PEP: THE STORY OF A BRAVE DOG
CHAPTER I
A BLUE RIBBON DOG
PEP sat up very straight at his end of the car seat and looked hard out of the window. This was his usual amusement when he and his master were traveling. But he did not travel often, as his master was a very busy man, so he appreciated every trip that they made.
His full name was Pepsin. His master was a doctor so that accounted for the name. With the boys, however, who all loved him, the name stood for pep or grit.
Pep was an English bull terrier, sleek and clean cut. His white coat shone like satin and it was as soft as velvet. Well it might have shone, for the doctor’s man had been washing and brushing the dog for weeks.
Pep knew that the trip was momentous, but just where they were going, or what was up he could not have told.
His master was usually calm and collected, but this morning, he was excited. The dog could feel it plainly. In fact he felt all the changes of temperament in his beloved master. If he was sad or glad the dog changed his own feelings to keep pace with his god.
Pep was not as democratic as most terriers. He was quite particular about his friendships. There was but one person in the whole world whom he devotedly loved and that was the doctor. You could see this by the way he looked sideways at his master when he tired of the landscape. Also by the manner in which he met the advances of strangers on the train.
Their destination was the New York Bench Show where Pep was to be entered. This was the momentous errand on which they were bent.
Pep was the usual type of bull terrier, about sixteen inches at the shoulders and weighing nearly forty pounds.