After that William put the strap on us every day for a while and we got used to it. It was all right as soon as Freya understood that she was to go the way I wanted to go. But it took her some time to do it. Freya is very stupid at times. About a week after I got my collar it was the cause of much pain to me. The Baby took it off one day and laid it on the ground. After she had gone I went back and found it. There is something about leather that I like. I didn’t mean to do any harm to the collar, but it tasted very good and so I closed my eyes and chewed and chewed and chewed. Freya came and watched me and asked me to give her some.
“You’ve got a collar of your own,” I growled. “Go away.”
“All right,” she said. “But you’ll catch it. Just you wait!”
She went off to bark at Ju-Ju, who was asleep on a window-sill, and I thought of what she had said. I looked at the collar. It was a very sad looking collar. There wasn’t much left except the brass tag. Freya was right; I would catch it if any one saw it. So I took what was left of it and dug a hole in a flower-bed and buried it. Not ten minutes after that the Mistress came out and called me. I made believe I didn’t hear her, but it did no good, for she kept on calling me and so I had to go to her. When I got near her I rolled over on my back and whined.
“Why,” she said, “you funny dog! I’m not angry with you, even if you didn’t come as soon as you should have. You’re a nice puppums and—why, where’s your collar?”
I didn’t say anything, of course. Instead I pounced on a twig and shook it and ran around with it in my mouth. I thought perhaps she would forget about the collar. But she didn’t even smile.
“Naughty Fritz!” she said. “What have you done with your collar?”
Freya came up and looked at me in a way which said: “There! Now you are in for it! And I’m glad, because you were selfish and wouldn’t give me any.” And then she trotted over to the Mistress with her tail curled up very proudly as much as to say: “See what a good dog I am! I haven’t lost my collar!”
“You wait till I catch you,” I growled.