Part 1 (2/2)
”There's no question whose dog he's going to be,” laughed the Master
”He's elected you,--by acclarown youngster, petting his silken head, running her white fingers through his shi+ninglittle friendly noises to hinified and stately pocket-edition of a collie
Under this spell, he changed in a second to an excessively loving and nestling and adoring puppy
”Just the sa to guard the Place and to be aAnd they've sent us a Teddy-Bear I think I'll shi+p hirown one What sort of use is--?”
”He is going to be all those things,” eagerly prophesied the Mistress
”And a hundred more See how he loves to have me pet him! And, look--he's learned, already, to shake hands; and--”
”Fine!” applauded the Master ”So when it comes our turn to be visited by this ister love of petting; and the burly marauder will be so touched by Lad's friendliness that he'll not only spare our house but lead an upright life ever after I--”
”Don't send hirow up, soon, and--”
”And if only the courteous burglars ait till he's a couple of years old,” suggested the Master, ”he--”
Set gently on the floor by the Mistress, Laddie had crossed to where the Master stood The aze For an instant he scowled at the , so ludicrously different from the ferocious brute he had expected Then,--for sohly over the tawny coat, letting it rest at last on the shapely head that did not flinch or wriggle at his touch
”All right,” he decreed ”Let hi pet for you, anyhow And his eye has the true thoroughbred expression,--'the look of eagles' Heafter all Let hilars”
So it was that Lad came to the Place So it was that he demanded and received due welcoht about the pup's proving ”an a pet,” for the Mistress Froht He had adopted her The Master, too,--in only a little lesser wholeheartedness,--he adopted Toward the rest of the world, from the first, he was friendly but more or less indifferent
Al's nature He would of course get into any or all of the thousand e of puppies But, a single reproof was enough to cure him forever of the particular form of mischief which had just been chidden He was one of those rare dogs that learn the Law by instinct; and that reiven them
For example:--On his second day at the Place, he olden convoy of chicks The Mistress,--luckily for all concerned,--ithin call At her sharp sue, and trotted back to her Severely, yet trying not to laugh at his worried aspect, she scolded Lad for hisahead of her, past the stables, they rounded a corner and came flush upon the same nerve-wrecked hen and her brood Lad halted in his sca as though on eggs, he made an idiotically wide circle about the feathered dam and her silly chicks Never thereafter did he assail any of the Place's fowls
It was the sa in alluring invitation frole word of rebuke,--and thenceforth the family as safe fro ”Don'ts” which spatter the career of a fun-loving collie pup Versed in the patience-fraying ways of pups in general, the Mistress and the Master ed and praised
All day and every day, life was a delight to the little dog He had friends everywhere, willing to ro the oaks He had the lake to splash ecstatically in: He had all he wanted to eat; and he had all the petting his hungry little heart could crave
He was even alloith certain restrictions, to come into the mysterious house itself Nor, after one defiant bark at a leopard-skin rug, did he enuine cave:--a wonderful place to lie and watch the world at large, and to stay cool in and to pretend he was a wolf The cave was the deep space beneath the piano in the music room It seemed to have a peculiar charm to Lad To the end of his days, by the way, this cave was his chosen resting place Nor, in his lifeti set foot therein
So hts were different
Lad hated the nights In the first place, everybody went to bed and left him alone In the second, his hard-hearted ownersin a corner of the veranda instead of in his delectable piano-cave Moreover, there was no food at night And there was nobody to play with or to go for walks with or to listen to There was nothing but gloom and silence and dullness When a puppy takes fifty cat-naps in the course of the day, he cannot always be expected to sleep the night through It is too ht were tiht have consoled hi his woes in a series of melancholy howls That, in time, would have drawn plenty of huster; even if the attention were not wholly flattering
But Lad did not belong to the howling type When he was unhappy, he waxed silent And his sorrowful eyes took on a deeper woe By the way, if there is anything more sorrowful than the eyes of a collie pup that has never known sorrow, I have yet to see it
No, Lad could not howl And he could not hunt for squirrels For these enemies of his were not content with the unsports out of his reach in the daytime, when he chased the the rest of the world,--except Lad,--in sleeping all night Even the lake that was so friendly by day was a chilly and forbidding playfellow on the cool North Jersey nights