“We can’t stand it much longer.”
“That is so. We are pretty thin now.”
“I should say so. Look at my sides. You can see my ribs so plainly
anybody would suppose I had buried all my old bones there, instead of in
the ground.”
“I don’t suppose master means to starve us.”
“Probably not. But that thought does not fill the hole in my stomach.
We’ve not had a square meal for three days.”
As Zip and Jerry were talking, the master came in to prepare his meal.
He lived alone with his two dogs. He was a good master, but was inclined
to be stingy, and was growing worse. Zip and Jerry lay close together to
sympathize.
They watched the master put the bread and meat on the table. They saw
him begin to eat. They could hardly stand it, they had such queer
feelings about their ribs.
The master left the room a minute. Zip and Jerry looked into each
other’s eyes, as much as to say, “We’ll have to do it.” They arose,
walked to the table, and tried to help themselves. They did not get many
mouthfuls, for the tablecloth slipped, and everything else came down
with a crash and a crack. The master hurried back, and in great rage
stamped his feet and clinched his fists.
Zip was so frightened he turned to run, but Jerry, with his tail between
his legs, stood his ground. He raised his head and barked.
“What are you about you rascals?”
“Bow-wow!”
“Don’t you know any better than to do such a thing?”
“Bow-wow, bow-wow!”
“Crack my plates and make such a mess!”
“Bow-wow-wow, bow-wow-wow.”
“What do you mean by barking?”
Jerry whined and tried to wag his fallen tail. He tried to explain as
well as he could in dog language. He wished to say, “You wouldn’t give
us enough to eat, and we were so hungry we had to help ourselves.”
The master sat down to think. His dogs had never done such a thing
before. Perhaps they were hungry. He remembered that he hadn’t over-fed
them for some time, and that very day they had asked for food and he had
forgotten to give it. Although he was still pretty angry about his
broken dishes, he felt a little ashamed of himself. After that day, he
gave his dogs better food, and enough of it.