College sports -- Fiction; Short stories, American; Sports stories; Track and field -- Fiction
He went from one to another, wagging his stump of a tail frantically;
and when the crowd broke up he dropped in at Sawyer's heels as if he had
always belonged there. Shack allowed him to follow him home, and after a
somewhat perfunctory effort to find an owner, he became Shack's dog from
this time on, and a very lucky dog he was.
When "Mud," for Shack's random christening proved permanent, was treated
to the twin luxuries of a bath and a comb, he showed quite an
attractive personality. That his coat of arms bore the "bar sinister,"
there was not the least doubt. His master declared there was no "blot on
his scutcheon," and that he was a pure-blooded, wire-haired fox terrier;
but his legs were too short, and his hair both too long and too silky
for any such claim. Seever made out an imaginary pedigree for him, in
which many canine aristocrats of different breeds appeared; but Marlowe
declared he certainly must have numbered somewhere among his ancestors a
very plebeian New England woodchuck.
Shack took a deal of chaffing over his "high-bred dog," but clung to him
nevertheless, and Mud sprang into instantaneous popularity with the
whole college. He had indeed a number of very valuable qualities, the
most important of which was an undaunted courage. He was afraid of
nothing that walked on four legs, or two either, for that matter. A dog
of his own size or smaller he treated with an easy condescension. He
looked upon anything larger as an enemy, and a very big dog he
considered a personal insult, no matter how he behaved. I am inclined to
think that the root of his anger was simply jealousy of superior inches.
Whatever the motive was, however, Shack was kept busy pulling him out of
the jaws of bigger dogs whenever he took him for an airing.
Mud could certainly not claim to be "no respecter of persons," for he
had a very different manner with which to treat the gentleman from that
he gave the laboring man. He was suspicious of the latter, even in his
Sunday broadcloth, and when he met him clad in overalls and jumper he
greeted him with a canine fusillade that was irrepressible. For rags and
dirt, despite his very questionable past and decidedly suggestive name,
Mud had a great antipathy. The sign "No admittance to beggars and
pedlers," which decorated the lower hall, was quite unnecessary after
Mud became a tenant, for he could pick these gentry out, no matter how
skilfully disguised, and indeed showed qualities which would have made
him invaluable in Scotland Yard.
He was forever on the move, and could tire out the most persistent
visitor in any sort of a game. Mud's favorite was a sort of "rough and
tumble" in which his opponent tried to bury him in the sofa pillows, and
out of which he always emerged with every hair on end, his eyes like
live coals, and his voice cracked from his efforts to make himself heard
under a pyramid of cushions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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