A Dogs Tale | Page 7

people seldom went. I managed to climb up there, then I
searched my way through the dark among the piles of things, and hid in
the secretest place I could find. It was foolish to be afraid there, yet still
I was; so afraid that I held in and hardly even whimpered, though it
would have been such a comfort to whimper, because that eases the
pain, you know. But I could lick my leg, and that did some good.
For half an hour there was a commotion downstairs, and shoutings, and
rushing footsteps, and then there was quiet again. Quiet for some
minutes, and that was grateful to my spirit, for then my fears began to
go down; and fears are worse than pains--oh, much worse. Then came a
sound that froze me. They were calling me--calling me by

name--hunting for me!
It was muffled by distance, but that could not take the terror out of it,
and it was the most dreadful sound to me that I had ever heard. It went
all about, everywhere, down there: along the halls, through all the
rooms, in both stories, and in the basement and the cellar; then outside,
and farther and farther away--then back, and all about the house again,
and I thought it would never, never stop. But at last it did, hours and
hours after the vague twilight of the garret had long ago been blotted
out by black darkness.
Then in that blessed stillness my terrors fell little by little away, and I
was at peace and slept. It was a good rest I had, but I woke before the
twilight had come again. I was feeling fairly comfortable, and I could
think out a plan now. I made a very good one; which was, to creep
down, all the way down the back stairs, and hide behind the cellar door,
and slip out and escape when the iceman came at dawn, while he was
inside filling the refrigerator; then I would hide all day, and start on my
journey when night came; my journey to--well, anywhere where they
would not know me and betray me to the master. I was feeling almost
cheerful now; then suddenly I thought: Why, what would life be
without my puppy!
That was despair. There was no plan for me; I saw that; I must stay
where I was; stay, and wait, and take what might come--it was not my
affair; that was what life is--my mother had said it. Then--well, then the
calling began again! All my sorrows came back. I said to myself, the
master will never forgive. I did not know what I had done to make him
so bitter and so unforgiving, yet I judged it was something a dog could
not understand, but which was clear to a man and dreadful.
They called and called--days and nights, it seemed to me. So long that
the hunger and thirst near drove me mad, and I recognized that I was
getting very weak. When you are this way you sleep a great deal, and I
did. Once I woke in an awful fright--it seemed to me that the calling
was right there in the garret! And so it was: it was Sadie's voice, and
she was crying; my name was falling from her lips all broken, poor
thing, and I could not believe my ears for the joy of it when I heard her

say:
"Come back to us--oh, come back to us, and forgive--it is all so sad
without our--"
I broke in with SUCH a grateful little yelp, and the next moment Sadie
was plunging and stumbling through the darkness and the lumber and
shouting for the family to hear, "She's found, she's found!"
The days that followed--well, they were wonderful. The mother and
Sadie and the servants--why, they just seemed to worship me. They
couldn't seem to make me a bed that was fine enough; and as for food,
they couldn't be satisfied with anything but game and delicacies that
were out of season; and every day the friends and neighbors flocked in
to hear about my heroism--that was the name they called it by, and it
means agriculture. I remember my mother pulling it on a kennel once,
and explaining it in that way, but didn't say what agriculture was,
except that it was synonymous with intramural incandescence; and a
dozen times a day Mrs. Gray and Sadie would tell the tale to
new-comers, and say I risked my life to say the baby's, and both of us
had burns to prove it, and then the company would pass me around and
pet me and exclaim about me, and you could see the pride in the eyes
of Sadie and her mother; and when the people