Rick and Ruddy: The Story of a Boy and His Dog

by Howard Roger Garis

"Did he ever bite you?" asked his wife.

"No, I can't say he ever did."

"That's what I'm so afraid of—that if ever Rick did have a dog it might bite him or Mazie. And, if it did——"

Mrs. Dalton did not finish. But she looked at her husband and shook her head.

"Good dogs don't very often bite, unless they're teased," he said. "And I don't believe Rick would tease a dog."

"No, but Mazie might. She isn't afraid of anything. The other day she came in with a little snake she had found out in the yard. It was alive, too."

"Probably a milk, or garter, snake," said Mr. Dalton with a laugh. "I used to pick 'em up when I was a boy. They're harmless."

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed his wife. "Would you really want Rick to have a dog?" she asked.

"Hum! Well, I don't know," he slowly answered. "A boy and a dog seem to go together, somehow. But I don't s'pose it would do any harm to wait another year. If Rick teases you too much, let me talk to him, and——"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to do that. I can manage him. He's got a notion that Henry Blake might give away his dog. But I don't just like that kind. I'd want a shepherd dog, I think, if ever I let the children have one."