登陆注册
34550500000011

第11章 The Pest(2)

But he would frisk out in joyous welcome to meet and fawn upon tramps or peddlers who sought to invade The Place. He could scarce learn his own name. He could hardly be taught to obey the ******st command. As for shaking hands or lying down at order (those two earliest bits of any dog's education), they meant no more to Bruce than did the theory of quadratic equations.

At three months he launched forth merrily as a chicken-killer;gleefully running down and beheading The Place's biggest Orpington rooster. But his first kill was his last. The Master saw to that.

There is no use in thrashing a dog for killing poultry. There is but one practically sure cure for the habit. And this one cure the Master applied.

He tied the slain rooster firmly around Bruce's furry throat, and made the puppy wear it, as a heavy and increasingly malodorous pendant, for three warm days and nights.

Before the end of this seventy-two-hour period, Bruce had grown to loathe the sight and scent of chicken. Stupid as he was, he learned this lesson with absolute thoroughness,--as will almost any chicken-killing pup,--and it seemed to be the only teaching that his unawakened young brain had the power to grasp.

In looks, too, Bruce was a failure. His yellowish-and-white body was all but shapeless. His coat was thick and heavy enough, but it showed a tendency to curl--almost to kink--instead of waving crisply, as a collie's ought. The head was coarse and blurred in line. The body was gaunt, in spite of its incessant feedings. As for contour or style--It was when the Master, in disgust, pointed out these diverse failings of the pup, that the Mistress was wont to draw on historic precedent for other instances of slow development, and to take in vain the names of Thackeray, Lincoln, Washington and Bismarck and the rest.

"Give him time!" she urged once. "He isn't quite six months old yet; and he has grown so terribly fast. Why, he's over two feet tall, at the shoulder, even now--much bigger than most full-grown collies. Champion Howgill Rival is spoken of as a 'big' dog; yet he is only twenty-four inches at the shoulder, Mr. Leighton says.

Surely it's something to own a dog that is so big.""It IS 'something,'" gloomily conceded the Master. "In our case it is a catastrophe. I don't set up to be an expert judge of collies, so maybe I am all wrong about him. I'm going to get professional opinion, though. Next week they are going to have the spring dogshow at Hampton. It's a little hole-in-a-corner show, of course. But Symonds is to be the all-around judge, except for the toy breeds. And Symonds knows collies, from the ground up. I am going to take Bruce over there and enter him for the puppy class. If he is any good, Symonds will know it. If the dog is as worthless as I think he is, I'll get rid of him. If Symonds gives any hope for him, I'll keep him on a while longer.""But," ventured the Mistress, "if Symonds says 'Thumbs down,'

then--"

"Then I'll buy a pet armadillo or an ornithorhynchus instead,"threatened the Master. "Either of them will look more like a collie than Bruce does.""I--I wonder if Mr. Symonds smokes," mused the Mistress under her breath.

"Smokes?" echoed the Master. "What's that got to do with it?""I was only wondering," she made hesitant answer, "if a box of very wonderful cigars, sent to him with our cards, mightn't perhaps--""It's a fine sportsmanly proposition!" laughed the Master. "When women get to ruling the world of sport, there'll be no need of comic cartoons. Genuine photographs will do as well. If it's just the same to you, dear girl, we'll let Symonds buy his own cigars, for the present. The dog-show game is almost the only one I know of where a judge is practically always on the square. People doubt his judgment, sometimes, but there is practically never any doubt of his honesty. Besides, we want to get the exact dope on Bruce. (Not that I haven't got it, already!) If Symonds 'gates'

him, I'm going to offer him for sale at the show. If nobody buys him there, I'm going--""He hasn't been 'gated' yet," answered the Mistress in calm confidence.

At the little spring show, at Hampton, a meager eighty dogs were exhibited, of which only nine were collies. This collie division contained no specimens to startle the dog-world. Most of the exhibits were pets. And like nearly all pets, they were "seconds"--in other words, the less desirable dogs of thoroughbred litters.

Hampton's town hall auditorium was filled to overcrowding, with a mass of visitors who paraded interestedly along the aisles between the raised rows of stall-like benches where the dogs were tied; or who grouped densely around all four sides of the roped judging-ring in the center of the hall.

For a dogshow has a wel-nigh universal appeal to humanity at large; even as the love for dogs is one of the primal and firm-rooted human emotions. Not only the actual exhibitor and their countless friends flock to such shows; but the public at large is drawn thither as to no other function of the kind.

Horse-racing, it is true, brings out a crowd many times larger than does a dogshow. But only because of the thrill of winning or losing money. For where one's spare cash is, there is his heart and his all-absorbing interest. Yet it is a matter of record that grass is growing high, on the race-tracks, in such states as have been able to enforce the anti-betting laws. The "sport of kings"flourishes only where wagers may accompany it. Remove the betting element, and you turn your racetrack into a huge and untrodden lot.

There is practically no betting connected with any dogshow.

People go there to see the dogs and to watch their judging, and for nothing else. As a rule, the show is not even a social event.

Nevertheless, the average dogshow is thronged with spectators.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 浮生若梦葬无疆

    浮生若梦葬无疆

    奉为司法的萧璃从来没想过此生的结局,若问爱,她不曾爱,若问天凌,她不曾愧。倔强果敢的公孙文算计了一辈子,也猜不透上苍的心思,他从来不后悔自己的选择,唯独对一人,他终生遗憾。爱过恨过的凝涵公主反抗不公的命运一次又一次,爱过大海,恨过星辰,到最后甚至已分不清她爱的初衷了。
  • 恶魔的计划

    恶魔的计划

    他,高傲不羁莫测高深的冀王元诏廷,却无可救药地爱上弟弟指腹为婚的女人,真是天底下最大的讽刺。难道要亲自为他们主持大婚,然后亲切地说——亲爱的弟嫂,以后我弟弟就交给你了?去他的,别说他元诏廷与“亲切”二字绝缘,他绝不会让自己的女人嫁给别的男人,即使是唯一的亲弟弟也不行。然而凌紫耶那个该死的女人,却对那纸破婚约执着得很。
  • 走进1643年的春天

    走进1643年的春天

    1644年的春天来得特别晚,三月中旬的北京还是朔风漫天、大雪漫天、噩耗漫天。就在这个雪花幂历的春天,国都陷落,崇祯自尽以殉国,京城的达官显贵因财产被没收而哀号一片。不久后,“恸哭六军俱缟素,冲冠一怒为红颜”,为了那个差点嫁入如皋水绘园冒家的陈圆圆,一代骁将吴三桂不惜抛却节操,愤然投降清军,与李自成决战山海关,短命的大顺政权旋即覆灭,大清入主中原,开始了长达267年的统治。中国历史翻开新的一页。
  • 凯达默娣神话

    凯达默娣神话

    我亲爱的孩子,当你看到这封书信的时候,我可能已经不再你的身边了……
  • 残生天堂

    残生天堂

    我永远都不会忘记六月十五日那一天。从不寻常的那天开始,我们全没能逃出命运的手掌心。命运就这样离奇的选中了我们这十五个人,我从未想过,用“自相残杀”这个词来形容我们竟会贴切得如此天衣无缝。而他们,在门外隔窗观看这场生死游戏,主导者一切的绝望。“这里可是天堂哟!”不可能了,我们不可能逃出这里,因为我们本就是被神抛弃的孩子,本就应该被囚禁在这人面可怖的皇宫。孤独、绝望、无助、恐惧、杀戮、甚至毁灭,都是我们应有的惩罚…绝对不可能…逃出这里…
  • 深海亮舰

    深海亮舰

    二百年前,某地球平行位面,巨大外星飞船从天而降,百米怪兽自海底裂缝涌出,五大洋海面全部被诡异雾气所笼罩……人类殊死抗争十五年后,终不得已选择退入深海。二百年后,海雾仍在,陆地上从生理学角度已经不知能否算作人类的幸存者们已然忘记了一直抵抗到最后的那些英雄,并且开始主动或者说在莫名势力挑动下,不惜以人体改造为代价,对深海一方发动攻击……此时此刻,从其他地球平行位面意外穿越而来的任泉是否能够拨乱反正,拯救这个世界呢?连他自己也不知道……。我叫任泉人类的人拳头的拳
  • 都市绝代狂医

    都市绝代狂医

    一代天骄战神龙昊回归都市,报血仇,查冤案,凡是挡在我前面的敌人,死!顺我者昌,逆我者亡!
  • 臻武极道

    臻武极道

    武之一途,夺先机,聚阴阳,臻武道之极境,化羽外之仙。这天若不公,我就破了它。曾经的天之骄子以废物的名号,慢慢崛起于天地之间。讨论群138692964
  • 我偶尔想起偶然

    我偶尔想起偶然

    偶然其实不叫“偶然”,但林待姩总是这么叫他。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!