The Little Colonels Hero | Page 7

Fancy
an English child, now, making such a scene in public!"
The Little Colonel could feel her face growing painfully red. She was
indignant at being classed with such rude children, and walked quickly
away. At the cabin door she met a maid, who, coming out on deck with
something wrapped carefully in an embroidered shawl, sat down on one
of the empty benches.
Scarcely was she seated when the two boys pounced down upon her
and began pulling at the blanket. "Oh, let me see Beauty, Fanchette,"
begged Howell. "Make him sit up and do some tricks."
The maid pushed them away with a strong hand, and then carefully

drew aside a corner of the covering. Lloyd gave an exclamation of
pleasure, for the head that popped out was that of a bright little French
poodle. She had thought many times that morning of the two Bobs, and
good old Fritz, dead and gone, of Boots, the hunting-dog, and the goat
and the gobbler and the parrot,--all the animals she had loved and
played with at Locust, wishing she had them with her. Now as she saw
the bright eyes of the poodle peeping over the blanket, she forgot that
she was a stranger, and running across the deck, she stooped down
beside it.
"Oh, the darling little dog!" she exclaimed, touching the silky hair
softly. "May I hold him for a minute?"
The maid smiled, but shook her head. "Ah, that the madame will not
allow," she said.
"It cost a thousand dollars," explained Howell, eagerly, "and mamma
thinks more of it than she does of us. Doesn't she, Henny?"
The small boy nodded with a finger in his mouth.
"Show her Beauty's bracelet, Fanchette," said Howell. Turning back
another fold of the blanket, the maid lifted a little white paw, on which
sparkled a tiny diamond bracelet. Lloyd drew a long breath of
astonishment. "Some of its teeth are filled with gold," continued
Howell. "We had to stay a whole week in New York while Beauty was
in the dog hospital, having them filled. They could only do a little at a
time. One of his tricks is to laugh so that he shows all his fillings.
Laugh, Beauty!" he commanded. "Laugh, old fellow, and show your
gold teeth!"
He shook a dirty finger in the poodle's face, and it obediently stretched
its mouth, to show all its little gold-filled teeth.
"See!" exclaimed Howell, much pleased. "Do it again!"
But the maid interfered. "Your mother told you not to touch Beauty
again. You'd have the poor little thing's mouth stretched till it had the

face-ache, if you weren't watched all the time. Go away! You are a
naughty boy!"
Howell's lips shot out in a sullen pout, and the maid, not knowing what
he might do next, rose with the poodle in her arms and walked to the
other side of the vessel.
"Wish't the little beast was dead!" he muttered. "I get scolded and
punished for nothing at all whenever it is around. It and Fidelia! I
haven't any use for girls and puppy-dogs!"
After this uncivil remark he waited for the angry retort which he
thought would naturally follow, but to his surprise Lloyd only laughed
good-naturedly. She found him amusing, even if he was rude and cross,
and she could not wonder that he had such an opinion of girls, after
witnessing his quarrel with Fidelia. The boys had begun it, but she was
older and could have turned it aside had she wished. And she thought it
perfectly natural that he should dislike the dog if he thought his mother
preferred its comfort to his.
"You'd like dogs if you could have one like my old Fritz," began Lloyd,
glad of some one to talk to. Sitting down on the bench that the maid
had left, she began talking of him and the pony and the other pets at
Locust, At first the boys listened carelessly. Howell cracked his whip,
and Henderson slapped his feet with the ends of the reins he wore.
They were not used to having stories told them, except when they were
being scolded, and their mother or the maid told them tales of what
happens to bad little boys when they will not obey. Although Lloyd's
wild ride in a hand-car with one of the two little knights began
thrillingly, they listened with one foot out, ready to run at first word of
the moral lecture which they thought would surely come at the end.
The poodle had a maid to make it happy and comfortable, every
moment of its pampered little life. The boys had some one to see that
they were properly clothed and fed, and their nursery at home looked as
if a toy store had been