AFTER the two boys had driven off to the park to feed the birds, Jack,
as we have seen, watched the sleigh so long as it was in sight. Then he
lay down in a sunny spot in front of the engine-house door, where he
would be warm and at the same time see the passing. Dogs, of course,
interested him most, and this was such a thoroughfare that he saw a
good many of them.
The dogs that interested him the most were those from out of town who
were passing through the city, following a carriage or team. It was
very pleasant to meet an old acquaintance in that way, and exchange a
few words with him, for Jack was such a business dog that he allowed
himself few pleasures, and did not have the opportunity of roaming
about the city that dogs enjoy so much. Out-of-town dogs were very
interesting because they didn’t take on any airs, and often told him
things about their country homes that he liked to hear.
The most irritating of all dogs are the dogs that are in carriages.
They take on a very superior air that all dogs who are not driving
dislike particularly. In fact, as they pass, they often make insulting
remarks to the less fortunate dogs who go on foot. Also dogs who are
driving are very jealous of others who are enjoying the same privilege,
and often talk most impertinently to one another.
Several dogs in carriages passed while Jack lay in the door of the
engine-house, and they either looked straight ahead and turned up their
noses, pretending not to see him, or else they made some insolent
remark. Jack paid no attention whatever to them, knowing that nothing
would irritate them so much as to find that their impertinence had no
effect upon him.
A large, amiable farm-dog following a charcoal wagon particularly
interested the Fire-Dog. He stopped a few minutes in order to tell the
little news he had, which was that the hens were on a strike and had
refused to lay any more until they were furnished with warmer quarters.
“That accounts for the high price of eggs,” said Jack; “I thought
something was wrong. Well, I hope they will get what they want. Give
them the compliments of Jack the Fire-Dog, and tell them to _stick_.”
“There is one other piece of news,” said the farm-dog. “One of my
neighbors is missing. He is a little yellow dog with a black pug nose,
and answers to the name of Toby. Followed his team into the city with a
load of wood one day last week and hasn’t been seen since. If you come
across him, let us know, will you? The city is awfully confusing to
country dogs.”
“I will be on the lookout for him,” said Jack. “‘Yellow dog with a
black pug nose, answers to the name of Toby.’ Say,” continued Jack, as
the other was starting to run after his team, “what shall I do with him
if I happen to find him, which isn’t at all likely?”
“Keep him till I come by next week, or send him home if he knows the
way;” and the farm-dog ran after his team, that was now nearly out of
sight.
For a while nothing of especial interest happened to divert the
Fire-Dog. He took several naps, keeping one eye open to see what was
going on about him. Suddenly he started and opened both eyes. A group
of children were coming toward him, one of them leading a dog by a
string. Something about the children attracted Jack’s attention. They
were not very warmly clothed for the season of the year, but they
seemed happy and good-natured. They were evidently very fond of their
dog, for they stopped often to pat him and speak to him.
“Where have I seen those children?” asked Jack of himself. “I am sure I
have seen them before;” and he tried hard to recall their faces.
“I have it!” he exclaimed at last. “It was the night of the fire when
we found the blind kid, and they are the children who looked after him.”
He looked at the dog the children were leading. “‘Yellow dog with a
black pug nose, answers to the name of Toby.’ Well, who would have
thought I should hear from him so soon? Hallo, Toby! is that you?”
“Yes,” replied Toby; “but who are you, and how do you happen to know my
name?”
Jack quickly arose and stepped up to the little yellow dog. The
children good-naturedly waited for them to exchange the time of day,
during which time Jack managed to explain to Toby his interview with
the large farm-dog. “I did not expect to hear from you so soon,” said
Jack, “but now that I have, we must make our plans in a hurry. I
suppose you want to go back to your old home?”
“Of course I do. After having a whole town to roam about in, it isn’t
very pleasant to be tied up in an old shed.”
“Why didn’t you run away?” asked Jack.
“I wasn’t sure of my way. It is terribly confusing to a country dog to
find his way about in a city. Besides, these children are very good to
me, and I was afraid of falling into worse hands.”
“You know how to slip your collar, I suppose?” asked Jack.
“Sometimes I can, but this strap is pretty tight,” replied Toby.
“I see that your education has been neglected, so I will give you a few
instructions given me by an old bull-dog, Boxer by name, who could slip
any collar that was ever invented.”
“I should be very glad to hear them,” replied little Toby.
“Well, first you back out just as far as your rope will allow you to
go. Then you gradually work your head from side to side, with your
chin well up in the air, kind of wriggling your head free. If your
collar is tight, that doesn’t always work; so next you lie flat on your
back, keeping your nose as high up as you can get it. You can kind of
ease it up with your fore feet, too. You do just as I’ve told you and
you’ll find yourself free in time. I stump any one to make a collar
that these rules won’t work on.”
“I’ll do my best,” said little Toby.
“The bull-dog I told you of, did a thing once that I wouldn’t have
believed if I hadn’t known it to be a fact. He had slipped so many
collars that they had a sort of harness made for him with a strap that
went back of his fore legs. Well, one morning they found that he had
slipped that. It beats the Dutch how he managed to do it, but he did
it all right. It took him all night to do it, and in the morning they
found him all used up, and lying as if he were dead. He was quite
an old dog then, and not so strong as he used to be, but you know
bull-dogs never give up anything they undertake.”
“Did he get well?” asked Toby, much interested.
“I’ll tell you. As I said before, he lay like a dead dog, and it was
warm and sunny out of doors, so they carried him out and laid him in
the sun. After a while he seemed to take an interest in things about
him,—wagged his tail when they spoke to him and all that. Bull-dogs are
awfully affectionate, you know. Then they began to have a little hope
for him, when who should come along but another dog he knew? There had
been some bad blood between the two, and what do you think? No sooner
does my old friend catch sight of the other than up he jumps and runs
after him. Of course he was too feeble to do anything in the fighting
line, but his intentions were good.”
“Wasn’t the excitement too much for him?” asked Toby, anxiously.
“Not a bit of it. It did him good,—limbered him up and set him right on
his legs. Bull-dogs are tough.”
“I should like to know him,” said Toby, modestly. “He must be a
remarkable dog.”
“He certainly is,” replied the Fire-Dog. “I should like to introduce
you, but the fact is, we are not on speaking terms now. He means well,
Boxer does, but he’s kind of jealous-minded. You see it gives me quite
a position to run with the engine, and Boxer, he feels equal to the
business, and it kind of riles him to see me setting off to a fire. I
suppose he thinks I feel smart of myself and am taking on airs. It is
just as you have been brought up. Now, if Boxer had been brought up in
the Fire Department, his natural pluck would have taken him through the
worst fire that ever was. The more he got singed, the farther he would
venture in.”
“Do you ever meet now?” asked Toby.
“Yes, quite often; he lives near by. We don’t look at one another,
though, as we pass, except perhaps out of the corners of our eyes.
Boxer, he always shivers and his eyes kind of bulge, and he walks on
tiptoe. You know that bull-dogs are awfully sensitive, and they always
shiver when they are excited, but it isn’t the shiver of a cowardly
dog. You had better look out for a bull-dog when you see him shiver,
for he isn’t in the state of mind to take much from another dog when
he’s in that condition. He laps his chops too, then.”
The children had been waiting all this time, the boy who held Toby by a
string occasionally giving him a gentle pull as a reminder that it was
time to go. They patted Jack, while they peered curiously in through
the open door at the engine that stood ready for use at a moment’s
notice. They thought it was time to start for home, as they had quite a
distance to go. So Toby took leave of his new friend, casting longing
glances behind him as he was pulled along.
“He appears to be a well-meaning sort of fellow,” said Jack to himself,
“but he doesn’t look to me smart enough to apply the rules I have given
him. A dog of character like Boxer would have brought it about by
himself. However; it’s as well that we are not all made alike.”
Jack’s attention was before long diverted from the subject of his
new acquaintance by the return of his charge Billy, who greeted him
so affectionately that warm-hearted Jack forgot everything else and
escorted his charge into the engine-house to see that he got safely up
the steep stairs.
Meanwhile Mr. Ledwell and Sam drove down town to do a few errands. One
of them was to leave an order at a bake-shop, and as the sleigh stopped
before the door, they noticed a group of children, one of them holding
by a string a little yellow dog with a black pug nose. They were gazing
eagerly in at the tempting display of cakes in the large windows, and
Sam noticed that the little dog seemed to eye them just as longingly as
the children did.
Now Sam’s grandpapa was just the kind of man that any child or animal
would appeal to if he were in trouble, and as he stepped out of the
sleigh and walked by the group of children, he looked at them in his
usual pleasant manner.
“Mister,” said a voice very timidly, “will you please to give me a cent
to buy something to eat?”
The voice came from a little girl, the youngest of the children.
“Why, Maysie, you mustn’t ask for money; that’s begging,” said the boy
who was holding the dog.
“What do you want to eat, little girl?” asked Mr. Ledwell’s kind voice.
“Cake,” replied Maysie, emboldened by the pleasant eyes that seemed to
be always smiling.
“Well, look in at that window,” said Mr. Ledwell, “and tell me what
kind of cake you think you would like to eat.”
Maysie’s mind was evidently already made up, for she at once pointed to
a plate of rich pastry cakes with preserve filling.
“That kind,” replied Maysie, promptly.
“Could you eat a whole one, do you think?” asked Mr. Ledwell.
“Yes,” replied Maysie, eagerly.
“Could you eat _two_, do you think?” asked Mr. Ledwell.
“Yes,” replied Maysie, promptly.
“Do you think you could eat three of them?” asked Mr. Ledwell.
“Yes,” replied Maysie.
“Well, do you think you could eat four?”
“I’d try,” replied Maysie, confidently.
“Wait here a minute,” said Mr. Ledwell, “and I will see what I can do.”
The children crowded around the window, and eagerly watched the young
woman behind the counter fill a large paper bag with cakes from every
plate in the window, the largest share being taken from the plate of
pastry cakes that had been Maysie’s choice.
Mr. Ledwell glanced at the faces peering in at the window, following
eagerly every motion of the young woman with the paper bag. The little
yellow dog was no less interested than the children, and had been held
up in the boy’s arms, that he might obtain a better view. From this
group Mr. Ledwell’s eyes fell on his little grandson, who was standing
up in the sleigh to see what was going on, and whose bright face was
aglow with pleasure at the prospect of the treat in store for the group
at the window.
“It would be hard to say whether they or Sam are the happiest,” said
Mr. Ledwell to the young woman behind the counter, as he took the paper
bag and left the store.
“Or the generous man who takes the trouble to give so much pleasure to
others,” added the young woman to herself, as she glanced at his kind
face.
“Here, little girl,” said Mr. Ledwell, handing the paper bag to Maysie.
“Now what will you do with all these good things?”
“We’ll divide them between ourselves,” replied Maysie, promptly.
“And the dog,” said the boy. “He must have his share, because he’s seen
them same as we have.”
“Yes, Johnny, of course the dog,” assented Maysie.
“And Mother,” said the older sister.
“Of course, Mother,” agreed Maysie. “Come on!” and off started Maysie,
firmly grasping her bag of cakes.
“Why, Maysie, you forgot to thank the gentleman,” said the elder sister.
“Her face has thanked me already,” said Mr. Ledwell.