PLATO’S SOLILOQUY.
Do I look like a happy dog? Do I look like a handsome dog? Do I look like a respectable dog? Is this what the other dogs call fun?
My master is a very kind man. He has brought me up well. I knew he did not like his dogs to stay out all night, nor wander off at any time with vulgar dogs. I had over-heard dogs talking about the fun they had when off together. I had been invited a number of times to join them. I had always refused until last night. Then I made up my mind I was going to have some fun too. So quietly slipping away, I ran around the corner and off with the dogs.
Fun? Yes, we did have fun, though an uneasy sneaky feeling would come over me at times to interfere with my happiness. Fun? Yes, but it ended in a fight! Fun? Yes, we did have fun, but I’m not having any now!
One eye nearly gone, one ear half chewed off, a hole in my cheek, a hump on my leg, my master in sorrow, and I in disgrace, to say nothing of aches and of pains. It will be some time before I get my good looks back again, or my usual fine gait. Three-legged and one-eyed! Ugh!
Fun? Yes! But if any dog imagines that I think it pays, he is very much mistaken. When I let myself down again to go off with vulgar dogs, no matter what the fun, may I be locked in the asylum for foolish and insane dogs!!
PLATO.