Lad: A Dog

t, and as gloriously indispensable. He could no more have imagined a Ladyless life than a sunless life. It ha

was a heritage from endless generations of high-strain ancestors. He had, too, the gay courage of a d'Artag

as like orange-flecked mahogany. His absurdly tiny fore

and the tawny coat had waxed so shaggy), Lady had been brought to The Place. She had been brought in the Ma

ealing, on the veranda floor. Lad had walked cautiously across the veranda, sniffed inquiry at the blinking pigmy who gal

d the helpless. Then, as the shapeless yellow baby grew into a slenderly gracefu

y the fire, brazenly yet daintily snatching from between his jaws the choicest bone of their joint dinner, hectorin

did was, in his eyes, perfect. And Lady graciously allowed herself to be idolized, for she was marvelously human in som

trail. (Yes, and if the squirrels had played fair and had not resorted to unsportsmanly tactics by climbing trees when close pressed, there would doubtle

re was a deliciously comfortable old rug in front of the living-room's open fire whereon to lie, shoulder to

re were the Master and the Mis

oin and food and tact in the effort-may become a dog's Master without the consent of the dog. Do you

the absolute Master. To them he was the unquestioned lord of life and death, the hearer

ught up within the Law. As far back as they could remem

ungry or how playful a collie might chance to be. A human, walking openly or riding down the drive into The Place by daylight, must not be barked at except by way of f

awed or played with. In fact, Lady's one whipping had followed a puppy-frolic effort of hers to "worry" the huge stuffed

at Lady's attempt on it, he had taught her a lesson that made her cringe for weeks thereafter at bare sight of th

. After she was grown, Lady would no more have thought of tampering with the eagle or with

magnificent collie; red-gold of coat save fo

absence. The Master, glad to have so beautiful an ornament to The Place, had willingly consented. He was rewarded when,

n the praise-chorus was th

he old fellow to the Master, "but I never yet saw a

for such silly critic

eaks of pinkish-yeller on the roof of his mouth? Ever s

e the Master alighted at his station, with Knave straining joyously at the leash. As the Master reached The Place and turned

g along at his side, the two collies paused in their madly

of the Master's attention. Knave, not at all averse to battle (especially with

down. He had recognized that his prospective foe was not of his own sex. (And nowhere, except among

irresolute in her charge. And at that instant Lad dart

ter ras

Lad!

ristling, furious and yet with no thought but to obey. Knave, se

Knave and speaking with quiet intentness,

understand every spoken wish of the Master's. He must give up his impulse to make war on

elf forced to share the Master's and Mistress' caresses with this interloper. With growing pain he submitted to Knave's gay att

-bits. But her attitude toward Knave was far different. She coquetted, human-fashion, with the gold-and-bla

he heart at her sudden indifference toward his loyal self, tried in every way his simple soul could devise to win back her interest. He essayed clumsily to romp

to annoy her, she rewarded them with a snap or with an impatient growl. And ever she tu

Grail-knight in thought, he did not realize that Knave's newness and his difference from anything she had known, formed a large p

r, and that for the sake of a fla

equal contest, too proud to compete for a fickle sweetheart. No longer did he try to join in the others' lawn-romps, but lay

to moping, solitary, infinitely miserable. Perhaps there is on earth something unhappi

s prudence, and he looked down upon him accordingly. One day Knave came home from the morning run through the forest without Lady. Neither the Master's calls nor the ear-ripping blasts o

king Knave. At the forest edge the Master shouted. A far-off bark from Lad answered. An

tectingly above her, stooping now and then to lick her cruelly pinched foot or to whine consolation to her

ta. But Lady was in no condition to play-then nor for many a day thereafter. Her forefoot was so

t where she might lie and lick her throbbing forefoot. Lad was lying, as usual, under the piano in the living-room.

as though to lie down just beneath it. As she did so, two things happened: she leaned too much weight on the sore foot, and the pressure wrung from her an involuntary yelp of

above the floor, and the drop to the veranda outside was a bare three feet. It would have been

sensitive to the lightest touch-this was an exploit beyond the sufferer's will-power. So Lady resigned herself t

athy. But the closed door blocked his way. He crouched, wretched an

yelp. His prick-ears located the sound at once. Along the veranda he trotted, to the

drafts might not blow the Master's desk-papers about. And Knave felt, at best, lit

at sight of the enormous white-crested bird with its six-foot sweep of pinion. It was a wholly novel spectacle to Knave; and he greeted it with a gruff bark, half of fear, half

beating made her recoil from accepting it. Knave saw her shrink back, and he realized with a thrill that she was actually afraid of this lifeless thing which c

the huge stuffed bird with it; Knave's white tee

mpered in terror. But her plaint served on

f dusty pinions, he dug his teeth into the eagle's throat. Again bracing himself with his forelegs on the carcass, he gave a sharp tug. Head

t of vandalism. In sudden panic he bolted for the window, the silvery head of the eagle still, unheeded, between his jaws. With a vault

en-house. Crawling under this, he deposited the incriminating eagle-head in the dark

rd Lady's cry. He looked around for her, recognizing from the sound that she must be in

the door and wen

of his beloved eagle. And there, in one corner, frightened, with guilt writ plain all over her,

st sin-at that, a sin unworthy any well-bred dog that has graduated from puppyhood and from milk-teeth. He would n

doubtless, she had gotten into the room. And he had surprised he

t have condoned. The eagle, moreover, had been the pride of his heart-as perhaps I have said. With

did not try to run, nor did she roll for mercy. She

slender flanks it smote, with the full force of a strong driving-arm. Lady quivered all over. But she m

a second blow, he heard, just behind, a low, throaty grow

heels, fangs bared, eyes red, head lo

ing infinitely more unbelievable than Lady's supposed d

r. At its owner, perhaps; at its Master, never. A

ent on battle. Have no fear when a dog barks or even growls at you, so long as his head

and worshiped Master-for all the blameless years of Lad's li

ime, two overpowering loves fought with each other in his Galahad soul. And th

e was incurring. But he did not flinch. Understanding that

n any of you match it? I think not. Not even the much-lauded Antony

ust be punished, and punished instantly-as any dog-master will testify. Let a dog once growl or show his teeth in menace at his Master, and if the rebellion b

. He did not flinch. He did not cower. The growl ceased. The orange-tawny collie stood erect.

ted only to see the Master throw the dog-whip fiercely into a corner of the study. Then, knowing Lady was sa

se not wholly rare dogs to whom a sharp word of reproof is more effective than a beating-to whom a blow is not a pain, but a damn

ave, the cause of Lady's humiliation. Lad had known what passed behind that closed study door as w

d a human son. Though Lad did not realize it, the Master had "let off" Lady from the rest of he

orse by gathering together the strewn fragments of the eagle. It occurred to him that though the bir

ld not fin

that are carrying things in their mouths cannot pant. She had not taken the head away with her. The absence of the head only deepened the who

ness of his beating. Then, yearning for a sight of her and for even her grudged recognition of his

There, having with one paw dug a little pit in the cool earth, she was

oved over to Lady and touched her nose with his own in timid car

induce Lady to romp with him, but she preferred to doze. So, casting about in his shallow mind for

en his teeth. As he ran, he tossed it aloft, catching it as it

too, with what Knave was playing; and as he saw, he went quite mad. Here was the thing that had caused Lady'

days-Lad broke the law. He forgot, in a trice, the command "Let h

. He was three years Lad's junior and was perhaps five pounds heavier. Moreover, constant exercise had kept him

oon should have developed a flash of spirit. But he was not at all unwilling to w

red and snarled, slashing wolf-like for the throat, clawing madly to retain balance.

ept at the exact center, a collie's throat is protected by a tangle of hair as effective against assaul

saber-shaped tusk ripped a furrow in Knave's satiny forehead; and Knave's half

d-after the age-old fashion of the female brute for whom males battle and w

throwback to his wolf forebears of five hundred years earlier, dived for La

nd down over the little white forepaw-one of the forepaws that Lad was

n. Knave twisted and wheeled with lightning speed and with all his strength. Yet had not his gold-hued ruff chok

d his grip ever so slightly. And in that fraction of a second Knave

for he tried a man?uver known only to wolves and to collies. Flashing above his stumbling foe's head, Knave seized Lad from behind, just below the base of the skull. And h

pe. He was well-nigh as powerless against a strong opponent in thi

as best he might, he awaited his fate.

sought wistfully for Lady.

flame's terrible plight, under the grinding jaws. And, proving herself false to all canons of ancestry-moved by some impulse she did not try to resist-she jumped

work w

d from behind-perhaps that his new opponent stood an excellent ch

ng, to face the danger. Before Knave had half completed h

he had just now held Lad. Bearing down with all his weight and setting his white little front teeth and his ye

able to wrench loose, helpless to counter, in keen agony from the pinching of the tender throat-skin beneath the masses of ruff

as caught. He could not get away. Lad was hurting him horribly. Wher

n front of him-a shadow that resolved itself in the

ly. Knave, still yelping, tucked his tail between his legs

he Master. He was gasping for breath, and he was weak from fearful exert

mischief-making eagle's head, which he had just picked up! Probably the dog-whip was in the other hand. It did not

hand was caressing the dog's dizzy head, the dear

You're-you're more of a man than I am, ol

touch, even more precious-a warmly caressing lit

ly-was trying to stan

too," went on the foolish

er newly discovered mate to understand. B