But I was a little bit afraid and didn’t go right up to him. He tossed a piece toward me and I went back and got it and it surely tasted awfully nice. Then he tossed me another piece and I ate that, and almost before I knew it I was eating the rest of the meat out of his hand and he was patting me and saying “Good dog.” And then he slipped a piece of string through the new collar that the Master had bought me with the money I had won at the dog show and when I tried to turn around and go home he wouldn’t let me! Instead of that he pulled me down the road right in the opposite direction. At first I went along without any fuss, but when we got farther and farther away I began to pull back and whine. Then he got very angry with me and when he saw I would not go unless he pulled me he called me names and kicked me!
I had never been kicked before and it frightened me even more than it hurt, and it hurt a good deal. I yelped and tried to run away then, but the string held me, and every time I sat down and wouldn’t walk he kicked me with his boot. I soon saw that if I didn’t want to be kicked I must go with him, and so I went. But I was awfully frightened and I wanted to bite him but didn’t dare to. Pretty soon we came to a cross road which was winding and narrow and we turned into that and walked and walked for the longest way before we came to a house. It was a very small house and it needed paint and the yard in front was dirty and untidy. And when we went through the gate a horrid ugly big bulldog came running toward us, barking and growling. But the man kicked him too, and the bulldog howled and ran into a shed near the house.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW I WAS STOLEN
The man took me into the house, which was just as dirty and untidy as the yard and smelt badly, and tied the string to the leg of a table there. He went into another room for a few minutes and I sat there and shivered until he came back. Then he took off my nice new collar, with its silver name-plate and silver buckle, and slipped a horrid old leather strap around my neck. He read what it said on the name-plate and then tossed the collar aside.
“You ought to fetch a good price, old boy, if they give you a collar like that,” he said. “Come on now.”
So he led me outdoors again and across to the shed where the bulldog was. When the bulldog saw the man come in he howled and ran out quickly. There were some boxes in one corner of the shed that had bars in front of them and I was put into one of these. Then the man went out and closed the door behind him.
It was quite dark in there, and cold and damp too, and there was nothing in the box to lie on, and I was very unhappy. I sat and shivered and whimpered for a long time, and it got darker and darker. No one came to see me. I heard the bulldog prowling about outside and sniffing at the door and I heard the man whistle to him once. Then it got quite dark and after a while I cried myself to sleep. But I was too cold to sleep soundly and I was very glad when the light began to come back and I knew that it was morning again.
The man brought me two or three bones without much meat on them and a broken dish with some water in it. I didn’t care much for the bones, but wanted the water a good deal. The man left the door open a little when he went out and pretty soon the bulldog came sneaking in.
“Well,” he said gruffly, “and where’d he pick you up?”