In
a small room containing a stove, a table, a bureau and some chairs, he
would display strategic ability of a high order, dodging, feinting and
scuttling about among the furniture. He could force three or four people
armed with brooms, sticks and handfuls of coal, to use all their
ingenuity to get in a blow. And even when they did, it was seldom that
they could do him a serious injury or leave any imprint.
But when the child was present these scenes did not occur. It came to be
recognized that if the dog was molested, the child would burst into
sobs, and as the child, when started, was very riotous and practically
unquenchable, the dog had therein a safeguard.
However, the child could not always be near. At night, when he was
asleep, his dark-brown friend would raise from some black corner a wild,
wailful cry, a song of infinite loneliness and despair, that would go
shuddering and sobbing among the buildings of the block and cause people
to swear. At these times the singer would often be chased all over the
kitchen and hit with a great variety of articles.
Sometimes, too, the child himself used to beat the dog, although it is
not known that he ever had what truly could be called a just cause. The
dog always accepted these thrashings with an air of admitted guilt. He
was too much of a dog to try to look to be a martyr or to plot revenge.
He received the blows with deep humility, and furthermore he forgave his
friend the moment the child had finished, and was ready to caress the
child's hand with his little red tongue.
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