Marshall Saunders

“ I said gaily. “Fight, and forgive, and make up—fight, and forgive, and make up. That’s life.”
“I don’t believe in fighting,” said Gringo soberly.
“Nor do I,” said I, “but if fights come, don’t dodge them. Dogs aren’t perfect, nor are human beings.”
“My boss don’t fight his wife,” said Gringo.
“Nor does mine,” I retorted, “but sometimes they are just a little sharp with each other. Then they kiss and make up. You and I have kissed, and made up. I don’t want you to go mourning all your days, because you once snapped at me. It was partly my fault. I got on your dog nerves.” ”

“ I said to Beanie.
“There’s no view of the River,” he muttered.
I sighed. There’s no comforting a dog with a broken heart.
He did cheer up a bit, when we got into Ellen’s flat. How glad she was to see my master. Not cringingly glad, but glad in the nice, affectionate way coloured people have toward those they like.
She was sitting in one of the big rocking-chairs in her tiny kitchen, and had evidently been looking out the window at the crowds of people sauntering to and fro on the brightly lighted avenue. ”

“ He assured her that Clossie was well, and then she said, “Mr. Bonstone, this is our friend of whom I was speaking the other day—Mr. Granton.”
The two men shook hands, and looked at each other with sizing-up glances, like two dogs that may fight and may not, just as the fancy strikes them.
Gringo went under the sofa with me, and Walter Scott lay by the fire.
My! what a gossip we had. “Ain’t master the curly-headed boy,” said Gringo admiringly. “Just up and leaves the Bowery, and comes in among the swells, as cool as a cucumber. Picks the downiest peach of the lot.” ”

“ I slipped down Broadway, running close to the stores and keeping the people between me and the gutter. One seldom meets a policeman near shop windows. It was a lovely evening, with a warm spring-like feeling in the air, and this nice, wide, clean Broadway fascinated me more than ever, and everybody looked so happy and pleasant and well-dressed that I concluded all the people with troubles had stayed at home. Nearly every person had on new spring shoes. I really think that nowhere in the world, except in Paris, does one see such pretty, well-shod feet as in New York. ”

“ I said.
“The women,” exclaimed Gringo with suppressed rage, “I’m tired of this drink-martyr’s business. The men have all the fun, the women all the pain. Every time that young rapscallion comes out here, missis sneaks up to his room to feel his coat pockets, and search his suit-case, to find out if he’s brought any of the powerful, and if she finds it, she cries, and pours out half and puts water in, and if a caller comes, down she goes, smiling as if she hadn’t a trouble in the world. I’d like to chuck all the drunkards in New York Bay with a rock on their necks.” ”

“ THE WOMAN BY THE RIVER As all travelled dogs know, Riverside Drive, which I claim is the loveliest stretch of avenue in New York, has, at intervals, a sunburst of a park. Those strips of park are delicious for my race. Did you ever notice a sober, city dog trotting behind his master till an open square is reached? If he is a normal dog, his legs begin to dance, and he begs permission to have a scamper. ”

“ What a faithful little heart!
“Amarilla,” I said, “I missed you and Gringo more than any other of the dogs.”
She still said nothing, but she stretched out her tiny pink tongue, and licked my bandages very softly.
“Go to sleep,” I said, “we shall have some fine romps on the lawn when my feet get better.”
She drew a long, pitiful sigh, and closed her eyes. How could any one ever ill-treat a timid shrinking thing like that. I can understand how a man can beat a fox-terrier but a toy-spaniel—never! ”

“ At one o’clock my master rose, and leaving this hive of industry behind him, went out for lunch.
I have had training enough for ten dogs, and my new master guessed it. He never looked behind, and I never looked before. I kept my muzzle at his shoe heels, and we passed leisurely through the swarms of bees from other hives that were buzzing through halls and in elevators. All were after honey, and we found a particularly agreeable place for ours.
To my astonishment, when our turn came to enter an elevator, we did not go down to the street, but up to the top of the high building we were in. ”

“ We dogs divide man and womankind into two classes. Those who understand us, and those who don’t.
He bent over me, slipped the silly collar from my neck, and twisted it thoughtfully round and round in his fingers. Then he began to laugh, and I thought he would never stop.
“Rudolph,” said the lady, who was hugging the bull, “Rudolph, do stop. You get on my nerves. And what do you see to laugh about? A nasty, fighting, street dog bursts into our apartment, bullies poor Beanie, and you admire him for it. I call it brute force. Now, woman, tell me your business.”
Ellen was smiling indulgently. ”

“ There seemed not one single avenue open to me. I had always had a theory, that no man and no dog can be put in any place so tight that he can’t get out of it, but I seemed to be in such a place now. I could think of absolutely nothing to do.
The scheme of these young villains was a very simple, but a very cunning one. By instinct and habit, they were natives of the very downest part of New York. They had brought me to the country to escape the keen eyes of the New York police, who, as I have said before, are, in spite of the criticism they receive, a pretty fine body of men. ”

“ Gringo got third prize. I was surprised to hear how many events the modest old dog had been in. He was chained next to me, and his remarks on the show were killing. He loathed vain dogs—these fellows who adore shows, and when the travelling boxes are brought out, bark with excitement, and on arriving, bask all day long in popular approval.
I had honourable mention. Gringo thought I would get a prize, but when I looked round the show, I said, “Some of these fellows here will ride rough-shod over me. It’s amazing what a sum of fidelity to the human race they represent.” ”

“ I am amazed at the topsy-turviness of their ideas. Now, rich people are not perfect, but on the whole, they seem to have more common sense than the idle poor. These shabbily dressed persons perch round on the benches, stare at master’s big white house showing among the trees, and these are their sentiments: “I wish I had been born rich—I wish some one would die, and leave me some money—I wish I didn’t have to work”—one man only, in the whole course of my eavesdropping under hedges, have I heard say, “That’s a wise guy in that big house. He’s slaved for what he got. ”

“ Granton’s voice suddenly became compassionate. “Run to the telephone, dear Carty,” she said, “we can’t help loving you, in spite of your faults. Telephone Norman, telephone my husband—beg them to say nothing of the occurrence. Beg them to keep quiet. Tell them it was your bottle, that your friends will put their own construction on the story, no matter how innocently it is told. Fly to the telephone, like a good boy.”
Mistress glanced at the sofa. ”

“ Lady Jane galloped away, and presently returned with her teeth in the shoulder of the woolen sweater worn by the grinning Joe, who bobbed his head at his employer and guest.
The old gentleman began to speak. “This is almost equal to the thinking horses of Elberfeld.”
“Can you state to me,” asked Mr. Bonstone, “any reason why an American horse should not have as much brains as a German horse?”
“None whatever,” said the old gentleman. “Horses, like men, are created equal. Tell me, stableman, what is your system?”
“Haven’t any, sir,” said Thomas. ”

“ Granton. “Come on, Beans, since you’re my dog now, come out and take a walk with Boy and me.”
He always called me Boy or Boy-Dog. He said I was too clever to be just plain dog.
I hate sorrow and suffering and ugly things. With my tail between my legs, I slunk after my master. I didn’t like to look at Beanie. He was behind me. Poor, poor young dog—prematurely aged on account of the over feeding, over-petting and the over-everything of a foolish mistress, and now shaken out of his paradise. ”

“ You muzzle a dog, and he gets sick and makes his master sick. The fool commissioner hurts the humans more than he helps them.”
“But he’s trying to wipe out the disease,” I said. “There isn’t much of it, and if the dogs are muzzled for a few years, it will be stamped out.”
“Yes, and we’ll have a dozen other worse diseases by that time. A muzzled dog is a menace to his master, I tell you. Let ’em supervise our health in some way. Let the government do as much for us as they do for pigs. Then we wouldn’t hear of rabies. The commissioner’s a fool—New York’s rotten anyway.” ”

“ Resterton, “but for him, Sir Edward might have died before Norman found him.”
“She got the baronet’s title in twice that time,” snickered Gringo who was lying beside me at Mrs. Resterton’s feet. Then he began to pant nervously, for the old dog’s sympathies had been aroused, and he had tramped fast all through the woods with his master and Walt.
“Well,” I said to him, “isn’t this a queer world? Seems as if when a dog or a man does a kind deed, he always gets his pay for it.” ”

“ She sits there night after night and sticks pins in my poor boss, and he thinks she’s cute and clever.”
“I guess you don’t understand her any more than you do the Riverside dogs,” I said. “Looks to me as if she liked him.”
“Then,” replied Gringo, “why don’t she tell him so, instead of wasping his life out?”
“Gringo,” I said, “some ladies often wrap truth all round with affectations, till it’s like a little lost soul in the centre of a big ball.”
“Then give me just plain women,” said the old dog sulkily.
“Norman,” Mrs. Bonstone was saying, “how would you like to give a ball. ”

“ Yeggie came dancing up to Gringo one day and asked why the distinguished stranger was finding out about fishing in this cold autumn weather.
“Don’t you know, pup?” said Gringo with a wink at me, “that folks hang round what their mouths water for? Give me the name of the dog that lingers long round the kitchen windows, when the good, hot smell of meat is wafted out.” ”

“ There is great happiness in an accepted family. I notice some human beings are always trying to get away from their home environment, and many times it is with them as it is with me—it keeps them on the trot all the time.
I don’t want any one to think that I imagine I have become a perfect dog. Good gracious, no! I am just a good, plain, American every-day sort of a dog. I [193] have no illusions about myself, or my owners. I want to do my duty in the dog walk of life to which I am called. ”

“ I heard master say the other day that he had no liking for a man who never changes his opinion, and I believe that saying is true with regard to dogs as well as men. I never used to like babies. Why? I never cultivated them. I love them now, because I study them, and it is one of the pleasures of my life to note the astonishing developments and differences, between the rapidly growing and changing Cyria, and little George.
Sometimes they bother me, but who has not trouble? A dog that dreams through life, lives in a back yard away out of sight, nobody notices or cares for. ”

“ Granton didn’t seem to mind being shadowed, and Amarilla adored doing it, so there was no reason why they should not both be satisfied. Every man and every dog to his liking, and that reminds me, how, oh! how am I going to like the country? The time is drawing near for our removal. Mr. Bonstone has found a beautiful estate for master. The change in my life is going to be positive. I don’t want to run away again. I want to stay with this nice man, but can I, if he leaves my beloved New York? ”

“ Here he stopped and smiled a very pained sort of smile, and looked hastily from the nice plump matron whose big blue eyes were full of tears.
“After you get your teeth,” he went on, “you will come to Pleasant River. I have a cottage to let there, you shall have it, and Montmorency may live with you. Your skill in cooking will support you. I will see to that.”
Jane began to mope in a dull sort of way. She did not cry. Her red eyes looked as if she had shed all the tears she had to shed. She said she would rather his wife would keep Montmorency, and she would stay in New York. ”

“ Our last sight of him, was at the head of the staircase, struggling in old Ellen’s arms.
“Dog, dog,” she said rebukingly, “old Ellen knows. There’s a cloud going to burst over you all. Mister an’ dog—an’ it’s full o’ blessings.”
My master smiled at intervals all the way home. He always made for Riverside Drive, and never stayed any longer than he could help in the blocks and blocks of streets between it and East River. This night there were heavy masses of clouds over the river, but just before we got home, the moon broke through, and showed a superb, smiling face. ”

“ All these show dogs have nightmare most horribly. That is one reason why Gringo won’t allow Weary Winnie to sleep in the house with him. He had her in one night, and he said that though he was fond of the creature, he couldn’t have her yelling blue murder every hour in his ear.
Yeggie is young and dashing, and hasn’t very good manners. He was a tramp dog when the showman got him, and sometimes he annoys me by saying that I, too, led a tramp’s life. I explain to him over and over again, that a wandering dog isn’t necessarily a tramp dog, but he can’t make the distinction. ”

“ I raced after my dog-brothers. The night did not seem as dark as to human beings. Cannie was on his hind legs peering into the car, and King Harry was up on the seat, snuffing and blowing over a pair of driving gloves. ”