A VISIT TO JACK
“Freya won’t mind it a bit, sir,” William was saying. “She’s the sort
that loves a bit of fuss and excitement. She’ll show well, she will,
sir.”
William always thought whatever Freya did was all right. I made up my
mind to show them that I could behave just as well as she could, and so
I went back to the carriage room.
“Well, let me see how they act,” said the Master.
So William snapped the leash on my collar and walked me slowly around
in a circle several times. Then he stopped and I stopped and stood
quite still. Then he led me to the box and said “Up, boy!” and I jumped
up on the box and stood there very straight, with my head up and my
body stretched as long as I could stretch it. Then William took hold
of my tail and lifted my back legs up by it, and felt me all over and
opened my mouth and looked at my teeth and went through with all the
things he always did when I was on the box. And finally he said “All
right, boy!” and I jumped down and looked at the Master and wagged my
tail. I could see at once that he was very pleased.
“Why, there’s nothing wrong with him, William!” said the Master. “I
never saw a dog have any better ring manners than that.”
William scratched his head and shook it and looked at me in a puzzled
way. “Well, sir,” he said at last, “I never knew him to do it like that
before. Seems as if he was sort of showing off, don’t it, sir?”
“Why, yes,” laughed the Master, “and that’s what we want him to do!”
Then Freya went through with it and didn’t do as well as I had because
she kept wiggling all the time, wanting the Master to speak to her and
pet her. Girl-dogs are silly that way. There’s a time for everything,
but they don’t understand it. They always want to play when it’s time
to work, which is quite wrong. Well, the Master was much pleased with
both of us and said that we’d surely be shown at the Oak Cliff Show
next month, and that he’d send in the entries at once. I ran off to
tell Mother about it and she was pleased too.
“You must be a very good dog,” she said, “and do just as William tells
you to. And when you get to the show you must mind your own affairs and
pay no attention to other dogs or to people. I don’t think your father
or I will be there, so you must look after yourself and Freya.”
I was sorry Father and Mother were not going, but I was quite excited
at the thought of Freya and I going alone, and I hunted up Freya to
tell her. When I found her she was looking very sad and I asked her
what the matter was.
“I have a pimple,” she whined. “William just found it. He says if I
don’t get rid of it before the show I won’t get a prize.”
And she absolutely began to cry! Aren’t girl-dogs funny? I looked at
the pimple and it was so small I couldn’t see it at first. It wasn’t
worth bothering about. I’d had them five times as large as hers. Why,
the time I ate the crow that I found in the truck garden I had dozens
of great huge ones! And William put some smelly stuff on them and
gave me a dose of nasty medicine and they went right away again. So I
laughed at Freya and she stopped crying, and after William had rubbed
something on the pimple I told her what Mother had said. I thought she
would be quite pleased about it, but she wasn’t. You never can tell
what a girl-dog will do!
“Oh,” said Freya, “I should be frightened to death to go away without
Father and Mother! I just couldn’t do it!”
“Well,” I said, “you’ll just have to. Besides, William will be there
and maybe the Master, too.”
“But it isn’t the same as having your own parents,” said Freya, looking
teary again. “Suppose――suppose anything happened to us!”
“What could happen?” I asked. “Besides, _I’m_ going to be there!”
That ought to have satisfied her, I thought, but it didn’t, and she
went running off to tell Mother how frightened she was. That was too
much for me and I trotted over to call on Jack and tell him the news.
I found him in the back yard eating a fine big veal bone. “Hello,
Fritz,” he said, pushing the bone to me. “Want to chew on that? It
isn’t half bad. I’m afraid I’ve eaten the best of it, though.”
It was very nice and sweet, that bone, and I settled down to enjoy it,
and between crunches I told him about Freya and I going alone to the
dog show. He didn’t seem to think it was so grand, though. He kind of
turned up his lip at it.
“The Oak Cliff Show?” he said. “Oh, that’s just a small affair, a
one-day show, managed by the women folks. It’s pretty good fun, of
course, but even if you do bring back some ribbons they don’t amount to
much.”
I guess he saw that I was disappointed, because he went on: “Not that
it isn’t worth while, of course. I used to go to it when I was a little
fellow. You’ll like it and I dare say Freya will get a ‘blue.’ You too,
maybe. A ‘red,’ anyhow. I have five or six ‘blues’ that I got there.”
He yawned. “When is it to be?”
“Some time in June,” I said.
“Of course; it always is in June. I meant what day?”
I couldn’t tell him that, though.
“Well, you’ll have a good time. Don’t let folks handle you too much,
Fritz. It upsets you and you don’t do so well in the ring. And don’t
pay any attention to the judges. Act as if you didn’t see them. When I
was a puppy I was too friendly and bit one of the judges on the nose
when he was bending over me. I just did it in play, but I guess I bit
too hard, because he made a great to-do about it and sent me right out
of the ring and I didn’t even get a mention.”
“I suppose,” I said, “a great many dogs go to it?”
“Oh, about a hundred, I think. You’ll meet all kinds. Don’t have much
to do with them. Some of them are no-account dogs. It takes all sorts
of dogs to make a world, you know.”
“A hundred!” I said. “My, but that’s a lot of dogs, isn’t it? I didn’t
know there were so many in the world, Jack!”
Jack laughed. “A hundred’s nothing,” he said. “In the New York show
I’ve seen nearly five hundred! That’s a show that is a show, Fritz!
Maybe if you do pretty well at Oak Cliff the Master will send you there
next winter.”
“I wish he would,” I answered. “It must be fine.”
Jack yawned again. “It’s rather good fun until you get used to it,” he
said. “Going? Well, come again. I’ll drop over and see you before the
show.”
So I thanked him for the loan of his bone and trotted home.