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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75465 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Note
+  Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+
+
+
+
+_MY FRIEND DOGGIE_
+
+_or_
+
+AN ONLY CHILD.
+
+
+_Up_ at the Hall there was only one little girl. She was, however, such
+a very pretty little girl, and so very gentle and sweet-tempered, that
+she could hardly have been improved upon, and all the eight children at
+the Lodge loved her.
+
+[Illustration: Girl and dog]
+
+The eight children at the Lodge were not particularly pretty, neither
+were they particularly good, but they had warm, affectionate little
+hearts, and I suppose that, as each baby brings love into the world
+with it, there was eight times the amount of love in the cottage that
+there was at the Hall.
+
+[Illustration: Girl with two dogs]
+
+When the children at the cottage looked curiously at the little lady in
+her velvet and fur, their mother used to be ashamed of them, and tell
+them that beauty was only skin-deep, and it was better to be good than
+pretty—and they all believed her except Bet, and on that dreadful day
+when Francey told the little lady to her face that she did not see she
+(the little lady) was a bit better than she was, except for her clothes,
+poor Mrs. Smith had wept tears of sorrow and mortification, and Francey
+had dined on dry bread for a week—and they had all again implicitly
+believed, as their mother had told them, that they were only common
+children and Miss Dolly was a very superior being indeed—except Bet.
+
+[Illustration: Man with boy and girl]
+
+Bet was the youngest but one, so it was the seventh time the Angel of
+Love had come to the cottage when he was born. He was particularly
+plain—bless his heart, just like his dear father, Mrs. Smith used to
+say to the servants at the Hall—and although he brought plenty of love
+into the poor home, unfortunately he did not bring any extra bread and
+butter with him.
+
+Bet was a dreadful boy—what his mother called a limb. He used to plant
+his sturdy legs apart, and gape at Miss Dolly and the Squire, without
+a touch of his cap or a pull at his rough curls, for all the world as
+if they were common cottage people like himself—for sometimes when a
+little common child is born the fairies forget to tell him that he is
+not quite like the upper classes, and then he is very apt to go through
+life never learning the difference at all, and having the impertinence
+sometimes to grow up into something quite original.
+
+[Illustration: Girl with two younger kids]
+
+But the funny thing was that, for all his impudent ways, it was Bet
+that Miss Dolly chose to love out of all the children at the Lodge. If
+she ran away from the nurse or her governess in the garden, they were
+sure to find her sitting behind a bush with Bet, sharing strawberries
+on a leaf, or making cups and saucers out of acorns.
+
+Her mother used to laugh, and say that an only child must have someone
+to play with, and that Bet was a dear impudent boy, with his brown
+curls and his twinkling eyes and his ugly face.
+
+Now Bet was very fond of animals, and the gamekeeper had given him a
+spaniel puppy, and the gardener’s boy had given him a kitty, and one
+winter’s morning he had raced them down the avenue together and into
+the road.
+
+Just as he got through the gate of the avenue he saw a whole lot of
+rough boys bounding and leaping towards him, and before he knew what
+they were going to do they had seized the poor little kitty, and were
+tossing it from one to the other as if it were a ball.
+
+Bet was terrified and he was furious—and, above all, he heard the
+mewing of the frightened kitty as she clung with teeth and claws to the
+cruel hand—but Bet was only six years old, and though he kicked and
+struck and fought, the boys just laughed and shook him off as if he had
+been a cross puppy, and not a very brave, angry, ugly little boy.
+
+[Illustration: Boy and girl sitting]
+
+But at that moment there came to his ears the sweetest sound he had
+ever heard—the sound of flying feet upon the gravel, and a furious
+screaming voice, much more like an infuriated cockatoo than a very
+superior little girl.
+
+“You leave that boy’s kitten alone!” she was shouting, as she came
+flying down the drive in her fur cloak and scarlet hat. “You—you
+cowards—I’ll call the gardeners. I’ll call the coachman. You leave that
+cat alone!”
+
+[Illustration: Group of boys playing with a cat]
+
+She had plunged into the midst of them, kicking and hitting much
+harder than Bet had done, and attracting so much attention that Smith
+rushed out of the cottage with his stick and Mrs. Smith’s red face
+appeared at an upper window. But Dolly had won the victory before the
+reinforcements arrived. The boys had dispersed in a great hurry at the
+sight of the stick and Smith’s powerful arm, and Dolly and Bet were
+huddled on the bank by the roadside together, with the poor frightened
+pussy clasped in their arms. Dolly was crying, now that the need for
+courage was over, and Bet was very white and very still, for a great
+resolve was forming itself in his mind, and it took all his strength to
+be capable of the sacrifice. The whole family came out to comfort Dolly
+and dry her tears, and Smith himself prepared to escort her back to the
+house. Her own spaniels, Dash and Dandy, had found her out, and were
+leaping joyfully upon her, partly from affection no doubt, but partly
+because she still held the long-suffering pussy out of the way of their
+frantic leaps.
+
+“I’m ever so much obliged to you, Miss Dolly,” said Mrs. Smith, wiping
+the mud and snow off her fur cloak, and she looked round furtively at
+Bet to see if he had it in his mind to be polite or not.
+
+But there was so need to tell Bet to pull his curly locks to-day. Even
+if one is an independent young Briton, with very crude ideas of social
+distinctions, one is often blessed with very strong feelings of love or
+gratitude, and Bet’s blue eyes were shining.
+
+“I’ll never forget,” he said; “I’ll give you my best—always—I won’t
+never forget.”
+
+He choked and ran away into the house, and Mrs. Smith excused him. “You
+see, he’s but young, Miss,” she said, “and he’s not free of his words,
+but he’s very much your debtor for the cat, that he is.”
+
+[Illustration: Mother and daughter]
+
+So Smith and the big stick, and Dash and Dolly, strolled away to the
+house together.
+
+Half way along the avenue they came upon three of the eight children
+scattering salt upon the snow, hoping it might lodge upon the tail of
+a fat robin that was hopping from twig to twig. They shrank away out
+of their father’s sight, but Dolly could not resist stopping to see if
+they succeeded. However, Dash and Dandy made such a rush at the fat
+robin, both at once, that he flew away with a frightened chirp, and
+Dolly nodded to the children, and ran on home.
+
+[Illustration: Boy sleeping with dog]
+
+But all that day Bet sat moodily in his little corner by the grate,
+with the great resolve taking root in his slow mind. To-morrow was
+Christmas Day and he wanted to make Miss Dolly a present, and in all
+the world he had only one thing of his very own of any value and that
+was his puppy. He wanted to give it to her, and in his heart he meant
+to give it to her, but it was like tearing a very precious flower up by
+the roots to take this great love out of his life; for he _did_ love
+it. It ate out of his saucer at meals and slept in his crib at night,
+and, however little there might be to eat, Bet’s share was equally
+divided with the puppy.
+
+He did not tell his mother what he was thinking about, or why his tears
+fell that night into the puppy’s saucer, because she used to say to Bet
+sometimes that they were too poor to be generous, and Bet did not want
+to hear her say that to-night; so he crept silently to bed and laid his
+cheek upon the puppy’s coat, and in two minutes they were fast asleep.
+
+[Illustration: Young boy with puppy]
+
+And that was how it happened that on Christmas morning there was an
+empty chair at the crowded table, and a neglected basin of bread and
+milk standing on the hob. There were no Christmas stockings for the
+Lodge children and no parcels on their plates, but Mrs. Smith loved
+all her children very much, and especially Bet, so she kept going
+uneasily between the window and the fire, saying anxiously, first to
+one and then to another: “Wherever is the boy?”
+
+Now the Lodge children were well brought up, and under no circumstances
+were they allowed to talk at meals, but when Mrs. Smith had repeated
+her question for about the twentieth time, one fat child, bolder than
+the rest, said, stolidly:
+
+“He’s up to the Hall, mother; he’s going to make a present of the pup
+to Miss Dolly.”
+
+“Dear, dear,” said the mother, doubtfully, “to think of that;
+whatever’ll the Squire think—dear, dear, now—the impudence of Bet.”
+
+Seeing her conversational effort was so well received the bold little
+girl made another venture:
+
+“He’s just _wropt_ up in Miss Dolly,” she said.
+
+“Tut, tut,” said her mother, hastily, “that’s very unbecoming,
+Susan—dear, dear, what a saying; well, put his bowl on one side,
+Francey, and clean up the children for church.”
+
+[Illustration: Boy with puppy in hand walking up stairs]
+
+Bet had started in the early morning over the crisp hard ground, with
+the doomed puppy at his heels. He had quite fought out the matter with
+himself, and he felt he was _glad_ to give up the puppy—all the more
+glad, perhaps, because the fight had been a hard one. Every two or
+three steps he turned to look at the soft little creature, tumbling
+over itself and making frantic efforts to keep up with his bold
+strides. Once it crept on to a bit of ice, and his blood ran cold
+with fear, but at last he reached the great front steps, and sat down
+exhausted with the puppy in his arms. Its tongue was out and its head
+hanging, and they were both nearly asleep when the door was opened
+suddenly behind them and a soft voice said: “Why, Bet! and the puppy!”
+
+[Illustration: Girl holding dolls with puppies and a cat on the floor]
+
+Bet was on his feet in a minute. “It’s for Miss Dolly—I brought it
+up—it’s the only thing that’s mine.”
+
+“My dear little boy, Dolly will be so pleased.” Dolly’s mother thought,
+with a pang, of Dolly as she had seen her an hour ago, with arms full
+of toys, and her room littered with presents, and then of that other
+home, so full of children, so bare of presents, out of which another
+generous gift had come for Dolly. There were eight sealed parcels lying
+in the housekeeper’s room, but a generous impulse prevented her from
+speaking of them to Bet just now. She could hear Dolly on the stairs,
+and Bet’s solemn little voice, and the puppy’s squeals—and she was
+glad to think that she _had_ remembered, and that Dolly would have the
+joy of coming too when she took the eight parcels to the Lodge. Far
+better than rank or distinction or money is the love that levels all—an
+everlasting bond between the Hall and the Lodge.
+
+  _Geraldine Glasgow._
+
+[Illustration: Wrapped packages]
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75465 ***