Latest / Classic Dog Stories / A Little Ghost in the Garden, by Richard Le Gallienne

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A Little Ghost in the Garden, by Richard Le Gallienne · Classic Dog Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section sixteen of Best Dog Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Section sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: A Little Ghost in the Garden by Richard Legallion. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know in what corner of the garden his busy
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  Speaker 1: little life now takes its everlasting rest. None of us
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  Speaker 1: had the courage to stand by that summer morning when Morris,
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  Speaker 1: our old negro man, buried him, and we felt sympathetic
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  Speaker 1: for Morris, that the sad job should fall upon him,
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  Speaker 1: For Morris loved him just as we did. Perhaps if
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  Speaker 1: we had loved him less, more sentimentally than deeply, we
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  Speaker 1: should have indulged in some sort of appropriate ceremonial and
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  Speaker 1: marked his grave with a little stone. But as I
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  Speaker 1: have said, his grave, like that of the great Prophet,
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  Speaker 1: is a secret. To this day, none of us has
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  Speaker 1: ever asked Morris about it, and his grief has been
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  Speaker 1: as reticent as our own. I wondered the other night,
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  Speaker 1: as I walked the garden in a veiled moonlight, whether
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  Speaker 1: it was near the lotus banks he was lying, for
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  Speaker 1: I remembered how he would stand there almost by the hour,
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  Speaker 1: watching the goldfish that we had engaged to protect us
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  Speaker 1: against mosquitoes, moving mysteriously under the shadows of the great
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  Speaker 1: flat leaves. In his short life he grew to understand
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  Speaker 1: much of this strange world. But he never got used
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  Speaker 1: to those goldfish, And often I have seen him, after
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  Speaker 1: a long wistful contemplation of them, turn away with a
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  Speaker 1: sort of half frightened, puzzled bark, as though to say
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  Speaker 1: that he gave it up, or does he lie? I
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  Speaker 1: wonder somewhere among the long grass of the salt marsh
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  Speaker 1: that borders our garden, and in peragee tides widens out
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  Speaker 1: into a lake. There indeed would be his appropriate country,
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  Speaker 1: for there was the happy hunting ground through which, in
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  Speaker 1: the life he was never tired of roaming, in the
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  Speaker 1: inextinguishable hope of mink and with the occasional certainty of
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  Speaker 1: a water rat. He had come to us almost as
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  Speaker 1: mysteriously as he went away. A fox terrier puppy wandered
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  Speaker 1: out of the infinite to the neighborhood of our ice
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  Speaker 1: box one November morning, and now wandered back again. Technically,
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  Speaker 1: he was just graduating out of puppyhood, though like the
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  Speaker 1: most charming human beings, he never really grew up, and
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  Speaker 1: remained in behavior and imagination a puppy to the end.
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  Speaker 1: He was a dog of good breed and good manners,
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  Speaker 1: evidently with gentlemanly antecedents canine and human. There were those
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  Speaker 1: more learned in canine aristocracy than ourselves who said that
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  Speaker 1: his large leaflike were very becoming years meant a bar
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  Speaker 1: sinister somewhere in his pedigree. But to our eyes those
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  Speaker 1: only made him better looking, And for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: him he was race, race, nervous, sensitive, refined, and courageous
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  Speaker 1: from the point of his all searching nose to the
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  Speaker 1: end of his stub of a tail, which the conventional
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  Speaker 1: docking had seemed but to make them more expressive. We
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  Speaker 1: had already one dog in the family when he arrived,
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  Speaker 1: and two Maltese cats. With the cats, he was never
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  Speaker 1: able to make friends, in spite of persistent, well intentioned efforts.
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  Speaker 1: It was evident to us that his advances were all
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  Speaker 1: made in the spirit of play and from a desire
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  Speaker 1: of comradeship, the two crowning needs of his blithe social spirits.
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  Speaker 1: But the cats received them in an attitude of invincible
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  Speaker 1: dist trust, of which his poor nose frequently bore the
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  Speaker 1: sorry signature. Yet they had become friendly enough with the
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  Speaker 1: other dog, an elderly setter by name Teddy, whose calm,
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  Speaker 1: lordly slow moving ways were due to a combination of
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  Speaker 1: natural dignity, vast experience of life, and some rheumatism. As
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  Speaker 1: Teddy would sit velosifizing by the hearth of an evening,
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  Speaker 1: immovable and plunged in memories, yet alert on the instant
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  Speaker 1: to a football a quarter of a mile away. They
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  Speaker 1: would rub their sinuous, smoke gray bodies to and fro
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  Speaker 1: beneath his jaws, just as though he were a piece
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  Speaker 1: of furniture, and he would take as little notice of
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  Speaker 1: them as though he were the leg of the piano,
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  Speaker 1: though sometimes he would wag his tail gently to and fro,
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  Speaker 1: or wrap it softly on the floor, as though appreciating
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  Speaker 1: the delicate attention of Teddy's reception of the newcomer, we
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  Speaker 1: had at first some slight misgiving or amiable, as we
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  Speaker 1: have just seen him with his Maltese companions, and indeed,
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  Speaker 1: as he is generally by nature, his is the amiability
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  Speaker 1: that comes of conscious power, and is his so to say,
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  Speaker 1: by right of conquest for of all neighboring dogs. He
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  Speaker 1: is the acknowledged king, the reverse of quarrelsome. The peace
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  Speaker 1: of his declining years has been won by much historical fighting,
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  Speaker 1: and his reputation among the dogs of his acquaintance is
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  Speaker 1: such that it is seldom necessary for him to assert
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  Speaker 1: his position. It is only some hapless stranger, ignorant of
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  Speaker 1: his standing, that will occasionally provoke him to a display
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  Speaker 1: of those fighting qualities he grows more and more reluctant
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  Speaker 1: to employ. Even with such he is comparatively merciful, stern,
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  Speaker 1: but never brutal. Usually all that is necessary is for
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  Speaker 1: him to look at them, stonds fastly for a few
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  Speaker 1: moments in a peculiar way. This seems to convince them
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  Speaker 1: that after all, discretion is the better part, And slowly
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  Speaker 1: and sadly they turn around in a curious, cowed way,
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  Speaker 1: and walk off, apparently too scared to run with Teddy
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  Speaker 1: like fate, grimly at their heels, steadily pointing them off
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  Speaker 1: the premises. We were a little anxious, therefore, as to
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  Speaker 1: how Teddy would take our little terrier, with his fussy,
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  Speaker 1: youthful self importance and eternal, restless poking into other folks affairs.
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  Speaker 1: But Teddy, as we might have told ourselves, had had
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  Speaker 1: a long and varied experience of terriers, and had nothing
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  Speaker 1: to learn from us. Yet I have no doubt that,
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  Speaker 1: with his instinctive courtesy, he divined the wishes of the
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  Speaker 1: family in regard to the newcomer, and was therefore predisposed
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  Speaker 1: in his favor. This, however, did not save the evidently
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  Speaker 1: much over od youngster from a stern and searching examination,
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  Speaker 1: the most trying part of which seemed to be that long, silent,
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  Speaker 1: hypnotizing contemplation of him, which is Teddy's way of asserting
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  Speaker 1: his dignity. The little dog visibly trembled beneath the great
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  Speaker 1: one's gaze, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and
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  Speaker 1: his eyes wandering helplessly from side to side, and he
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be saying, in his dog way, oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I know you are a very great and important personage,
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  Speaker 1: and I am only a poor little puppy of no importance.
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  Speaker 1: Only please let me go on living and you will
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  Speaker 1: see how well I will behave Teddy seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: satisfied that some recognition and submission had been tendered him
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  Speaker 1: so presently he wagged his tail that had up till
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  Speaker 1: then been rigid as a ramrod, and not only the
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  Speaker 1: little terrier, but all of us breathed again. Yet it
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  Speaker 1: was some time before Teddy would admit him into anything
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  Speaker 1: like what one might call intimacy and premature attempts at game.
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  Speaker 1: Some familiarity were checked by the gathering thunder of a
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  Speaker 1: lazy growl that unmistakably bade the youngster keep his place.
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  Speaker 1: But real friendship eventually grew between the two. On Teddy's
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  Speaker 1: side a sort of big brother affectionate tutelage and guardianship.
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  Speaker 1: And on Puppies, for though we tried many, we never
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  Speaker 1: found any other satisfactory name for him, but puppy a
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  Speaker 1: reverent admiration and watchful worshiping imitation. No great man was
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  Speaker 1: ever more anxiously copied by some slavish flatterer than that old, sleepy,
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  Speaker 1: carelessly great setter by that eager, ambitious little terrier. The
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  Speaker 1: occasions went to bark and went not to bark. For example,
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  Speaker 1: one could actually see Puppy's study the old dog's face
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  Speaker 1: on doubtful occasions of the kind, boiling over as he
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  Speaker 1: visibly was with the desire to bark his soul out,
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  Speaker 1: yet he could be seen unmistakably restraining himself till Teddy,
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  Speaker 1: after some preliminary soliloquising in deep undertones, had made up
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  Speaker 1: his mind that the suspicious chufflling by of probably some
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  Speaker 1: inoffensive Italian workman, demanded investigation, and lumberingly risen to his
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  Speaker 1: feet and made for the door. Then, like a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of firecrackers, Puppy was at his heels, all officious assistants,
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  Speaker 1: and the two would disappear like an old and a
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  Speaker 1: young thunderbolt into the resounding distance. Teddy's friendship had seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be definitely one on an occasion which brought home
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  Speaker 1: to one the quaint resemblance between the codes and ways
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  Speaker 1: of dogs and those of schoolboys. When the winter came
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  Speaker 1: on a rather severe one, it soon became evident that
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  Speaker 1: the little short haired felt suffered considerably from the cold
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  Speaker 1: out on walks, he was visibly shivering, though he made
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  Speaker 1: no fuss about it. So one of the angels in
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  Speaker 1: the house knitted for him a sort of woolen sweater,
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  Speaker 1: buttoned down his neck and under his belly, and trimmed
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  Speaker 1: it with some white fur that gave it an exceedingly
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  Speaker 1: smart appearance. Teddy did not happen to be there when
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  Speaker 1: it was first tried on, and for the moment Puppy
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  Speaker 1: had to be content with our admiration and his own
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  Speaker 1: vast sense of importance. Certainly, a more self satisfied terrier
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  Speaker 1: never was than he, who presently sped out to air
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  Speaker 1: his new finery before an astonished neighborhood. But alas you
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  Speaker 1: should have seen him, a few minutes afterward, we had
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  Speaker 1: had the curiosity to stroll out to see how he
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  Speaker 1: had got on, And presently, in a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: rocky woodland nearby, we came upon a curious scene. In
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  Speaker 1: the midst of a clump of red cedars. Three great
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  Speaker 1: dogs are Teddy, a wicked old black Retriever, and a bustling,
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  Speaker 1: bewigged and befurred Collie stood in a circle round Puppy,
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  Speaker 1: seated on his haunches, trembling with fear, tongue lolling and
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  Speaker 1: eyes wandering for all the world, as though they were
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  Speaker 1: holding a court martial, or at all events, a hazing party.
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  Speaker 1: The offense evidently lay with that dandified new sweater. One
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  Speaker 1: and another of the dogs smelt at it, then tugged
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  Speaker 1: at it in evident disgust, and as each time Puppy
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  Speaker 1: made a move to get away, all girt him round
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  Speaker 1: with guttural thunder of disapproval. As much as to say,
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  Speaker 1: do you call that a thing for a manly dog
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  Speaker 1: to go around in? You ought to be ashamed of yourself,
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  Speaker 1: you miserable dandy, we couldn't help reflecting that it was
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  Speaker 1: all very well for those great, comfortable, long haired dogs
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  Speaker 1: to talk, naturally protected as they were from the cold.
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  Speaker 1: Yet that evidently cut no figure with them, and they
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  Speaker 1: went on sniffing and tugging and growling. So we thought
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  Speaker 1: our poor puppy's eyes and tongue would drop out with fear.
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  Speaker 1: Yet all the time they seemed to be enjoying his plight,
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be smiling grimly together, wicked, old experienced brutes
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  Speaker 1: as they were. Presently, the idea of the thing seemed
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  Speaker 1: to occur to Puppy, or out of his extremity, a
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  Speaker 1: new soul was born within him, For suddenly, in infinite
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  Speaker 1: disgust of his new foppery seemed to take possession of
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  Speaker 1: him too, and regaining his courage, he turned savagely upon it,
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  Speaker 1: ripping it this way and that, and struggling with might
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  Speaker 1: and main to rid himself of the accursed thing. Presently
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  Speaker 1: he stood free, and barks of approval at once went
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  Speaker 1: up from his judges. He had come through his ordeal
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  Speaker 1: and was once more a dog among dogs. Great was
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  Speaker 1: the rejoicing among his friends, and the occasion, having been
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  Speaker 1: duly celebrated by joint destruction and contumely of the offending garment,
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  Speaker 1: Teddy and He returned home, friends for life. It is
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  Speaker 1: to be feared that that friendship, deep and tender as
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  Speaker 1: it grew to be on both sides, perhaps particularly on Teddy's,
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  Speaker 1: was the indirect cause of Puppy's death. I have referred
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  Speaker 1: to Teddy's bark and how he is not wont to
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  Speaker 1: waste it on trivial occasions or without due thought. On
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, he is proud of it and loves
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  Speaker 1: to practice it just for its own sake, particularly on
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  Speaker 1: early mornings, when, however fine a bark it is, most
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  Speaker 1: of our neighbors would rather continue sleeping than wake up
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  Speaker 1: and listen to it. There is no doubt at all
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  Speaker 1: for those who understand him that it is a purely
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  Speaker 1: artistic bark. He means no harm to anyone by it.
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  Speaker 1: When the milkman, his viva enemy, comes at seven, the
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  Speaker 1: bark is quite different. This sparking of Teddy's seems to
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  Speaker 1: be literally at nothing. Around five o'clock on summer mornings,
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  Speaker 1: he plants himself on a knob of rock overlooking the
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  Speaker 1: salt marsh and barks, possibly in honor of the rising sun,
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  Speaker 1: but with no other perceptible purpose. So have I heard
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  Speaker 1: men rise in the dawn to practice the cornet. But
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  Speaker 1: they were men, so they ran no risk of their lives.
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  Speaker 1: Teddy's practicing, however, has now been carried on for several
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  Speaker 1: years in the teeth of no little peril, And had
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  Speaker 1: it not been for much human influence employed on his behalf,
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  Speaker 1: he would long since have antedated his little friend in paradise.
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  Speaker 1: When that little friend, however, came to assist and emulate
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  Speaker 1: him in those morning recitals, adding to his bark an
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  Speaker 1: occasional I'm convinced purely playful bite. I'm inclined to think
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  Speaker 1: that a sentiment grew in the neighborhood that one dog
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  Speaker 1: at a time was enough. At all events, Teddy still
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  Speaker 1: barks at dawn as of old, But our little puppy
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  Speaker 1: barks no more before the final quaietas came to him.
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  Speaker 1: There were several occasions on which the black dog called
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  Speaker 1: Death had almost caught him in his jaws. One there
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  Speaker 1: was in especial he had. I believe no hatred for
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  Speaker 1: any living thing save Italian workmen and automobiles. I have
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  Speaker 1: seen an Italian workman throw his pick axe at him
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  Speaker 1: and then take to his heels in grotesque flight. But
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  Speaker 1: the pick axe missed him, as did many another clumsily
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  Speaker 1: hurled missile in automobile. However, on one occasion came nearer
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  Speaker 1: its mark. Like every other dog that ever barked, particularly terriers,
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  Speaker 1: Puppy delighted to harass the feet of fast trotting horses,
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  Speaker 1: mockingly running ahead of them, barking with affected savagery, and
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  Speaker 1: by a miracle evading their oncoming hoofs, which to him
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  Speaker 1: piny thing as he was, must have seemed like trip
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  Speaker 1: hammers founding down from the sky. But horses understand such gayety,
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  Speaker 1: and terriers they understand that it is only their foolish fun.
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  Speaker 1: Automobiles are different. They have no souls. They see nothing
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  Speaker 1: engaging in having their tires snapped at as they whirl
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  Speaker 1: swiftly by. And one day after Poppy had flung himself
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  Speaker 1: in a fine fury at the tires of one of
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  Speaker 1: those soulless things, he gave a sharp yelp, not cowardly,
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  Speaker 1: and lay a moment on the roadside, But only a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Then he went limping off on his three sound legs,
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  Speaker 1: and hid himself away from all sympathy, in some unknown spot.
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  Speaker 1: It was in vain we called and sought him. Only
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  Speaker 1: after two days was he discovered in the remotest corner
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  Speaker 1: of a rocky cellar, determined apparently to die alone in
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  Speaker 1: an almost inaccessible privacy of wool and coal. Yet, when
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  Speaker 1: at last we persuaded him that life was still sweet,
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  Speaker 1: and carried him upstairs into the great living room, and
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  Speaker 1: the beautiful grandmother, who knows the sorrows of animals, almost
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  Speaker 1: as the old Roman seer knew the languages of beasts
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  Speaker 1: and birds, had taken him in charge, and made a
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  Speaker 1: cozy nest of comforters for him by the fire, and
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  Speaker 1: tempted his languid appetite, to which the very thought of
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  Speaker 1: bones was, of course in offense with warm savory smelling soup. Then, he,
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  Speaker 1: who had certainly been no coward, for his thigh was
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  Speaker 1: a cruel lump of pain which no human being would
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  Speaker 1: have kept so patiently to himself, became suddenly, like many
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  Speaker 1: human invalids, a perfect glutton of self pity. And when
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  Speaker 1: we smoothed and patted him and told him how sorry
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  Speaker 1: we were, it was laughable and almost uncanny, how he
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  Speaker 1: suddenly set up a sort of moaning talk to us,
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  Speaker 1: as much as to say that he certainly had had
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  Speaker 1: a pretty bad time, was really something of a hero,
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  Speaker 1: and deserved all the sympathy we would give him. So
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  Speaker 1: far as one can be sure about anything so mysterious
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  Speaker 1: as animals, I am sure that from then on he
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  Speaker 1: luxuriated in his little hospital by the fireside, and played
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  Speaker 1: upon the feelings of his beautiful nurse and of his
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: various solicitous visitors with all the histrionic skill of the
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  Speaker 1: spoiled and petted convalescent. Suddenly, however, one day, he forgot
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  Speaker 1: his part. He heard some inspiring barking going on near by,
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  Speaker 1: and in a flash his comforters were thrust aside, and
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  Speaker 1: he was off and away to join the fun. Then,
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  Speaker 1: of course we knew that he was well, though he
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  Speaker 1: still went briskly about his various business on three legs.
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  Speaker 1: For several days. His manner was quite different. However, the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon he had so evidently come home to die. There
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  Speaker 1: was no pose about the little forlorn figure, which, after
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  Speaker 1: a mysterious absence of two days, suddenly appeared as we
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  Speaker 1: were taking tea on the Verandah, already the very ghost
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  Speaker 1: of himself. Wearily he sought the cave of the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: grandmother's skirts, where whenever he had had a scolding he
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  Speaker 1: was wont always to take refuge, barking fiercely as from
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  Speaker 1: an inaccessible fortress at his enemies. But this afternoon there
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  Speaker 1: was evidently no bark in him, poor little fellow. Everything
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  Speaker 1: about him said that he had just managed to crawl
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  Speaker 1: home to die. His brisk white coat seemed dank with
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  Speaker 1: cold dews, and there was something shadowy about him, and
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  Speaker 1: she strangely quiet. His eyes, always so alert, were strangely
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  Speaker 1: heavy and indifferent, yet questioning and somehow accusing. He seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be asking us why a little dog should suffer so,
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  Speaker 1: and what was going to happen to him? And what
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  Speaker 1: did it all mean? Alas we could not tell him,
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  Speaker 1: and none of us dared say to each other that
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  Speaker 1: our little comrade in the mystery of life was going
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  Speaker 1: to die. But a silence fell over us all, and
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  Speaker 1: the beautiful grandmother took him into her care, and so
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  Speaker 1: well did her great and wise heart nurse him through
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  Speaker 1: the night. That next morning, it almost seemed as though
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  Speaker 1: we had been wrong, for a flash of his old
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  Speaker 1: spirit was in him again, and though his little legs
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  Speaker 1: shook under him, it was plain that he wanted to
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  Speaker 1: try and be up at his day's work on the verandah,
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  Speaker 1: warning off the passer by, or in the garden, carrying
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  Speaker 1: on his eternal investigation, or farther afield in the councils
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  Speaker 1: and expeditions of his fellows. So we let him have
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  Speaker 1: his way, and for a while he seemed happier and
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  Speaker 1: stronger for the sunshine and the old familiar sense and sounds.
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  Speaker 1: But the one little tired husky bark he gave at
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  Speaker 1: his old enemy, the Italian workman passing by, would have
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  Speaker 1: broken your heart. And the effort he made with a
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  Speaker 1: bone as he visited the well remembered neighborhood of the
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  Speaker 1: ice box for the last time was piteous, beyond telling,
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  Speaker 1: those sharp, strong teeth that once could bite and grind
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: through anything, could do nothing with it. Now to lick
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it sadly with tired lips in a sort of hopeless
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: way was all that was left. And there was really
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: a look in his face as though he accepted this
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: mortal defeat as he lay down, evidently exhausted with his exertions,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: on a bank near by. But once more his spirit
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: seemed to revive, and he scrambled to his legs again
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and wearily crawled to the back of the house where
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the beautiful grandmother loves to sit and look over the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: glittering salt marsh in the summer afternoons. Of course, he
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: knew that she was there. She had been his best
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: friend in this strange world. His last effort was naturally
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: to be near her again. Almost he reached that kind
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: cave of her skirts, only another yard or two, and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: he had been there. But the energy that had seemed
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: irrepressible and everlasting had come to its end, and the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: little body had to give in at last and lie
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: down wearily once more, with no life left but the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: love in its fading eyes. There are some I suppose
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: who may wonder how one can write about the death
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of a mere dog like this, and cannot understand how
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the death of a little terrier can make the world
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: seem a lonelier place. But there are others I know
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: who will scarce need telling, Men and women with little
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: ghosts of their own haunting their moonlight gardens, strange appealing,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: faithful companions, kind, little friendly beings that journeyed with them
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: awhile the pilgrimage of the soul. I often wonder if
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Teddy misses his little busy playfellow and disciple as we do,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: if perhaps as he barks over the marsh of a morning,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he is sending him a message. He goes about the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: place with nonchalant greatness as of old, and the Maltese
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: cats still rub their sinuous, smoke gray bodies to and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: fro beneath his jaws. At evening there is no sign
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: of sorrow upon him. But he is old and very wise,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: and keeps strange knowledge to himself. So who can say?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: End of section sixteen. End of Best Dog Stories by
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: various authors.