Dogtown: Being Some Chapters from the Annals of the Waddles Family Set Down in the Language of HousepeopleWright, Mabel Osgood
General
Dogtown: Being Some Chapters from the Annals of the Waddles Family Set Down in the Language of Housepeople
Wright, Mabel Osgood
Dogs -- Juvenile fiction
“Well, I think what I said has come true,” said Miss Jule, leading the
general laugh in which Anne’s mother joined rather feebly, on account
of the destruction of the pansies. “Happy seems to have chosen the
nearest approach to an oven that she could find. See, Anne, there is
one underneath all the others, the pup with the dark ear, and that poor
thing always seems to be underneath. What is her name?”
“We haven’t named them yet, but we are going to to-morrow, because it
will be their three weeks old birthday. Oh, do look quick at that one
with the black and tan head, she is really scratching her ear with her
hind paw, the darling!”
All this time Waddles was acting in a most strange manner. He had
sometimes played with Jack and Jill, always came when they cried
or seemed in trouble, and literally mounted guard over the nursery
kennel, from out of his fastness under the cellar door. But now the
sight of the sixlets seemed to fill him with terror, and he would not
walk around that side of the house while they were in sight, though he
continued to be very polite to Happy, and allow her to rob his food
dish at her sweet will. He acted very much as a man might when his
spouse is too busy with a large family to give him any attention--he
went off with his men friends, Mr. Wolf, Quick, Tip, and Colin, and
hunted sometimes until early morning, much to Anne’s disgust and the
spoiling of his well-kept appearance; for Waddles had always been a
dandy in his bachelor days.
These were busy times for Anne’s camera; but, as her father told her,
she was beginning with almost the most difficult things that can be
photographed--living animals, which must be caught by snap-shots.
And in order to succeed with these, one must have skill as well as
experience to know what it is possible to take and what never can be
caught at all.
Anne had succeeded in making a very good portrait of her mother sitting
under the trees reading, also one of Waddles guarding his meat-dish;
though she wasted enough developer upon them to have served a dozen
plates. Thus encouraged, she began to snap wildly at the puppies,
getting some very laughable results, and learning that if she was not
going to spend her whole year’s pocket money in a single week, she must
take better aim before she fired.
One plate had only two pairs of back legs on it, another a grotesque
head of Happy, who had been facing the camera at such close range that
she was all head and her body dwindled away to nothing. Another one, of
the puppies gathered around their dish learning to drink, was a hazy
mass of wagging tails, and so on; but the oddest picture of all was of
Mr. Hugh bowing to Miss Letty as they met him on the road. Why it was
no one could tell, but it made him look so like a jumping-jack that no
one could look at it without laughing; that is, no one but Mr. Hugh,
who flushed up and said that Anne had been cheated in the lens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account