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Page 9
"But I tell you," she persisted, "I won't have a dirty little
female--"
"We aren't going to," he assured her. "Keep your hair on, till
I've finished. Tonight, after Dick's asleep, I'm going to get rid
of her. He'll wake up in the morning and find she's gone; and the
door'll be open. He'll think she's run away. He'll go looking for
her, and he'll keep on hoping to find her. So that'll ease the
shock, you see, by letting him down bit by bit, instead of
snatching his pet away from him violent-like. And he won't hold
it up against US, either, as he would the other way. I can offer
a reward for her, too."
There was a long and thought-crammed pause. The woman plunged
deep into the silences as her fat brain wrought over the
suggestion. Then--
"Maybe you HAVE got just a few grains of sense, after all, Ed,"
grudgingly vouchsafed Mrs. Hazen. "It isn't a bad idea. Only
he'll grieve a lot for her."
"He'll be hoping, though," said her husband. "He'll be hoping all
the while. That always takes the razor-edge off of grieving.
Leave it to me."
That was the happiest day Dick Hazen had ever known. And it was
the first actively happy day in all Lass's five months of life.
Boy and dog spent hours in a ramble through the woods. They began
Lass's education--which was planned to include more intricate
tricks than a performing elephant and a troupe of circus dogs
could hope to learn in a lifetime. They became sworn chums. Dick
talked to Lass as if she were human. She amazed the enraptured
boy by her cleverness and spirits. His initiation to the dog-
masters' guild was joyous and complete.
It was a tired and ravenous pair of friends who scampered home at
dinner-time that evening. The pallor was gone from Dick's face.
His cheeks were glowing, and his eyes shone. He ate greedily. His
parents looked covertly at each other. And the self-complacency
lines around Hazen's mouth blurred.
Boy and dog went to bed early, being blissfully sleepy and full
of food--also because another and longer woodland ramble was
scheduled for the morrow.
Timidly Dick asked leave to have Lass sleep on the foot of his
cot-bed. After a second telegraphing of glances, his parents
consented. Half an hour later the playmates were sound asleep,
the puppy snuggling deep in the hollow of her master's arm, her
furry head across his thin chest.
It was in this pose that Hazen found them when, late in the
evening, he tiptoed into Dick's cubby-hole room. He gazed down at
the slumberous pair for a space, while he fought and conquered an
impulse toward fair play. Then he stooped to pick up the dog.
Lass, waking at the slight creak of a floorboard, lifted her
head. At sight of the figure leaning above her adored master, the
lip curled back from her white teeth. Far down in her throat a
growl was born. Then she recognized the intruder as the man who
had petted her and fed her that evening. The growl died in her
throat, giving place to a welcoming thump or two of her bushy
tail. Dick stirred uneasily.
Patting the puppy lightly on her upraised head, Hazen picked up
Lass in his arms and tiptoed out of the room with her. Mistaking
this move for a form of caress, she tried to lick his face. The
man winced.
Downstairs and out into the street Hazen bore his trustful little
burden, halting only to put on his hat, and for a whispered word
with his wife. For nearly a mile he carried the dog. Lass greatly
enjoyed the ride. She was pleasantly tired, and it was nice to be
carried thus, by some one who was so considerate as to save her
the bother of walking.
At the edge of the town, Hazen set her on the ground and at once
began to walk rapidly away in the direction of home. He had gone
perhaps fifty yards when Lass was gamboling merrily around his
feet. A kick sent the dismayed and agonized puppy flying through
the air like a whimpering catapult, and landed her against a bank
with every atom of breath knocked out of her. Before she had
fairly struck ground,--before she could look about her,--Hazen
had doubled around a corner and had vanished.
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