Part 3 (2/2)

”P. S. Just turn the puppy out in the morning and he'll go home all right of his own accord.”

With his own pink tongue showing just a trifle between his teeth, Stanton lay for a moment and watched the dog on the rug. c.o.c.king his small, keen, white head from one tippy angle to another, the little terrier returned the stare with an expression that was altogether and unmistakably mirthful. ”Oh, it's a jolly little beggar, isn't it?”

said Stanton. ”Come here, sir!” Only a suddenly pointed ear acknowledged the summons. The dog himself did not budge. ”Come here, I say!” Stanton repeated with harsh peremptoriness. Palpably the little dog winked at him. Then in succession the little dog dodged adroitly a knife, a spoon, a copy of Browning's poems, and several other sizable articles from the table close to Stanton's elbow.

Nothing but the dictionary seemed too big to throw. Finally with a grin that could not be disguised even from the dog, Stanton began to rummage with eye and hand through the intricate back pages of the dictionary.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A much-freckled messenger-boy appeared dragging an exceedingly obstreperous fox-terrier]

”You silly little fool,” he said. ”Won't you mind unless you are spoken to by name?”

”Aaron--Abidel--Abel--Abiathar--” he began to read out with petulant curiosity, ”Baldwin--Barachias--Bruno (Oh, hang!) Cadwallader--Caesar--Caleb (What nonsense!) Ephraim--Erasmus (How could a girl be named anything like that!) Gabriel--Gerard--Gershom (Imagine whistling a dog to the name of Gershom!) Hannibal--Hezekiah--Hosea (Oh, h.e.l.l!)” Stolidly with unheedful, drooping ears the little fox-terrier resumed his seat on the rug.

”Ichabod--Jabez--Joab,” Stanton's voice persisted, experimentally. By nine o'clock, in all possible variations of accent and intonation, he had quite completely exhausted the alphabetical list as far as ”K.” and the little dog was blinking himself to sleep on the far side of the room. Something about the dog's nodding contentment started Stanton's mouth to yawning and for almost an hour he lay in the lovely, restful consciousness of being at least half asleep. But at ten o'clock he roused up sharply and resumed the task at hand, which seemed suddenly to have a.s.sumed really vital importance. ”Laban--Lorenzo--Marcellus,” he began again in a loud, clear, compelling voice. ”Meredith--” (Did the little dog stir? Did he sit up?) ”Meredith? Meredith?” The little dog barked. Something in Stanton's brain flashed. ”It is 'Merry' for the dog?” he quizzed. ”Here, MERRY!” In another instant the little creature had leaped upon the foot of his bed, and was talking away at a great rate with all sorts of ecstatic grunts and growls.

Stanton's hand went out almost shyly to the dog's head. ”So it's 'Molly Meredith',” he mused. But after all there was no reason to be shy about it.

It was the _dog's_ head he was stroking.

Tied to the little dog's collar when he went home the next morning was a tiny, inconspicuous tag that said ”That was easy! The pup's name--and yours--is 'Meredith.' Funny name for a dog but nice for a girl.”

The Serial-Letter Co.'s answers were always prompt, even though perplexing.

”DEAR LAD,” came this special answer. ”You are quite right about the dog. And I compliment you heartily on your shrewdness. But I must confess,--even though it makes you very angry with me, that I have deceived you absolutely concerning my own name. Will you forgive me utterly if I hereby promise never to deceive you again? Why what could I possibly, possibly do with a great solemn name like 'Meredith'? My truly name, Sir, my really, truly, honest-injun name is 'Molly Make-Believe'. Don't you know the funny little old song about 'Molly Make-Believe'? Oh, surely you do:

”'Molly, Molly Make-Believe, Keep to your play if you would not grieve!

For Molly-Mine here's a hint for you, Things that are true are apt to be blue!'

”Now you remember it, don't you? Then there's something about

”'Molly, Molly Make-a-Smile, Wear it, swear it all the while.

Long as your lips are framed for a joke, Who can prove that your heart is broke?'

”Don't you love that 'is broke'! Then there's the last verse--my favorite:

”'Molly, Molly Make-a-Beau, Make him of mist or make him of snow, Long as your DREAM stays fine and fair, _Molly, Molly what do you care!_'”

”Well, I'll wager that her name _is_ 'Meredith' just the same,” vowed Stanton, ”and she's probably madder than scat to think that I hit it right.”

Whether the daily overtures from the Serial-Letter Co. proved to be dogs or love-letters or hot-water bottles or funny old songs, it was reasonably evident that something unique was practically guaranteed to happen every single, individual night of the six weeks' subscription contract. Like a youngster's joyous dream of chronic Christmas Eves, this realization alone was enough to put an absurdly delicious thrill of expectancy into any invalid's otherwise prosy thoughts.

Yet the next bit of attention from the Serial-Letter Co. did not please Stanton one half as much as it embarra.s.sed him.

Wandering socially into the room from his own apartments below, a young lawyer friend of Stanton's had only just seated himself on the foot of Stanton's bed when an expressman also arrived with two large pasteboard hat-boxes which he straightway dumped on the bed between the two men with the laconic message that he would call for them again in the morning.

”Heaven preserve me!” gasped Stanton. ”What is this?”

Fearsomely out of the smaller of the two boxes he lifted with much rustling snarl of tissue paper a woman's brown fur-hat,--very soft, very fluffy, inordinately jaunty with a blush-pink rose nestling deep in the fur. Out of the other box, twice as large, twice as rustly, flaunted a green velvet cavalier's hat, with a green ostrich feather as long as a man's arm drooping languidly off the brim.

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