there was no response to her call. He had followed her, had lost the
trail, and had gone too far to find his way back to his home. In vain
she called for her pet. She left the door ajar, hoping at nightfall
she should hear the patter of his feet, or his eager bark to come in,
but he did not come. She wondered where he slept, if he slept at all;
thought a dozen times in the night that she heard him crying at the
door; imagined him moaning for her, or, supperless and exhausted, lying
down by the roadside, to wait for the sunrise to begin his fruitless
journey.
Douglas had become that sad thing, a lost dog. He belonged to nobody
now, and both owner and dog were desolate. Miss Benson could scarcely
go about her work. She spent days in searching, and hired others to
search, but all was useless. For weeks she thought Douglas might
possibly come back. If she could know that he was dead, that even would
be a consolation; but to fear he was cold and hungry, to realize that
the world is all too indifferent to animals, unless perchance they are
our own, to imagine he might be in some medical college, the victim of
the surgeon’s knife,—all this was bitter in the extreme. Weeping and
searching did no good, and finally the inevitable had to be accepted,
though the sadness in Miss Benson’s heart did not fade out.
As is ever the case, those of us who have lost something precious
become more tender and helpful in a world full of losses. Miss Benson
welcomed and cared for every stray animal that she found, perhaps never
quite giving up the hope that she would see gentle, great-hearted
Douglas again.
And what of Douglas? He ran fast at first, eager to overtake the one
to whom he was passionately devoted. She had been gone so long that he
soon lost track of her footsteps, and then with a dazed look he began
to howl, hoping that she would hear his voice. He lay down to rest, but
it was growing dark and he was hungry.
He stopped at a large house and the servants drove him away. He was
unused to this, but he dragged himself along to the next place. Here a
kind woman gave him something to eat, and would have made him welcome
for the night, but he would not stay after he had eaten. He must needs
wander on, hoping to find his home and his beloved mistress. All night
long he tramped, lying down now and then by the side of the road to
rest a few minutes.
The next day was a hard one. He was beginning to realize that he was
lost. He ran more slowly, looked eagerly at every passer-by, and seemed
half demented. At night he stopped at a home where the lights had just
been lighted, and some pretty children seemed flitting from room to
room. He whined at the back door.
A flaxen-haired little girl opened it. “Oh, mamma,” said the child,
“here is a big black dog, and I know he is hungry! May I feed him?”
“No,” replied the woman, “take a whip and send him off. I will have no
lean stray dogs about this house.”
“But he looks hungry, mother,” pleaded little Emma Bascomb, “and I know
he won’t bite.”
Mrs. Bascomb, pity it is to tell it, was a very pious person, never
failing to be present at prayer-meetings, always deeply interested in
the heathen, and most helpful at sewing societies of the church. She
never fed stray cats or dogs, as she did not wish them to stay at her
house. She did not remember that God made them, and that He lets not a
sparrow fall to the ground without His notice, and she forgot that she
was to emulate Him.
Mrs. Bascomb varied her treatment of stray dogs and cats. Sometimes she
used a long black whip, sometimes pails of water. On this occasion she
threw on Douglas, already weak and hungry, a pail of cold water, and
sent him frightened and hurt away from her door. Emma protested. “When
I have a home of my own, mamma,” she said, “I will never turn away a
dog or a cat hungry.” The child knew that it was useless to say more,
as a stray cat had stayed about the house for a week, and Mrs. Bascomb
had refused to feed it, burning up the scraps from the table lest some
starving animal might be tempted to remain. And yet the Bascombs had
family prayers, and asked God to provide clothes for the needy and food
for the hungry!
Douglas was beginning to learn the sorrows of the poor and homeless. He
longed to see some familiar face, to hear some familiar voice. He went
on and on, and it began to rain. It was almost sleet, and the dog, used
to a warm fire, shivered and longed for shelter. Approaching a large
rambling house with a shed attached, Douglas ran under it for cover,
and crouched down at the side under a bench. A man came out with a
lamp. Evidently he had been drinking, for his step was unsteady. He had
come out to close the shed door, and espying the dog gave him a kick
with his hard boot.
“Get out, you scoundrel! What are you doing here?” he said gruffly, and
poor Douglas ran as though a gun had been fired at him.
“Oh, if there were only a home for such lost ones!” he must have
thought; but there was none, and again the hungry and wet dog travelled
on. A wagon soon passed with two men in it, and Douglas followed,
hoping it would lead to a home for him. “Whip him off,” said one of the
men to the other. “We’ve got two dogs already, and my wife would never
allow a third,” and they brandished the whip in the rear and drove on.
Douglas crawled under a tree, and rolling himself as nearly as he
could into a round ball for warmth finally fell asleep.
In the morning he started again on his toilsome journey. He was lame
now and half sick. Soon the houses were nearer together, and Douglas
realized that he was coming into a city. He did not know there was
little room for dogs in an overcrowded, fashionable city. There was
little green grass to roam over, and the rushing world did not want the
bother of animals. Perhaps, however, where there were so many people
there would be some kind hearts, he thought.
He crept along and looked into the window of a restaurant. There was a
boiled ham in the window, cake, pies, and other attractive things. He
wagged his tail a little, and looked into a man’s face as he went in,
but the man paid no attention. Then a young lady passed, and she said,
“Poor dog!” but went on.
Douglas walked away and lay down in front of a store, but a man came
and said, “Get out! The ladies will be afraid of you.”
Douglas looked no longer the petted, handsome creature of several days
before. The dust had settled in his black hair, which looked rough and
coarse. He was thin and dejected. An unthinking boy chased him, and
threw something at him, and as he was too peaceable to resent it he
hurried along an alley and tried to hide up a stairway. A big red-faced
man came out of a room at the head of the stairs and kicked him down
the steps.
Douglas ran into a shoe-store. Three men cornered him with a broom and
a pole, and one man, braver than the others, put a cloth over his head,
and then seized him by the hind legs and threw him into the street.
Then somebody on the sidewalk said, “That dog acts strangely. He must
be mad!”
That was enough to excite the passers-by, who had read in the papers
various accounts of supposed cases of rabies. “He is weak,” said
one person, “and he totters.” “He is frothing at the mouth,” said
another. A boot-black ran after him and threw his box at the thoroughly
frightened animal. A crowd gathered, and ran and shouted. “Shoot him!
Shoot him!” was the eager cry.
Douglas did indeed froth at the mouth from excessive running. A lady
hurried along and said, “Let me have the dog. He is not mad, but has
lost his owner. Frothing at the mouth is not a sign of hydrophobia, as
the best physicians will tell you.”
“No, madam,” said a looker-on. “Don’t touch the dog. We men will not
allow you to be bitten.”
A policeman fired his pistol, and the ball entered Douglas’s shoulder.
Half dead with pain as well as fright, the dog rushed on and finally
escaped.
He lay in his hiding-place till midnight, and then when no human eye
could see him he crept away from the city. If only Miss Benson could
see him now, and dress his wounds, and say the petting words of old
that he had so loved to hear!
Towards morning, exhausted, he lay down by the fence in the front yard
of a house in the outskirts of the city. The owner of the home was a
lawyer, a kind-hearted man, in part because he had a noble mother and
wife.
“There’s a poor wounded dog on our lawn, Jeannette,” Mr. Goodman said
to his wife. “Call him in at the back door, and we’ll see if we can’t
help him.”
Mrs. Goodman took a basin of warm water and castile soap and carefully
washed the wound, the children standing about and anxiously watching
the operation. “Nice dog,” said Teddy, a boy of five. “He no bite.”
“No,” said his mother, as Douglas looked pitifully up into her face.
“He is a kind dog, and must belong to a good home somewhere.”
After she had finished washing the sore and tender place Douglas
licked her hand in appreciation. “Have Dr. Thayer come in,”—he was
the veterinary surgeon,—said Mrs. Goodman to her husband. “We might
as well make the care of animals a part of our missionary work in the
world. The doctor will find the ball, if it is still there, and save
the dog, I hope.”
“All right, wife,” said Mr. Goodman, as he started for the office.
“I suppose you want some breakfast, doggie,” said Mrs. Goodman, and she
placed before Douglas a dish of meat and of milk. Douglas was too tired
and too full of pain to eat much, but he felt as though a new world
had opened to him. After all, there were some good people in the land,
and at last he had reached them.
Dr. Thayer came, found the ball in the patient, abused animal, and the
wounded shoulder soon began to heal.
When night came Mrs. Goodman made Douglas a warm bed of blankets by the
kitchen stove, for she knew that a cold kennel was not a suitable place
for him. Later he was washed and dried, by rubbing with cloths, till
his coat was silky and black.
Teddy and the dog became inseparable companions. Wherever the child
went Douglas was always close behind him, now licking his extended
hand, now lying down for the child to clamber over him, or to lay his
dark curls against the darker curls of the dog. They shared their food,
and they frequently went to sleep together, if it could be called
sleep on the part of the dog, whose eyes were usually open that his
little charge might be guarded. Douglas never showed an inclination to
bite unless some one touched the boy, and then he growled and looked
concerned.
One summer day Teddy and a playmate wandered off with the dog during
Mrs. Goodman’s absence. They sat down under a tree and all three
lunched together. Then they played along the meadow till the banks of
a river were reached. Two men were working near by and occasionally
watched the children at their play, as they dabbled their hands in the
water. Finally they heard a child scream, and before they could reach
the place Douglas was dragging Teddy, dripping and frightened, from the
river. The men carried the boy home to his awe-struck but overjoyed
parents, and Douglas, wet and excited, was praised for his heroic
conduct.
A year later, when Teddy went to school, Douglas missed his comrade,
and for days whined piteously. He never failed to go, at the regular
hour for closing school, to meet his little friend, and always brought
home in his teeth the dinner basket of the lad. Sometimes Douglas
whined in his sleep, as though he were dreaming of other days, but love
for Teddy made him, on the whole, very happy.
When Teddy was seven years old diphtheria raged in the school, and
marked him for one of its victims. No love or care could save him.
When conscious, he could not bear Douglas out of his sight or reach. As
in the case with his former mistress, Douglas neither ate nor slept.
When all was over he disappeared. Where he went nobody knew. Probably
he lay upon the grave of the child, and later wandered off, thinking
perchance to find again his first love.
The Goodmans had intended to leave their home in the suburbs and move
to the city before their boy died, and now Mrs. Goodman was anxious
to go away from the place as quickly as possible. A home was soon
obtained, and the family moved thither. They deeply regretted that
Douglas could not be found to go with them, because they were much
attached to him for his own sake, and because he was so dear to their
child.
Douglas meantime had hunted far and wide for his lost ones. He had the
same bitter experience of neglect and hunger, but a dog’s love is his
strongest quality, and despite suffering he was seeking his own. Miss
Benson he could not find; that was past hope, but Teddy, perhaps,
he might see again. Probably Douglas did not know that death has no
awakening in this world, and that Teddy could never come to his home,
but the dog finally stole back to the porch and yard where they had
played together and waited, hoping that the boy would come. The house
was vacant. Some neighbors saw him on the steps, but he went away
again. Finally a policeman saw him and heard him howl.
“Whose dog is that?” he said to a neighbor.
“It’s a dog that came to the Goodmans and disappeared when their little
boy died. I suppose he has come back to find the child,” was the reply.
“Ah!” said the man, “and he hasn’t any collar on his neck. He is
unlicensed. I will send the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals after him.”
“I’ll see that he doesn’t starve,” said the woman. “Will the Society
find a home for him?”
“Oh, no, they can’t find homes for so many as they take off the
streets! They’ll kill him.”
“He isn’t to blame for not being licensed. I don’t see the use of
the license law, because it means the death of so many thousands of
animals.”
“Neither do I,” said the kind-hearted policeman. “Poor folks can’t
always pay the fee. I love my dog, and he’s a great comfort to my
children. But I don’t make the law. I only help to enforce it.”
“What is done with the license money? It makes so much heartache it
ought to do great good.”
“I’ve heard that it is given sometimes to public schools and to
libraries to buy books on kindness to animals, and sometimes to the
Humane Society so that they can pay men to catch and kill unlicensed
dogs. You see, the licensed dogs help to kill the unlicensed and
homeless,” said the man.
“I should think a better way would be to provide homes for the really
homeless instead of killing them. I think that we have a duty to
animals, seeing that they are under our protection.”
The policeman told the S. P. C. A. that a black unlicensed dog was
howling on the steps of a vacant house because his little friend had
died. Two officers in a big wagon hastened to the spot, caught him, and
threw him in with a score of other animals which they had seized on the
street.
Douglas cowered in the corner, and wondered what new sorrow had
befallen him. The other poor things were as frightened as himself. Two
were black and white puppies scarcely bigger than kittens, and two were
pretty black-and-tan pets. A large mastiff looked out of her great
brown eyes, trembling from head to foot. One shepherd dog was poor and
thin, but most looked well cared for, only they had no collars, and
their owners had not paid their license fee.
The wagon soon reached a barn-like structure, and the animals were
hastily emptied into a pen with sawdust on the floor. What was in
store for them they could only guess. After a time they were offered a
mixture of meal and meat, but most were too frightened to eat.
All the next day they listened for footsteps, hoping that some friend
would come for them. Douglas lay in the corner and expected nobody.
Miss Benson did not know where he was, and Teddy had never come back
when he howled for him.
There was a large pen adjoining that of Douglas, and this was filled
with dogs—fox-terriers, some black like himself, and several yellow
ones. Cats, many of them large and handsome, were in cages about the
room. Some animals had been brought to the pound, or refuge, by persons
who did not or could not take the trouble to find homes for them. An
advertisement in the paper saying that a dog had been found and would
be given to a good home would in almost every case have met with
responses, but this cost a little money and time.
A boy brought in two pretty creatures, one red and the other yellow,
which he said he had found without collars. A woman had hired him and
other children by paying each a few cents to do this work, which meant
almost certain death to animals, believing, probably, that she was
doing good.
Late in the afternoon Douglas witnessed a strange, sad sight. Every
cat, fifty or more, was thrown into a large cage, and poisonous gas
turned in upon them. The terrified creatures huddled together, as
though they knew their helplessness in the hands of their destroyers,
and died.
Then several men, as soon as the cats were removed, threw the
shrinking, crying dogs into the cage, and they too were soon dead,
piled upon each other. Douglas and the rest knew that their turn would
come soon.
On the second day a lady called at the refuge because her own city
contemplated establishing a home (?) where dogs could be killed, the
license fees to be used to pay the salaries of the S. P. C. A. agents.
Her heart was touched by the appealing looks of the helpless animals.
She went away and found homes for two fox-terriers, paid the license
fees and fines, and the dogs were released, licking her hands, as
though they realized from what they had been saved.
Douglas crept towards the visitor, because he had been used to a
woman’s voice. He was thin, but his eyes were as beautiful as when he
was a puppy and responded to the petting of Miss Benson’s gentle hands.
“You have been a handsome dog,” the lady said to Douglas, “and somebody
has loved you. I know of a place for you. A noble woman who loves dogs
has provided a home for the homeless, as far as her means will allow,
and is devoting her life to the care of such of God’s creatures as you
are. Would you like to go with me?”
Douglas whined, and the other poor animals crowded around as much as
to say, “Can you not take us too, and save us from death to-morrow? We
cannot pay the license, but we would love and protect anybody who would
pay it and take us home.” The lady could not take them all—the city
and State, by reason of their wealth and humaneness, instead of license
or tax, should provide homes for those committed to their keeping by
the Creator. Douglas was let out, and followed the lady with a thankful
heart, but with a downcast look, as though life had been so uncertain
that he could not be sure of anything good in the future.
The lady hired a cab, and the dog lay at her feet. They were driven
to an attractive-looking brick house, with several small buildings
adjoining. A young girl came to the door.
“Do you wish to see the matron of the Dogs’ Home?” said the girl.
“Yes, I am a friend of the matron,” said the lady, “and I have taken a
fancy to a homeless dog and have brought him here to find a home.”
The matron soon appeared, and, with one wild cry, Douglas sprang into
her arms. It was Miss Benson, who, since she had lost Douglas, had been
moved to spend her life and her fortune for other dogs who were lost.
“Oh, Douglas! Douglas!” she exclaimed, while the visitor looked on with
amazement. “Have you found me and I you at last?” And the dog whined
and caressed her till she feared he would die from excess of joy unless
she calmed him.
“You and I will never be parted again. You shall live here and help
care for other lost and unwanted ones.”
For years Douglas thankfully shared in the care and love of his
mistress. She could not bear to see him grow old, but he had suffered
too much to live to the usual age of St. Bernards. When he died his
head was in Miss Benson’s lap, and his great brown eyes looked upon her
face and whitening hair as the last precious thing to be seen in life.
She buried him and laid flowers upon his grave, for was he not her
devoted, loyal friend? A neat headstone tells where faithful Douglas
sleeps.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.