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Page 16
Dinner was smoking on the table, which was set in the midst of the great
pool of sunlight. A very large black-and-white dog, with a great bushy
tail, was walking around and around the table, sniffing the air. He
looked as big as a bear to Elizabeth Ann; and as he walked his great red
tongue hung out of his mouth and his white teeth gleamed horribly.
Elizabeth Ann shrank back in terror, clutching her plate of butter to
her breast with tense fingers. Cousin. Ann said, over her shoulder: "Oh,
bother! There's old Shep, got up to pester us begging for scraps! Shep!
You go and lie down this minute!" To Elizabeth Ann's astonishment and
immense relief, the great animal turned, drooping his head sadly, walked
back across the floor, got upon the couch again, and laid his head down
on one paw very forlornly, turning up the whites of his eyes meekly at
Cousin Ann.
Aunt Abigail, who had just pulled herself up the stairs, panting, said,
between laughing and puffing: "I'm glad I'm not an animal on this farm.
Ann does boss them around so." "Well, SOMEbody has to!" said Cousin Ann,
advancing on the table with a platter. This proved to have chicken
fricassee on it, and Elizabeth Ann's heart melted in her at the smell.
She loved chicken gravy on hot biscuits beyond anything in the world,
but chickens are so expensive when you buy them in the market that Aunt
Harriet hadn't had them very often for dinner. And there was a plate of
biscuits, golden brown, just coming out of the oven! She sat down very
quickly, her mouth watering, and attacked with extreme haste the big
plateful of food which Cousin Ann passed her.
At Aunt Harriet's she had always been aware that everybody watched her
anxiously as she ate, and she had heard so much about her light appetite
that she felt she must live up to her reputation, and had a very natural
and human hesitation about eating all she wanted when there happened to
be something she liked very much. But nobody here knew that she "only
ate enough to keep a bird alive," and that her "appetite was SO
capricious!" Nor did anybody notice her while she stowed away the
chicken and gravy and hot biscuits and currant jelly and baked potatoes
and apple pie--when did Elizabeth Ann ever eat such a meal before! She
actually felt her belt grow tight.
In the middle of the meal Cousin Ann got up to answer the telephone,
which was in the next room. The instant the door had closed behind her
Uncle Henry leaned forward, tapped Elizabeth Ann on the shoulder, and
nodded toward the sofa. His eyes were twinkling, and as for Aunt Abigail
she began to laugh silently, shaking all over, her napkin at her mouth
to stifle the sound. Elizabeth Ann turned wonderingly and saw the old
dog cautiously and noiselessly letting himself down from the sofa, one
ear cocked rigidly in the direction of Cousin Ann's voice in the next
room. "The old tyke!" said Uncle Henry. "He always sneaks up to the
table to be fed if Ann goes out for a minute. Here, Betsy, you're
nearest, give him this piece of skin from the chicken neck." The big dog
padded forward across the room, evidently in such a state of terror
about Cousin Ann that Elizabeth Ann felt for him. She had a fellow-
feeling about that relative of hers. Also it was impossible to be afraid
of so abjectly meek and guilty an animal. As old Shep came up to her,
poking his nose inquiringly on her lap, she shrinkingly held out the big
piece of skin, and though she jumped back at the sudden snap and
gobbling gulp with which the old dog greeted the tidbit, she could not
but sympathize with his evident enjoyment of it. He waved his bushy tail
gratefully, cocked his head on one side, and, his ears standing up at
attention, his eyes glistening greedily, he gave a little, begging
whine. "Oh, he's asking for more!" cried Elizabeth Ann, surprised to see
how plainly she could understand dog-talk. "Quick, Uncle Henry, give me
another piece!"
Uncle Henry rapidly transferred to her plate a wing-bone from his own,
and Aunt Abigail, with one deft swoop, contributed the neck from the
platter. As fast as she could, Elizabeth Ann fed these to Shep, who
woofed them down at top speed, the bones crunching loudly under his
strong, white teeth. How he did enjoy it! It did your heart good to see
his gusto!
[Illustration: "Oh, he's asking for more'" cried Elizabeth Ann]
There was the sound of the telephone receiver being hung up in the next
room--and everybody acted at once. Aunt Abigail began drinking
innocently out of her coffee-cup, only her laughing old eyes showing
over the rim; Uncle Henry buttered a slice of bread with a grave face,
as though he were deep in conjectures about who would be the next
President; and as for old Shep, he made one plunge across the room, his
toe-nails clicking rapidly on the bare floor, sprang up on the couch,
and when Cousin Ann opened the door and came in he was lying in exactly
the position in which she had left him, his paw stretched out, his head
laid on it, his brown eyes turned up meekly so that the whites showed.
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