AT THE DOG SHOW
We started out, William and Freya and I, very early one morning for the
dog show. I think it was a Saturday. Anyhow, I remember that we had
liver for breakfast the next day, and we usually had liver on Sundays.
Freya and I were put in the dog crate and the crate was put in the
little wagon and William drove. The Master, the Mistress and the Baby
went in the carriage. Father and Mother were left at home. Father made
quite a fuss about it and climbed into the wagon twice and had to be
put out, but Mother just told us to be good children and not get into
trouble and went back and laid down in the stable doorway.
Freya was so excited that she couldn’t keep still. I was excited, too,
but I didn’t show it. I just laid down on the bottom of the crate and
peeked out between the slats and tried to see the world. It was hard
work, though, because the slats were very close together and the wagon
bumped a good deal. After a while the wagon slowed down and we heard a
lot of barking and knew that we were almost there. When William lifted
the crate down and opened it the Master looked in and said “Hello, you
rascals! Have a good trip?” Freya and I licked his hand and he put
chains on our collars and we jumped out.
[Illustration: At the dog show]
I was a little frightened at first. Never had I seen so many people
or heard so many dogs. And as for carriages and automobiles, why, I
suppose there must have been hundreds! Folks were walking around over
the grass and dogs were being taken out of hampers and crates and it
was a strange and wonderful scene. In front of us was a monstrous big
tent, oh, quite the largest tent you can possibly imagine! And from the
tent came such a barking and yelping as I’d never heard. Freya tugged
at her chain and seemed very anxious to get to it, but I held back and
sort of wished myself back home. But just then the Mistress and the
Baby came up with some other folks, and the Baby put her arms around my
neck and said I was her “booful dogums” and I felt braver. So we all
went into the tent.
It was full of platforms, or “benches” as they called them, which were
open in front and closed at back and divided into little pens by wire
screens. William led us to one of the pens and as we went all the dogs
who saw us barked and yelped and said things to us and made a frightful
noise. We jumped up on the bench and William tied our chains to rings
in the back of the pen. There were two pieces of paper with numbers on
them tacked there, and the Master tied tags to our collars, and the
tags had the same numbers that were on the back of the pen. Mine was 86
and Freya’s was 87. William brought a big armful of nice clean straw
and put it on the bottom of the pen and I got as far away into a corner
as I could and laid down and shivered a little. But Freya jumped and
tugged at her chain and barked and went on very rudely. William took a
piece of cloth and rubbed us hard with it and then he brought us some
water.
While I was lying in the corner a dog in the next pen tried to put his
nose through the grating and I turned around quickly and nipped it. It
didn’t hurt him much, I guess, but he made an awful fuss about it and a
lady who was sitting on the edge of his pen scolded me and said I was a
horrid dog and that if I did that again she’d have me taken away. She
took that other dog in her arms and petted him and gave him something
to eat out of a little bag, and the dog whined and sniffled and acted
terribly silly. I made up my mind that if he put his nose into our pen
again I’d give him another nip. And just then he saw me looking over at
him and he winked at me, and I knew that he had been making all that
fuss so his Mistress would give him something out of the little bag!
I asked him later on what it was she gave him and he said it was raw
meat. He said I didn’t hurt him much but he wanted the meat. He was the
same kind of a dog as I, only he was all brown and very fat. We got to
be very good friends later. His name was Sigismund. He told me that his
Mistress took him to all the shows but he never got a prize but once
and then there were only two other dachshunds there. He said he didn’t
mind not getting prizes, but that his Mistress always felt very badly
about it and was quite cross to the judges.
“She thinks I’m a very fine dog,” he said, “but I’m not, you know. You
can see yourself that I’m too short in the body and too high at the
back. Besides, my teeth are bad. That comes from too much meat. It’s
all rather tiresome, this sort of thing, but she likes it and I put up
with it. Who is the dog with you?”
I told him she was my sister and he said she was very pretty and he
guessed she’d get a blue ribbon. All this was later in the day, though,
after I’d got sort of used to the noise and all the people. They kept
walking around and walking around until it made my head spin to see
them. I did wish they’d sit down somewhere or go away. They’d stop in
front of us and say the rudest things! Why, one lady looked at us and
said “Did you ever see such funny things, Tom? The idea of any one
thinking them nice!” Freya let folks pat her but I didn’t. I growled.
Across the aisle from us were a lot of big, long-haired dogs with
pointed noses. I heard William say they were collies. They did nothing
but bark all the time. They were the most excited dogs I ever saw.
Further along were some fox terriers, and besides those there were all
kinds of other dogs whose names I didn’t know.
All the time dogs were going by on chains, and Sigismund said they were
going to the judging pen. I couldn’t see the judging pen but I could
hear people clapping their hands, and every little while a dog would
pass us with a blue or a red or a yellow ribbon on his collar which
the judges had given him. And if it was a blue ribbon he would look
very, very proud, and if it was another coloured ribbon he looked just
a little bit proud. I asked Sigismund if it was very hard being judged
and he said it wasn’t and that he usually took a nap while it was going
on.
It got very warm in the tent after a while and William gave us some
fresh water and a piece of biscuit, which was all we had for dinner.
Pretty soon after that a man in overalls went around saying: “Class
49, Dachshunds! All entries to the judging pen!” Then William made us
jump down and he and the Master led us to where there was a square
pen fenced off with boards. All around it on the outside were people
looking over the top of the fence. Inside there were many dachshunds
when we got there and more followed us through the gate. Sigismund was
there, too, with his mistress. He winked at me and then closed his eyes
and looked exactly as if he was going to sleep!
Presently we all began to walk around in a circle at the end of our
chains while two men stood in the centre of the pen and watched us.
Then we stopped walking and the two men came and looked us all over,
and one by one we stood on a little platform in the centre and the two
judges felt of us and pulled us and looked into our mouths and made
me very nervous. But when my time came I remembered what William had
taught me and what Mother had said and stood very quiet and held my
head up and stretched my legs out. It really wasn’t bad at all because
the man who judged me was very gentle and I didn’t mind what he did.
After me three other dogs went on the box and were judged. And then the
two judges talked together a minute and went over to a little table in
one corner and picked up some ribbons and came back. I wondered whether
they would give one of them to William, and they did, but it was a red
ribbon and William didn’t look very pleased even if he did say “Thank
you” quite nicely. A very handsome dog named Champion Hillside Carl got
the blue ribbon, which was the first prize. I was sorry I had got only
the second prize because William looked so disappointed.
Then it was Freya’s turn to try and she and five other girl-dogs were
put on the box one after the other, and Freya looked so pretty that the
people watching over the fence clapped their hands. That pleased Freya
and she wagged her tail and smiled at the judge and he patted her head.
And when it was all over the judge walked right up to the Master and
gave him the blue ribbon, and every one clapped some more and all the
dogs barked. William didn’t feel so badly after Freya had got the first
prize.
I thought then that we would be led back to our bench, but it seemed
that we were to try for other prizes first. There were prizes for what
they called “novices,” which were dogs who had never been in a show
before. There was a prize for boy novices and one for girl novices,
and Freya and I each won a first, and by that time William was all
smiles. Then Freya and I were judged as a pair and we each got a second
prize. The first prize went to Champion Hillside Carl and a girl-dog
who was quite good-looking but not nearly so pretty as Freya.
Then we went back to the bench and William and the Master said how
well we had done and how nicely we had behaved in the pen. Besides the
lovely ribbons, which had gold letters on them and which William at
once hung up at the back of the bench, we had won money. Freya had won
eleven dollars and I had won nine. The Master said we should each have
a fine new collar. I wanted to wear my ribbons, but William wouldn’t
let me. Sigismund had not won anything at all and I was very sorry for
him, and told him so. But he only laughed.
“I didn’t expect to,” he said. “I never do. For my part I’d much
rather stay at home, but my Mistress likes this sort of thing. She
told the judges that they didn’t know their business. She always tells
them that. You did very well, you and your sister both. You’d have got
that other blue if that Hillside Carl dog hadn’t been there. He’s been
winning first prizes for two years now. I meet him everywhere I go.
He’s an awfully stuck-up chap.” He yawned and stretched himself. “Well,
it’s about over now and I shall be glad to get home again.”
I curled up and took a little nap and when I awoke William was taking
the ribbons down and it was time to go home. We jumped back in the
crate and pretty soon we were bumping along the road once more. Freya
was still too excited to keep still, but I managed to get a few more
winks of sleep on the way back. When we reached the stable Father and
Mother were waiting for us and maybe they weren’t pleased when we told
them about the prizes! Mother jumped around and licked our faces and
barked. Father didn’t say much, but I could see that he was every bit
as glad as Mother. When I told him about Champion Hillside Carl he sort
of growled.
“Humph,” he said, “was that dog there to-day? I’ve beaten Carl twice
and I could have done it again. He isn’t so fine. His ears are too
short, and he is deaf in the left one. Only the judges are too stupid
to find it out! I wish _I’d_ been there!”
We had a supper of broth and bread and went to sleep early, being
pretty well tired out.