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Woozy opened his eyes for the first time and looked up. There was a
little boy, and in his hand was a saucer in which was some white stuff.
The boy smiled at him. Woozy was interested in the white stuff; it
looked good. He licked some with his tongue. It tasted good but it was
very cold. Woozy licked it again but pretty soon his tongue got so cold
he would have to stop licking for awhile. But he went on licking and
after awhile it was all gone and the dish was licked clean. Then he
looked up at the boy and said: “Woof!” But it was a very small woof, for
Woozy was a very small, round, roly poly puppy. He said woof, three or
four times but the boy only smiled for he had no more of the white
stuff. He would have given more to Woozy if he had had it but he could
not give more if he did not have it.
Pretty soon the door opened and a monstrous big dog came in. She went
over and tried to lick the boy’s face. Then she laid down beside him.
Then the boy took a ball of cord and rolled it into a corner and Woozy
trotted after it. He grabbed it and worried it, and growled—frightfully.
Pretty soon his mother went over to him, took him by the back of the
neck and carried him over to the boy and laid him down, as much as to
say:
“I think he is naughty, and you had better make him behave.” But the boy
just smiled and stroked the dogs with his hand. First he would stroke
the mother and then he would stroke Woozy. The mother would lick his
hand but Woozy pinched it with his sharp little teeth.
Woozy and the boy grew up together. They both got bigger every day until
the boy was nearly as big as his father and Woozy nearly as big as his
mother. Woozy thought the boy was perfect. He followed him everywhere.
If you saw the boy anywhere you might know that Woozy was around, and if
you saw Woozy you might know that the boy was not far off.
Sometimes they took long walks together in the woods. Woozy would run
off among the trees but pretty soon he would come back to the boy and
look up in his face and say: “woof,” which meant why don’t you come
along and have some fun? Once robbers tried to steal the boy, but Woozy
growled and showed his teeth until the robbers ran away.
One day the boy was crossing a pasture field. There was a cross bull
there lying down behind some bushes. When he saw the boy he began pawing
the dirt and then he ran after him. Woozy grabbed the bull’s tail and
held on till the bull turned around. Then he fell off and rolled over
and over. The bull ran after him and stuck one horn through his poor
body. The boy had climbed over the fence and he screamed and cried with
all his might. Then the bull threw up his head and poor Woozy’s dead
body flew over the fence. Oh, how mad the boy was and how he cried! His
mamma said, “Never mind dear, Woozy was willing to give his life for
you.” But the boy was lonely, and he cried as hard as he could cry when
they buried Woozy in the garden.
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