THE STRAY DOG
Miss Smithson had had years of experience with children. She knew their
sensitiveness, their capacity for suffering through those incidents
which adults term trifles.
She had questioned Suzanna with much adroit delicacy concerning the
shoes, and had elicited the story of the father's purchase. Though she
read correctly the child's real shrinking from the thought of being the
cynosure of many amused eyes, she felt herself helpless.
That one odd pair of shoes in the company of participating children! In
imagination Miss Smithson visualized the unsuccessful efforts of their
owner to hide them, to find her place in the background. The
kind-hearted teacher really suffered in her anticipation of Suzanna's
pain.
So when the great night arrived and the music sounded the approach of
the Indian maidens, Miss Smithson, sitting in the front row beside
Suzanna's parents, kept her eyes steadfastly lowered. At length, not
hearing the expected titters from children in the audience, she found
her courage and looked up. Her eyes were immediately drawn to Suzanna's
face and rested there.
For pictured there in place of depression, self-pity, troubling
self-consciousness, she found sparkle and joy. Miss Smithson gasped in
astonishment and relief. With perfect abandon Suzanna moved through the
dance; she seemed as one quite set apart from her companions; and so she
was.
All that Drusilla had told her lived with her, inspiring her, lifting
her beyond mere mortals. She might have been frolicing upon a cloud in
her little bare feet, so far away from her consciousness was the thought
of the shoes.
The dance ended, and with flushed cheeks and heart beating happily,
Suzanna took her seat. The applause lasted a long time.
Then came a recitation and a piano solo given by a greatly embarrassed
boy, though certainly a greatly talented one. Suzanna recognizing his
anguish felt very sorry for him. She wished he had had a Drusilla to
advise him, to make him see that he was for the time greater than his
audience. That he had music in his soul. She understood now that the
greatest gift was to forget yourself and love your art so much that it
reigned supreme.
Then looking out at the people seated before her, she recognized that
they were _kind_. That they had come not to criticize, but to enjoy and
to acclaim. She felt growing within her heart a great love for all
humanity.
Her eyes sought out her father's. Just in front he sat, looking up at
her, his eyes filled with pride. She had made him happy. Her heart was
very full.
Her eyes after a time went again over the audience. And behind her
father sat a boy, the one she had seen at Drusilla's. His eyes seemed to
be searching her face. She smiled at him and he smiled in return.
The evening was over. Suzanna was down in the audience. "Did you like
the dance, daddy?" she asked.
"It was beautiful," he answered with gratifying response. "I was very
proud of my little girl--and the shoes--I was so glad you could have
them--they were the prettiest in the drill."
"I think they were, too," Suzanna answered, with real truth.
Out in the street she saw the boy. He was standing near the gate of the
school yard, by his side a tall, dark young man.
"How do you do?" said Suzanna.
He snatched his hat from his head. "Oh, I liked your dance," he said.
"This is my tutor," he finished.
"How do you do," said Suzanna politely to the young man. She wondered
what a tutor was. Then to the boy: "Drusilla's your grandmother, isn't
she?"
"Yes; do you live in this town?"
"Yes, right down that road. Your big house was closed for three years,
wasn't it--since I was a little girl of five. That's why we haven't seen
one another, I suppose." Then: "How did you think of coming to the
Indian Drill?"
"Why, one of the school trustees had to see my father on business and he
spoke about the entertainment. I thought I'd like to see it."
"Well, I'm glad you came. Good-bye."
A carriage drew up. The boy and his companion stepped into it and were
driven off.
"That's young Graham Woods Bartlett," said Mrs. Procter as they started
home. "They live in the big house on the top of the hill. This is the
first time it's been open for some years."
"And Drusilla's his grandmother," said Suzanna. "He's an awful nice
boy."
"His father and old John Massey are business associates," put in Mr.
Procter.
"Such a fine big house to be occupied only a few months of the year, and
then not every year," put in Mrs. Procter. "And they rarely stay so late
in the season as they're staying this year--way into October."
"I'll take Maizie and Peter and go and see him tomorrow," said Suzanna.
"Oh, Suzanna, I don't believe--" began Mrs. Procter. Then sensing
immediately that her small daughter would be totally unable to
understand social distinctions, she did not finish her sentence.
So it was that the next afternoon right after school, Suzanna, who never
lost time in carrying out a resolve, prepared for her visit.
"I wonder where Peter is?" Mrs. Procter asked.
As if in answer to his mother's question, Peter opened the kitchen door.
He wore primarily a guilty expression. His hat was on one side of his
head, the suit which two seasons before he had outgrown, was short in
the legs, tight as to chest, and there was a very symphony of entreaty
in his eyes. By a frayed string he held a stray dog, the fourth one
since spring.
Mrs. Procter looked at him sternly. As mothers do, she took in with one
glance Peter's prayerful attitude and the appealing one of the
shrinking animal.
"You take that dog right away and lose it!" she commanded.
"Oh, mother," began the small boy entering the kitchen, the dog perforce
entering also. "He followed me all the way home and we're awful good
friends already. Can't he stay?"
"Not one minute," returned Mrs. Procter. She regarded the animal
scornfully. "He's not anybody's dog," she said. "He's simply a stray,
and I'm tired of feeding every stray dog that comes into the
neighborhood."
Peter turned reluctantly away. "He'll be awful lonely out there," he
said, "and he's hungry, too. No lady ever thinks a dog eats. Can't I
give him a bone or something before I turn him loose?"
"Take him out on the back porch and give him that soup bone left from
supper last night. And then I don't want to see him again. Now, Peter,
this time I mean it."
Peter made one last effort. "He's a fine breed, his roof is black," he
said. "He'd make an awful good watch dog."
"Well, we really don't need a watch dog," his mother answered, and half
smiled.
Maizie, advancing from the dining-room, stared at the intruder on his
way out.
"Oh, but this dog has hair, mother," she cried. "You remember one of the
others hadn't."
"Hair, or no hair," Mrs. Procter returned determinedly, "that dog is not
going to stay in this house. I've had enough of stray animals to last me
for quite awhile."
Peter stood holding the rope and still looking at his mother. But his
hopeful expression, brought on by Maizie's words, was fast ebbing.
"Hurry up," said Mrs. Procter. "Take him away."
"Can't he stay for one night, mother?"
Suzanna, silent during the colloquy, now spoke.
"Maybe we can find another home for him, Peter. We were just going over
to Graham Bartlett's, and perhaps he'd keep the dog. We'll ask his
mother," she said.
Peter brightened a trifle at that. He really wanted more than anything
in the world to keep that friendly dog. But if he was not to be allowed
to do so, finding a good home for it was the next best thing.
So away the children started. It was a long walk, but the October day
was cool and exhilarating. The children kicked the fallen leaves before
them, and once Peter gave chase to his dog. Maizie sang little tunes,
and Suzanna felt new wonderments rising within her at the beauty of the
world.
They came at last to the Bartlett home, but no one was about, only
several carriages stood in the road. Suzanna swung the big gate wide and
with the children following her, and the dog held in Peter's firm grasp,
she came to the house, mounted the steps and seeing the carved front
door wide open, they all walked in. In the empty hall with the high
ceilings they stood a moment embarrassed.
From a side room came sounds of laughter and soft voices. Suzanna
turned. Heavy Persian rugs hung at the entrance to this room and Suzanna
hesitated one moment. She wished someone were about to direct her. But
alas, at this critical moment the hallman had escaped kitchenward. It
was Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett's at-home day, and the function in full
blast, and as his services might not be required for perhaps half an
hour he had flown, believing discovery could not fall upon him.
So Suzanna, Maizie, Peter and the dog stepped within the gorgeous room.
Soft music came enchantingly from a hidden orchestra, ladies
beautifully gowned and bejeweled stood about in graceful postures. Mrs.
Graham Woods Bartlett attired in a flame-colored velvet gown with a
wonderful satin-lined train hanging straight from her shoulders, stood
near a table at which two very pretty girls were serving little cups of
tea and dainty cakes.
Suzanna, Maizie, and Peter holding tight the frayed rope with the
hungry-looking dog on one end, gazed awe stricken at the fairylike
scene. At length Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett turned and beheld her late
guests.
The children stood irresolute; some expression in Mrs. Bartlett's face
halted their advance. That look made Suzanna strangely self-conscious.
Maizie was undeniably shy, and Peter with dread at his heart for fear
Jerry (a quickly bestowed name that the dog had learned immediately to
answer to) might not act in a gentlemanly fashion when he should pass
the tea table. With all these different emotions in their hearts, the
children finally started across the beautiful room. The ladies fell back
from the dog lest in his passage he might touch their gowns, and all
gazed in wonder at the small cavalcade. When at last the children stood
before Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett, Suzanna spoke, broke into the dead
silence of the room, for even the orchestra had stopped its music.
[Illustration: "We thought you might like a dog," began Suzanna]
"We thought you might like a dog," began Suzanna. "He's a very nice dog
and very loving, although if I'm to be honest, I can't say he's a
good-looking dog." She felt her courage ebbing at the icy stillness
which greeted her statement.
For a long time Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett remained speechless, and as
the dog once had looked at Mrs. Procter, so he looked imploringly at her
who might eventually be his new mistress. Little Maizie, moved to a show
of bravery for Peter's sake, spoke up:
"We've only got a little house, and you've got a big one, so we thought
you wouldn't mind."
"And," concluded Peter, "he really is a fine dog. You can buy a nice
collar for him and maybe cut his tail--" Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett made
a little wry face--"and you'd be surprised to see how elegant he'll
look."
A laugh rang out from one end of the room. It came from a fine-looking
old lady who stood near the window surrounded, it would seem by admiring
satellites, and at the little musical sound Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett's
face cleared magically, for the stately old lady was a very important
personage to all present, envied usually too, and if this little
incident seemed to amuse her then the matter was beautifully altered. So
Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett found her voice. "Go out into the grounds and
see the gardener. If he can find a place for the animal, let him keep
it."
The children felt themselves dismissed. On the way out Suzanna kept her
gaze quite away from the table with its alluring load of dainties. But
Maizie paused an infinitesimal fraction of a second and let her eyes
stray over the fascinating cakes, the glasses of pink ices, and the
Maraschino cherries and nuts and white candies. But it was Peter who
neither looked aside nor paused, but as he went by the table he
addressed the ceiling.
"My dog's very fond of cakes," he said. "But mother says dogs can do
without cakes, especially stray dogs."
One of the pretty girls laughed merrily, and sweeping from a silver
plate a handful of cakes she thrust them into Peter's hands. "Thank
you," he said simply. And then the children left with the dog gamboling
in expectancy behind his small master. He knew well the cakes were for
him.
Out in the grounds they met Graham. He had been to the stables to look
at his pony, a new gift from his father. He paused astonished at sight
of the children.
"Oh, Graham," Suzanna cried at sight of him, "your mother said we should
see the gardener about this dog. She thought he'd like to have him."
Graham, though startled, asked no questions.
"I guess it's David mother means," he said. "Wait here and I'll see if
he's in the back garden."
After Graham had gone Peter began to conjecture. "If David won't take
Jerry," he said, "what'll we do?"
"You'll have to take him out and lose him then," said Maizie calmly.
Peter turned a considering eye upon her. He couldn't understand her.
Quite as a matter of course she suggested his taking the dog out on some
prairie and turning it loose, to know hunger, and perhaps abuse. And
yet, he had seen this same tender-hearted little Maizie crying because a
spider had been swept down from the porch. No, in his boyish soul he
decided that should he live a thousand years, he never would understand
women with their inconsistencies and their peculiar viewpoints. Their
tendernesses in one direction and their complacent cruelties in others.
"Let's go and sit on the steps of that cottage," said Suzanna, pointing
to a small house at the foot of the side garden. Maizie consented, but
Peter preferred not to move. He wished to stay with his dog as long as
possible. In the cottage might be a lady who would look with the same
horror-stricken eyes upon his friend as had Mrs. Graham Woods Bartlett.
So Suzanna and Maizie left him with his dog. They had just ensconced
themselves comfortably on the steps of the cottage when a distressing
accent struck upon their ears, and simultaneously they turned in the
direction of the sound. There on a tiny verandah, almost hidden behind a
large fern growth, a little girl sat on a low chair crying softly and
pathetically as though her small heart were broken. The children stood
for a moment not knowing just what to do. Then Maizie, the same one,
thought Peter satirically (he could see all that went on from his place
beyond) who had suggested his losing his dog on a prairie, went to the
pathetic figure and sitting beside it said in a tremulous low voice,
full of sympathy and pity:
"What's the matter, little girl?"
The one thus addressed took her hands down from her face and looked
around at her questioner. Her eyes were dark, with black lashes, and she
had wonderful, curly hair. When she had finished looking at Maizie,
which was a long moment, she put her hand behind her and produced a
doll, sadly deficient as to features. Indeed, noseless, entirely, and
with one eye gone. But in a very fever of love, she held it to her.
"Are you crying because your doll is broken?" asked Suzanna, now coming
a little closer and standing straight and slim before the child.
"No, she's not broken," said the little girl, "but she's got the
whooping cough and she keeps my father awake nights coughing."
Suzanna instantly responded. "Oh, that's too bad," she said. "Can't your
mother fix her some flaxseed tea?"
Now down once more went the little girl's head upon her knee, and once
more she was shaking with sobs. And at this moment young Graham returned
and in his wake, David.
"David says," began Graham cheerfully to Suzanna and Maizie, "that he
can find room for an extra dog, so you may leave yours. Where's your
brother?"
"He is right over there," pointed Maizie.
Then the gardener's glance fell upon the little girl, with her head bent
as she still wept.
"She's crying awfully hard," said Suzanna to the gardener. "Do you know
whose little girl she is?"
"She's mine," said the man with a big world of tenderness in his voice.
"She's my little Daphne."
"We thought she was crying because her doll was broken," said Suzanna.
"Then she said it had the whooping cough and kept you awake all night
and I asked her why her mother didn't make some flaxseed tea for it."
A swift shadow darkened David's fine face and he shaded his eyes with
his hand. Then he went to the little girl and raised her as though she
were one of his carefully cherished flowers. Her sobs ceased as she
found herself in her father's arms.
"You see," said her father, "she has no mother!"
Now the children knew by his tone and by the extreme sadness in his eyes
that the little Daphne's mother had gone away never to return. And they
knew it must be the saddest thing in the world to be without a mother;
one who was always ready to understand even if you had to wait till the
baby was hushed, or the bread looked at in the oven. The understanding
did come, sure and tender; a mother who sometimes smiled at you in that
complete, deep way, as Suzanna's mother had smiled at her the day she
wore her leghorn hat with the daisies.
"Can Daphne play with us?" asked Suzanna after awhile. "And can we take
her home to see our mother?"
The man's face brightened at this. "Why, that will be fine," he said.
"Perhaps you'd like to play here in the grounds for awhile. Then Daphne
can go home with you. You're the Procter children, aren't you? I've
talked often with your father when I've bought things in the hardware
shop. I'm coming sometime to see his machine."
"Yes," said Suzanna, "but how did you know we were the Procter children?
We didn't tell you our name. Did Graham?"
"No," said the man, "but you're the living image of your father. You
look at a person just like he does, out of your big dark eyes."
Suzanna flushed. There was nothing in all the world she so loved to hear
as that she looked like her father.
Little Daphne had ceased crying and her father carried her up the narrow
winding stairs to their own quarters. Shortly he returned again. The
little girl now wore a pretty lace-trimmed bonnet mother-made, one knew
at once, and a little white cape. She was a very charming and quaint
figure.
"I think, daddy," she said, "I'd like to go home right away and see the
little girl's mother."
He turned his head away again for a moment, but he managed at last to
meet his little daughter's eyes with a smile.
"Run along, sweet," he said.
"Can she stay to supper with us?" asked Suzanna.
"If your mother would like to have her," said the man. "And I'll come up
later for her."
"All right," replied Suzanna.
Now came the hard moment for Peter, in the parting from his dog. He came
reluctantly forward.
Graham, seeing Peter's distress when the animal had been delivered into
David's care, said: "You can come up here often, Peter, and see the dog.
I know it's awful hard giving him up."
Peter's heart was touched. Here at last was one who understood! Here at
last was one who would not condemn a dog merely because he had an
unnaturally big appetite; because he got around under people's feet and
had no manners.
"You're a very nice boy," said Suzanna when they were parting, "and we
wish you would come to see us."
Graham's face lit. "Oh, I will come. Do you live in that little cottage
with the crooked chimney?"
"Yes," said Suzanna. "Come soon, won't you?"
Graham promised he would do so.
As the Procter children went down the road, Graham watched them, but his
gaze presently concentrated itself on Suzanna, who was leading the small
Daphne.
"I like Suzanna," thought Graham. "I like to see her flush up like a
rose when she speaks." Which was a poetical observation for a boy of
twelve.