"Who's in there!" she called.
The yipping changed to deep barks of joy. Lydia tried the door. It
opened easily and a great, blundering puppy hurled himself at her.
Lydia was a dog lover.
"You love! You lamb!" she cried. She squatted on the floor and the
pup crowded his great hulk into her lap, licking her face and wagging
his whole body.
There was a note tied to his collar. Lydia untied it: "Dearest Young
Lydia:--Here is a friend who wants to share your bedroom with you. You
must bring him up to be a polite, obedient dog, and a credit to your
other friend, John Levine."
"Oh!" squealed Lydia. "Oh! but why did they tie you in here!" She
looked about the room. The old bed had been moved out and the
dining-room couch moved in. The bureau had been shifted to another
corner. There was nothing to be seen of all little Patience's
belongings. It did not look like the same room.
As she clung to the squirming puppy and stared, Lizzie came in.
"Ain't it nice?" she asked. "Mr. Levine came out with the dog this
afternoon and suggested the change. He helped me. We stored all the
other things up in the attic. See the old quilt in the corner? That's
for the dog to sleep on. Ain't he as big as an elephant! I'm afraid
he'll eat as much as a man."
"He can have half of my food," cried Lydia. "Oh, Lizzie, isn't he
beautiful!"
"Well, no," replied Lizzie, truthfully. "He looks to me as if some one
had stepped on his face. You'd better take him out for a run."
John Levine never did a wiser or a kinder thing than to give the
brindle English bulldog to Lydia. He was a puppy of nine months, well
bred and strong. Lydia took him into her empty little heart with a
completeness that belongs to the natural dog lover and that was
enhanced by her bereavement. And he, being of a breed that is as
amiable and loyal as it is unlovely to look upon, attached himself
unalterably and entirely to Lydia. She and Kent cast about some time
before deciding on a name. At first they thought seriously of naming
him John, after the donor, but decided that this might lead to
confusion. Then they discovered that Levine's middle name was Adam,
and Adam the brindle bull became, forthwith.
Lydia made no objection to returning to the old room. It had lost its
familiar outlines. And Adam, refusing the quilt on the floor,
established himself on the foot of the couch where all night long he
snuffled and snored and Lydia, who had objected to Lizzie's audible
slumbers, now, waking with nightmares, heard Adam's rumbling with a
sigh of relief, pressed her feet for comfort against his warm,
throbbing body, and went off to sleep immediately.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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