The black-eyed puppy

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II W HEN I first opened my eyes I hardly

knew where I was. Then I remem¬ bered. I was in the laundry, and I hadn’t had any breakfast yet. It was lonesome there, all by myself. I began to whine and yelp. I yelped louder and louder. Presently I heard somebody coming. I cocked my head on one side and listened, and then I began to wag my tail for I felt sure it was the boy. And it was.

He opened the door and came in, and patted me and made a fuss over me. “Poor Muffins,” he said. “Poor boy! Poor little fellow! I know you were lonesome. Come on, boy! Come on!”

He led the way out and up the stairs, and I followed close at his heels.

We went along a hall and into a big bright room that smelled of food. Some people were sitting at the table eating—two of them. There was the man I had seen the night before and a lady. The boy called her mother.

'Took, mother!” he said. "Isn’t he a cunning little fellow*? Mayn’t I keep him*? Please say

may.

"Oh, Tommy!” said the lady. And then I didn’t hear her say anything else, because two little dogs rushed out from under the table and began barking at me. They were the very same dogs that had chased me out of the basement the night before. There was another little dog, and she barked, too, but she stayed under the table.

The dogs came at me and I thought they were going to jump on me, so I barked and showed my teeth, but Tommy drove them away, and the lady called to them and hit at them with a white cloth she had in her lap.

The gentleman said, “Take him away, Tommy. Shut him up somewhere until after breakfast.”

So I was taken downstairs again and shut up in the same room where I had been before, but the boy brought me some breakfast,—all I could eat, so I didn’t mind.

I did hope I was going to stay and not be sent away, and that I could be Tommy’s dog and not have to go back to the O’Gradys’. I loved that boy and he loved me, and I wanted to be his dog.

And so I was. Somehow I had been afraid the lady would send me away, but she didn’t; not just then, anyway. I stayed and stayed, for days and days and days and days.

The lady didn’t like me much, and the dogs didn’t like me at all.

The names of the three dogs were Prince Coco and Bijou and Fifine. Prince Coco was rather old and fat. Fifine was a snappish little dog. I liked Bijou best, but they were all very proud and haughty with me. They were the kind of

The hoy brought me some breakfast dogs that are called Pekinese. They said that was the finest kind of dog that any dog could be, and Prince Coco told me he and the others were very handsome and worth a great deal of money. (Money is what you give to people when you want to get something from them.)

He asked me what kind of a dog I was, and I had to tell him I didn’t know, I guessed I wasn’t any particular kind of a dog; and after that they were prouder with me than ever. Fifine said she thought it was very hard that they should have to associate with such a common little dog as I was.

She said it was something she had never expected to do.

Prince Coco never was friendly with me, but Bijou was sometimes, if the other dogs weren’t there; but as soon as they came in he treated me in just the same sort of proud way the others did. It didn’t make me very happy, but I didn’t mind much.

One day Fifine was talking again about my being there. She was talking to Prince Coco, and I was under the sofa pretending to be asleep, but she knew I heard her. “I don’t see why our mis¬ tress allows him to stay,” she said. “He’s not at all like any dogs I ever associated with before. He’s just like those common little dogs we see running about the street when we go out riding in the automobile.”

Prince Coco yawned and stretched and rolled over on his side. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said. “He won’t be here much longer now.”

I pricked up my ears when I heard that.

“Why not?” asked Fifine.

“I heard the mistress talking this morning when Mary was brushing my hair. She said Tommy seemed so fond of ‘the little stray’ (as she called him) that she hadn’t had the heart to send him away just yet; but soon Tommy would be having a holiday and then they were all going off for a visit, and William was to give Muffins to a friend of his.”

(William was the man who made the automo¬ bile go, and Mary waited on the mistress.)

When Prince Coco said that I jumped up.

“Tommy won’t let them send me away,” I barked.

“Oh! so you weren’t asleep after all,” said Prince Coco in his lazy voice; and Fifine snarled, “Just pretending!”

“Yes, I was pretending,” said I, “and I heard all you said, and if you think Tommy’s going to let them send me away you’re mistaken, so you needn’t be counting on that!”

And then I marched out of the room and didn’t stop to hear anything else they might say. But for all that I spoke up that way, so bravely, I was worried, and I went upstairs and crawled in under Tommy’s bed and lay there till he came home; and then when I heard him I ran down to meet him, and we had such a fine play that I forgot all about what Prince Coco had been saying. As long as Tommy loved me and kept me with him, I didn’t care what any one else said.

Ill

T OMMY had to go to school every day, and while he was away I either stayed in the house or played in the backyard. I had some bones out there and an old rubber ball someone had thrown over the fence, and I played with them. Now and then a cat scrambled up on the fence and walked along it, and I barked at the cat.

Once one fell off in our yard and I almost caught it, but it put up its back and spit at me, so I thought I'd better not, and it ran up the fence again and jumped over into the next yard.

The other dogs never would play with me. I think maybe Bijou would have liked to but he was ashamed. The other dogs seemed to think it was common to play.

Mary used to take them out for a walk in the street every day, with a leather strap fastened to each of their collars so they wouldn’t run away or get lost. I wished I could go too; but she never took me. It must have been fun out in the street, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be held by a strap.

Tommy had given me a very pretty collar. It was red and had a bright buckle. The other dogs were disgusted because I had one. They said only fine dogs such as they were ought to have collars, and that it was absurd for me to have one too. But I didn’t care. I felt very proud that Tommy had given it to me. It made me seem more his dog than ever.

I tried to make friends with Tommy’s mother, but she didn’t seem to want to be friends with me. His father used to speak to me sometimes, and once or twice he patted me. He said I was a funny little dog.

There was a big room they called the drawing-

I wished I could go too room. It had soft rugs and big soft chairs and sofas, and there was almost always a fire in the fire¬ place. The other dogs often went in there and slept in front of the fire or on the furniture. I tried to do it once or twice too, but always someone came and drove me out just as I got settled, and James was so cross about it that I stopped going in there after a while. James was the man who worked about and did things with the food. They called him a butler.

Sometimes, in the afternoons, ladies and gentle¬ men came to the house to visit Tommy’s mother. They went in the drawing-room and laughed and talked, and Mary or James would carry in a tray with plates of cakes, and cups, and saucers and things. Fifine said it was afternoon tea, but I smelled cake, too.

Sometimes Mary came and called the other dogs and took them in there, but she never called me. Once I tried to go along, but she drove me back, and Prince Coco snarled at me. Often, when Mary took them in, I would hear the ladies cry, “What perfect little ducks of dogs!” Or, “What loves of little doggies!”

When the dogs came back again they were al¬ ways prouder then ever. They would tell me how the different ladies had petted them and praised them, and had given them bits of cake,— only little bits, because the mistress said too much cake wasn’t good for little doggies. They would lick their lips and tell me how delicious the cake was, until it made my mouth water to hear about it.

Often after they had gone I would lie there and think, “If I could only get in there once, without Mary seeing me, I would soon show the people what a clever little dog I am. I would grin, and beg, and play dead dog. How surprised and pleased they would all be! And the mistress,— she would be pleased, too, and when she saw how smart everybody thought I was she’d be glad to have me there. If only someone would think of putting a piece of cake on my nose, then I could show them that trick, too—the trick where I throw the cake up in the air and catch it again—only of course nobody knew about that, so they wouldn’t think of trying it.”

I used to lie there in the nursery and dream about it while the other little dogs were downstairs having a good time.

One day all four of us dogs were up in Tommy’s sitting-room (Mary and the mistress called it the nursery, but Tommy called it the sitting-room), and two or three times we heard the front door open and shut and visitors talking.

“I wonder if they’ll send for us?” said Fifine lazily. “I just feel like a bit of cake this after¬ noon.”

She was lying stretched out in Tommy’s chair. I hated to see her there. That was my place.

“I don’t know,” said Bijou. “But if they do , I hope Mary will brush my hair first. It looks rather rough today, and it’s always so glossy when it’s brushed.”

Just then Mary came to the door. “Come, Prince,” she said. “Come, Bijou and Fifine. The mistress wants you.”

The three little dogs jumped up and ran toward her, and I did, too. I thought maybe this time she would let me come along, but she just said, “Go back, Muffins! You can’t come. You’re not wanted”; and Prince Coco looked back and snarled, “I should think you would have learned by this time that you’re not a company dog.”

I didn’t say anything—just lay down again, but I thought, “I’ll show you in a little while whether I’m a company dog or not.” I’d made up my mind that I’d get into the drawing-room this time in spite of Mary.

Tommy was away that afternoon. Sometimes he didn’t come home till dinner time. I think he

r

went to visit other little boys.

I waited until Mary had had plenty of time to take the others to the drawing-room and leave them there, and then I got up and stole out into the entry and down the stairs. There was no one in the hall below, but I could hear the visitors talking and laughing beyond the curtains of the drawing-room door. I slipped between the cur¬ tain and the side of the doorway, and then I was in the room.

It was full of people talking and laughing, and at first no one noticed me. The mistress was sit¬ ting at a table pouring something into a cup. One lady was sitting near her with Fifine in her lap, and Prince Coco and Bijou were waiting in front of the table for cake. A gentleman was standing near the table with a cup in his hand. He was the first one to notice me.

“There’s another little dog,” he said. “Is this your dog, too, Mrs. Stanford?”

Then the mistress saw me. She gave a cry. “Oh, it’s that miserable little stray,” she said. “He came here at the time of the blizzard, and howled at the door. Tommy found him and brought him in, and begged to keep him for awhile. I don’t know how the dog managed to steal in here. Ring the bell, please, for James to take him away.”

When she said that I knew I’d have to hurry if I wanted the people to see my tricks, so first I rolled over and played “dead dog,” and then I sat up and grinned and waved my paws, and then I barked.

“My word! He’s a clever little chap,” said the gentleman, and he tossed me a bit of cake.

It fell on the floor beside me, and quick as a flash Bijou jumped to get it. But I was quicker than he was. I growled and shoved him aside and grabbed it up and swallowed it.

I sat up and waved my paws

I guess Bijou was disappointed and so he felt like fighting me. Maybe he was jealous, too, be¬ cause the gentleman noticed me. At any rate be¬ fore I knew what he was going to do he jumped on me with a snarl and bit me.

I was so surprised I tumbled over against the gentleman, and he said, “My word!” and his tea¬ cup upset and the hot tea came down on me.

The mistress cried out, “Oh, that miserable dog! Oh, Pm so sorry!” And then James came in, and the mistress said, “James, take that dog out and shut him up somewhere.”

James picked me up and carried me out, and he held me so tight I yelped. Out in the hall he dropped me and pushed me with his foot. “Go on upstairs!” he said in a low, fierce voice. “Go on!” And I ran up, and hid under the sofa in the nurs¬ ery. I was so miserable I didn’t know what to do. I did hope the other dogs wouldn’t come up there. I was ashamed to see them. But it hadn’t been my fault; it was Bijou’s. Only nobody seemed to think of that. If Tommy had been there he would have known. I was his dog, and he loved me and thought I was cute, even if nobody else did like me or want to have me around.

IV

1 DIDN’T see the other dogs until the next day. They came up in the nursery only now and then,—mostly when there wasn’t any fire in the drawing-room or when the mistress was out.

I think she must have been out the next after¬ noon, and the fire, too, because they came trotting upstairs soon after lunch and came in where I was. I had jumped up in Tommy’s chair and was lying there. I liked to lie in his chair, and someone had laid a cushion on it that morning, so it was soft and warm.

Fifine came over toward the chair and looked at me in a snarly way, and I knew she wanted me to get out of it and let her have it, but I wouldn’t.

Prince Coco sat down close against the radiator. He always chose the hottest place. He yawned, and then he looked over at me in sort of a proud, lazy way.

“Well, I hope you enjoyed yourself with the vis¬ itors yesterday,” he said. “Fighting before them all, and upsetting the tea and everything!”

The way he said it made me so mad I couldn’t help growling.

“Perfectly disgraceful,” snarled Fifine. “I never was so ashamed in my life. I’m glad the mistress told them you were Tommy’s dog, and didn’t belong with us.”

I didn’t answer,-—just kept up a low growling.

Bijou didn’t say anything. I think he was afraid. I kept watching him, and if he had said anything I was going to jump on him and show him which was the better dog. I was still mad at him for biting me the day before. I think he knew this, for he went over and lay down under the sofa, and then presently he got up again and went out.

Prince Coco kept on mumbling, and I didn’t

3 1

know whether he was talking to himself or me. “Oh, well! What’s the difference 6 ? They’re going away this week, and then it’s good-bye Muffins. You won’t be here long after they go.”

I did wish he would stop talking that way.

A door banged downstairs, and I heard Tommy whistle for me. At once I forgot Prince Coco and all he had been saying. I bounded out of my chair and tore downstairs. There was Tommy waiting for me below. He threw his school-books over on a chair, and then we had a fine romp. We had the rugs all tangled up together and the chairs crooked before we were through.

It was several days before I thought any more of what Prince Coco had said.

Then one morning I heard a bumping sound out in the hall, and I ran out to see what was going on. James was bringing a big leather box down the stairs from the third story. Bijou was out there watching him.

“What’s he bringing that box down for?” I asked.

Bijou and I were friendly again now. He was often friendly with me when the other dogs were not there, and I liked him better than the others, even if he had bitten me that time.

“It isn’t a box, it’s a trunk,” said he. “Every time the family is going away James brings the trunks down and Mary put the clothes in them, and then she shuts the trunks and men come and take them away.”

“So bringing down the trunks means people are going away?”

“Yes,” said Bijou.

“The Mistress and the Master, and Tommy, too?”

“Yes.”

That worried me.

James took that trunk into the mistress’s room, and he went up and brought down another and put it in the master’s room, and then he brought still another and put it in Tommy’s room.

He lifted the top of the one in Tommy’s room, and took part of the trunk out and set it on the floor.

I had followed him into Tommy’s room, and after he went away I jumped in the trunk and sniffed about, but I couldn’t tell much about it except that it smelled of Tommy’s clothes.

After a while Mary came into the room. When she saw me she said, “Get out of that, Muffins. You’re too curious.”

I jumped out of the trunk and sat down by it and watched her. She went over and opened Tommy’s closet and his bureau drawers, and began taking out his clothes and putting them in the trunk. After a while she had it almost full. I sat and watched her. Then she went out of the room for something.

As soon as she had gone I got up and looked into the trunk again. All those clothes of Tommy’s were going, and if I were in the trunk I would go, too.

Right away I knew what to do. I jumped into the trunk and scratched up some of the clothes and got down in a corner and put my head down under¬ neath them, and then I lay there and kept perfectly still.

Soon Mary came back into the room. She moved about and shut a bureau drawer, and then she came over to the trunk. I could hear her.

“Tsch!” she said. “Whoever has been at this trunk!” Then she lifted something off my head. “Well I never!” she cried.

I didn’t move, except that I couldn’t help shak¬ ing. I just lay still and pretended I wasn’t there.

Tommy must have come home, for I heard his whistle, but I only snuggled down still further in the trunk, and hoped Mary would go away and forget about me.

I pretended 1 wasn't there

Presently he came upstairs, and I heard him asking, ‘ 'Where is Muffins ?”

u He’s in here, Master Tommy!” called Mary.

He came in the room. I could tell by the sound, though I didn’t lift my head or stir.

“Look in here,” said Mary.

Tommy came over to the trunk and looked into it.

“The little beggar!” he cried. “How did he get in there?”

“He must have jumped in while I was out of the room,” said Mary.

“Did you ever know such a dog!” cried T ommy.

A moment after he took hold of me. “Come out of there, you little beggar,” he said.

I tried to get further down under the clothes, but Tommy lifted me out. He was laughing in a funny way, and he put his face against me.

“If you’re not the limit!” he said. “I believe he knows I’m going away, Mary, and he wants to go with me.”

Of course that was what I wanted. I wouldn’t have hidden in the trunk if I hadn’t hoped to go along.

“I don’t see why I can’t take him,” said Tommy. ‘Tm going to ask mother whether I can’t.”

a You can ask her, but you know she won’t let you,” said Mary.

I suppose she wouldn’t let him, for I know I didn’t go.

The next day the automobile came to the door early and the trunks were carried out, and then Tommy and his father and mother came down¬ stairs with their hats on, and when I jumped up on Tommy he said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t go, old fellow.”

James caught me by the collar and pulled me back. I almost snapped him, he bothered me so. I did snarl and try to wriggle away from him, but I couldn’t.

Then Mary opened the outside door and Tommy and his father and mother went down the steps, and when they were part way down Tommy looked back and called, “Good-bye, Muffins! Pll be back soon. Take good care of him while Pm away, James. Good-bye!”

And then Mary shut the door, and they were gone.

Prince Coco yawned and stretched himself. “Well, now we ? ll have some peace and quiet, with Tommy out of the house!” he said.

That made me so mad I growled and flew at him, but James turned back and said, “Here! Here! None of that! What’s the matter with you, Muffins, anyway*?”

Coco didn’t say anything more about Tommy after that. He was afraid to.

He may have liked having the house so quiet, but I didn’t. I was so lonesome without Tommy that I hardly knew what to do with myself. But then he had said he would be back soon. And he had told James to take good care of me, so it was all nonsense about their sending me away and my not being there when Tommy came home again.

1 WAS up in Tommy’s room lying under the bed with one of his shoes in my mouth. It was one of his school shoes. I had dragged it out of the closet one day when Mary left the door open. I didn’t feel so lonesome when I had it in my mouth. He had been gone for several days now.

Well, I was lying there, and sometimes I chewed the top of the shoe and sometimes I just held it, and then I heard James whistling and calling me.

I wondered what he wanted, so I left the shoe under the bed where it was safe and ran down to see.

He was standing in the front hall, and Bijou and Fifine were there, too. “Come along, Muffins,” said James, and as soon as I came near enough for him to reach me he picked me up. He held me under his arm and went over to the front door and opened it.

The automobile was standing out in front of the house, and Bijou and Fifine thought we were going for a ride and they wanted to go too, but James pushed them back with his foot and told them to stay at home. He shut the door behind us and went over to the automobile and got up in front beside William. He put me down on his knees but still he held me, and then we started off.

I was very much excited. I had never been in an automobile before. All the other dogs had. I had often watched from the window and seen them starting out with the mistress, but she never took me.

We rolled along down the street, with William holding the wheel, and there were other automo¬ biles and crowds of people, and I saw some other dogs, too.

The wind blew, and I was so excited I barked and barked until James told me to be quiet, and even then I didn’t stop till he held my mouth shut with his hand.

After a while we turned into a narrower street and stopped in front of a queer-looking shop. It had a big window with a sort of cage in it with an upstairs and a downstairs, and puppies and some long-haired cats in it.

v William stopped the automobile in front of the shop. “This is the place,” he said.

Then he got down and took me from James and carried me into the shop. I never heard such a noise as there was in there. It had cages all along one side with dogs and cats in them, and some other animals that I didn’t know, and the dogs were barking and yelping, and big green birds were shrieking, and there were chickens making a noise, too.

A man came forward from the back of the shop, and William said, “This is the dog.”

The man took me and looked at me. I didn’t like him. He scared me and I growled at him, but he didn’t pay any attention. “All right!” he said, and then he opened the door of one of the cages and put me in with a lot of other puppies.

He shut the door of the cage and fastened it, and then he gave William some money. William took it and put it in his pocket, but he kept looking at me in a sorry sort of way, and he came up close to the cage and put his fingers through, and said, “Well—good-bye, Muffins, old chap.” Then he turned away.

All of a sudden I knew he meant to leave me there, and I lifted my nose and howled, and yelped and howled again.

William looked back at me, and then he turned to the man and asked him something.

“Oh, he’ll be all right in a little while,” said the man.

William looked at me once more in the same sort of sorry way, and then he went out and the door closed behind him.

He had gone and left me. But if only I could get out of the cage I might still run after him. I cried and whined and tore at the door with my claws, but I couldn’t get it open.

Suddenly I felt a cold nose against mine and a little tongue licked my cheek. One of the other puppies in the cage was trying to make friends with me.

I stopped tearing at the door and sniffed at him, and I liked his smell. He smelled friendly.

After we had smelled each other he gave a sudden little frisk and tried to get me to play, but I sat down and didn’t pay any more attention to him. I felt too sad and lonely to care anything about playing.

“I guess you don’t like it here, do you?” said the little dog.

“No, I don’t, and I want to go home.”

“I’ve been here a long time; oh, a long, long time,” said the puppy, “It’s not so bad.”

“Did you have a home 1 ?” I asked.

“Yes, but I don’t often think about it. I guess maybe some time someone will take me away and I may have another home.”

“But I don’t want to stay here a long time,” I said. It made me whine to think of it.

“Well, maybe you won’t. Some of the dogs only stay here a little while. They just come here and then they go away again.”

“Where do they go 4 ?”

“People come and get them. I guess they go to different places.”

I looked around the cage and saw there were a great many puppies. None of them were alike. Some were bigger than others, but none of them were very big. They were almost all asleep, some lying on top of others, but presently one of them woke and yawned and got up. He didn’t pay any attention to me, but went over and took a drink of water and licked at a plate that looked as if food had been in it. Then he went back and lay down again.