Only a Dog

I

AS I lie here on my dear Master's breast waiting for him to wake, I have much time to think of all that has happened to me, and through the many long days, and weary dark cold nights, I try to make the time seem shorter by talking it all out to myself. I have sometimes heard People say, "He's only a dog, never mind about him," and I do wonder why they speak so, because really it seems to me that we are wiser than they are. It is true we can­not speak their language any more than they can ours, but we do un­derstand almost everything they say, and try as we may we cannot make them understand us, except the very easy things about being tired or hungry, or something like that. Once in a while we do find someone like my dear Master lying here, who talks to us just as if he knew we had real deep thoughts and could appreciate his. However, all this is neither here nor there un­til I have told my story.

I was born in a most beautiful place, the "Château de T—" they called it, and unlike many little dogs I was allowed to stay long enough with my Mother to learn how to behave, and how to take many things in the world, which often trouble us young ones very much indeed. She used to say, "You must always remember, my child, that People have the power to make your life happy or miser­able, and that if you always try to behave well, and do what you are told, you will generally be well treated. Of course there are some cruel men who take pleasure in tormenting us, and when you meet that kind you will be justified in using all the means of defence that Nature gave you. You have very sharp claws and still sharper teeth, and will generally be able to make People very much afraid of you, if you use them. But when you find a good kind master, be obedi­ent to him, and faithful to the death."

Another thing she told me, was, that although I had been born in France I was really an Irishman, and could hold up my tail with the best-bred poodle in this country, and that I must never allow myself to be overawed by any of their grand airs, but let them know that I had the finest forbears a dog could have. I have always been very glad she told me this, because when I have seen one of those poodles with carved hair and waxed mustaches, looking like a bloomin' Punch and Judy show, come tiptoeing to­wards me, I have felt sure that it was all right for me to tiptoe up to him, with the same air of insolence, and to give him what-for.

When I left my Mother, I went to live in a much smaller house than the Château, but quite near by, so that I was often taken to see her. I lived with two very nice kind children, a boy and a girl, and they took me with them wherever they went, even if it were as far as Paris or London, so that I saw a great deal of the world.

We had been very happy to­gether for a number of years, when there came a hot morning in midsummer and all of us in the breakfast room together. All at once I heard my oldest Master make a loud exclamation; some­thing about "War" having come at last, and that his uniform must be got ready as he would have to go to Paris immediately to join his regiment.

I did not quite understand what all this meant, so I was pleased when my youngest Master called out, "Mon Pére, what do you mean by your uniform?" and to hear his Father say, "My soldier clothes, little Jean. Papa has to go to war and be a soldier."

My little Master and I both knew from the anxious looks of the family, that this must be something very sad and sorrowful, and when we went out to the garden together, he threw himself on the ground and putting his arms around me cried, "Oh! boy! my dear Irish boy! I am afraid my Papa will be killed!" I licked him and nuzzled him all I could to show my sympathy, and I did seem to be a comfort to him.

After this, things began to happen very quickly, and hardly had the oldest Master gone, than soldiers began to come to the house. Every time they came, they took something away with them. The day they took the horses from the stable, Jean and I stood watching them, and suddenly he turned to me and said, "Oh! my boy! they might want to take you too! Run! run quickly, and hide!" pointing to a place in the shrubbery. I felt very rebellious at this, for it looked too much like being a coward to suit me, so I only looked at him and did not move. But when he stamped his foot angrily, and said, "Go!" in a loud voice, I thought best to humour him and turned to obey. Just as I did so one of the soldiers noticed me, and called to his officer to ask if he should take me.

Now I did not at all want to go away with those strange men, even though they were taking my friends from the stable, so I just laid myself down at my little Master's feet, hoping they would see that I could not leave him. The officer took a good look at me, and another at little Jean, and then I was much relieved to hear him say, "No, we will not take him, I think the child needs him more than we do; though he looks a good sort."

After this day, we soon began to hear sounds like thunder in the distance, and as I never did like thunder I was glad enough to stay inside the house, especially as the queerest kind of procession be­gan to go by. Men, women, and children, cows, pigs, old lame horses, and often dogs and cats, and once in a while birds, carried in open boxes; and everybody hung all over with bundles or babies. Even the children, and the dogs, had almost more than they could carry, and many of them dragged heavily loaded little carts as well.

As we sat in the window and watched all these things, I did long to ask my youngest Master what it all meant, but of course it wasn't any use to try, even if he had been able to explain, and so I made up my mind to listen to everything I could hear. In this way I learned that the War had begun in earnest, and was coming closer and closer to us, and that all these people we saw were leaving their nice comfortable homes, because they were afraid of the "Germans."

I did wonder what a "German" was, so I kept my ears wide open, and when one day Marie the cook came running to my oldest Mistress calling out, "Madame! Madame! the Germans!" I flew out into the garden to see for myself. Rushing to the gate which stood open, I looked down the road, and saw away off in the distance a big cloud of dust, and as I kept on looking very hard, I presently made out big black horses, with big men on them, who wore queer shining pointed caps on their heads.

I was so excited I trembled all over from head to foot, but I did not feel afraid, and remembered to hold my tail well up in case they should be like those impudent poodles. When they came up to me, partly because I was so excited and partly because I felt un­accountably savage, I bared my teeth, and gave the deepest growl I knew how, and this must have made them angry, for the head one leaned over the side of his horse and hit me so hard with a kind of gleaming stick he carried in his hand, the blood ran, and I was rolled over and over on the ground. I should have been trampled to death under the horses' feet, if I hadn't jumped up very quickly, and dashed back through the gate to the house, where my oldest Mistress, who was standing at the door, caught me in her arms. They stopped at the gate, those "Germans," and the head one called out in the roughest voice I ever heard, that ten of them would eat and sleep, and to get ready! I did wonder how my oldest Mistress could answer them as sweetly as she did, but she welcomed them and gave them everything they wanted.

Late that night they seemed to be making a great deal of noise, and I thought I heard women's voices screaming, but as I had been shut up in the tool-house outside in the garden, I could not be sure; and when after a long, long time the noises stopped, I fell asleep.