At first Anne thought that Waddles felt neglected, and was a bit sulky; but as petting did not mend matters, she looked about for some other cause. It could not be that the sixlets bothered him, for they now lived in separate quarters, and had a garden to themselves; and Mr. Hugh had secured Tiger Lily, Dinah, and Bobwhite to add to the beagle pack he was forming, when they should be old enough, much to the relief of Anne’s parents; for the prospect of six puppies cutting their second teeth upon any and everything they could seize was certainly rather appalling.
Fortunately, neither Anne nor Tommy objected to halving the pups with Mr. Hugh, for they could visit them at any time, and though his dogs were obliged to obey, and to be very tidy and good, they were allowed to spend their evenings lying in rows by the enormous fireplace in the hall, and always sat in a group about his chair when he dined or breakfasted alone.
Happy, having weaned the pups, had seemingly given them entirely into the guardianship of Jack Waddles, who was so watchful and motherly in his care of them that Miss Letty said his name should be changed to Jane, and that he should wear a nurse’s cap and apron. But Anne, who understood him, loved him for his gentleness, and was glad to have one stay-at-home dog, that, though he knew and liked the hunting in a way, did not run himself to a skeleton over it, for the cool weather had set in, and Happy’s voice could be heard far and wide, telling of her running ability; while upon more than one occasion she stayed out so late at night that she did not have to get up for breakfast.
Strange to say, Waddles suddenly stopped hunting with her; of course he was an old dog now, but why he should run one week and then stop puzzled Anne. She felt his nose; it was moist and cool. She examined his paws; there were neither cuts or thorns visible. His coat was well-kept and flexible,—a rough, brittle coat tells its own tale of illness both in dogs and horses,—likewise, his eyes were bright, yet he ate but little, and lay all day silently guarding a large accumulation of ungnawed bones.
“Miss Jule says ‘if a horse seems all right, yet doesn’t eat, look at his teeth.’ Perhaps it may be the same with dogs; anyway, I will look,” said Anne to herself.
At the first attempt Waddles resisted and growled a little; then he changed his mind. Sure enough, the tooth back of the right canine was not only broken, but quite loose, and the gum red and swollen.
“You poor Waddlekins! Of course you can’t chew without getting a dreadful pain! Baldy shall pull the old thing out, and it will all be over in a minute,” said Anne, soothingly. Waddles sat perfectly still, looking out of the side of his eyes at his mistress. He suspected something, and yet he had no experience in tooth-drawing to give him a hint of what was coming.
Anne first found Baldy, then going to her father borrowed a little pair of pincers that he had kept in a drawer by his desk, ever since they had done duty on her easy first teeth, and would soon do the same for Tommy. Then she called Waddles to come to the garden where Baldy was working. After thinking for a few minutes, he obeyed, walking very slowly on tiptoe, his gait when either suspicious or reluctant. When Baldy tried to hold him firmly between his knees, Waddles instantly freed himself from collar and all, with the single backward jerk of the head for which he was celebrated; but the next moment seated himself quietly by Anne, and without being held, allowed Baldy to pull out the tooth.
An expression of surprise, quickly followed by one of relief, crossed his mobile face. He choked and coughed a little, then straightway understood the whole affair, took a drink from the birds’ bath-tub under the big syringa bush, and walking straight back to what Tommy called “Waddles’s bone-garden” unearthed a particularly ripe and delicious beef rib and began to gnaw it with relish, his tooth and low spirits having disappeared together.
The next day Waddles had a long call from Mr. Wolf, Miss Jule’s old St. Bernard, and after the usual pleasant exchange of sniffs and other greetings the two adjourned to the south side of the orchard wall, which, topping a slope, commanded a wide stretch of country. Here, lying back to back so that eye, ear, and nose might have as wide a range as possible, they proceeded to “watch out” for game.