THE STRANGE MAN
There were no more dog shows for us that summer, although Father and
Mother went to one in August and Father came back with three blue
ribbons and Mother with a blue and two reds. Father had beaten Champion
Hillside Carl quite easily and was very proud for several days and
Mother trotted her feet off finding bones for him.
It was just after the show that Alfred and his mother came to visit
us again, and I was awfully glad to see him. He had grown a good deal
since the summer before. But then I had grown too and he said he would
scarcely have known me! I don’t know which of us was gladder to see
him, the Baby or I. We had some fine times in the next two weeks. We
hunted squirrels in the orchard and had picnics in the woods and played
all sorts of games. But we didn’t look for Indians in the swamp, I can
tell you!
Alfred liked me best of all the dogs and one evening he came down to
the Kennel after it was dark and carried me to the house and took me to
bed with him and I slept there all night curled up in his arms. In the
morning we had a fine romp when we woke up, but I guess we must have
made too much noise, for Nurse heard us and came in and said, “Why,
Master Alfred, wherever did you get that dog? Put him right off the bed
this very instant!”
[Illustration: Alfred took me to bed with him]
Nurse had left the door open and so I ran out as hard as I could and
down the stairs. It wasn’t my fault that Delia was coming up just then
with a tray of toast and coffee for Alfred’s mother, was it? Besides,
she might have seen me if she had been looking. She didn’t, though, and
I was in a great hurry and tried to run between her feet. I was almost
at the bottom of the stairs when I heard the tray fall, and a piece of
toast came rolling down after me. I thought it best not to stop for
it, however, although I am very fond of buttered toast. Fortunately,
William was shining the brass knocker on the front door and I was able
to get out without more trouble.
I went right down to the stable and got behind the flower-pots and
stayed there until the middle of the forenoon, but nothing happened,
and so, when I heard Alfred whistling, I came out. William was there,
too, and when I saw him I laid down on my back and put my feet up. But
he only laughed.
“Don’t be letting Delia get hold of you to-day,” he said. “Keep away
from the kitchen, Fritzie, my boy.”
And then he and Alfred both looked at each other and laughed again, and
Alfred and I found the Baby and Freya and went down to the brook and
waded. When I saw Delia she had a piece of white cloth tied around her
head. I don’t know why she did it, because it didn’t make her look any
prettier.
After that Alfred took me to bed with him several times and I liked it
a lot. And Nurse didn’t say a thing when she found me there. Delia and
I made it up and were good friends again in a day or two. And then it
came time for Alfred to go back to the city and I felt very sad and
lonesome. So did the Baby, and she and I used to sit together in the
hammock on the piazza and talk about Alfred and wish him back again. I
was a great comfort to the Baby, I’m sure.
I was a year and a half old that Autumn, which, for a dog, is quite
grown-up, you know. When I did anything silly Mother would say:
“Remember, Fritz, you are no longer a puppy.” It was hard to do that,
though, and I was just as fond of play as ever. But, of course, I
had grown much more sensible and wise. Experience is a great teacher.
I heard Father say that once, and I guess it must be so. I didn’t get
into scrapes any more; at least, not many. I did dig a hole under the
stable one day and then couldn’t get out again until William had taken
some of the stones out of the wall. But that was because I didn’t know
that the ground under the stable was so much lower than it was outside.
It was rather a jolly place down there and I think there were rats
there, but I was too frightened when I found I couldn’t get out again
to do any hunting. And after that William put a stone where I’d gone in
and I was never able to get back to make sure.
And then there was another scrape, too, which was quite the worst I
ever got into. I shall not forget that very soon, I can tell you! It
happened that October and this was the way of it.
Freya cared less for hunting and running around than ever that Fall and
so I used to go about a good deal alone. Sometimes Father would take
me to look for foxes, but that wasn’t very often, and we never found
any. And sometimes Jack and I would go for a run together. It wasn’t
much fun for him, though, because my legs were so short that he had
to wait for me to catch up to him every little while. So very often
I went alone. I didn’t mind. There is so much to see if you use your
eyes and so much to smell if you use your nose. And there are lots of
nice things to listen to, besides. Like the songs that the birds sing
and the whispers the breezes make in the trees and the chattering of
the squirrels and chipmunks and so many, many other sounds. There are
lots of wonderful and interesting things in the world, and a dog who is
treated kindly and has a nice home to live in has a very good time. The
nice home has a lot to do with a dog’s happiness, as I found out when
I didn’t have one.
One nice sunny day, when the leaves on the trees were all yellow and
red and were fluttering down, I found myself on the road that passes
our gate. I had been chasing a chipmunk. He ran along on top of the
wall and the fence, making a funny little squeaky noise, and every
time I got near him he would give a long jump and get away again. And
sometimes he would run down to the ground and hide and I’d have to
hunt him out. When I lost him finally in a hole that went down under
the stone wall I was nearly half a mile from home and there was a man
walking toward me along the road.
He didn’t look quite like a nice man and I started to trot away from
him. But he called to me in a kind voice and so I stopped and looked
back. And when I looked he stooped and held something toward me in his
hand and it had a very good smell. William doesn’t give us raw meat
except once in a great while when we aren’t feeling very well, but
I knew the smell of it and I knew that it was raw meat that the man
wanted to give me. I was hungry and so I thought it over and decided
that if he really didn’t want the meat himself I might as well have it.
But I was a little bit afraid and didn’t go right up to him. He tossed
a piece toward me and I went back and got it and it surely tasted
awfully nice. Then he tossed me another piece and I ate that, and
almost before I knew it I was eating the rest of the meat out of his
hand and he was patting me and saying “Good dog.” And then he slipped
a piece of string through the new collar that the Master had bought
me with the money I had won at the dog show and when I tried to turn
around and go home he wouldn’t let me! Instead of that he pulled me
down the road right in the opposite direction. At first I went along
without any fuss, but when we got farther and farther away I began to
pull back and whine. Then he got very angry with me and when he saw I
would not go unless he pulled me he called me names and kicked me!
I had never been kicked before and it frightened me even more than it
hurt, and it hurt a good deal. I yelped and tried to run away then,
but the string held me, and every time I sat down and wouldn’t walk he
kicked me with his boot. I soon saw that if I didn’t want to be kicked
I must go with him, and so I went. But I was awfully frightened and I
wanted to bite him but didn’t dare to. Pretty soon we came to a cross
road which was winding and narrow and we turned into that and walked
and walked for the longest way before we came to a house. It was a very
small house and it needed paint and the yard in front was dirty and
untidy. And when we went through the gate a horrid ugly big bulldog
came running toward us, barking and growling. But the man kicked him
too, and the bulldog howled and ran into a shed near the house.