Job did not get out. Instead he yelped again and capered with the grace
of a cow. His feet and legs seemed to have grown out of proportion to
the rest of him; they were enormous. Down the length of his yellow back
were three raw furrows which the nails of the box cover had scraped as
he climbed from under them.
“Nice dog!” coaxed the lightkeeper's helper. “Nice doggie! Good old
boy!”
The good old boy pranced joyfully and made a charge at the door. Brown
slammed it shut just in time.
“Clear out!” he yelled, from behind it. “Go away! Go and lie down!”
The answer was a mighty howl of disappointment and an assault on the
door which threatened to shatter the panels. Job's paws were armed with
claws proportionate to their size.
This would never do. The paint on that door had been furnished by the
government, and Atkins was very careful of it. Brown, within, pounded
a protest and again commanded the dog to go and lie down. Job, without,
thumped and scratched and howled louder than ever. He had decidedly the
best of the duet, and the door was suffering every second. Brown picked
up the fire shovel and threw the door wide open.
“Get out!” he roared. “Get out or I'll kill you!”
He brandished the shovel, expecting an assault. But none came. It was
evident that Job knew a shovel when he saw it, had encountered other
shovels in the course of his brief young life. His ears and tail
drooped, and he backed away.
“Clear out!” repeated Brown, advancing threateningly. With each step of
the advance, Job retreated a corresponding distance. When the assistant
stopped, he stopped. Brown lowered the shovel and looked at him. The dog
grovelled in the sand and whined dolefully.
“Humph!” grunted the young man; “I guess you're not as dangerous as you
look. Stay where you are and keep still.”
He turned to enter the kitchen, turning again just in time to find the
pup at his heels. He lifted the shovel, and Job jumped frantically out
of reach, sat down in a clump of beach grass, lifted his nose to the sky
and expressed his feelings in a howl of utter misery.
“Good--heavens!” observed John Brown fervently, and, shifting the shovel
to his left hand, rubbed his forehead with his right. Job howled once
more and gazed at him with sorrowful appeal. The situation was so
ridiculous that the young man began to laugh. This merriment appeared to
encourage the pup, who stopped howling and began to caper, throwing the
loose sand from beneath his paws in showers.
“What's the matter, old boy?” inquired Brown. “Lonesome, are you?”
Job was making himself the center of a small-sized sand spout.
“Humph! Well . . . well, all right. I'm not going to hurt you. Stay
where you are, and I won't shut the door.”
But this compromise was not satisfactory, because the moment the young
man started to cross the threshold the dog started to follow. When Brown
halted, he followed suit--and howled. Then the substitute assistant
surrendered unconditionally.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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