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

<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2><h3 class="nobreak">READY A PRISONER</h3> <p><span class="smcap">Of</span> course if Ready had been a dog of the world, he might have found ways to escape. He might have snapped at people or howled all night. Then the father of the family would surely have let him out, for fathers hate to be disturbed at night.</p> <p>But Ready had always been taught that snapping and growling are very wicked; so he only moaned a little and shed a few dog tears when no one was looking. You see it is a disgrace to a dog’s doghood to be found in tears.</p> <p>Of course he was not the least bit hungry. How could any dog be hungry shut up all day<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> in a stuffy old room? And then nothing takes away a dog’s appetite so quickly as sad thoughts.</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image012.png" width-obs="400" height-obs="208" alt="" /></div> <div class="caption"><p class="center">Shed a few dog tears when no one was looking</p> </div> <p>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:</p> <p>“Fellow dogs, beware of unreliable legs!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> There is nothing left in life for a dog if his legs go back on him.”</p> <p>Ready remembered that this great dog doctor had given him a number of prescriptions. This was one of them:</p> <div class="blockquot"> <p>FOR RAPID RUNNING LEGS</p> <p>Eat carefully, exercise regularly, and don’t ever be cast down.</p> </div> <p>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.”</p> <p>Whenever the young lady talked to him,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> Ready tried in all kinds of ways to tell her that he must get to his little master as soon as possible.</p> <p>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. <i>Oh, how hard he would beg her to let him go!</i></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image014.png" width-obs="400" height-obs="441" alt="" /></div> <div class="caption"><p class="center">“Please let me go back to my little master”</p> </div> <p>But she never once understood him&mdash;never once noticed he was saying, “Oh, dear young<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> lady, please let me go back to my little master. He is very ill and needs me. Don’t you see that I belong to him? I will do anything in the world for you that an honorable little dog can do, if you will <i>only let me go</i>.”</p> <p>Perhaps the saddest of all his prison days was the time he really thought she was going to release him. He had wagged his tail especially hard that morning at the door. She had put on her hat saying, “Come on, then.”</p> <p>Oh, how happy he was and how hard he tried to thank her! Then came the dreadful minute when she <i>fastened a silver chain to his collar</i>.</p> <p>At first he broke down completely and moaned and moaned. Then he thought: “Perhaps if I walk by her side very nicely it will soften her heart; and then there is always a chance when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> out in the great beautiful open world.”</p> <p>So he walked quite contentedly by her side and waited patiently while she stopped to chat with some other young ladies. But when she said boastingly, “Do you see my beautiful new dog?” he simply could not stand it. Do you know what he did? He growled, and his growl had a bit of a snap in it, too. This made the young lady very cross, and she decided to take Ready home at once.</p> <p>When they reached the door, Ready’s eyes would have melted a heart of stone. He knelt to her, he moaned to her, he begged so prettily on his hind legs, but the young lady would have none of it. She pushed him rudely into the dark room and slammed the door.</p> <p>I think that was the saddest moment of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> Ready’s prison life. But in spite of everything, Ready never once gave up the hope of getting his chance to escape, and that is why it came.</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image017.png" width-obs="400" height-obs="250" alt="" /></div> <div class="caption"><p class="center">The saddest moment of Ready’s prison life</p> </div> <hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />