A Dogs Tale | Page 6

and electrics, and wires,
and strange machines; and every week other scientists came there and
sat in the place, and used the machines, and discussed, and made what
they called experiments and discoveries; and often I came, too, and
stood around and listened, and tried to learn, for the sake of my mother,

and in loving memory of her, although it was a pain to me, as realizing
what she was losing out of her life and I gaining nothing at all; for try
as I might, I was never able to make anything out of it at all.
Other times I lay on the floor in the mistress's work-room and slept, she
gently using me for a foot-stool, knowing it pleased me, for it was a
caress; other times I spent an hour in the nursery, and got well tousled
and made happy; other times I watched by the crib there, when the
baby was asleep and the nurse out for a few minutes on the baby's
affairs; other times I romped and raced through the grounds and the
garden with Sadie till we were tired out, then slumbered on the grass in
the shade of a tree while she read her book; other times I went visiting
among the neighbor dogs--for there were some most pleasant ones not
far away, and one very handsome and courteous and graceful one, a
curly-haired Irish setter by the name of Robin Adair, who was a
Presbyterian like me, and belonged to the Scotch minister.
The servants in our house were all kind to me and were fond of me, and
so, as you see, mine was a pleasant life. There could not be a happier
dog that I was, nor a gratefuller one. I will say this for myself, for it is
only the truth: I tried in all ways to do well and right, and honor my
mother's memory and her teachings, and earn the happiness that had
come to me, as best I could.
By and by came my little puppy, and then my cup was full, my
happiness was perfect. It was the dearest little waddling thing, and so
smooth and soft and velvety, and had such cunning little awkward paws,
and such affectionate eyes, and such a sweet and innocent face; and it
made me so proud to see how the children and their mother adored it,
and fondled it, and exclaimed over every little wonderful thing it did. It
did seem to me that life was just too lovely to--
Then came the winter. One day I was standing a watch in the nursery.
That is to say, I was asleep on the bed. The baby was asleep in the crib,
which was alongside the bed, on the side next the fireplace. It was the
kind of crib that has a lofty tent over it made of gauzy stuff that you can
see through. The nurse was out, and we two sleepers were alone. A
spark from the wood-fire was shot out, and it lit on the slope of the tent.

I suppose a quiet interval followed, then a scream from the baby awoke
me, and there was that tent flaming up toward the ceiling! Before I
could think, I sprang to the floor in my fright, and in a second was
half-way to the door; but in the next half-second my mother's farewell
was sounding in my ears, and I was back on the bed again. I reached
my head through the flames and dragged the baby out by the
waist-band, and tugged it along, and we fell to the floor together in a
cloud of smoke; I snatched a new hold, and dragged the screaming little
creature along and out at the door and around the bend of the hall, and
was still tugging away, all excited and happy and proud, when the
master's voice shouted:
"Begone you cursed beast!" and I jumped to save myself; but he was
furiously quick, and chased me up, striking furiously at me with his
cane, I dodging this way and that, in terror, and at last a strong blow
fell upon my left foreleg, which made me shriek and fall, for the
moment, helpless; the cane went up for another blow, but never
descended, for the nurse's voice rang wildly out, "The nursery's on
fire!" and the master rushed away in that direction, and my other bones
were saved.
The pain was cruel, but, no matter, I must not lose any time; he might
come back at any moment; so I limped on three legs to the other end of
the hall, where there was a dark little stairway leading up into a garret
where old boxes and such things were kept, as I had heard say, and
where