It was a good thing he was covered with warm lamb’s wool. If he had been one of those skinny dogs, like a greyhound or a Mexican hairless terrier, I’m sure our friend would have frozen stiff in a few minutes. But, being a Woolly Dog, or “fuzzy,” as the Queen Bee had called him, this kept him warmer.
“Oh, but my nose is so cold!” sighed the Woolly Dog, and that, not being covered with wool, was very frosty indeed. Of course, you know a real dog’s nose should always be cold. When your dog’s nose is warm it is a sign that he is ill and has a fever. But when the Woolly Dog’s nose was cold, that was a sign he was frosty.
“I’ll try to warm it,” he said to himself. And, being out of sight among the snowflakes, he put his cold little black nose down between his paws. Then it felt a little warmer and he listened to hear what was going on. He heard no sound.
Donald, Jane and the other children, having searched for the Woolly Dog without finding him, saw that it was getting late, and they ran home. Donald was almost ready to cry over his lost toy, for he liked the Woolly Dog very much.
“Never mind,” consoled Jane, “maybe Uncle Teddy will buy you another, just as Daddy is going to buy Mother another diamond ring for the one she lost.”
“I don’t want a new Woolly Dog! I want my old one!” exclaimed Donald.
In this he was like his mother, who wanted her engagement ring back, and not a new one. But the lost diamond had never been found.
Donald, almost in tears, told his mother of the accident on the hill and about his lost Woolly Dog.
“Never mind,” said Mrs. Cressey, “to-morrow I’ll go out there with you, when it’s daylight, and perhaps we shall find him.”
But Donald was a sad little boy when he went to bed that night.