And the Judge, he answers, “I mean the other is the better dog.” He
takes my father's head between his hands and looks down at him, most
sorrowful. “The King is dead,” says he, “long live the King. Good-by,
Regent,” he says.
The crowd around the railings clapped their hands, and some laughed
scornful, and everyone talks fast, and I start for the gate so dizzy
that I can't see my way. But my father pushes in front of me, walking
very daintily, and smiling sleepy, same as he had just been waked, with
his head high, and his eyes shut, looking at nobody.
So that is how I “came by my inheritance,” as Miss Dorothy calls it,
and just for that, though I couldn't feel where I was any different, the
crowd follows me to my bench, and pats me, and coos at me, like I was a
baby in a baby-carriage. And the handlers have to hold 'em back so that
the gentlemen from the papers can make pictures of me, and Nolan walks
me up and down so proud, and the men shakes their heads and says, “He
certainly is the true type, he is!” And the pretty ladies asks Miss
Dorothy, who sits beside me letting me lick her gloves to show the crowd
what friends we is, “Aren't you afraid he'll bite you?” and Jimmy Jocks
calls to me, “Didn't I tell you so! I always knew you were one of us.
Blood will out, Kid, blood will out. I saw your grandfather,” says he,
“make his debut at the Crystal Palace. But he was never the dog you
are!”
After that, if I could have asked for it, there was nothing I couldn't
get. You might have thought I was a snow-dog, and they was afeerd I'd
melt. If I wet my pats, Nolan gave me a hot bath and chained me to the
stove; if I couldn't eat my food, being stuffed full by the cook, for
I am a house-dog now, and let in to lunch whether there is visitors or
not, Nolan would run to bring the vet. It was all tommy-rot, as Jimmy
says, but meant most kind. I couldn't scratch myself comfortable,
without Nolan giving me nasty drinks, and rubbing me outside till it
burnt awful, and I wasn't let to eat bones for fear of spoiling my
“beautiful” mouth, what mother used to call my “punishing jaw,” and my
food was cooked special on a gas-stove, and Miss Dorothy gives me an
overcoat, cut very stylish like the champions', to wear when we goes out
carriage-driving.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account