Little Dog Ready: How He Lost Himself in the Big World

by Mabel F. Stryker

Shed a few dog tears when no one was looking

At first he did not eat anything, and then he began to have a very queer feeling in his legs. They were such wobbly and uncertain legs that they frightened Ready. He remembered going once to a dog lecture where the speaker had said:

“Fellow dogs, beware of unreliable legs! There is nothing left in life for a dog if his legs go back on him.”

Ready remembered that this great dog doctor had given him a number of prescriptions. This was one of them:

FOR RAPID RUNNING LEGS

Eat carefully, exercise regularly, and don’t ever be cast down.

When Ready thought of these words, he began to eat a little each day and to run around the room for exercise after each meal. Then he tried very hard to cast out his sad thoughts. He would put himself to sleep saying over and over, “I think to-morrow I will get out. To-morrow I am going to be free.”

Whenever the young lady talked to him, Ready tried in all kinds of ways to tell her that he must get to his little master as soon as possible.

First he would lie down at her feet and look up beseechingly in her eyes. After that he would run to the door, wagging his tail all the time. Then he would come back and beg. Oh, how hard he would beg her to let him go!