BACK HOME AGAIN
I was having a little nap at the back of my cage when I heard a lady’s
voice say: “No, thank you, we are just looking about. My little boy
wants to see the dogs.”
I pricked up my ears, for I seemed to know that voice, but I couldn’t
think whose it was. The lady was out of sight and I waited eagerly
for her to reach my cage. And while she was still at the front of the
store I heard another voice say, “Mother, do you suppose they have any
dachshunds?” and my heart just jumped right up into my throat. For the
voice was Alfred’s! I leaped against the bars and barked and barked, I
can tell you! And Alfred and his mother heard me and came to see what
all the noise meant. And when Alfred saw me he cried:
“Oh, Mother, here’s a dear little dachshund! Oh, please may I have him?”
“Why, I don’t know, dear,” said his mother. “He _is_ a nice looking
dog, isn’t he? Are you sure you want him?”
“Oh, yes, yes!” said Alfred. “Really, I do, Mother! He looks so much
like Fritzie, doesn’t he? Don’t you think he does?”
Alfred put his hand into the cage to pat my head and I licked it and
tried to reach his face with my tongue and whined and whined. And
Alfred’s eyes got rounder and rounder, and suddenly he cried very
loudly:
“Oh, Mother, it _is_ Fritzie! It is! It is! He knows me, Mother!”
And――oh, well, I don’t remember much about what happened after that
for a while! I know the man came and let me out of the cage and I
jumped and barked and whined and went on terribly silly, I guess. But
you didn’t mind, did you? And then, almost before I knew it, I was
snuggled up in――in Alfred’s arms in a carriage and we were rattling
over the cobblestones at a great rate. And Alfred was crying and
hugging me and his mother was smiling and crying a little too. I
wasn’t, though; not then; I was far too happy to cry!
And then――but you know the rest of my story as well as I do. How the
Master came up to the City and took me home again and how glad I was
to see Mother and Father and Freya and every one else. And how William
blew his nose over and over again and seemed to have a very bad cold in
his head, and how the Baby said “Booful dogums!” and hugged me until I
had almost no breath left! But there was one thing I don’t think you
ever knew about fully, and that was how the brindle bulldog came to be
there.
I had been home nearly an hour and was lying in the doorway talking to
Mother and Father and Freya, telling them all about what had happened
to me while I was away, when a brindled bulldog came trotting up the
road. He was a very ugly looking dog and when I saw him I growled. But
the others paid no attention to him. As he came nearer he reminded me
of some dog I had seen somewhere and so I asked who he was.
“Oh,” said Mother, “that’s just Jim. He came here a month ago and
wouldn’t let William drive him away. So he lives here now. He’s a
very nice dog. Rather coarse in his ways and not much to look at, but
good-hearted and kind and a fine fellow to keep watch.”
Then I remembered him. He was the dog who had belonged to the man who
had stolen me. Of course I ran right out and said “Bow!” to him and we
were very glad to see each other. He told me that after his master had
gone away to take me to the City he got to thinking about my home
and how fine it would be to live in such a place and have regular meals
and be spoken to kindly now and then and he had made up his mind to run
away and go there. You see, he thought that as the Family had lost me
maybe they’d like a dog to take my place. That was quite clever of Jim,
don’t you think? And so he left his home before his master came back
and trotted down the lane and into the big road and so up to the stable.
At first Father tried to drive him away and there was quite a rumpus,
but Jim wouldn’t go. Then William tried to drive him away and got after
him with the carriage whip. (Of course William didn’t hurt him any,
because he never would hurt a dog more than was good for him.) And
still Jim wouldn’t go. So William felt sorry for him then and gave him
some food and Jim slept outside the stable that night. When William
found him there the next day he tried to drive him away again. But
Jim came right back and so William fixed him up a box in the yard and
ever since Jim had been one of the family. He told me that he was very
happy and that he had never had so much to eat in all his life! The
Master took a great fancy to Jim and Jim to the Master and they were
fine friends. Of course the Family didn’t know that his name was Jim,
because he never told them, and so they called him Tramp.
It was awfully nice to be back home once more, I can tell you, and
Mother and Father and Freya were so glad to see me that they just
couldn’t do enough for me. Freya hung around so close that she got to
be rather a bother! She never got tired of hearing about the wonderful
things that had happened to me, and about Mouser and Prince and,
especially, about Peaches, the dog who stood on his front legs. Even
Ju-Ju seemed glad to have me back. I may be wrong about that, though.
Cats are queer animals and you can’t tell much about what they’re
thinking.
But glad as I was to be back home I was a little sad all the time. I
missed Alfred a lot. And when, a few weeks later, the Family got ready
to go to the City for a visit and I learned that I was to go with them
I was awfully pleased because I thought that I should see Alfred again.
And I did, didn’t I? Do you remember when the Baby brought me in here
that morning and said:
“Afed, here is Kismus present for oo, Mild’ed’s booful dogum!”
You were almost as glad as I was, weren’t you?
Well, there, that’s all my story. Next month we’re going back to see
them all, aren’t we? I shall like that. I suppose Freya is fatter than
ever now. She doesn’t hunt enough. I shall tell Mother so, too.
Heigho! I think I’m getting sleepy. I have talked a great deal for a
dog, and this pillow is very comfy. If you will lean over I’d like to
lick your face. Then I shall take a nap. But don’t forget to call me
when you are ready to go to walk. There’s a squirrel in the Park――he
lives in the fourth tree after you go through the big gate――and he made
a face at me yesterday ... or was it the day before? Anyway, ... he
ought ... to be taught ... manners....
[Illustration: He lives in the fourth tree....]
THE END OF THE TAIL
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Except for the frontispiece, illustrations have been moved to
follow the text that they illustrate.
――Printer’s, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently
corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.