The Story Hour: A Book for the Home and the KindergartenWiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
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The Story Hour: A Book for the Home and the Kindergarten
Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Short stories
“Neither have”--began Dicky; and then his fingers crept into his
trousers pocket and felt the two silver half-dollars that were to buy
his tool-box. He had forgotten all about that tool-box for an hour, but
how could he--how could he ever give away that precious money which
he had been so long in getting together, five cents at a time? He
remembered the sharp little saw, the stout hammer, the cunning plane,
bright chisel, and shining screw-driver, and his fingers closed round
the money tightly; but just then he looked at pretty little Lola, with
her sad face, her swollen eyes and the brave red lips she was trying to
keep from quivering with tears. That was enough; he quickly drew out the
silver dollar, and said to the pound-man:&&
“Here's your dollar--give us the dog!”
The man looked much surprised. Not many little eight-year-old boys have
a dollar in their trousers pocket.
“Where did you get it?” he asked.
“I earned every cent of it,” answered poor Dicky with a lump in his
throat and a choking voice. “I brought in coal and cut kindlings for
most six months before I got enough, and there ain't another tool-box in
the world so good as that one for a dollar--but I want Bruno!”
{Illustration: “Here's your dollar--give us the dog'”}
Then the pound-man showed them a little flight of steps that led up to
a square hole in the wall of the pound, and told them to go up and look
through it and see if the dog was there. They climbed up and put their
two rosy eager faces at the rough little window. “Bruno! Bruno!” called
little Lola, and no Bruno came; but every frightened homesick little
doggy in that prison poked up his nose, wagged his tail, and started
for the voice. It didn't matter whether they were Fidos, or Carlos, or
Rovers, or Pontos; they knew that they were lonesome little dogs, and
perhaps somebody had remembered them. Lola's tender heart ached at the
sight of so many fatherless and motherless dogs, and she cried,&&
“No, no, you poor darlings! I haven't come for you; I want my own
Bruno.”
“Sing for him, and may be he will come,” said Dicky; and Lola leaned her
elbow on the window sill and sang:&&
Lit-tle shoes are sold at the gate-way of Heaven,
And to all the tattered lit-tle an-gels are giv-en;
Slum-ber my dar-ling, Slum-ber my dar-ling,
Slum-ber my dar-ling sweet-ly.
Now Bruno was so tired with running from the pound-man, so hungry, so
frightened, and so hoarse with barking that he had gone to sleep; but
when he heard Lola's voice singing the song he knew so well, he started
up, and out he bounded half awake--the dearest, loveliest little brown
dog in the world, with a cunning curly tail sticking up in a round bob
behind, two long silky ears that almost touched the ground, and four
soft white feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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