“Is very nice little boy. Is coming all way f’om City to play wiv Mild’ed. Little boy’s name is A’fed.”
I thought Afed was a very silly name for any one, even a boy. I found out afterwards that his name was Alfred, but I didn’t like it much better. I hoped he would be nicer than his name. The Baby talked on about him for a long time and I pretended to listen. Finally I got tired hearing about him and jumped down and went away. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to like A’fred, and when I told Freya she made up her mind she wasn’t going to like him either. We decided that we would bite his legs when he came.
William drove to the railway station to meet Alfred and his mother, and Freya went along. William was very partial to Freya and used to take her with him quite often. He took me once and said he would never do it again because I barked at everything I saw and fell out of the carriage. I didn’t mean to fall out, though, and it hurt a good deal. Anyhow, he took Freya with him that day and I found a warm place on a flower bed beside the house and waited for them to come back. William didn’t like to have us lie on the flower beds, even after the flowers were through blooming, but I knew he wouldn’t see me and I meant to go away when I heard the carriage coming up the drive.
But it was so warm there and the earth smelled so nice that I fell asleep. When I woke up the first thing I did was to howl and the next thing to run. Because William had come back without my hearing him and had crept over to me, and what had wakened me up was the carriage whip! I thought it was rather a mean thing to surprise me like that. When I had stopped hurting and running I looked back and there was the little boy with Freya in his arms going into the house. And, would you believe it, Freya was actually licking his face! Isn’t that like a girl-dog, to break her promise the very first thing? Just pat Freya and she thinks you are perfectly lovely and follows you all around. For my part, I’d have more self-respect and pride. Folks can’t make friends with me by just patting my head and saying “Nice doggie!” No, sir!
I was quite disgusted with Freya and I told her so later.
Alfred’s mother was a very sweet looking lady and I knew right away I should like her. I did, too. Not two hours afterwards she came out to see us and fed us peppermint drops. I am very fond of peppermint drops because they make your tongue feel sort of cold and tingley, and I liked the lady at once. Oh, not just because of the candy, of course, but because she was nice to look at and understood dogs and loved them. We can tell right off whether a person likes us. Alfred came out with his mother, and the Baby followed Alfred. She wouldn’t let him out of her sight and paid almost no attention to me. Alfred was really rather nice looking, for a boy, with golden hair, dark eyes and a sun-burned face. He was older than the Baby. When he saw me he cried:
“Oh, there’s another of them! Come here, puppy! What’s your name?”
Of course I paid no heed to him. I meant to show Freya that I had more sense than to grovel to folks just because they whistled to me and paid me a little attention! When he saw that I didn’t mean to come to him he started after me, and I showed my teeth and growled. He stopped then and made a face at me. “You’re not as nice as the other one,” he said. Then he picked up a pebble and threw it at me and I growled again. “What’s this one’s name, Mildred?” he asked the Baby.
“He name F’itz. Him booful dogums!”