Part 7 (1/2)

This, in the haan, very fervently, to swear

”Highaested the Master, ”I've no personal objection to your blasphemy If the wo a good deal of tiot to be picked up, you know; and the calowered on hi Lad's upper lip curled The man took a tentative step toward the beach Lad crouched, panther-like; and a lol parted still further his writhing lips

Highah of a collie man to foresee the inevitable next move

He stood stock still The Master put his hand once htly And he nodded toward the clutter of newspapers and wooden plates Highah heaven

But he turned back and, with vicious grabs, cleared the lawn of its unsightly litter

”Take it into the boat with you” said the Master ”That's all

Goodbye See you at the Beauville show”

Waiting only for the canoe and its four vociferous occupants to start safely from shore, the Master returned to the house; Lad at his heels; pursued by a quadruple avalanche of abuse from the damp trespassers

”There'll be a comeback of some kind to this, Laddie,” he told the collie, as they moved on ”I don't know just what it'll be But those torthy youths didn't look at all lovingly at us And there's nothing else in country life so filthily mean as an evicted trespasser

Don't let's say anything to the Mistress about it, Lad It'd only worry her! And--and she'll think I ought to have invited all those panhandlers up to the house to get dry Perhaps she'd be right, too

She generally is”

A week later, Lad received a summons that made his heart sink For he knew precisely what it foretold He was called to the bathroom; where awaited him a tub half full of ater

Now, baths were no novelty to Lad But when a bath tub contained certain ingredients froredients that fluff the coat and burnish it and make all its hairs stand out like a Circassian Beauty's, that -shoas at hand

And Lad loathed dog-shows, as he loathed trale experience, he had never been taken to one of those canine ordeals known as ”three-or-more-day shows” But the Mistress and the Master rejoiced at his triumphs at such local one-day shows as ithin pleasant driving distance of the Place These exhibitions entailed no great strain or danger Lad's chief objection to them was that he hated to be chirped to and pawed and stared upon by an arers

Such a one-day event was the outdoor Charity Dogshow at the Beauville Country Club, forty miles to northeast of the Place; an easy two-hour drive It was to be a ”specialty show”; at which the richness and variety of prizes were expected to atone for the lack of A K C

points involved

A premium-list of the show had been ht the Mistress's quick eye and quicker ius McGilead, an exiled Scot whose life fad was the Collie; and whose chief grievance was that most American breeders did not seem able to produce collies with the unbelievable wealth of outer-and-undercoat displayed by the oversea dogs This particular special was offered in the following terh (Genuine Antique) For The Best-Coated Collie Shown

Now, Lad's coat was the pride of the Mistress's heart By daily brushi+ngs she kept it in perfect condition and encouraged its luxuriant growth When she read of McGilead's eccentric offer, she fell to visualizing the ”eenuine antique)” as it would loo the living room trophy-shelves

Summer is the zero hour for collies' coats Yet, this year, Lad had not yet begun to shed his winter raiment; and he was still in full bloom

This fact decided the Mistress Not one collie in ten would be in anything like perfect coat And the prize cup grew clearer and nearer, to her mental vision Hence the series of special baths and brushi+ngs

Hence, too, Laddie's daily-increasing gloo of the show, the Mistress and the Master, with Lad stretched forlornly on the rear seat of the car, set forth up the Valley on the forty-mile run to Beauville On the tonneau floor, in front of Lad, rested a battered suitcase, which held his toilet appurtenances;--brushes, coe, crash towel, squeaking rubber doll (this to attract his bored interest in the ring and make him ”show”) and a box of liver cut in small bits and fried stiff

Lad blinked down at the suitcase in show” to him Even the presence of the delicious fried liver and of thedoll could not atone for the rest of its contents and for all they i behind and as the Mistress and the Master glanced back less and less often for a pat or a cheery word to their sulking churew sharper True, it held squares of fried liver;--liver whose heavenly odor penetrated through the 's acute senses Also, it held a doll which exuded thrilling squeaks when gently bitten But these things, he knew full well, were designed as show-ring baits; not as free gifts

No, the bag was his enemy And, unlike his few other natural foes, Lad had never been bidden to leave it unmolested This memory came to him, in the h quizzical half-shut eyes, as it rocked and careened at his feet with every jounce of the car And into his brain shot the devil ofdown his shapely head, he took the handle of the case between his teeth Then, bracing his little white forepaws on the slippery leather seat, he heaved with all the ence, the light suitcase swung high in air A sideways toss of the muscular throat, and the suitcase whirled clear of the car door and of the running-board beneath Then Lad let go; and settled hily in the seat The luckless suitcase srassy ditch The car sped on Lad, for the e the show itself, at least he had gotten rid of the odious thing which held so much he detested and which was always an inseparable part of the ordeals he was taken to