Fluff

“ To-night it was darned across with ice needles, and the silver 'cat-ice' round the edge crackled under Cuni's paws. As she expected, Fluff-Button was seated on the other bank taking a tonic. In winter when the grass is sodden and tasteless, rabbits are seized with a burning desire for strong astringent food, and they often wander far from their burrows to seek rushes, or the dry bark of saplings. To-night Fluff-Button gnawed the knotted roots of the wild iris, and as their bitterness burnt his mouth and made him sneeze, his nose quivered with pleasure. ”

“ There was a young rabbit of Cuni's first family, who, although the season was so late, had a litter in a remote chamber, just beyond where Fluff-Button lay. She dared not thump, lest the noise should betray her presence, but lay very still with four youngsters nuzzling at her side. By and by Fluff-Button heard something sniffing its way towards him, for the tunnel carried sound like a telephone. The anxious little mother also heard it, and sat up. Fluff-Button waited until he judged that the rat was within range, and then flung up a shower of sand with his hind feet. ”

“ Very soon Princess Fluff saw her and ran after the girl, crying indignantly, "See here! What do you mean by wearing my cloak? Take it off instantly!"
"It isn't your cloak. It is one of my own," replied the girl calmly.
"Nonsense! There can't be two such cloaks in the world," retorted Fluff.
"But there are," persisted Adlena. "How could I get the one in your drawer when the key is around your own neck?"
"I'm sure I don't know," admitted the princess, beginning to be puzzled. "But come with me into my rooms. If my fairy cloak is indeed in the drawer, then I will believe you." ”

“ That is the way he always howls. That is one of the reasons I have decided to get rid of Fluff. But it is a great deal worse for us than it is for you. The air inlet of our furnace is at the side of the house just where Fluff puts his head when he howls, and the register in our room is right at the head of our bed. ”

“ To John—and to how many others?—Scaife has been transformed into a tremendous human machine, inexorably cutting and slicing, pulling and drawing—the embodied symbol of force, ruthlessly applied, indefatigable, omnipotent.
The Eton captain, hopeful against odds, puts on a cunning and cool dealer in "lobs." Fluff is in, playing steadily, holding up his wicket, letting the giant make the runs. The Etonian delivers his first ball. Scaife leaves the crease. Fluff sees the ball slowly spinning—harmless enough till it pitches, and then deadly as a writhing serpent. Scaife will not let it pitch. ”

“ But he was right about the periodicity of Fluff. Almost on the minute at the end of forty-eight hours Fluff returned, and Brownlee and Murchison, who were there to receive him, were as pleased as if Fluff had been going away instead of returning.
“That dog,” said Brownlee, “is a wonderful animal. If Sir Isaac Newton had that dog, he would have proved something or other of universal value by him. That dog is plumb full of ratios and things, if we only knew how to get them out of him. ”

“ Floss knew how to snap, and Fluff knew how to whine, and if they had been let to go hun-gry, or cold, or had been scold-ed, they'd have been cross, naught-y dogs.
But Floss and Fluff had a good mas-ter. He was a lit-tle boy on-ly six years old, but he was a first-rate mas-ter. ”

“ Demanding sympathy, he received a slating.
"I play nearly as rotten a game as you do, Fluff," John said; "but Scaife expects us to be Torpids, [12] so we [31] jolly well have to buck up. That bruise over your eye has taken off your painted-doll look. Now, if you're going to blub, you'd better get behind that hedge."
Fluff exploded.
"This is a beastly hole," he cried. "And I loathe it. I'm going to write to my father and beg him to take me away."
"You ought to be at a girls' school."
"I hate everything and everybody. I thought you were my friend, the only friend I had." ”

“ An odd, weird sort of child, with a head running over with little dark curls, and large wondering eyes—not an ordinary child, and certainly not a pretty one, and looking, at the present moment, with her wrinkled eyebrows and huddled-up figure, like a little old witch in a fairy tale.
“I am that tired,” observed the child, apparently apostrophising the kettle, “that not all the monkeys in the Zoölogical Gardens could make me laugh; no, not if they had the old father baboon as their head. I wish I were a jaguar!”
“Why, Fluff?” exclaimed a pleasant voice from the rocking-chair. “Why, Fluff?” ”

“ During the first half of the winter quarter, John saw but little of Esmé Kinloch. It is one of the characteristics of a Public School that the boys—as in the greater world for which it is a preparation—are in layers. Some layers overlap; others never touch. Fluff was a fag; his friend John was in the Fifth Form, and a "fez." In a word, an Atlantic rolled between them. John, however, would often give Fluff a "con," and occasionally they would walk together. Fluff was no longer the delicate, girlish child of a year ago. ”

“ Fluff was a gentle milk cat. White-face was a fierce mouser. White-face would often bite and claw her sister, but Fluff never bit and clawed back.
Once, however, Fluff bit and clawed first, and there was a fight, and Fluff—but that’s the story.
Papa Pinkham had caught a gray mouse in the wire cage-trap. It was so cunning Posy begged to keep it, and Papa Pinkham left it in the cage-trap and went off to business. Posy fed the mouse with five kernels of corn, and then went to dress her doll Lilybell for breakfast.
FLUFF ALSO ADMIRES THE MOUSE.
Fluff had been looking on. ”

“ A house is a great deal heavier than a hydrant. He would probably have moved the house off the foundation a little, but, judging by the direction Fluff took, the house would have wedged between those two trees, and you would have only lost a piece of the porch, or whatever he was tied to. But the lesson is that you must not try to shoot Fluff unless you are a good wing shot. Unless you can shoot like Davy Crockett, you would be apt to wound Fluff without killing him, and then there would be trouble!”
“Yes,” said Murchison, “the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals folks. ”

“ We came over to learn how you mean to get rid of Fluff.”
“Brownlee,” I said, “I shall think up some way to get rid of Fluff. Getting rid of a dog is no task for a mind like mine. But until he returns and gives me back my hydrant, I shall do nothing further. I am not going to bother about getting rid of a dog that is not here to be got rid of.”
By the time Fluff returned I had thought out a plan. Murchison had never paid the dog tax on Fluff, and that was the same as condemning him to death if he was ever caught outside of the yard, but when he was outside he could not be caught. ”

“ Wilton went into the house, carrying little sleepy Downy in her arms. Fluff and Roger walked away hand in hand, and I tipped my glass so that I could follow.
"Have you many pets, Fluff?" asked Roger. [183]
"No!" replied Fluff. "We have only the three dogs, and José, the brown donkey, and the kitten that Brighteyes found in the tree. But then we have a great many dolls," she added, "and I suppose you have'nt any dolls, because you are a boy."
"Animals is better than dolls," said Roger. "Here is my lamb, under this tree. Isn't he lovely? ”

“ Irene jumped out and picked them up. Soon Puff and Fluff were on their way back home. They were very happy to be cuddled in Irene’s arms.
She held them very close. “Dear Kitties,” she said, “you must take your punishments bravely. If I did not correct your faults when you are kittens, you would grow up into BAD CATS!”
Fluff and Puff rolled up into two little balls. They were so happy that they had such a nice, kind mistress, who trained them so well, and yet forgave them so readily, that they purred louder than the engine.
When they reached home Irene laid them tenderly on the pretty couch. ”

“ Several times Fluff-Button thought that he had shaken off his pursuer, but every time a yelp from behind told him that the latter was still hot on the line. In a long chase the odds are against the rabbit. He is not accustomed to sustained efforts, and although only a swift dog can catch him in a dash to the burrow's mouth, yet if hunted far he soon tires. ”

“ From tip to toe, at all seasons and in all weathers, he looked conspicuously spick and span. Chaff provoked the solemn retort: "One should be well groomed." He spoke impersonally, considering it bad form to use for first person singular. Amongst the small boys he ranked as the Petronius of the Lower School.
One day the Caterpillar said grandiloquently, "You kids will oblige me by not shouting and yelling when you speak to me. I've a bit of a head."
"What's wrong with it?" said Fluff.
"It looks splendid outside," said John, in his serious voice. ”

“ Fluff, the pony, had a fine box stall with a window looking into the garden. Fluff belonged to Gilbert; but Gilbert had grown so tall that he thought the pony too small for his use, and on Winifred's last birthday had given her all right and title to the little gray pony, whose thick mane and plume-like tail had made the name "Fluff" most appropriate.
The stable was nearly hidden from the house by shrubs and trees, and Gilbert and Winifred found it a fine play-house. Ruth often wished [Pg 63] that there was a stable in her father's garden, and that she had a pony exactly like Fluff. ”

“ Bud had the toys and dolls all carried upstairs Into a big room, and then he ordered everybody to keep out while he and Fluff arranged their playthings around the room and upon: the tables and chairs, besides littering the floor so that they could hardly find a clear place large enough for some of their romping games.
“‘We ’ll take ’em all,’ declared Bud.”
“After all,” he said to his sister, “it’s a good thing to be a king!” ”

“ Some fifty yards further on was an old rabbit burrow. He dived into it, and lay panting in its bottommost recess until long after moonset. But no Cur Dog came to nose at the burrow's mouth.
Thus Fluff-Button might have cried quits with [75] White-Lamb for the time that the latter summoned the flock to face the fox. But though the next evening found them together in the Sheep Field, yet they fed placidly side by side and exchanged no word nor sign; for it is not the way of the Wild Folk to show gratitude to one another. ”

“ That dog is a pure cross between a Siberian wolfhound and a Newfoundland. You treat that dog right and you'll have a fortune in him. Why, a pure Siberian wolfhound is worth a thousand dollars, and a good—a really good Newfoundland, mind you—is worth two thousand, and you've got both in one dog. That's three thousand dollars' worth of dog!”
In the next six months Fluff grew. He broadened out and lengthened and heightened, and every day or two Brownlee or Massett would discover a new strain of dog in him. ”

“ This made Yowler very angry, and he would not speak to Fluffy for a whole day.
Jazbury, indeed, was becoming a very fine hunter,--better, even, than Fluffy himself. Fluffy was very skilful, but Jazbury was not only quick, he was also strong and brave; stronger and braver than the gentle little Fluffy had ever dreamed of being. ”

“ T. says, if that's so, she'd better have her own, own room done in some other colour, but Fluffy says, No, she likes pinky-bluey shades, only he must remember, when he's inclined to be hard on her, that the pinky-blueys are to blame and not herself.
Then there's old Lady Humguffin, easily the most miserly old dear who ever wore a transformation (she even has a taxi-meter thing in her own motors and anyone driving with her is expected to pay what it registers!) ”

“ Never was there such a startling change known as that which occurred in everybody's bearing towards the prompter! There was only one person who did not come up to him and wring his hand, and "hope he would not forget old friends in his prosperity"; there was only one actress in the provinces who, for years afterwards, was remarked to show a strong distaste when a certain subject of theatrical interest was mentioned. Her name was Miss Maud Bellamy, and the subject was the Rise of "Fluffums." ”

“ He laughed mock-tragically. “This night must never be forgotten!”
“It never will,” said Blotte; and laughing grimly he got striding again in the red wig, as Fluffy Reubens and Doome burst into the room.
“Here, Fluffy,” said Rippley, “quick, man! put on this yellow wig, and comb it well over your eyes. There isn’t a moment to be lost; Doome, here’s a black moustache and a greyish wig—this is the way to stick it on—see? Splendid! Makes you look like a broken-down Italian tenor.” ”

“ To this plan the others agreed.
"Suppose we meet some dogs?" said Fluffy.
"If you do, you'll just have to do the best you can. Run up an alley, or climb a fence or something. Now come on! We'll go as far as the edge of the lot together."
The three little kittens stole away through the weeds, and when they came to the edge of the lot Jazbury and Fluffy stopped. They watched Yowler cross to the other side of the street and turn a corner. Then, after a moment or so, Fluffy followed, then Jazbury. ”

“ Chelifer has engaged Miss Fluffy in a conversation which soon occupies the attention of all the persons sitting at the upper end of the table—a conversation about flappers. Mrs. Cloudesley, Miss Carruthers and Mr. Brimstone agree that the modern girl is too laxly brought up. Miss Fluffy adheres in piercing tones to the opposite opinion. Mr. Brimstone makes some splendid jokes at the expense of co-education, and all concur in deploring cranks of every variety. ”