READY A PRISONER
Of course if Ready had been a dog of the world, he might have found
ways to escape. He might have snapped at people or howled all night.
Then the father of the family would surely have let him out, for
fathers hate to be disturbed at night.
But Ready had always been taught that snapping and growling are very
wicked; so he only moaned a little and shed a few dog tears when no one
was looking. You see it is a disgrace to a dog’s doghood to be found in
tears.
Of course he was not the least bit hungry. How could any dog be hungry
shut up all day in a stuffy old room? And then nothing takes away a
dog’s appetite so quickly as sad thoughts.
[Illustration: Shed a few dog tears when no one was looking]
At first he did not eat anything, and then he began to have a very
queer feeling in his legs. They were such wobbly and uncertain legs
that they frightened Ready. He remembered going once to a dog lecture
where the speaker had said:
“Fellow dogs, beware of unreliable legs! There is nothing left in life
for a dog if his legs go back on him.”
Ready remembered that this great dog doctor had given him a number of
prescriptions. This was one of them:
FOR RAPID RUNNING LEGS
Eat carefully, exercise regularly, and don’t ever be cast down.
When Ready thought of these words, he began to eat a little each day
and to run around the room for exercise after each meal. Then he tried
very hard to cast out his sad thoughts. He would put himself to sleep
saying over and over, “I think to-morrow I will get out. To-morrow I am
going to be free.”
Whenever the young lady talked to him, Ready tried in all kinds of
ways to tell her that he must get to his little master as soon as
possible.
First he would lie down at her feet and look up beseechingly in her
eyes. After that he would run to the door, wagging his tail all the
time. Then he would come back and beg. _Oh, how hard he would beg her
to let him go!_
[Illustration: “Please let me go back to my little master”]
But she never once understood him--never once noticed he was saying,
“Oh, dear young lady, please let me go back to my little master. He is
very ill and needs me. Don’t you see that I belong to him? I will do
anything in the world for you that an honorable little dog can do, if
you will _only let me go_.”
Perhaps the saddest of all his prison days was the time he really
thought she was going to release him. He had wagged his tail especially
hard that morning at the door. She had put on her hat saying, “Come on,
then.”
Oh, how happy he was and how hard he tried to thank her! Then came the
dreadful minute when she _fastened a silver chain to his collar_.
At first he broke down completely and moaned and moaned. Then he
thought: “Perhaps if I walk by her side very nicely it will soften
her heart; and then there is always a chance when out in the great
beautiful open world.”
So he walked quite contentedly by her side and waited patiently while
she stopped to chat with some other young ladies. But when she said
boastingly, “Do you see my beautiful new dog?” he simply could not
stand it. Do you know what he did? He growled, and his growl had a bit
of a snap in it, too. This made the young lady very cross, and she
decided to take Ready home at once.
When they reached the door, Ready’s eyes would have melted a heart of
stone. He knelt to her, he moaned to her, he begged so prettily on his
hind legs, but the young lady would have none of it. She pushed him
rudely into the dark room and slammed the door.
I think that was the saddest moment of Ready’s prison life. But in
spite of everything, Ready never once gave up the hope of getting his
chance to escape, and that is why it came.
[Illustration: The saddest moment of Ready’s prison life]