whatever we are going to give them. If
7:31:41
we are going to the butcher, they get corn meal and oil meal,
7:31:45
whatever it is, they eat it up clean. I don't believe in cramming
7:31:49
animals. I feed them as much as it's good for them, and not
7:31:53
any more. Now you go sit down over there behind those bushes with joke
7:31:59
and all attend of business. Miss Laura found a shady place, and I
7:32:06
curled myself up beside her. We sat there a long time, but we
7:32:11
did not get tired, for it was amusing to watch the sheep and the
7:32:15
lambs. After a while mister Wood came and sat down beside us. He
7:32:22
talked some more about sheep raising, and then said you may stay here longer
7:32:29
if you lot, but I must get down to the house. The work
7:32:33
must be done if the weather is hot. What are you going to do
7:32:37
now, asked Miss Laura, jumping up. Oh more sheep business. I've
7:32:45
set out some young trees in the orchard, and unless I get chicken wire
7:32:49
around them, my sheep will be barking them for me. I'd seen them,
7:32:56
said Miss Laura, standing up on their hinds and nibbling at the trees,
7:33:02
taking off every shot they can reach. They don't hurt the old trees,
7:33:07
said mister Wood, but the young ones have to be protected. It
7:33:11
pays me to take care of my fruit trees, for I get a splendid
7:33:15
crop from them thanks to the sheep. Goodbye, little lambs and dear old
7:33:21
sheep, said Miss Laura, as her uncle opened the gate for her to
7:33:26
leave the pasture. I'll come and see you again sometime. Now, you
7:33:30
had better go down to the brook and the dingle and have a drink.
7:33:36
You look hot in your warm coats. You mastered one detail of sheep keeping,
7:33:41
said mister Wood as he slowly walked along beside his niece terraise healthy sheep.
7:33:48
One must have pure water where they can get to it whenever they like.
7:33:53
Give them good water, good food, and a variety of it,
7:33:57
good quarters, coal in the sun, comfortable in the winter, and keep
7:34:02
them quiet, and you'll make them happy and make money on them. I
7:34:07
think i'd like sheep raising, said Miss Laura. Won't you have me for
7:34:12
your flock mistress uncle? He laughed and said he thought not, for she
7:34:18
would cry every time any of her charge were sent to the butcher. After
7:34:26
this, Miss Laura and I often went up to the pastor to see the
7:34:30
sheep and the lands. We used to get into a shady place where they
7:34:34
could not see us and watch them. One day I got a great surprise
7:34:41
about the sheep. I had heard so much about their meekness that I never
7:34:45
dreamed that they would fight, But it turned out that they did, and
7:34:51
they went about it in such a business like way that I could not help
7:34:55
smiling at them. I suppose that, like most other animals, they had
7:35:00
a spice of wickedness in them. On this day, a quarrel arose between
7:35:07
two sheep, but instead of running at each other like two dogs, they
7:35:12
went a long distance apart, and then came rushing at each other with lowered
7:35:18
heads. Their object seemed to be to break each other's skull, but Miss
7:35:25
Laura soon stopped them by calling out and frightening them apart. I thought that
7:35:30
the lambs were more interesting than the sheep. Sometimes they fed quietly by their
7:35:37
mother's side, and at other times they all huddled together on the top of
7:35:42
some flat rock or in a bare place, and seemed to be talking to
7:35:48
each other with their heads close together. Suddenly one would jump down and start
7:35:55
for the bushes or the other side of the pasture. They would all follow,
7:36:00
pale male. Then in a few minutes they would come rushing back again.
7:36:07
It was pretty to see them playing together and having a good time before
7:36:12
the sorrowful day of their death came. And of chapter twenty nine, Chapter
7:36:22
thirty a jealous ox. Mister Wood had a dozen calves that he was raising,
7:36:30
and Miss Laura sometimes went up to the stable to see them. Each
7:36:37
calf was in a crib and it was fed with milk. They had gentle,
7:36:41
patient faces and beautiful eyes, and looked very meek as they stood quietly
7:36:48
gazing about them or sucking away at their milk. They reminded me of big
7:36:56
gentle dogs. I never got a good look at them and their cribs.
7:37:02
But one day, when they were old enough to be let out, I
7:37:07
went up with Miss Laura to the yard where they were kept. Such queer,
7:37:12
ungainly large bone creatures they were, and such a good time they were
7:37:18
hiding, running and jumping and throwing up their heels. Missus Wood was with
7:37:25
us, and she said that it was not good for calves to be closely
7:37:30
pinned. After they got to be a few weeks old, they were better
7:37:34
for getting out and having a frolic. She stood beside Miss Laura for a
7:37:41
long time, watching the calves and laughing a great deal at their awkward gambols.
7:37:48
They wanted to play, but they did not seem to know how to
7:37:52
use their limbs. They were laying calves, and Miss Laura asked her aunt,
7:38:00
while all the nice meal they had taken had not made them fat,
7:38:04
the fat will come all in good time, said missus Wood. A fat
7:38:11
calf makes a poor cow, and a fat small calf isn't profitable to fit
7:38:17
for sending to the butcher. It's better to have a bony one and fatten
7:38:22
it if you come here next summer, you'll see a fine show of young
7:38:26
cattle with fat sides and big open horns and a good coat of hair.
7:38:33
Can you imagine? She went on indignantly, that anyone could be cruel enough
7:38:40
to torture a harmless creature as a calf. No, indeed, replied miss
7:38:47
Lora. Who's been doing it? Who has been doing it? Repeated missus
7:38:55
Wood bitterly. They are doing it all the time. Do you know what
7:39:00
makes the nice white veal? One gets some big cities, the calves are
7:39:04
bled to death. They linger for hours and moan their lives away. The
7:39:10
first time I heard it, I was so angry that I cried for a
7:39:14
day and made John promise that he'd never send another animal of his to a
7:39:19
big city to be killed. That's why all of our stock goes to Wakeville
7:39:23
and small country places. Oh, those big cities or awful places, Laura.
7:39:30
It seems to me that it makes people wicked to huddle them together.
7:39:34
I'd rather live in a desert than a city. There's cho and every night
7:39:41
since I've been there, I prayed to the Lord either to change the hearts
7:39:45
of some of the wicked people in it, or to destroy them off the
7:39:48
face of the earth. You know, three years ago I got run down,
7:39:53
and your uncle said, I've got to have a change, so he
7:39:57
sent me off to my brother in Chow. I stayed and enjoyed myself pretty
7:40:03
well, for it is a wonderful city. Till one day some Western men
7:40:08
came in who had been visiting the slaughter houses outside the city. I sat
7:40:14
and listened to their talk, and it seemed to me that I was hearing
7:40:18
the description of a great battle. These men were cattle dealers and had been
7:40:22
sending stock to Chow, and they were furious that men, in their rage
7:40:29
for wealth, would so utterly ignore and trample on all decent and humane feelings
7:40:34
as to torture animals as the Chow men were doing. It is too dreadful
7:40:41
to repeat the sights they saw. I listened till they were describing texts and
7:40:45
steers kicking in agony under the torture that was practiced, And then I gave
7:40:51
a loud scream and fainted dead away. They had to send for your uncle,
7:40:56
and he brought me home. And for days and days I heard nothing
7:41:02
but shouting and swearing, and saw animals dripping with blood and crying and moaning
7:41:07
in their anguish. And now, Laura, if you'd lay down a bit
7:41:11
of chow meat and cover it with gold, I'd spurn it from me.
7:41:18
But what am I saying? You're as white as a sheet. Come and
7:41:22
see the cow stable. John's just had it whitewashed. Miss Laura took her
7:41:27
aunt's arm, and I walked slowly behind them. The cow stable was a
7:41:34
long building, well built and with no chinks in the walls, as Jinkin's
7:41:41
stable had. There were large windows where the afternoon sun came streaming in,
7:41:48
and a number of ventilators, and a great many stalls. A pipe of
7:41:53
water ran through the stalls from one end of the stable to the other.
7:41:59
The floor was covered with saldust and leaves, and the ceiling and tops of
7:42:03
the walls were whitewashed. Missus Woods said that her husband would not have the
7:42:10
walls a glare of white right down to the floor, because he thought it
7:42:15
injured the animal's eyes. So the lower parts of the walls were stained a
7:42:21
dark brown color. There were doors at each end of the stable, and
7:42:27
just now they stood open, and the gentle breeze was blowing through, but
7:42:33
Missus Wood said that when the cattle stood in the stalls, both doors were
7:42:40
never allowed to be open. At the same time. Mister Wood was most
7:42:45
particular to have no drafts blowing upon his cattle. He would not have them
7:42:52
shield and he would not have them overheated. One thing was as bad as
7:42:59
the other. And during the winter they were never allowed to drink icy water.
7:43:04
He took the chill off the water for his cows, just as Missus
7:43:10
Wood did for her hands, you know, Laura. Missus Wood went on
7:43:17
that when cows are kept dry and warm, they eat less than when they
7:43:21
are cold and wet. They are so warm blooded that if they are cold,
7:43:26
they have to eat a great deal to keep up the heat of their
7:43:29
bodies. So it pays better to howls and feed them well. They like
7:43:33
quiet, too. I never knew that till I married your uncle. On
7:43:38
our farm, the boys always shouted and screamed at the cows when they were
7:43:42
driving them, and sometimes they made them run. They're never allowed to do
7:43:48
that here. I have noticed how quiet this farm seems, said miss Laura.
7:43:55
You have so many men about, and yet there is so little noise.
7:44:00
Ways your uncle whistles a great deal, said missus Wood. Have you
7:44:06
noticed that he whistles when he's out about his work, and then he has
7:44:10
a calling whistle that nearly all of the animals know, and the men run
7:44:15
when they hear it. You'd see every cow in this stable turn its head
7:44:19
if he whistled in a certain way outside. He says that he got into
7:44:25
the way of doing it when he was a boy and went for his father's
7:44:30
cows. He trained them so that he'd just stand in the pasture and whistle,
7:44:34
and they'd come to him. I believe the first thing that inclined me
7:44:40
to him was his clear, happy whistle. I'd hear him from our house
7:44:45
away down on the road, jogging along with his cart or driving in his
7:44:49
buggy. He says, there is no need of screaming at any animal.
7:44:55
It only frightens and angers them. They will mind much better if you speak
7:45:00
clearly and distinctly. He says. There is only one thing an animal hates
7:45:07
more than to be shouted at, and that's to be crept on, to
7:45:11
have a person sneak up and to startle it. John says, many a
7:45:18
man is kicked because he comes up to his horse like a thief. A
7:45:22
startled animal's first instinct is to defend itself. A dog will spring at you,
7:45:27
and a horse will let his heels fly. John always speaks or whistles
7:45:33
to let the stock know when he's approaching. Where is Uncle this afternoon,
7:45:40
ask miss Laura. Ho up to his eyes in hay. He's even got
7:45:45
one of the oxen harnessed to a hay cart. I wonder whether it's Duke,
7:45:52
said miss Laura. Yes it is. I saw the star on his
7:45:56
forehead, replied missus Wood. I don't know when I have laughed at anything
7:46:02
as much as I did at him the other day, said Miss Laura.
7:46:07
Uncle asked me if I had ever heard of such a thing as a jealous
7:46:11
ox and I said no. He said, come to the barnyard and i'll
7:46:17
show you one. The oxen were both there. Duke with his broad face
7:46:22
and bright so much sharper and more intelligent looking Duke was drinking at the trough
7:46:29
there, and Uncle said, just look at him. Isn't he a great,
7:46:34
fat self satisfied creature? And doesn't he look as if he thought the
7:46:38
world owed him a living and he ought to get it. Then he got
7:46:44
the card and went up to Bright and began scratching him. Duke lifted his
7:46:51
head from the trough and steered at Uncle, who paid no attention to him,
7:46:56
but went right on carding Bright and stroked and petting him. Duke looked
7:47:02
so angry he left the trough and, with the water dripping from his lips,
7:47:07
went up to Uncle and gave him a push with his horns. Still,
7:47:12
Uncle took no notice, and Duke almost pushed him over. Then Uncle
7:47:18
left off petting Bright and turned to him. He said, Duke would have
7:47:23
treated him roughly if he hadn't. I never saw a creature look as satisfied
7:47:30
as Duke did when Uncle began to card him. Bright didn't seem to care
7:47:34
and only gazed calmly at them. I've seen Duke do that again and again,
7:47:41
said missus Wood. He's the most jealous animal that we have, and
7:47:47
it makes him perfectly miserable to have your uncle pay attention to any animal but
7:47:52
him. What queer creatures these dumb roots are. They're pretty much like us
7:47:56
in most ways. They're jealous, resentful, and they can love or hate
7:48:02
equally well and forgive too, for that matter, and suffer how they can
7:48:07
suffer, and so patiently too. Where is the human being that would put
7:48:11
up with the tortures that animals endure and yet come out so patient? Nowhere,
7:48:18
said Miss Laura in a low voice. We couldn't do it, and
7:48:25
there doesn't seem to be an animal, missus Wood went on, No matter
7:48:30
how ugly and repulsive it is, but what has some lovable qualities? I
7:48:36
have just been reading about some sewer rats, Louise Michel's rats. Who is
7:48:42
she asked Miss Laura, a celebrated frenchwoman, My dear child, the priestess
7:48:49
of pity and vengeance. Mister Steed calls her. You were too young to
7:48:56
know about her, but I remember reading of her in eighteen seven during the
7:49:00
Commune troubles in France. She is an anarchist and she used to wear a
7:49:06
uniform and shoulder a rifle and helped to build barricades. She was arrested and
7:49:12
sent as a convict to one of the French penal colonies. She has a
7:49:18
most wonderful love for animals in her heart, and when she went home she
7:49:22
took four cats with her. She was put into prison again in France and
7:49:26
took the cats with her rats came about her cell, and she petted them
7:49:33
and taught her cats to be kind to them. Before she got the cats
7:49:37
thoroughly drilled one of them bit a rat's paw. Louise nursed the rat till
7:49:44
it got well, then let it down by a string from her window.
7:49:48
It went back to its sewer, and I suppose told the other rats how
7:49:53
kind Louise had been to it. For after that they came to her cell
7:49:57
without fear. Mother rats brought their young ones and placed them at her feet,
7:50:03
as if to ask her for protection for them. The most remarkable thing
7:50:08
about them was their affection for each other. Young rats would chew the crusts
7:50:15
thrown to an old, toothless rat so that they might more easily eat them.
7:50:19
And if a young rat dared help itself before an old one, the
7:50:23
others punished it. That sounds very interesting, Auntie, saying miss Laura,
7:50:32
where did you read it? I have just got the magazine, said missus
7:50:37
Wood. You shall have it as soon as you come into the house.
7:50:41
I love to be with you, dear Auntie, said miss Laura, putting
7:50:47
her arm affectionately around her as they stood in the doorway. Because you understand
7:50:53
me when I talk about animals. I can't explain it went on, my
7:50:59
dear your young mistress, laying her hand on her heart, the feeling I
7:51:04
have here for them. I just love a dumb creature, and I want
7:51:10
to stop and talk to everyone I see. Sometimes I worry poor Bessie Dreary,
7:51:15
and I'm so sorry, but I can't help it. She says,
7:51:19
what makes you so silly, Laura. Miss Laura was standing just where the
7:51:26
sunlight shone through her light brown hair and made her face all in a glow.
7:51:33
I thought she looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her before,
7:51:38
and I think Miss Wood thought the same thing. She turned around and put
7:51:44
both hands on Miss Laura's shoulders. Laura, she said, earnestly, there
7:51:52
are enough cold hearts in the world. Don't you ever stifle a warmer,
7:51:57
tender feeling toward a dumb creature. That is your chief attraction, my child,
7:52:03
your love for everything that breathes and moves. Tear out the selfishness from
7:52:07
your heart, if there is any there, but let the love and pity
7:52:11
stay. And now let me talk a little more to you about the cows.
7:52:17
I want to interest you in dairy matters. This stable is new since
7:52:21
you were here, and we've made a number of improvements. Do you see
7:52:25
those bits of rock salt in each stall? They are for the cows to
7:52:29
lick whenever they want to. Now, come here and i'll show you what
7:52:33
we call the black hole. It was a tiny stable off the main one,
7:52:40
and it was very dark and cool. Is this a place of punishment?
7:52:45
Asked Miss Laura In surprise, missus Wood laughed heartily. No, No,
7:52:53
a place of pleasure. Sometimes when the flies are very bad, and
7:52:59
the cows are brought into the yard to be milked, and a fresh swarm
7:53:03
settles on them, they are nearly frantic, and though they are the best
7:53:07
cows in New Hampshire, they will kick a little when they do. Those
7:53:14
that are the worst are brought in here to be milked where there are no
7:53:18
flies. The others have big strips of cotton laid over their backs and tied
7:53:22
under them, and the men brush their legs with tansy tea or water with
7:53:27
a little carbolic acid in it. That keeps the flies away. And the
7:53:33
cows know just as well that it is done for their comfort, and stand
7:53:37
quietly till the milking is over. I must ask John to have their night
7:53:41
dresses put on sometimes for you to see. Harry calls them sheeted ghosts,
7:53:48
and they do look queer enough, standing all round the barnyard robed in white.
7:53:55
End of chapter thirty Chapter thirty one in the cow stable. Isn't it
7:54:03
a strange thing? Said miss Laura, that a little thing like a fly
7:54:08
can cause so much annoyance to animals as well as to people. Sometimes when
7:54:14
I am trying to get more asleep in the morning, their little feet tickle
7:54:18
me so that I am nearly frantic and have to fly out of bed.
7:54:22
You shall have some netting to put over your bed, said missus Wood.
7:54:27
But suppose, Laura, you had no hands to brush away the flies.
7:54:32
Suppose your whole body was covered with them, and you were tied up somewhere
7:54:37
and could not get loose. I can't imagine more exquisite torture myself. Last
7:54:44
summer the flies were dreadful. It seems to me that they are getting worse
7:54:48
and worse every year, and worry the animals more. I believe it is
7:54:53
because the birds are getting thinned out all over the country. There are not
7:54:57
enough of them to catch the flies. John says that the next improvements we
7:55:03
make on the farm are to be wire gulls at all the stable windows and
7:55:07
screen doors to keep the little pests from the horses and cattle. One afternoon
7:55:14
last summer, mister Maxwell's mother came for me to go for a drive with
7:55:19
her. The heat was so intense, and when we got down by the
7:55:23
river, she proposed getting out of the phaeton and sitting under the trees to
7:55:30
see if it would be any cooler. She was driving a horse that she
7:55:33
had got from the hotel in the village, a ron horse that was clipped
7:55:38
and check reined and had his tail dock. I wouldn't drive behind a telless
7:55:44
horse. Now, then I wasn't so particular. However, I made her
7:55:48
unfastened the check rein before I'd set foot in the carriage. Well, I
7:55:53
thought that horse would go mad. He'd tremble and shiver and look so pitiful
7:56:00
at us. The flies were nearly eating him up. Then he'd start a
7:56:04
little missus. Maxwell had a weight at his head to hold him, but
7:56:10
he could easily have dragged that. He was a good disposition horse, and
7:56:15
he didn't want to run away, but he could not stand still. I
7:56:19
soon jumped up and slapped him and rubbed him till my hands were dripping wet.
7:56:26
The poor brute was so grateful and would keep touching my arm with his
7:56:30
nose. Missus Maxwell sat under the trees, fanning herself and laughing at me,
7:56:36
But I didn't care. How could I enjoy myself with a dumb creature
7:56:41
writhing in pain before me. A docked horse can neither eat nor sleep comfortably
7:56:48
in the fly season. In one of our New England villages, they have
7:56:52
a sign up horses taken into grass, long tails one dollar and fifty cents,
7:57:00
short tells one dollar, And it just means that the short tailed ones
7:57:04
are taken cheaper because they are so bothered by the flies that they can't eat
7:57:10
much, while the long tailed ones are able to brush them away and eat
7:57:15
in peace. I read the other day of a Buffalo coal dealer's horse that
7:57:19
was in such an agony through flies that he committed suicide. You know animals
7:57:26
will do that. I've read of horses and dogs drowning themselves. This horse
7:57:30
had been clipped and its tail was docked, and he was turned out to
7:57:34
graze. The flies stung him till he was nearly crazy. He ran up
7:57:40
to a picket fence and sprang up on these sharp spikes. There he hung,
7:57:45
making no effort to get down. Some men saw him, and they
7:57:51
said it was a clear case of suicide. I would like to have the
7:57:55
power to take every man who cuts off a horse's tail and his hands and
7:58:00
turn him out in a field in the hot sun, with little clothing on
7:58:04
and plenty of flies about. Then we would see if he wouldn't sympathize with
7:58:10
the poor dumb beast. It's the most senseless thing in the world, this
7:58:15
docking fashion. They've a few flimsy arguments about a horse with a docked's tail
7:58:21
being stronger backed like a short tailed sheep, but I don't believe a word
7:58:26
of it. The horse was made strong enough to do the work he's got
7:58:30
to do, and man can't improve on him. Docking is a cruel,
7:58:34
wicked thing. Now there's a ghost of an argument in favor of check reins.
7:58:40
On certain occasions, a fiery young horse can't run away with an overdrawn
7:58:45
check, and in speeding horses, a tight check rein will make them hold
7:58:49
their heads up and keep them from choking. But I don't believe in raising
7:58:56
colts in a way to make them fiery, and I wish they're It wasn't
7:59:00
a racehorse on the face of the earth, so if it depended on me,
7:59:03
every kind of check rein would go. It's a pity we women can't
7:59:08
vote, Laura. We do away with a good many abuses. Miss Laura
7:59:15
smiled, but it was a very faint, almost and unhappy smile. And
7:59:21
missus Woods said hastily, let us talk about something else. Did you ever
7:59:26
hear that cows will give less milk on a dark day than on a bright
7:59:30
one? No, I never did, said Miss Laura. Well they do.
7:59:37
They are most sensitive animals. One finds out all manners of curious things
7:59:42
about animals if he makes a study of them. Cows are wonderful creatures,
7:59:48
I think, and so grateful for good usage that they return every scrap of
7:59:52
care given them with interest. Have you ever heard anything about dehorning, Laura?
8:00:00
Not much, Auntie. Does Uncle approve of it? No, indeed,
8:00:06
he'd just as soon think of cutting their tails off as dehorning them.
8:00:10
He says. He guesses the creator knew how to make a cow better than
8:00:15
he does. Sometimes I tell John that his argument doesn't hold good. For
8:00:19
a man in some ways can improve on nature. In the natural course of
8:00:25
things, a cow would be feeding her calf for half a year, but
8:00:30
we take it away from her and raise it as well as she could,
8:00:33
and get an extra quantity of milk from her. In addition, I don't
8:00:37
know what to think myself about dehorning. Mister Wyndham's cattle are all pulled,
8:00:45
and he has an open space in his barn for them instead of keeping them
8:00:48
in stalls, and he says they're more comfortable and not so confined. I
8:00:53
suppose in sending cattle to see it's necessary to take their horns off, but
8:01:00
when they're going to be turned out to grass, it seems like mutilating them.
8:01:04
Our cows couldn't keep the dogs away from the sheep if they didn't have
8:01:08
their horns. Their horns are their means of defense. Do your cattle stand
8:01:15
in these stalls all winter, asked Miss Laura. Oh, yes, except
8:01:21
when they're turned out in the barnyard, and then John usually has to send
8:01:25
a man to keep them moving or they'd take cold. Sometimes, on very
8:01:30
fine days they get out all day. You know, cows are not like
8:01:36
horses, John says, they're like great milk machines. You've got to keep
8:01:41
them quiet, only exercising enough to keep them in health. If a cow
8:01:45
is hurried or worried, or chilled or heated, it stops her milk yield,
8:01:52
and bad usage poisons it. John says, you can't take a stick
8:01:57
and strike a cow across the back without her milk being that much worse.
8:02:03
And as for drinking the milk that comes from a cow that isn't kept clean,
8:02:07
you'd better throw it away and drink water. When I was in Chicago,
8:02:11
my sister in law kept complaining to her milkman about what she called the
8:02:17
cowie smell to her milk. It's the animal odor, ma'am, he said,
8:02:22
And it can't be helped. All milk smells like that. It's dirt,
8:02:29
I said, when she asked my opinion about it, I'll wager my
8:02:33
best bonnet that that man's cows are kept dirty. Their scans are plastered up
8:02:38
with filth, and as the poison in them can't escape that way, it's
8:02:42
coming out through the milk, and you are helping dispose of it. She
8:02:48
was astonished to hear this, and she got her milkman's address, and one
8:02:52
day dropped in upon him. She said that his cows were standing in a
8:02:56
stable that was comparatively clean, but their bodies were in just the state that
8:03:02
I described them living in. She advised the man to card and brush his
8:03:07
cows every day, and said that he need bring her no more milk.
8:03:12
That shows you how city people are imposed upon with regard to your milk.
8:03:17
I should think you'd be poisoned with the treatment your cows receive. And even
8:03:22
when your milk is examined, you can't tell whether it's pure or not.
8:03:26
In New York the law only requires thirteen percent of solids and milk. That's
8:03:33
absurd, for you can feed a cow on swill and still get fourteen percent
8:03:37
of solids in it. Oh, you city people are queer, Miss Laura
8:03:45
laughed heartily. What a prejudice you have against large towns, Auntie, Yes,
8:03:52
I have said, Miss Wood. Honestly, I often wish we could
8:03:56
break up a few of our cities. And are the people through the country.
8:04:02
Look at all the lovely farms all about here, some of them with
8:04:06
only an old man and woman on them. The boys are off to the
8:04:10
cities, slaving in stores and offices and growing pell and sickly. It would
8:04:15
have broken my heart if Harry had taken to city ways. I had a
8:04:19
plain talk with your uncle when I married him, and said, now,
8:04:23
my boy's only a baby, and I want him to be brought up so
8:04:27
that he will love country life. How are we going to manage it?
8:04:32
Your uncle looked at me with a sly twinkle in his eye and said,
8:04:37
I was a pretty fair specimen of a country girl. Suppose we brought up
8:04:41
Harry the way I'd been brought up. I knew he was only joking,
8:04:45
yet I got quite excited. Yes, I said, do as my father
8:04:52
and mother did. Have a farm about twice as large as you can manage.
8:04:56
Don't keep a hired man. Get up at day light and slave till
8:05:00
dark. Never take a holiday. Have the girls do the housework, and
8:05:04
take care of the hens, and help pick the fruit, and make the
8:05:08
boys tint the colts and the calves, and put all the money they make
8:05:12
in the bank. Don't take any papers, for they would waste their time
8:05:15
reading them. And it's too far to go to the post office oftener than
8:05:21
once a week, and but I don't remember the rest of what I said.
8:05:26
Anyway, your uncle burst into a roar of laughter, Hattie. He
8:05:30
said, my farm's too big. I'm going to sell some of it and
8:05:36
enjoy myself a little more. That very week he sold fifty acres, and
8:05:41
he hired an extra man and got me a good girl. And twice a
8:05:45
week he left his work in the afternoon and took me for a drive.
8:05:51
Harry held the reins in his tiny fingers, and John told him that Dolly,
8:05:55
the old mare we were driving, should be called his, and the
8:06:00
very next horse he bought should be called his, too, and he should
8:06:03
name it and have it for his own, and he would give him five
8:06:07
sheep, and he should have his own bank book and keep his accounts.
8:06:11
And Harry understood, mere baby, though he was, and from that day
8:06:17
he loved John as his own father. If my father had had the wisdom
8:06:22
that John has, his boys wouldn't be the one a poor lawyer and the
8:06:26
other a poor doctor in two different cities, and our farm wouldn't be in
8:06:32
the hands of strangers. It makes me sick to go there. I think
8:06:36
of my poor mother lying with her tired hands crossed out in the churchyard,
8:06:41
and the boys so far away, and my father always hurrying and driving us.
8:06:48
I can tell you, Laura, the thing cuts both ways. It
8:06:52
isn't all the faults of the boys that they leave the country. Missus Wood
8:06:57
was silent for a little while after she made this long speech, and Miss
8:07:03
Laura said nothing. I took a turn or two up and down the stable,
8:07:08
thinking of many things. No matter how happy human being seemed to be,
8:07:15
they always have something to worry them. I was sorry for missus Wood,
8:07:22
for her face had lost the happy look it usually wore. However,
8:07:27
she soon forgot her trouble and said, now I must go and get the
8:07:33
tea. This is Adele's afternoon out. I'll come too, said Miss Laura.
8:07:41
For a promise, Toad, make the biscuits for tea this evening and
8:07:45
let you rest. They both sauntered slowly down the plank walk to the house,
8:07:51
and I followed them. End of chapter thirty one. After thirty two
8:08:02
our return home in October, the most beautiful of all the months, we
8:08:08
were obliged to go back to Fairport. Miss Lora could not bear to leave
8:08:15
the farm, and her face got very sorrowful when anyone spoke of her going
8:08:21
away. Still, she had gotten well and strong, and was as brown
8:08:26
as a berry, and she said that she knew she ought to go home
8:08:30
and get back to her lessons. Mister Wood called October the golden month.
8:08:37
Everything was quiet and steel and at night and in the morning the sun had
8:08:44
a yellow, misty look. The trees in the orchard were loaded with fruit,
8:08:51
and some of the leaves were floating down, making a soft covering on
8:08:56
the ground. In the garden there were a great men any flowers in bloom,
8:09:02
inflaming red and yellow colors. Miss Laura gathered bunches of them every day
8:09:10
to put in the parlor. One day, when she was arranging them,
8:09:15
she said, regretfully, they will soon be gone. I wish it could
8:09:21
always be summer. You would get tired of it, said mister Harry,
8:09:26
who had come up softly behind her. There's only one place where we could
8:09:33
stand perpetual summer, and that's in heaven. Do you suppose that it will
8:09:37
always be summer there? Said Miss Laura, turning around and looking at him.
8:09:45
I don't know. I imagine it will be, but I don't think
8:09:48
anybody knows much about it. We've got to wait. Miss Laura's eyes fell
8:09:53
on me, Harry, She said, do you think that don some animals
8:10:00
will go to heaven? I shall have to say again, I don't know,
8:10:06
he replied, some people hold that they do. In a Michigan paper
8:10:11
the other day, I came across one writer's opinion on the subject. He
8:10:15
says that among the best people of all ages have been some who believed in
8:10:18
the future life of animals. Homer and the later Greeks, and some of
8:10:23
the Romans and early Christians held this view, the last believing that God sent
8:10:29
angels in the shape of birds to comfort sufferers for the faith Saint Francis called
8:10:34
the birds and beasts his brothers. Doctor Johnson believed in a future life for
8:10:40
animals, as also did Wordsworth, Shelley Coole, Ridge, Jeremy Taylor,
8:10:45
Agacy La Martine, and many Christian scholars. It seems as if they ought
8:10:52
to have some compensation for their terrible sufferings in this world, then to go
8:10:56
to heaven, animals would only have to take up the thread of their lives.
8:11:00
Here. Man is a god to the lower creation. Joe worships you
8:11:06
much as you worship your maker. Dumb animals live in and for their masters.
8:11:11
They hang on our words and looks, and are dependent on us in
8:11:15
almost every way. For my own part, and looking at it from an
8:11:19
earthly point of view, I wish with all my heart that we may find
8:11:23
our dumb friends in paradise and in the Bible, said Miss Elora. Animals
8:11:30
are often spoken of the dove and the raven, the wolf and the lamb
8:11:37
and the leopard, and the cattle that God says are his, and the
8:11:41
little sparrow that can't fall to the ground without our Father's knowing it. Still,
8:11:47
there's nothing definite about their immortality, said mister Haary. However, we've
8:11:52
got nothing to do with that. If it's right for them to be in
8:11:56
heaven, we'll find them there. All we have to do now is to
8:12:00
deal with the present, and the Bible plainly tells us that a righteous man
8:12:03
regardeth the life of his beast. I think I would be happier in heaven
8:12:08
if dear old Joe were there, said Miss Laura, looking wistfully at me.
8:12:15
He has been such a good dog. Just think how he has loved
8:12:18
and protected me. I think I should be lonely without him. That reminds
8:12:25
me of some poetry, or rather doggerel, said mister Harry, that I
8:12:30
cut out of a newspaper for you yesterday, and he drew from his pocket
8:12:36
a little slip of paper and read this, Do doggies going to heaven?
8:12:41
Dad will or Old Donald gang for NU to take him fodder with us?
8:12:49
What be most awful? Rung. There was a number of other verses telling
8:12:57
how many kind things Old Donald the dog had done for his master's family,
8:13:03
and then it closed with these lines, with our dogs a fodder man twould
8:13:11
be an awful sin to leave or faithful doggie there he's certain to win in.
8:13:19
Or Donald's know like other dogs, he'll know be like it oot.
8:13:26
If Donald's no let into heaven, I'll know going there one foot my sentiments
8:13:33
exactly, said a merry voice behind Miss Laura and mister Harry, and looking
8:13:40
up they saw mister Maxwell. He was holding out one hand to them and
8:13:45
in the other kept back a basket of large pears that mister Harry promptly took
8:13:52
from him and offered to Miss Laura. I've been dependent upon animals for the
8:13:59
most part of my comfort in this life, said mister Max. Whale,
8:14:04
and I shan't be happy without them in heaven. I don't see how you
8:14:07
would get on without Joe, Miss Morris, And I want my birds and
8:14:12
my snake and my horse. How can I live without them? They're almost
8:14:18
all my life here. If some animals go to heaven and not others,
8:14:22
I think that the dog has the first claim, said miss Laura. He's
8:14:29
the friend of man, the oldest and the best. Have you ever heard
8:14:33
the legend about him and Adam? No, said mister max Whale. Well,
8:14:40
when Adam was turned out of paradise, all the animals shunned him,
8:14:45
and he sat bitterly weeping with his head between his hands. When he felt
8:14:49
the soft tongue of some creature gently touching him. He took his hands from
8:14:56
his face, and there was a dog that had separated himself from all the
8:15:00
other animals, and he was trying to comfort him. He became the chosen
8:15:04
friend and companion of Adam. Afterward, of all men. There is another
8:15:11
legend, said mister Hairy, about our savior and a dog. Have you
8:15:15
ever heard it? We'll tell you that later, said mister Max Wale.
8:15:22
When we know what it is, mister Harry, showed his white teeth in
8:15:27
an amused smile, and began. Once upon a time, our Lord was
8:15:33
going through a town with his disciples. A dead dog lay by the wayside,
8:15:40
and everyone that passed along flung some offensive epithet at him. Eastern dogs
8:15:45
are not like our dogs, And seemingly there was nothing good about this loathsome
8:15:49
creature. But as our Savior went by, he said, gently, pearls
8:15:55
cannot equal the whiteness of his teeth. What was the name of that old
8:16:00
fellow, said mister max Wahle abruptly, who had a beautiful swan that came
8:16:06
every day for fifteen years to bury its head in his bosom and feet from
8:16:11
his hand, and who would go near no other human being. Saint Hugh
8:16:17
of Lincoln. We heard about him at the Bend of Mercy the other day,
8:16:22
said Miss Laura. I should think that he would have wanted to have
8:16:27
that swan in heaven with him, said mister max Whale, What a beautiful
8:16:33
creature it must have been. Speaking about animals going to heaven, I dare
8:16:38
say some of them would object to going on account of the company that they
8:16:42
would meet there. Think of the dog kicked to death by his master,
8:16:48
the horse driven into his grave. The thousands of cattle starved to death on
8:16:52
the plains. Will they want to meet their owners in heaven? According to
8:16:57
my reckoning, their owner's be there, said mister Harry. I firmly believe
8:17:03
that the Lord will punish every man or woman who ill treats a dumb creature,
8:17:08
just as surely as he will punish those who ill treat their fellow creatures.
8:17:12
If a man's life has been a long series of cruelty to dumb animals,
8:17:17
do you suppose that he would enjoy himself in heaven, which will be
8:17:21
full of kindness to everyone. Not he He'd rather be in the other place,
8:17:26
and there he'll go. I fully believe when you've quite disposed of all
8:17:33
your fellow creatures and the dumb creation, Harry, perhaps you will condescend to
8:17:38
go out into the orchard to see how your father is getting on with picking
8:17:42
the apples, said missus Wood, joining Miss Laura and the other two men,
8:17:49
her eyes twinkling and sparkling with amusement. The apples will keep mother,
8:17:56
said mister Harry, putting his arm around her. I just came in for
8:18:00
a moment to get Laura. Come, Maxwell, we'll all go and not
8:18:06
another word about animals. Missus Wood called after them. Laura will go crazy
8:18:12
some day through thinking of their sufferings if someone doesn't do something to stop her.
8:18:18
Miss Laura turned around suddenly. Dear Aunt Hattie, she said, you
8:18:26
must not say that I am a coward. I know about hearing of animals
8:18:30
pains, but I must get over it. I want to know how they
8:18:34
suffer. I ought to know for when I get to be a woman.
8:18:40
I am going to do all that I can to help them, and I'll
8:18:45
join you, said mister max Whale, stretching out his hand to Miss Laura.
8:18:52
She did not smile, but looking very earnestly at him, she hailed
8:18:56
it, clasped in her own You will help me to care for them,
8:19:02
will you? She said? Yes, I promise, he said gravely.
8:19:07
I'll give myself to the service of dumb animals if you will. And I
8:19:14
too, said mister Harry in his deep voice, laying his hand across theirs.
8:19:21
Missus Woods stood looking at their three fresh, eager young faces, with
8:19:26
tears in her eyes. Just as they all stood silently for an instant,
8:19:33
the old village clergyman came into the room from the hall. He must have
8:19:38
heard what they said, for before he could move he had laid his hands
8:19:44
on their three brown heads. Bless you, my children, he said,
8:19:48
God will lift up the lights of his countenance upon you, for you have
8:19:52
given yourselves to a noble work. In serving dumb creatures, you are ennobling
8:19:57
the human race. Then he sat down in a chair and looked at them.
8:20:04
He was a venerable old man and had long white hair, and the
8:20:11
Woods thought a great deal of him. He had come to get missus Wood
8:20:17
to make some nourishing dishes for a sick woman in the village, And while
8:20:22
he was talking to her, Miss Laura and the two young men went out
8:20:26
of the house. They hurried across the verandah and over the lawn, talking
8:20:33
and laughing and enjoying themselves as only happy young people can, and with not
8:20:41
a trace of their seriousness of a few moments before on their faces. They
8:20:47
were going so fast that they ran right into a flock of geese that were
8:20:52
coming up the lane. They were driven by a little boy called Tommy,
8:20:57
the son of one of mister Woods farm laborers, and they were chattering and
8:21:03
gabbling and seemed very angry. What's all this about, said mister Harry,
8:21:10
stopping and looking at the bowie. What's the matter with your feathered charges?
8:21:15
Tommy, my lad? If it's the geese you mean, said the bowie,
8:21:21
half crying and looking very much put out. It's all them nasty potatoes.
8:21:27
They won't keep away from them. So the potatoes chase the geese,
8:21:33
do they, said mister Maxwell teasingly. No, no, said the child
8:21:40
pettishly. Mister Wood, he sets me to watch the geese, and then
8:21:45
they runs in among the buckwhee and the potatoes, and I tries to drive
8:21:49
them out, but they doesn't want to come, and shamefacedly, I has
8:21:56
to switch their feet, and I hate to do it because I'm the bend
8:22:00
of mercy. Boy Tommy my son, said miss Maxwell solemnly. You will
8:22:07
go right to heaven when you die, and your geese will go with you.
8:22:12
Hush, hush, said Miss Laura, don't tease him, and putting
8:22:18
her arm on the dear child's shoulder, she said, you are a good
8:22:25
boy, Tommy, not to want to hurt the geese. Let me see
8:22:29
your switch, dear. He showed her a little stick he had in his
8:22:34
hand, and she said, I don't think you could hurt them much with
8:22:40
that, And if they will be naughty and still the potatoes, you have
8:22:44
to drive them out. Take some of my pears and eat them, and
8:22:48
you will forget your trouble. The child took the fruit, and Miss Laura
8:22:53
and the two young men went on their way, smiling and looking over their
8:22:59
shoulders at Tommy, who stood in the lane, deviraling his payers, and
8:23:03
keeping one eye on the geese that had gathered a little in front of him
8:23:08
and were gabbling noisily and having a kind of indignation meeting because they had been
8:23:17
driven out of the potato field. Tommy's father and mother lived in a little
8:23:22
house down near the road. Mister Wood never had his hired men live in
8:23:29
his own house. He had two small houses for them to live in,
8:23:33
and they were required to keep them as neat as mister Wood's own house was
8:23:38
kept. He said he didn't see why he should keep a boarding house if
8:23:45
he was a farmer, nor why his wife should wear herself out waiting on
8:23:51
strong hearty men that had just as soon take care of themselves. He wished
8:23:57
to have his own family about him, and it was better for his men
8:24:03
to have some kind of family life or themselves. If one of his men
8:24:07
was unmarried, he boarded with the married one, but slept in his own
8:24:11
house. On this October day, we found mister Wood hard at work under
8:24:19
the fruit trees. He had a good maney different kind of apples, enormous
8:24:26
red ones and long yellow ones that they called pippins, and little brown ones,
8:24:33
and smooth coated sweet ones, and bright red ones, and others more
8:24:40
than I could mention. Miss Laura often paired one and cut off little bits
8:24:47
for me, for I always wanted to eat whatever I saw her eating.
8:24:52
Just a few days after this, Miss Laura and I returned to Fairport,
8:24:59
and some of mister Wood's apples traveled along with us, for he sent a
8:25:03
good many to the Boston market. Mister and missus Wood came to the station
8:25:10
to see us off. Mister Harry could not come, for he had left
8:25:15
Riverdale the day before to go back to his college. Missus Wood said that
8:25:22
she would be very lonely without her two young people, and she kissed Miss
8:25:26
Laura over and over again, and made her promise to come back again in
8:25:33
the next summer. I was put in a box in the express car,
8:25:38
and mister Wood told the agent that if he knew what was good for him,
8:25:44
he would speak to me occasionally, for I was a very knowing dog,
8:25:49
and if he didn't treat me well, I'd be apt to write him
8:25:53
up in the newspapers. The agent laughed, and quite often on the way
8:26:00
to Fairport he came to my box and spoke kindly to me. So I
8:26:06
did not get so lonely and frightened as I did on my way to Riverdale.
8:26:12
How glad the Morrises word to see us coming back. The boys had
8:26:18
all gotten home before us, and such a fuss they made over their sister.
8:26:25
They loved her dearly and never wanted her to be long away from them.
8:26:30
I was rubbed and stroked and had to run about, offering my paw
8:26:37
to everyone. Jim and Little Billy licked my face, and Bella croaked out,
8:26:44
glad to see you. Joe had a good time. How's your help?
8:26:48
We soon settled down for the winter. Miss Laura began going to school
8:26:55
and came home every day with a pile of books under her arm. The
8:27:00
summer in the country had done her so much good that her mother often looked
8:27:04
at her fondly and said, the white faced child she sent away had come
8:27:11
home a nut brown maid. End of Chapter thirty two, Chapter thirty three,
8:27:19
Performing Animals. A week or two after we got home, I heard
8:27:26
the Morris boys talking about an Italian who was coming to Fairport with a troop
8:27:33
of trained animals. And I could see for myself whenever I went to town,
8:27:40
great flaming pictures on the fences of monkeys sitting at tables, dogs and
8:27:47
ponies and goats, climbing ladders and rolling balls and doing various tricks. I
8:27:53
wondered very much whether they would be able to do all those extraordinary things.
8:28:00
But it turned out that they did. The Italian's name was Bellini, and
8:28:07
one afternoon the whole Morris family went to see him and his animals, And
8:28:12
when they came home I heard them talking about it. I wish you could
8:28:18
have been there, Joe, said Jack, pulling up my paws to rest
8:28:22
on his knees. Now, listen, old fellow, and I'll tell you
8:28:26
all about it. First of all, there was a perfect gem in the
8:28:30
town hall. I sat up in front with a lot of fellows and had
8:28:33
a splendid view the old Italian came out dressed in his best suit of clothes,
8:28:40
black broadcloth, flower in his button hole and so on. He made
8:28:45
a fine bow, and he said he was pleased to see ze fine audience,
8:28:52
and he was going to show Zim z fine animals, the finest animals
8:28:57
in ze Wolde. Then he shook a little whip that he carried in his
8:29:02
hand, and he said that z whip didn't mean that he was cruel.
8:29:08
He cracked it to show his animals when to begin and or change their tricks.
8:29:15
Some boy yelled, rats, you do whip them sometimes, And the
8:29:19
old man made another bow and said, certainly he whipped Zim, just as
8:29:26
these mamas whipped the naughty boys to make Zim keep still when Zay was noisy
8:29:32
or stubborn. Then everybody laughed at the boy, and the Italian said the
8:29:37
performance would begin by a grand procession of all the animals, if some lady
8:29:42
would kindly step up to the piano and play a march. Nina Smith,
8:29:47
you know, Nina Joe, the girl that has black eyes and wears blue
8:29:51
ribbons and lives around the corner, stepped up to the piano and banged out
8:29:55
a fine loud march. The doors at the side of the platform opened and
8:30:00
came the animals, two by two, just like Noah's ark. There was
8:30:03
a pony with a monkey walking beside it and holding on to its mane,
8:30:07
and another monkey on a pony's back, two monkeys hand in hand, a
8:30:12
dog with a parrot on his back, a goat harnessed to a little carriage,
8:30:17
another goat carrying a bird cage in its mouth with two canaries inside.
8:30:22
Different kinds of cats, some doves and pigeons, half a dozen white rats
8:30:26
with red harness and dragging, a little chariot with a monkey in it,
8:30:30
and a common white gander that came in last of all and did nothing but
8:30:36
follow one of the ponies about. The Italian spoke of the gander and said
8:30:41
it was a stupid creature and could learn no tricks, and he only kept
8:30:45
it on account of its affection for the pony. He had got them both
8:30:48
on a Vermont farm, and he was looking for show animals. The pony's
8:30:52
master had made a pet of him and had taught him to come whenever he
8:30:56
whistled for him. Though the pony was only a stub of a creature.
8:31:00
He had a gentle disposition, and every other animal on the farm liked him.
8:31:06
A gander in particular, had such an admiration for him that he followed
8:31:11
him wherever he went, and if he lost him for an instant, he
8:31:15
would mount one of the knolls on the farm and stretch out his neck looking
8:31:18
for him. When he caught sight of him, he gabbled with delight,
8:31:23
running to him, waddled up and down beside him. Every little white pony
8:31:29
put his nose down and seemed to be having a conversation with the goose.
8:31:33
If the farmer whistled for the pony and he started to run to him,
8:31:37
the gander, knowing he could not keep up, would seize the pony's tail
8:31:41
in his beak, and, flapping his wings, would get along as fast
8:31:45
as the pony did, and the pony never kicked him. The Italian saw
8:31:49
that this pony would be a good one to train for the stage, so
8:31:52
he offered the farmer a large price for him and took him away. Oh
8:31:59
Joe, I forgot to say that by this time all the animals had been
8:32:02
sent off the stage except the pony and the gander, and they stood looking
8:32:07
at the Italian while he talks. I never saw anything as human in dumb
8:32:12
animals as that pony's face. He looked as if he understood every word that
8:32:16
his master was saying. After this story was over, the Italian made another
8:32:22
bow and then told the pony to bow. He nodded his head at the
8:32:27
people and they all laughed. Then the Italian asked him to favor us with
8:32:31
a waltz, and the pony got up on his hind legs and danced.
8:32:36
You should have seen that gander skirmishing around so as to be near the pony
8:32:40
and yet keep out of the way of his heels. We fellows just roared,
8:32:46
and we would have kept him dancing all the afternoon if the Italian hadn't
8:32:51
begged the young gentleman not to make ze noise, but let z pony do
8:32:57
the rest of his Tricksy number two came on the stage, and it was
8:33:01
too queer for anything to see the things the two of them did. They
8:33:07
helped the Italian on with his coat, They pulled off his rubbers. They
8:33:12
took his coat away and brought him a chair and dragged a table up to
8:33:15
it. They brought him letters and papers and rang bells and rolled barrels and
8:33:22
swung the Italian in a big swing, and jumped a rope and walked up
8:33:25
and down steps. They just went around that stage as handy with their teeth
8:33:30
as two boys would be with their hands, and they seemed to understand every
8:33:36
word their master said to them. The best trick of all was telling the
8:33:40
time and doing questions and arithmetic. The Italian pulled his watch out of his
8:33:45
pocket and showed it to the first pony, whose name was Diamond, and
8:33:50
said what time is it. The pony looked at it, then scratched four
8:33:54
times with his forefoot on the platform. The Italian said, that's good four
8:34:00
o'clock, but it's a few minutes after four. How many The pony scratched
8:34:07
again five times. The Italian showed his watch to the audience and said it
8:34:13
was just five minutes past four. Then he asked the pony how old he
8:34:17
was. He scratched four times. That meant four years. He asked him
8:34:22
how many days and a week? There were? How many months and a
8:34:27
year? And he gave him some questions, an addition and subtraction, and
8:34:30
the pony answered them all correctly. Of course, the Italian was giving him
8:34:36
some sign, but though we watched him closely, we couldn't make out what
8:34:40
it was. At last, he told the pony that he had been very
8:34:45
good and had done his lessons well. If it would rest him, he
8:34:50
might be naughty a little while. All of a sudden, a wicked look
8:34:53
came into the creature's eyes. He turned around and kicked up his heels at
8:34:59
his mass. He pushed over the table and chairs and knocked down a blackboard
8:35:04
where he had been rubbing out figures With a sponge held in his mouth.
8:35:08
The Italian pretended to be cross and said, come, come, this won't
8:35:14
do, And he called the other pony to him and told him to take
8:35:17
that troublesome fellow off the stage. The second one nosed Diamond and pushed him
8:35:23
about, finally bent him by the ear and led him, squealing off the
8:35:29
stage. The gander followed, gabbling as fast as he could, and there
8:35:34
was a regular roar of applause. After that, there were ladders brought in.
8:35:39
Joe and dogs came on, not thoroughbreds, but curs, something like
8:35:45
you. The Italian says he can't teach tricks to pedigree animals, as well
8:35:51
as to scrubs. Those dogs jumped the ladders and climbed them and went through
8:35:55
them, and did all kinds of things. The man cracked his whip once,
8:36:01
and they began twice, and they did backward what they had done forward
8:36:06
three times, and they stopped. And every animal, dogs, goats,
8:36:10
ponies, and monkeys, after they had finished their tricks, ran up to
8:36:15
their master, and he gave them a lump of sugar. They seemed fond
8:36:21
of him, and often, when they weren't performing, went up to him
8:36:23
and licked his hands or his sleeve. There was one boss dog, Joe,
8:36:29
with a head like yours, Bob, they called him, and he
8:36:32
did all his tricks alone. The Italian went off the stage, and the
8:36:37
dog came on and made his bow, and climbed his ladders and jumped his
8:36:42
hurdles, and went off again. The audience howled for an encore, and
8:36:46
didn't he come out alone, make another bow and retire. I saw old
8:36:52
Judge Brown wiping tears from his eyes, he'd laughed so much. One of
8:36:58
the last tricks was with a goat, and the Italian said it was the
8:37:01
best of all, because the goat is such a hard animal to teach.
8:37:07
He had a big ball, and the goat got on it and rolled across
8:37:09
the stage without getting off. He looked as nervous as a cat, shaking
8:37:15
his old beard and trying to keep his four hooks close enough together to keep
8:37:20
them on the ball. We had a funny little play. At the end
8:37:23
of the performance, a monkey dressed as a lady in a white satin suit
8:37:28
and a bonnet with a white veil came on the stage. She was Miss
8:37:32
Green and the dog Bob was going to elope with her. He was all
8:37:37
rigged out as mister Smith and had on a light suit of clothes and a
8:37:43
tall hat on the side of his head, high collar, long cuffs,
8:37:46
and he carried a cane. He was a regular dude. He stepped up
8:37:52
to Miss Green on his hind legs and helped her onto a pony's back.
8:37:57
The pony galloped off the stage. Then a crowd of monkeys, chattering and
8:38:01
wringing their hands came on. Mister Smith had run away with their child.
8:38:07
They were all dressed up too. There were the father and mother with gray
8:38:13
wigs and black clothes, and the young Greens in bibs and tuckers. They
8:38:17
were a queer looking crowd. While they were going on in this way,
8:38:22
the pony trotted back on the stage, and they all flew at him and
8:38:28
pulled off their daughter from his back, and laughed and chattered and boxed her
8:38:32
ears, and took off her white veil and her satin dress and put on
8:38:37
an old brown thing. And some of them seized the dog and kicked his
8:38:42
hat, and broke his cane, and stripped his clothes off, and threw
8:38:45
them in a corner, and bound his legs with cords. A goat came
8:38:51
on, harnessed to a little cart, and they threw the dog in it
8:38:54
and wheeled him around the stage a few times. Then they took him out,
8:38:59
tied him to a hook in the wall, and the goat ran off
8:39:01
the stage, and the monkeys ran to one side, and one of them
8:39:06
pulled out a little revolver, pointed it at the dog and fired, and
8:39:09
he dropped down as if he was dead. The monkey stood looking at him,
8:39:15
and then there was the most awful hullaballoo you ever heard, such a
8:39:20
barking and yelping, and half a dozen dogs rushed on the stage, And
8:39:24
didn't they trundle those monkeys about they nosed them and pushed them and shook them
8:39:30
till they all ran away, all but Miss Green, who sat shivering in
8:39:36
a corner. After a while, she crept up to the dead dog,
8:39:39
called him a little and didn't he jump up as much alive as any of
8:39:45
them. Everybody in the room clapped and shouted, and then the curtain dropped
8:39:51
and the thing was over. I wished he'd give another performance early in the
8:39:55
morning. He has to go to Boston. Jack pushed my paws from his
8:40:01
knees and went outdoors, and I began to think that I would very much
8:40:07
like to see those performing animals. It was not yet tea time, and
8:40:12
I would have plenty of time to take a run down to the hotel where
8:40:15
they were staying, so I set out. It was a lovely autumn evening.
8:40:22
The sun was going down in a haze, and it was quite warm.
8:40:28
Earlier in the day I had heard mister Morris say that this was our
8:40:31
Indian summer and that we should soon have cold weather. Fairport was a pretty
8:40:38
little town, and from the principal street one could look out upon the blue
8:40:45
water of the bay and see the island opposite, which was quite deserted now,
8:40:51
for all the summer visitors had gone home, and the island house was
8:40:55
shut up. I was running down one of the stay deep side streets that
8:41:00
led to the water when I met a heavily laden cart coming up. It
8:41:07
must have been coming from one of the vessels, for it was full of
8:41:12
strange looking boxes and packages. A fine looking, nervous horse was drawing it,
8:41:19
and he was straining at every nerve to get it up the steep hill.
8:41:23
His driver was a burly, hard faced man, and instead of letting
8:41:29
his horse stop a minute to rest, he kept urging him forward. The
8:41:35
poor horse kept looking at as a master, his eyes almost starting from his
8:41:40
head in terror. He knew that the whip was about to descend on his
8:41:45
quivering body, and so it did. And there was no one by to
8:41:51
interfere, No one but a woman in a ragged shawl who would have no
8:41:57
influence with the driver. There was a very good humane society in Fairport,
8:42:04
and none of the teamsters dared to ill use their horses if any of the
8:42:08
members were near. This was a quiet out of the way street with only
8:42:15
poor houses on it, and the man probably knew that none of the members
8:42:19
of the society would be likely to be living in them. He whipped his
8:42:24
horse and whipped him till every lash made my heart ache, and if I
8:42:30
had dared, I would have bitten him severely. Suddenly there was a dull
8:42:37
thud in the street. The horse had fallen down. The driver ran to
8:42:43
his head, but he was quite dad. Thank God, said the poorly
8:42:51
dressed woman bitterly, One more out of this world of misery. Then she
8:42:58
turned and went down the street. I was glad for the horse. He
8:43:04
would never be frightened or miserable again. And I went slowly on, thinking
8:43:09
that death is the best thing that can happen to tortured animals. The Fairport
8:43:16
Hotel was built right in the center of the town, and the shops and
8:43:22
houses crowded quite close about it. It was a high brick building, and
8:43:28
it was called the Fairport House. As I was running along the sidewalk,
8:43:32
I heard someone speak to me, and looking up, I saw Charlie Monteigue.
8:43:39
I had heard the Morrises say that his parents were staying at the hotel
8:43:44
a few weeks while their house was being repaired. He had his Irish setter
8:43:51
Brisk with him and a handsome dog he was as he stood waving his silky
8:43:57
tail in the sunlight. Charlie patted me, and then he and his dog
8:44:04
went into the hotel. I turned into the stable yard. It was a
8:44:09
small, choked up place, and as I picked my way under the cabs
8:44:15
and wagons standing in the yard, I wondered why the hotel people didn't buy
8:44:20
some of the old houses nearby and tear them down and make a stable yard
8:44:25
worthy of such a nice hotel. The hotel horses were just getting rubbed down
8:44:32
after their day's work, and others were coming in. The men were talking
8:44:38
and laughing, and there was no sign of strange animals. So I went
8:44:43
around to the back of the yard. Here they were in an empty cow
8:44:47
stable under a hayloft. There were two little ponies tied up in a stall,
8:44:53
two goats beyond them, and dogs and monkeys and strong traveling cages.
8:45:00
I stood in the doorway and stared at them. I was sorry for the
8:45:07
dogs to be shut up on such a lovely evening, but I supposed their
8:45:12
master was afraid of their getting lost or being stolen if he let them loose.
8:45:19
They all seemed very friendly, The ponies turned around and looked at me
8:45:24
with their gentle eyes, and then went on munching their hay. I wondered
8:45:30
very much where the gander was and went a little farther into the stable.
8:45:37
Something white raised itself out of the brownest pony's crib, and there was the
8:45:43
gander close up beside the open mouth of his friend. The monkeys made a
8:45:49
jibbering noise and held on to the bars of their cage with their little black
8:45:53
hands while they looked out at me. The dog sniffed the air and their
8:46:00
tails and tried to put up their muzzles through the bars of their cage.
8:46:06
I liked the dog's best, and I wanted to see the one they called
8:46:10
Bob, so I went up quite close to them. There were two little
8:46:15
white dogs, something like Billy, two Mongrel spaniels, an Irish setter,
8:46:22
and a brown dog asleep in the corner that I knew must be Bob.
8:46:30
He did look a little like me, but he was not quite so ugly,
8:46:35
for he had his ears in his tail. While I was peering through
8:46:39
the bars at him, a man came into the stable. He noticed me
8:46:45
first thing, but instead of driving me out, he spoke kindly to me
8:46:52
in a language that I did not understand, so I knew he was the
8:46:57
Italian. How glad the animals were to see him. The gander fluttered out
8:47:04
of his nest, the ponies pulled at their halters, the dogs whined and
8:47:09
tried to reach his hands to liot them, and the monkeys chattered with the
8:47:15
light. He laughed and talked back to them in queer, soft sounding words.
8:47:22
Then he took out of a bag on his arm, bones for the
8:47:25
dogs, nuts and cakes for the monkeys, nice juicy carrots for the ponies,
8:47:31
some green stuff for the goats, and corn for the gander. It
8:47:37
was a pretty sight to see the old man feeding his pets, and it
8:47:42
made me feel quite hungry, so I tried at home. I had a
8:47:47
run downtown again that evening with mister Morris, who went to get something from
8:47:52
a shop for his wife. He never let his boys go to town after
8:47:58
tea, so if there were errands to be done, he or missus Morris
8:48:02
went. The town was bright and lively that evening, and a great many
8:48:08
people were walking about and looking into the shop windows. When we came home,
8:48:15
I went into the kennel with Jim and there I slept till the middle
8:48:20
of the night. Then I started up and ran outside. There was a
8:48:25
distant bell ringing, which we often heard in Fairport, and which always meant
8:48:32
fire. End of chapter thirty three, Performing Animals, Chapter thirty four,
8:48:45
A fire in Fairport. I had several times run to a fire with the
8:48:52
boys and knew that there was always a great noise and excitement. There was
8:48:58
a light in the house, so I knew that somebody was getting up.
8:49:02
I don't think, indeed, I know, for they were good boys,
8:49:07
that they ever wanted anybody to lose property, But they did enjoy seeing a
8:49:14
blaze, and one of their greatest delights when there hadn't been a fire for
8:49:19
some time, was the build of bonfire in the garden. Jim and I
8:49:24
ran around to the front of the house and waited. In a few minutes,
8:49:29
someone came rattling at the front door, and I was sure it was
8:49:34
Jack, but it was mister Morris, and without a word to us,
8:49:38
he set off, almost running toward the town. We followed after him,
8:49:45
and as we hurried along, other men ran out from the houses along the
8:49:50
streets and either joined him or dashed ahead. They seemed to have dressed in
8:49:55
a hurry, and were thrusting their arms and their coats and buttoning themselves up
8:50:01
as they went. Some of them had hats and some of them had none,
8:50:07
and they all had their faces towards the great red light that got brighter
8:50:14
and brighter ahead of us. Where's the fire, they shouted to each other.
8:50:21
Don't know, afraid it's the hotel or the town hall. It's such
8:50:24
a blaze, hope not. How's the water supply now? Bad time for
8:50:30
a fire. It was the hotel. We saw that as soon as we
8:50:35
got on to the main street. There were people all about, and a
8:50:39
great noise and confusion and smoke and blackness, and up above, bright tongues
8:50:46
of flame were leaping against the sky. Jim and I kept close to mister
8:50:52
Morris's heels as he pushed his way among the crowd. When we got nearer
8:51:00
the burning building, we saw men carrying ladders and axes, and others were
8:51:05
shouting directions and rushing out of the hotel, carrying boxes and bundles and furniture
8:51:12
in their arms. From the windows above came a steady stream of articles thrown
8:51:17
among the crowd. A mirror struck mister Morris on the arm, and a
8:51:23
whole package of clothes fell on his head and almost smothered him. But he
8:51:29
brushed them aside and scarcely noticed them. There was something the matter with mister
8:51:35
Morris. I knew by the worried sound of his voice when he spoke to
8:51:40
anyone. I could not see his face, though it was as light as
8:51:45
day about us, for we had got jammed in the crowd, and if
8:51:51
I had not kept between his feet, I should have been trodden to death.
8:51:55
Jim, being larger than I was, had got separated from us.
8:52:01
Presently, mister Morris raised his voice above the uproar and called, is everyone
8:52:08
out of the hotel? A voice shouted back, I'm going up to see.
8:52:15
It's Jim Watson, the fireman, cried someone near. He's risking his
8:52:21
life to go into that pit of flame. Don't go, Watson. I
8:52:25
don't think that brave fireman paid any attention to this warning. For an instant
8:52:30
later, the same voice said, he's planting his ladder against the third story.
8:52:37
He's bound to go. He'll not get any farther than the second anyway,
8:52:42
Where are the Montagu's shouted mister Morris, has anyone seen the Montaggs,
8:52:50
mister Morris, Mister Morris said a frightened young voice, and Charles Montague pressed
8:52:57
through the people to us. Where's Papa? I don't know where did you
8:53:02
leave him, said mister Morris, taking his hand and drawing him closer to
8:53:07
him. I was sleeping in his room, said the boy. And a
8:53:14
man knocked at the door and said, hotel on fire. Five minutes to
8:53:17
dress and get out. And Papa told me to put on my clothes and
8:53:22
go downstairs. And he ran up to mama. Where was she asked mister
8:53:28
Morris quickly on the fourth flat. She and her maid Blanche were up there.
8:53:35
You know, Mama hasn't been well and couldn't sleep, and our room
8:53:38
was so noisy that she moved upstairs where it was quiet. Mister Morris gave
8:53:45
a kind of groan. Oh I'm so hot, and there's such a dreadful
8:53:51
noise, said the little boy, bursting into tears, and I want mama.
8:53:59
Mister Moore soothed him the best he could and drew him a little to
8:54:04
the edge of the crowd. While he was doing this, there was a
8:54:08
piercing cry. I could not see the person making it, but I knew
8:54:14
it was the Italian's voice. He was screaming in broken English that the fire
8:54:21
was spreading to the stables and his animals would be burned. Would no one
8:54:25
help him to get his animals out? There was a great deal of confused
8:54:31
language. Some voices shouted, look after the people first, let the animals
8:54:37
go, and the others said, for shame, get the horses out.
8:54:44
But no one seemed to do anything, for the Italian went on crying for
8:54:49
help. I heard a number of people who were standing near us say that
8:54:53
it had just been found out that several persons who had been sleeping in the
8:54:59
top of the hotel had not got out. They said that at one of
8:55:04
the top windows a poor housemaid was shrieking for help. Here in the street,
8:55:12
we could see no one at the upper windows, for the smoke was
8:55:15
pouring from them. The air was very hot and heavy, and I didn't
8:55:22
wonder that Charlie Montague felt ill. He would have fallen on the ground if
8:55:28
mister Morris hadn't taken him in his arms and carried him out of the crowd.
8:55:32
He put him down on the brick sidewalk and unfastened his little shirt and
8:55:38
left me to watch him while he held his hands under a leak in a
8:55:43
hose that was fastened to a high drant near us. He got enough water
8:55:49
to dash on Charlie's face and breast, and then, seeing that the boy
8:55:53
was reviving, he sat down on the curved stone and took him on his
8:56:00
Charlie lay in his arms and moaned. He was a delicate boie, and
8:56:06
he could not stand rough usage as the Morris boys could. Mister Morris was
8:56:14
terribly uneasy. His face was deathly white, and he shuddered whenever there was
8:56:21
a cry from the burning building. Poor souls, God help them. Oh
8:56:27
this is awful, he said, And then he turned his eyes from the
8:56:31
great sheets of flame and strained the little bowie to his breast. At last
8:56:38
there were wild shrieks that I knew came from no human throats. The fire
8:56:45
must have reached the horses. Mister Morris sprang up, then sank back again.
8:56:52
He wanted to go, yet he could be of no use. There
8:56:57
were hundreds of men standing aby out, but the fire had spread so rapidly,
8:57:02
and they had so little water to put on it, that there was
8:57:07
very little they could do. I wondered whether I could do anything for the
8:57:12
poor animals. I was not afraid of fire as most dogs. For one
8:57:19
of the tricks that the Moors boys had taught me was to put out a
8:57:22
fire with my paws. They would throw a piece of lighted paper on the
8:57:27
floor, and I would crush it with my fore paws, and if the
8:57:31
blaze was too large for that, I would drag a bit of old carpet
8:57:37
over it and jump on it. I left mister Morris and ran around the
8:57:43
corner of the street to the back of the hotel. It was not burned
8:57:47
as much here as in the front, and then the houses all around people
8:57:52
were out on their roofs with wet blankets, and some were standing at the
8:57:58
windows watching the fire, or packing up their belongings, ready to move if
8:58:04
it should spread to them. There was a narrow lane running up a short
8:58:08
distance toward the hotel, and I started to go up this when in front
8:58:14
of me I heard such a wailing, piercing noise that it made me shudder
8:58:20
and stand still. The Italians animals were going to be burned up, and
8:58:25
they were calling to their master to come let them out. Their voices sounded
8:58:31
like the voices of children in mortal pain. I could not stand it.
8:58:37
I was seized with such an awful horror of the fire that I turned and
8:58:44
ran, feeling so thankful that I was not in it. As I got
8:58:49
into the street, I stumbled over something. It was a large bird,
8:58:54
a parrot, and at first I thought it was bella. Then I remembered
8:59:00
hearing Jack say that the Italian had a parrot. It was not dead,
8:59:06
but seemed stupid with the smoke. I seized it in my mouth and ran
8:59:12
and laid it at mister Morris's feet. He wrapped it in his handkerchief and
8:59:16
laid it beside him. I sat and trembled, and did not leave him
8:59:22
again. I shall never forget that dreadful night. It seemed as if we
8:59:29
were there for hours, but in reality it was only a short time.
8:59:35
The hotel soon got to be all red flames, and there was very little
8:59:40
smoke. The inside of the building had burned away, and nothing more could
8:59:46
be gotten out. The firemen and all the people drew back, and there
8:59:52
was no noise. Everybody stood gazing silently at the flames. A man stepped
9:00:00
quietly up to mister Morris, and looking at him, I saw it was
9:00:06
mister Montague. He was usually a well dressed man, with a kind face
9:00:12
and a head of thick, grayish brown hair. Now his face was black
9:00:17
and grimy, his hair was burnt from the front of his head, and
9:00:22
his clothes were half torn from his back. Mister Morris sprang up when he
9:00:29
saw him and said, where's your wife. The gentleman did not say a
9:00:36
word, but pointed to the burning building. Impossible, cried mister Morris.
9:00:45
Is there no mistake your beautiful young wife? One take? Can it be
9:00:50
so? Mister Morris was trembling from head to foot. It is true,
9:00:58
said mister Montege, quietly, give me the boy. Charlie had fainted again,
9:01:06
and his father took him in his arms and turned away. Monteg cried,
9:01:13
mister Morris, my heart is sore for you. Can I do nothing?
9:01:19
No, thank you, said the gentleman, without turning around. But
9:01:24
there was more anguish in his voice than in mister Morris's. And though I'm
9:01:30
only a dog, I knew that his heart was breaking. End of Chapter
9:01:37
thirty four, A Fire in Fairport. Chapter thirty five, Billy and the
9:01:45
Italian. Mister Morris stayed no longer. He followed mister Montag along the sidewalk
9:01:54
a little way, and then exchanged a few hurried words with some men who
9:02:00
were standing near, and hastened home through the streets that seemed dark and dull
9:02:07
after the splendor of the fire. Though it was still the middle of the
9:02:12
night. Missus Morris was up and dressed and waiting for him. She opened
9:02:17
the hall door with one hand and held a candle in the other. I
9:02:22
felt frightened and miserable and didn't want to leave mister Morris, so I crept
9:02:29
in after him. Don't make a noise, said Missus Morris. Laura and
9:02:37
the boys are sleeping, and I thought it better not to wake them.
9:02:40
It has been a terrible fire, hasn't it? Was it the hotel.
9:02:45
Mister Morris threw himself into a chair and covered his face with his hands.
9:02:52
Speak to me, William, said Missus Morris in a startled tone. You
9:02:59
were not her, are you? And she put her candle on the table
9:03:04
and came and sat down beside him. He dropped his hands from his face
9:03:09
and tears were running down his cheeks. Ten lives lost, he said,
9:03:17
among them. Missus Montague, Missus Morris looked horrified and gave a little cry,
9:03:27
William, it can't be so. It seemed as if mister Morris could
9:03:32
not sit still. He got up and walked to and fro on the floor.
9:03:39
It was an awful scene, Margaret's I never wished to look upon the
9:03:44
like again. Do you remember how I protested against the building of that death
9:03:49
trap? Look at the wide open streets around it, and yet they persisted
9:03:54
in running it up to the sky. God will require an account of those
9:04:00
deaths at the hands of the men who put up that building. It is
9:04:04
terrible, this disregard of human lives. To think of that delicate woman and
9:04:08
her death agony. He threw himself in a chair and buried his face in
9:04:15
his hands. Where was she? How did it happen? Was her husband
9:04:22
saved? And Charlie, said Missus Morris in a broken voice. Yes,
9:04:29
Charlie and mister montag are safe. Charlie will recover from it. Monteig's life
9:04:35
is done. You know his love for his wife, Oh Margaret, When
9:04:40
will men cease to be fools? What does the Lord think of them when
9:04:45
they say, am I my brother's keeper, and the poor creatures burn to
9:04:50
death. Their lives are as precious in his sight as Missus Montague's. Mister
9:04:55
Morris looks so weak and ill that Missus Morris, like a sensible woman,
9:05:02
questioned him no further, but made a fire and got him some hot tea.
9:05:08
Then she made him lie down on the sofa, and she sat by
9:05:14
him till daybreak, when she persuaded him to go to bed. I followed
9:05:20
her about and kept touching her dress with my nose. It seemed so good
9:05:25
to me to have this pleasant home after all the misery I had seen that
9:05:30
night. Once she stopped and took my head between her hands. Dear old
9:05:37
Joe, she said, tearfully, this is a suffering world. It's well,
9:05:45
there's a better one beyond it. In the morning, the boys went
9:05:50
downtown before breakfast and learned all about the fire. It started in the top
9:05:55
story of the hotel in the room of some asked young men who were sitting
9:06:01
up late playing cards. They had smuggled wine into their room and had been
9:06:07
drinking till they were stupid. One of them upset the lamp, and when
9:06:14
the flames began to spread, so that they could not extinguish them. Instead
9:06:19
of rousing someone near them, they rushed downstairs to get someone to come up
9:06:24
there and help them put out the fire. When they returned with some of
9:06:30
the hotel people, they found that the flames had spread from their room,
9:06:36
which was in an ale at the back of the house, to the front
9:06:39
part, where Missus Montaigue's room was, and where the housemaids belonging to the
9:06:45
hotel slept. By this time mister Montague had gotten upstairs, but he found
9:06:52
the passageway to his wife's rooms so full of flames and smoke that though he
9:06:59
tried again and again to force his way through, he could not. He
9:07:04
disappeared for a time. Then he came to mister Morris and got his boy,
9:07:09
and took him to some rooms over his bank, and shut himself up
9:07:15
with him for some days. He would let no one in. Then he
9:07:20
came out with the look of an old man on his face, and his
9:07:23
hair as white as snow, and he went out to his beautiful house in
9:07:30
the outskirts of the town. Nearly all the horses belonging to the hotel were
9:07:36
burned. A few were gotten out by having blankets put over their heads,
9:07:42
but the most of them were so terrified that they would not stir. The
9:07:47
Morris boys said that they had found the old Italian sitting on an empty box,
9:07:53
looking at the smoking ruins of the hotel. His head was hanging on
9:08:00
his breast, and his eyes were full of tears. His ponies were burned
9:08:05
up, he said, and the gander, and the monkeys, and the
9:08:08
goats, and his wonderful performing dogs. He had only his birds left,
9:08:16
and he was a ruined man. He had toiled all his life to get
9:08:22
this troop of trained animals together, and now they were swept from him.
9:08:29
It was cruel and wicked, and he wished he could die. The canaries
9:08:35
and pigeons and doves the hotel people had allowed him to take to his room,
9:08:40
and they were safe. The parrot was lost, an educated parrot that
9:08:46
could answer forty questions, and, among other things, could take a watch
9:08:52
until the time of day. Jack Morris told him that they had it safe
9:08:59
at home, and that it was very much alive, quarreling furiously with his
9:09:05
parrot Bella. The old man's face brightened at this, and then Jack and
9:09:10
Carl, finding that he had had no breakfast, went off to a restaurant
9:09:15
nearby and got him some steak and coffee. The Italian was very grateful,
9:09:22
and as he ate, Jack said, the tears ran into his coffee cup.
9:09:29
He told them how much he loved his animals and how it made zi
9:09:37
hotsbidda to his them crying to him to deliver them from zaging fire. The
9:09:44
boys came home and got their breakfast and went to school. Miss Laura did
9:09:51
not go out. She sat all day with a very quiet, pained face.
9:09:57
She could neither read nor sew, and mister and Missus Morris were just
9:10:02
as unsettled. They talked about the fire in low tones, and I could
9:10:07
see that they felt more sad about Missus Montague's death than if she had died
9:10:15
in an ordinary way. Her dear little canary Barry died with her. She
9:10:22
would never be separated from him, and his cage had been taken up to
9:10:27
the top of the hotel with her. He probably died an easier death than
9:10:34
his poor mistress. Charlie's dog escaped, but was so frightened that he ran
9:10:40
out to their house outside the town. At tea time, mister Morris went
9:10:47
to town to see that the Italian got a comfortable place for the night.
9:10:52
When he came back, he said that he had found out that the Italian
9:10:59
was by no means so old a man as he looked, and that he
9:11:02
had talked to him about raising a sum of money for him among the Fairport
9:11:08
people, till he had become quite cheerful and said that if mister Morris would
9:11:14
do that, he would try to gather another troop of animals together and train
9:11:20
them. Now, what can we do for this Italian, asked missus Morris.
9:11:27
We can't give him much money, but we might let him have one
9:11:31
or two of our pets. There's Billy. He's a bright little dog,
9:11:36
and he's not two years old yet. He could teach him anything. There
9:11:42
was a blank silence among the Morris children. Billy was such a gentle,
9:11:47
lovable little dog that he was a favorite with everyone in the house. I
9:11:53
suppose we ought to do it, said Miss Laura at last, But how
9:12:00
can we give him up? There was a good deal of discussion, but
9:12:06
the end of it was that Billy was given to the Italian. He came
9:12:12
up to get him and was very grateful and made a great many bows.
9:12:17
Holding his hat in his hand. Billy took to him at once, and
9:12:22
the Italian spoke so kindly to him that we knew he would have a good
9:12:29
master. Mister Morris got quite a large sum of money for him, and
9:12:35
when he handed it to him, the poor man was so pleased that he
9:12:39
kissed his hand and promised to send frequent word as to Billy's progress and welfare.
9:12:47
End of Chapter thirty five Billy and the Italian, Chapter thirty six,
9:12:58
Dandy the Tramp. About a week after Billy left us, the Morris family,
9:13:05
much to its surprise, became the owner of a new dog. He
9:13:09
walked into the house one cold wintry afternoon and lay calmly down by the fire.
9:13:16
He was a brindled bull terrier, and he had on a silver plated
9:13:22
collar with Dandy engraved on it. He lay all the evening by the fire,
9:13:28
and when any of the family spoke to him, he wagged his tail
9:13:32
and looked pleased. I growled a little at him at first, but he
9:13:37
never cared a bit and just dozed off to sleep, so I soon stopped.
9:13:44
He was such a well bred dog that the Morrises were afraid that someone
9:13:49
had lost him. They made some inquiries The next day and found that he
9:13:53
belonged to a New York gentleman who had come to Fairport in the summer in
9:13:59
a This dog did not like the yacht. He came ashore in a boat
9:14:05
whenever he got a chance, and if he could not come in a boat,
9:14:09
he would swim. He was a tramp, his master said, and
9:14:15
he wouldn't stay long in any place. The Morrises were so amused with his
9:14:20
impudence that they did not send him away, but said every day, surely
9:14:27
he will be gone tomorrow. However, mister Dandy had gotten into some comfortable
9:14:34
quarters, and he had no intention of changing them for a while at least.
9:14:39
Then. He was very handsome and had such a pleasant way with him
9:14:45
that the family could not help liking him. I never cared for him.
9:14:51
He fawned on the Morrises and pretended he loved them, and afterward turned around
9:14:57
and laughed and sneered at them in a way that made me very angry.
9:15:02
I used to lecture him sometimes and growl about him to Jim, but Jim
9:15:08
always said, let him alone. You can't do me any good. He
9:15:14
was born bad. His mother wasn't good. He tells me that she had
9:15:19
a bad name among all the other dogs in her neighborhood. She was a
9:15:23
thief and a runaway. Though he provoked me so often, yet I could
9:15:30
not help laughing at some of his stories. They were so funny. We
9:15:36
were lying out in the sun on the platform at the back of the house
9:15:40
one day, and he had been more than usually provoking, so I got
9:15:45
up to leave him. He put himself in my way, however, and
9:15:51
said, coaxingly, don't be cross, old fellow. I'll tell you some
9:15:55
stories to amuse you, old boy. What shall they be? Abye out?
9:16:00
I think the story of your life would be about as interesting as anything
9:16:07
you could make up, I said, dryly. Alright, fact or fiction,
9:16:13
whichever you like. Here's a fact, plain and unvarnished, Born and
9:16:19
bred in New York, swell Stable, Swell coachman, swell Master, jeweled
9:16:24
fingers of ladies poking at me. First thing I remember, first painful experience
9:16:31
being sent to vet to have ears cut. What's a vet, I said,
9:16:38
A veterinary animal doctor. Vet didn't cut ears, though, Master sent
9:16:45
me back cut ears again. Summertime and flies, bad ears got sore infested
9:16:52
flies. Very attentive Coachman set little boy to brush flies off, but he'd
9:17:00
out in the yard and leave me flies awful, though they'd eat me up,
9:17:05
or else I'd shake out brains trying to get rid of them. Mothers
9:17:08
should have stayed home and licked my ears, but was cruising about the neighborhood.
9:17:14
Finally coachman put me in dark place, powdered ears and they got Well.
9:17:21
Why didn't they cut your tail too, I said, looking at his
9:17:25
long slim tail, which was like a sewer rats. Twasn't the fashion,
9:17:31
mister, wayback, a bull terriers ears or clipped to keep them from getting
9:17:36
torn while fighting. You're not a fighting dog, I said, not I
9:17:44
too much trouble. I believe in taking things easy. I should thank you,
9:17:49
did, I said, scornfully. You never put yourself out for anyone,
9:17:54
I notice. But speaking of cropping ears, what you think of it?
9:18:01
Well, he said, with a sly glance at my head. It
9:18:07
isn't a pleasant operation, but one might as well be out of the world
9:18:12
as out of the fashion. I don't care now my ears are done,
9:18:17
but I said, think of the poor dogs that will come after you.
9:18:23
What difference does that make to me? He said, I'll be dead and
9:18:29
out of the way. Men can cut off their ears and tails and legs
9:18:34
too if they want to. Dang in deep, I said angrily. You're
9:18:39
the most selfish dog that I ever saw. Don't excite yourself, he said
9:18:47
coolly. Let me get on with my story. When I was a few
9:18:52
months old, I began to find the stable yard narrow and wondered what there
9:18:57
was outside of it. I discovered a hole in the garden wall and used
9:19:01
to sneak out nights. Oh what fun it was. I got to know
9:19:07
a lot of street dogs, and we had gay times, barking under people's
9:19:12
windows and making them mad, and getting into backyards and chasing cats. We
9:19:17
used to kill a cat nearly every night. Policemen would chase us, and
9:19:22
we would run and run till the water just ran off our tongues and we
9:19:27
hadn't a bit of breath left. Then I'd go home and sleep all day
9:19:30
and go out again the next night. When I was about a year old,
9:19:36
I began to stay out days as well as nights. They couldn't keep
9:19:39
me home. Then I ran away for three months. I got with an
9:19:44
old lady on Fifth Avenue who was very fond of dogs. She had four
9:19:49
white poodles, and her servants used to wash them and tie up their hair
9:19:53
with blue ribbons, and she used to take them for drives and her fading
9:19:58
in the park, and they wore gold and silver collars. The biggest poodle
9:20:02
wore a ruby in his collar worth five hundred dollars. I went driving,
9:20:07
too, and sometimes we met my master. He often smiled and shook his
9:20:13
head at me. I heard him tell the coachman one day that I was
9:20:16
a little black guard and he was to let me come and go as I
9:20:21
liked. If they had whipped you soundly, I said, it might have
9:20:27
made a good dog of you. I'm good enough now, said Dandy airily.
9:20:32
The young ladies who drove with my master used to say that it was
9:20:37
priggish and tiresome to be too good to go on with my story. I
9:20:42
stayed with missus Judge Tibbett, till I got sick of her fussy ways.
9:20:46
She made a simpleton of herself over those poodles, each one high high chair
9:20:51
at the table and a plate, and they always sat in these chairs and
9:20:55
had meals with her, and the servants all called them Master and Master Tot,
9:21:00
and miss Tiny and miss Fluff. One day they tried to make me
9:21:06
sit in a chair, and I got cross and bit Missus Tibbett, and
9:21:09
she beat me cruelly, and her servants stoned me away from the house.
9:21:15
Speaking about bulls, Dandy, I said, if it is polite to call
9:21:21
a lady woe, I should say that that lady was one. Dogs shouldn't
9:21:25
be put out of their place. Why didn't she have some poor children at
9:21:30
her table and in her carriage and let the dogs run behind? Easy to
9:21:37
see, you don't know New York, said Dandy with a laugh. Poor
9:21:42
children don't live with the rich old ladies. Missus Tibbitt hated children anyway.
9:21:47
Then dogs like poodles would get lost in the mud or killed in the crowd
9:21:52
if they ran behind a carriage. Only knowing dogs like me can make their
9:21:57
way about. I rather doubted this speech, but I said nothing, and
9:22:02
he went on patronizingly. However, Joe the ou hast reason, as the
9:22:08
French say, Missus Judge Tibbett didn't give her dogs exercise enough. Their claws
9:22:15
were as long as chinamen's nails, and the hair grew over their pads,
9:22:20
and they always had red eyes and were always sick, and she had to
9:22:23
dose them with medicine and call them her poor little weeny teeny sicky wickie doggies.
9:22:30
Bly I got disgusted with her. When I left her, I ran
9:22:36
away to her nieces, Miss Falls. She was a sensible young lady,
9:22:40
and she used to scold her aunt for the way in which she brought up
9:22:44
her dogs. She was almost too sensible for her. Pug and I were
9:22:49
rubbed and scrubbed within an inch of our lives, and had to go for
9:22:52
such long walks that I got thoroughly sick of them. A woman whom the
9:22:58
servants called Trotzy came every morning and took the Pug and me by our chains
9:23:02
and sometimes another dog or two, and took us for long tramps and quiet
9:23:07
streets. That was Trotesy's business to walk dogs, and Miss Ball got a
9:23:14
great many fashionable young ladies who could not exercise their dogs to let Trotesy have
9:23:20
them, and they said that it made a great difference in the health and
9:23:23
appearance of their pets. Trotzy got fifteen cents an hour for a dog.
9:23:30
Goodness, what appetites those walks gave us? And didn't we make the dog
9:23:35
biscuits disappear. But it was a slow life at Miss Ball's. We only
9:23:39
saw her for a little while. Every day. She slept till noon.
9:23:45
After lunch, she played with us a little while in the greenhouse. Then
9:23:50
she was off driving or visiting. And in the evening she always had company
9:23:54
or went to a dance or to the theater. I soon made up my
9:24:00
mind that i'd run away. I jumped out of a window one fine morning
9:24:05
and ran home. I stayed there for a long time. My mother had
9:24:09
been run over by a cart and killed, and I wasn't sorry. My
9:24:15
master never bothered his head about me, and I could do as I liked.
9:24:20
One day, when I was having a walk and meeting a lot of
9:24:23
dogs that I knew, a little boy came behind me, and before I
9:24:28
could tell what he was doing, he had snatched me up and was running
9:24:31
off with me. I couldn't bite him, for he had stuffed some of
9:24:36
his rags in my mouth. He took me to a tenement house in a
9:24:40
part of the city that I had never been in before. He belonged to
9:24:45
a very poor family, my faith, weren't they badly off? Six children
9:24:52
and a mother and father, all living in two tiny rooms, scarcely a
9:24:55
bit of meat that I smelled while I was there. I hated their bread
9:25:00
and molasses, and the place smelled so badly I thought I should choke.
9:25:06
They kept me shut up in their dirty rooms for several days, and the
9:25:09
bread of a boy that caught me slept with his arm around me at night.
9:25:15
The weather was hot, and sometimes we couldn't sleep, and they had
9:25:19
to go up on the roof. After a while they chained me up in
9:25:22
a filthy yard at the back of the house, and there I thought I
9:25:28
should go mad. I would have liked to bite them all to death if
9:25:31
I had dared. It's awful to be chained, especially for a dog like
9:25:37
me that loves his freedom. The flies worried me, and the noises distracted
9:25:43
me, and my flesh would fairly creep from getting no exercise. I was
9:25:49
there nearly a month while they were waiting for a reward to be offered,
9:25:53
but none came, and one day the boy's father, who was a street
9:25:59
peddler, took me by my chain and led me about the streets till he
9:26:02
sold me. A gentleman got me for his little boy, but I didn't
9:26:07
like the look of him. So I sprang up and bit his hand,
9:26:12
and he dropped the chain, and I dodged boys and policemen and finally got
9:26:16
home, more dead than alive and looking like a skeleton. I had a
9:26:22
good time for several weeks, and then I began to get restless and was
9:26:27
off again. But I'm getting tired. I want to go to sleep.
9:26:31
You're not very polite, I said, to offer to tell a story,
9:26:37
and then go to sleep before you finish it. Look out for number one,
9:26:42
my boy, said Dandy, with a yawn, for if you don't,
9:26:46
no one else will. And he shut his eyes and was fast asleep
9:26:52
in a few minutes. I sat and looked at him. What a handsome,
9:26:58
good natured, worthless dog he was. A few days later he told
9:27:04
me the rest of his history. After a great many wanderings, he happened
9:27:09
home one day just as his master's yacht was going to sail, and they
9:27:14
changed him up till they went on board, so that he could be an
9:27:17
amusement on the passage to Fairport. It was in November that Dandy came to
9:27:23
us, and he stayed all winter. He made fun of the morrises all
9:27:29
the time, and said they had a dull, poky old house, and
9:27:34
he only stayed because Miss Laura was nursing him. He had a little sore
9:27:39
on his back that she soon found out was mange. Her father said it
9:27:45
was a bad disease for dogs to have, and Dandy had better be shot.
9:27:52
But she begged so hard for his life and said she would cure him
9:27:57
in a few weeks that she was a loud to keep him. Dandy wasn't
9:28:02
capable of getting really angry, but he was as disturbed about having this disease
9:28:08
as he could be about anything. He said that he had got it from
9:28:14
a little mangy dog that he had played with a few weeks before. He
9:28:20
was only with the little dog for a while and didn't think he would take
9:28:24
it, but it seemed he knew what an easy thing it was to get.
9:28:30
Until he got well, he was separated from us. Miss Laura kept
9:28:36
him up in the loft with the rabbits where we could not go, and
9:28:39
the boys ran him around the garden for exercise. She tried all kinds of
9:28:45
cures for him, and I heard her say that though it was a skin
9:28:51
disease, his blood must be purified She gave him some of the pills that
9:28:57
she had made out of sulfur and butter for Gar and Billy and me to
9:29:00
keep our coats silky and smooth. When they didn't cure him, she gave
9:29:07
him a few drops of arsenic every day and washed the sore, and indeed
9:29:13
his whole body with tobacco water or carbolic soap. It was the tobacco water
9:29:20
that cured him. Miss Laura always put on gloves when she went near him,
9:29:27
and used to brush to wash him. For if a person takes mange
9:29:31
from a dog, they may lose their hair and their eyelashes, but if
9:29:37
they are careful, no harm comes from nursing a mangy dog. And I
9:29:42
have never known of anyone taking the disease. After a time, Dandy's sore
9:29:49
healed and he was set free. He was right glad, he said,
9:29:53
for he had got heartily sick of the rabbits. He used to bark at
9:29:58
them and make them aim, and they would run around the loft stamping their
9:30:02
hind feet at him in a funny way that rabbits do. I think they
9:30:08
disliked him as much as he disliked them. Jim and I did not get
9:30:15
the mange. Dandy was not a strong dog, and I think his irregular
9:30:21
ways of living made him take diseases readily. He would stuff himself when he
9:30:28
was hungry, and he always wanted rich food. If he couldn't get what
9:30:32
he wanted at the Morrises, he went out and stole or visited the dumps
9:30:37
at the back of the town. When he did get ill, he was
9:30:42
more stupid about doctoring himself than any dog I have ever seen. He never
9:30:49
seemed to know when to eat grass or herbs, or a little earth that
9:30:53
would have kept him in good condition. A dog should never be without grass.
9:31:00
When Dandy got ill, he just suffered till he got well again,
9:31:04
and never tried to cure himself of his small troubles. Some dogs even know
9:31:10
enough to imputate their limbs. Jim told me a very interesting story of a
9:31:16
dog the Morrises once had called Jip, whose leg became paralyzed by a kick
9:31:22
from a horse. He knew the leg was dead and gnawed it off nearly
9:31:28
to the shoulder, And though he was very sick for a time, yet
9:31:32
in the end he got well to return to Dandy. I knew he was
9:31:39
only waiting for the spring to leave us, and I was not sorry.
9:31:45
The first fine day he was off, and during the rest of the spring
9:31:50
and summer we occasionally met him running about the town with a set of fast
9:31:54
dogs. One day I stopped and asked him how he continued himself in such
9:32:00
a quiet place as Fairport, and he said he was dying to get back
9:32:05
to New York and was hoping that his master's yacht would come and take him
9:32:09
away. Poor Dandy never left Fairport. After all, he was not such
9:32:17
a bad dog. There was really nothing vicious about him, and I hate
9:32:22
to speak of his end. His master's yacht did not come, and soon
9:32:29
the summer was over and the winter was coming, and no one wanted Dandy,
9:32:34
for he had such a bad name. He got hungry and cold,
9:32:38
and one day sprang upon a little girl to take away a piece of bread
9:32:43
and butter that she was eating. He did not see the large house dog
9:32:47
on the door seal, and before he could get away, the dog had
9:32:52
seized him and bitten and shaken him till he was nearly dead. When the
9:32:59
dog threw him aside. He crawled to the morrises and Miss Laura bandaged his
9:33:05
wounds and made him a bed in the stable. One Sunday morning, she
9:33:09
washed and fed him very tenderly, for she knew he could not live much
9:33:15
longer. He was so weak that he could scarcely eat the food she put
9:33:22
in his mouth, so she let him lick some milk from her finger.
9:33:27
As she was going to church. I could not go with her, but
9:33:30
I ran down the lane and watched her out of sight. When I came
9:33:37
back, Dandy was gone. I looked till I found him. He had
9:33:43
crawled into the darkest corner of the stable to die, and though he was
9:33:49
suffering very much, he never uttered a sound. I sat by him and
9:33:55
thought of his master in New York. If he had brought Dandy up properly,
9:34:01
he might not now be here in his silent death agony. A young
9:34:07
pup should be trained just as a child is, and punished when he does
9:34:12
wrong. Dandy began badly, and not being checked in his evil ways,
9:34:17
had come to this. Poor Dandy, poor handsome dog of a rich master.
9:34:25
He opened his dull eyes, gave me one last glance, then with
9:34:32
a convulsive shudder. His torn limbs were steel. He would never suffer any
9:34:39
more. When Miss Laura came home. She cried bitterly to know he was
9:34:45
dead. The boys took him away from her and made him a grave in
9:34:52
the corner of the garden. End of chapter thirty six, Dandy the Train,
9:35:00
Chapter thirty seven, the end of my story. I have come now
9:35:07
to the last chapter of my story. I thought when I began to write
9:35:13
that I would put down the events of each year of my life. But
9:35:17
I fear that would make my story too long, and neither Miss Laura nor
9:35:23
any boys and girls would care to read it. So I will stop just
9:35:29
here, though I would gladly go on, for I have enjoyed so much
9:35:34
talking over old times that I am very sorry to leave off. Every year
9:35:40
that I have been at the Morrises, something pleasant has happened to me.
9:35:45
But I cannot put all these things down, nor can I tell how Miss
9:35:51
Laura and the boys grew and changed year by year till now they are quite
9:35:57
grown up. I will just bring my tail down to the present time,
9:36:02
and then I will stop talking and go lie down in my basket, for
9:36:07
I am an old dog now and get tired very easily. I was a
9:36:14
year old when I went to the Morrises, and I have been with them
9:36:17
for twelve years. I am not living in the same house with mister and
9:36:23
Missus Morris now, but I am with my dear Miss Laura, who is
9:36:30
Miss Laura no longer but Missus Gray. She married mister Harry four years ago
9:36:37
and lives with him and mister and Missus Wood on Dingley Farm. Mister and
9:36:45
Missus Morris live in a cottage nearby. Mister Morris is not very strong and
9:36:52
can preach no longer. The boys are all scattered. Jack married pretty Miss
9:36:59
Bessie and lives on a large farm near here. Miss Bessie says that she
9:37:05
hates to be a farmer's wife, but she always looks very happy and contented,
9:37:12
so I think she must be mistaken. Carl is a merchant in New
9:37:17
York, ned is a clerk in a bank, and Willie is studying at
9:37:22
a place called Harvard. He says that after he finishes his studies, he
9:37:28
is going to live with his father and mother. The Morrises. Old friends
9:37:34
often come to see them. Miss Drury comes every summer on her way to
9:37:39
Newport, and mister Montague and Charlie come every other summer. Charlie always brings
9:37:46
with him his old dog, Brisk, who is getting feeble like myself.
9:37:52
We lie on the veranda in the sunshine and listen to the Morrises talking about
9:37:58
old days, and sometimes it makes us feel quite young again. In addition
9:38:05
to Brisk, we have a Scotch Collie. He is very handsome and is
9:38:10
a constant attendant of Miss Laura's. We are great friends, he and I,
9:38:16
but he can get about much better than I can. One day a
9:38:22
friend of Miss Laura's came with a little boy and girl, and Collie sat
9:38:29
between the two children, and their father took a picture with a Kodak.
9:38:34
I like him so much that I told him I would get them to put
9:38:38
his picture in my book. When the Morris boys are all here in the
9:38:44
summer, we have gay times all through the winter. We look forward to
9:38:50
their coming, for they make the old farmhouse so lively. Mister Maxwell never
9:38:55
misses a summer in coming to Riverdale. Has such a following of dumb animals
9:39:01
now that he says he can't move them any farther away from Boston than this,
9:39:08
and he doesn't know what he will do with them unless he sets up
9:39:13
a menagerie. He asked Miss Laura the other day if she thought that the
9:39:19
old Italian would take him into partnership. He did not know what had happened
9:39:25
to poor Bellini, so Miss Laura told him. A few years ago the
9:39:31
Italian came to Riverdale to exhibit his new stock of performing animals. They were
9:39:38
almost as good as the old ones, but he had not quite so many
9:39:45
as he had before. The Morrises and a great many of their friends went
9:39:51
to his performance, and Miss Laura said afterward that when cunning little Billy came
9:39:58
on the stage and made his bow and went through his antics of jumping through
9:40:02
hoops and catching balls, that she almost had hysterics. The Italian had made
9:40:09
a special pet of him for the Morris' sake, and treated him more like
9:40:15
a human being than a dog. Billy rather put on airs when he came
9:40:21
up to the farm to see us. But he was such a dear little
9:40:24
dog, in spite of being almost spoiled by his master, that Jim and
9:40:30
I could not get angry with him. In a few days, they went
9:40:36
away, and we heard nothing but good news from them till last winter.
9:40:43
Then a letter came to Miss Laura from a nurse in a new York hospital.
9:40:47
She said that the Italian was very near his end, and he wanted
9:40:52
her to write to missus Gray to tell her that he had sold all his
9:40:59
animals but little dog that she had so kindly given him. He was sending
9:41:04
him back to her, and with his last breath he would pray for Heaven's
9:41:09
blessing on the kind lady and her family that had befriended him when he was
9:41:15
in trouble. The next day, Billy arrived, a thin, white scarecrow
9:41:22
of a dog. He was sick and unhappy and would eat nothing, and
9:41:28
started up at the slightest sound. He was listening for the Italian's footsteps.
9:41:35
But he never came. And one day mister Harry looked up from his newspaper
9:41:42
and said, Laura Bellini is dead. Miss Laura's eyes filled with tears,
9:41:50
and Billy, who had jumped up when he heard his master's name, fell
9:41:54
back again. He knew what they meant, and from that instant he ceased
9:42:00
listening for footsteps and lay quite steel till he died. Miss Laura had him
9:42:07
put in a little wooden box and buried him in a corner of the garden.
9:42:14
And when she is working among her flowers. She often speaks regretfully of
9:42:19
him and of poor Dandy, who lies in the garden at Fairport. Bella,
9:42:25
the parrot, lives with Missus Morris and is as smart as ever.
9:42:31
I have heard that parents live to a very great age, some of them
9:42:36
even get to be one hundred years old. If that is the case,
9:42:40
Bella will outlive all of us. She notices that I am getting blind and
9:42:46
feeble, and when I go down to call on Missus Morris, she calls
9:42:52
out to me, keep a stiff upper lip, beautiful Joe. Never say
9:42:58
die, beautiful Joe. Keep the game a going, beautiful Joe. Missus
9:43:04
Morris says she doesn't know where Bella picks up her slang words. I think
9:43:09
get is mister ned who teaches her, for when he comes home in the
9:43:14
summer, he often says, with a sly twinkle in his eye, come
9:43:19
out into the garden, Bella. And he lies in a hammock under the
9:43:23
trees, and Bella perches on a branch near him, and he talks to
9:43:29
her by the eyeour anyway, it is in the autumn after he leaves Riverdale
9:43:35
that Bella always shocks Missus Morris with her slang talk. I am glad that
9:43:42
I am to end my days in Riverdale. Fairport was a very nice place,
9:43:49
but it was not open and free like this farm. I take a
9:43:52
walk every morning that the sun shines. I go out among the horses and
9:43:59
cow and stop to watch the hens pecking at their food. This is such
9:44:04
a happy place, and I hope my dear miss Laura will live to enjoy
9:44:09
it many years after I am gone. I have very few worries. The
9:44:16
pigs bother me a little in the spring by rooting up the bones that I
9:44:22
bury in the fields and the fall, but that is a small matter,
9:44:27
and I try not to mind it. I get a great many bones here,
9:44:31
and I should be glad if I had some poor city dogs to help
9:44:36
me eat them. I don't think bones are good for pigs. Then there
9:44:42
is mister Harry's tame squirrel out in one of the barns that teases me considerably.
9:44:50
He knows that I can't chase him now that my legs are so stiff
9:44:53
with rheumatism, and he takes delight in showing me how spry he can be,
9:45:00
darting around me and whisking his tail almost in my face and trying to
9:45:07
get me to run after him so that he can laugh at me. I
9:45:12
don't think that he is a very thoughtful squirrel, but I try not to
9:45:16
notice him. The sailor boy who gave Bella to the Morrises has got to
9:45:22
be a large stout man and is the first mate of a vessel. He
9:45:29
sometimes comes here, and when he does, he always brings the Morris' presence
9:45:35
of foreign fruits and curiosities of different kinds. Malta. The cat is still
9:45:42
living and is with Missus Morris. Davy the rat is gone, so is
9:45:47
poor old Jim. He went away one day last summer, and no one
9:45:53
ever knew what became of him. The morris Is searched everywhere for him and
9:46:00
offered a large reward to anyone who would find him, but he never turned
9:46:06
up again. I think that he felt he was going to die and went
9:46:10
into some out of the way place. He remembered how badly Miss Laura felt
9:46:16
when Dandy died, and he wanted to spare her the greater sorrow of his
9:46:22
death. He was always such a thoughtful dog, and so anxious not to
9:46:28
give trouble. I am more selfish. I could not go away from Miss
9:46:32
Laura, even to die. When my last hour comes, I want to
9:46:37
see her gentle face bending over me, and then I shall not mind how
9:46:43
much I suffer. She is just as tender hearted as ever, but she
9:46:49
tries not to feel too badly about the sorrow and suffering in the world,
9:46:54
because she says that would weaken her, and she wants all her stress to
9:47:00
try to put a stop to some of it. She does a great deal
9:47:05
of good in Riverdale, and I do not think that there is any one
9:47:09
in all the country around who is as much beloved as she is. She
9:47:15
has never forgotten the resolve that she made some years ago that she would do
9:47:22
all that she could to protect dumb creatures. Mister Harry and mister Maxwell have
9:47:29
helped her nobly. Mister Maxwell's work is largely done in Boston, and Miss
9:47:35
Laura and mister Harry have to do the most of theirs by writing for Riverdale
9:47:43
has got to be a model village in respect of the treatment of all kinds
9:47:47
of animals. It is a model village not only in that respect, but
9:47:53
in others. It has seemed as if all other improvements went hand in hand
9:47:59
with the humane treatment of animals. Thoughtfulness toward lower creatures has made the people
9:48:07
more and more thoughtful toward themselves. And this little town is getting to have
9:48:12
quite a name through the state for its good schools, good society, and
9:48:17
good business and religious standing. Many people are moving into it to educate their
9:48:23
children. The Riverdale people are very particular about what sort of strangers come to
9:48:30
live among them. A man who came here two years ago and opened a
9:48:36
shop with sen kicking a small kitting out of his house. The next day,
9:48:43
a committee of Riverdale's citizens waited on him and said they had a great
9:48:47
deal of trouble to root out cruelty from their village, and they didn't want
9:48:53
anyone to come there and introduce it again, and they thought he had better
9:48:58
move on to some other place. The man was utterly astonished, and said
9:49:04
he'd never heard of such particular people. He had had no thought of being
9:49:08
cruel He didn't think that the kitten cared. But now when he turned the
9:49:15
thing over in his mind, he didn't suppose cats liked being kicked about anymore
9:49:21
than he would like it himself, and he would promise to be kind to
9:49:24
them in the future, he said, too, that if they had no
9:49:29
objection, he would just stay on, for if the people there treated dumb
9:49:34
animals with such consideration, they would certainly treat human beings better, and he
9:49:39
thought it would be a good place to bring up his children. Of course,
9:49:45
they let him stay, and he is now a man who has celebrated
9:49:50
for his kindness to every living thing, and he never refuses to help Miss
9:49:54
Laura when she goes to him for money to carry out any of her humane
9:50:00
schemes. There is one most important saying of Miss Laura's that comes out of
9:50:07
her years of service for dumb animals that I must put in before I close,
9:50:14
and it is this. She says that cruel and vicious owners of animals
9:50:20
should be punished. But to merely thoughtless people, don't say, don't so
9:50:25
much. Don't go to them and say don't overfeed your animals, and don't
9:50:32
starve them, and don't overwork them, and don't beat them, and so
9:50:37
on through the long list of hardships that can be put upon suffering animals.
9:50:44
But say, simply to them, be kind, make a study of your
9:50:50
animals wants and see that they are satisfied. No one can tell you how
9:50:54
to treat your animal as well as you should know yourself, for you are
9:51:00
with it all the time, and know its disposition, and just how much
9:51:06
work it can stand, and how much rest and food it needs, and
9:51:10
just how different it is from every other animal. If it is sick or
9:51:15
unhappy, you are the one to take care of it, for nearly every
9:51:21
animal loves its own master better than a stranger, and will get well quicker
9:51:25
under his care. Miss Laura says that if men and women are kind in
9:51:32
every respect to their dumb servants, they will be astonished to find out how
9:51:38
much happiness they will bring into their lives, and how faithful and grateful their
9:51:44
dumb animals will be to them. Now I must really close my story goodbye
9:51:52
to the boys and girls who may read it. And if it is not
9:51:55
wrong for a dog to say it, I should like to add, God
9:52:00
bless you all. If in my feeble way I have been able to impress
9:52:06
you with the fact that dogs and many other animals love their masters and mistresses
9:52:13
and live only to please them, my little story will not be written in
9:52:17
vain. My last words are, boys and girls, be kind to dumb
9:52:24
animals, not only because you will lose nothing by it, but because you
9:52:30
ought to. For they were placed on the earth by the same kind hand
9:52:37
that made all living creatures. End of Chapter thirty seven and end of Beautiful Joe