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

by Howard Roger Garis

And somehow, though his leg still hurt him, and his head pained, Rick knew it was all right. He settled back in his father's arms, and felt himself being carried along, through a sort of snow tunnel.

And that is just the way Rick was taken out of the hole into which he had fallen with his sled. Ruddy, after leaving his master, having barked, as well as he knew how to tell him what he was going to do, had raced home. There he acted so strangely, grasping Mr. Dalton by the coat, and fairly pulling the boy's father toward the door, that Mazie cried:

"Oh, what makes Ruddy act so funny? Something must be the matter!"

"Something has happened to Rick!" exclaimed Mrs. Dalton. "I know it!"

"I think that must be it," her husband replied. "I'll go with Ruddy and see."

Quickly putting on his hat, Mr. Dalton went out with the dog, and Ruddy showed, very plainly by his joyful barks, that this was just what he wanted.

"It's just like the time Rick fell out of the tree when he was chestnutting," said Mazie.

"But he wouldn't be climbing trees now," said Mrs. Dalton, who was beginning to get worried. "Rick went coasting."

"Maybe he went so fast that his sled climbed a tree," suggested the little girl.

And Ruddy led Mr. Dalton right to the hole down which Rick had fallen with his sled. Mazie had not guessed it quite right. The sled had taken her brother down, not up.