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

by Howard Roger Garis

"Oh, no, dear! You can't go off with the boys," said Mrs. Dalton. "They're going across the field, and maybe to the woods. You must be back before dark!" she called to Rick.

"Yes'm, I will—if I find Ruddy!" he answered.

"The first thing we'd better do," suggested Tom, "is to go along the street and ask people we meet. Peter used to run away a lot, and I always got him back that way. He's such a funny-looking dog that everybody remembers him after they have seen him."

"But Ruddy isn't a funny-looking dog," objected Rick.

"No, Ruddy is nice," agreed Tom. "But he isn't like any other dog around here, and if anybody saw an old sailor taking him away they'd remember."

"Yes, I guess they would," admitted Chot. "We'd better ask folks, Rick."

This was decided on, and the three boys began their search, first going up and down the street on which Rick lived. But no one had seen Ruddy running around that afternoon, or at least if they had seen him, they did not remember.

The blacksmith, the cigar-store keeper and the grocery man—each one of whom knew Ruddy—said they had not noticed him. It was not until the boys went in a small candy store, at the foot of the street, that they first obtained any information.

"I didn't exactly see your dog, Rick," said Mrs. Blake, who kept the store. She had come out to wait on the boys, for Rick had three cents and he was treating his chums. "I didn't see your dog Ruddy, but, now that you speak of it, I did see something queer about an hour ago.

"A rag peddler came to ask if I had any papers, old automobile tires or anything like that to sell. As if I'd have an auto!" and Mrs. Blake laughed, for she was rather poor. "However, what I was going to say," she went on, "was that when I looked out toward the rag man's wagon, I saw he had another person with him. There was a big man on the seat, and when I told the junkman I had nothing for him I saw something like a dog, or some animal, down in among the bundles of papers in the wagon. And the man on the seat was trying to keep this dog, or whatever it was, from jumping out."