Beautiful Joe [8]
In the midst of my trouble I heard a soft voice calling, "Joe! Joe!" It was Miss
Laura's voice, but I felt as if there were weights on my paws, and I could not
go to her.
"Joe! Joe!" she said, again. She was going up the walk to the stable, holding up
a lighted lamp in her hand. She had on a white dress, and I watched her till she
disappeared in the stable. She did not stay long in there. She came out and
stood on the gravel. "Joe, Joe, Beautiful Joe, where are you? You are hiding
somewhere, but I shall find you." Then she came right to the spot where I was.
"Poor doggie," she said, stooping down and patting me. "Are you very miserable,
and did you crawl away to die? I have had dogs do that before, but I am not
going to let you die, Joe." And she set her lamp on the ground, and took me in
her arms.
I was very thin then, not nearly so fat as I am now, still I was quite an armful
for her. But she did not seem to find me heavy. She took me right into the
house, through the back door, and down a long flight of steps, across a hall,
and into a snug kitchen.
"For the land sakes, Miss Laura," said a woman who was bending over a stove,
"what have you got there?"
"A poor sick dog, Mary," said Miss Laura seating herself on a chair. "Will you
please warm a little milk for him? And have you a box or a basket down here that
he can lie in?"
"I guess so," said the woman; "but he's awful dirty; you're not going to let him
sleep in the house, are you?"
"Only for to-night. He is very ill. A dreadful thing happened to him, Mary." And
Miss Laura went on to tell her how my ears had been cut off.
"Oh, that's the dog the boys were talking about," said the woman. "Poor
creature, he's welcome to all I can do for him." She opened a closet door, and
brought out a box, and folded a piece of blanket for me to lie on. Then she
heated some milk in a saucepan, and poured it in a saucer, and watched me while
Miss Laura went upstairs to get a little bottle of something that would make me
sleep. They poured a few drops of this medicine into the milk and offered it to
me. I lapped a little, but I could not finish it, even though Miss Laura coaxed
me very gently to do so. She dipped her finger in the milk and held it out to me
and though I did not want it, I could not be ungrateful enough to refuse to lick
her finger as often as she offered it to me. After the milk was gone, Mary
lifted up my box, and carried me into the washroom that was off the kitchen.
I soon fell sound asleep, and could not rouse myself through the night, even
though I both smelled and heard some one coming near me several times. The next
morning I found out that it was Miss Laura. Whenever there was a sick animal in
the house, no matter if it was only the tame rat, she would get up two or three
times in the night, to see if there was anything she could do to make it more
comfortable.
CHAPTER V MY NEW HOME AND A SELFISH LADY
I DON'T believe that a dog could have fallen into a happier home than I did. In
a week, thanks to good nursing, good food, and kind words, I was almost well.
Mr. Harry washed and dressed my sore ears and tail every day till he went home,
and one day, he and the boys gave me a bath out in the stable. They carried out
a tub of warm water and stood me in it. I had never been washed before in my
life and it felt very queer. Miss Laura stood by laughing and encouraging me not
to mind the streams of water trickling all over me. I couldn't help wondering
what Jenkins would have said if he could have seen me in that tub.
That reminds me to say, that two days after I arrived at the Morrises', Jack,
followed by all the other boys, came running into the stable. He had a newspaper
in his hand, and with a great deal of laughing and joking, read this to me:
"Fairport Daily News, June 3d. In the police court this morning, James Jenkins,
for cruelly torturing and mutilating a dog, fined ten dollars and costs."
Then he said, "What do you think of that, Joe?