after that william put the strap on us every day for a while and we got used to it. it was all right as soon as freya understood that she was to go the way i wanted to go. but it took her some time to do it. freya is very stupid at times. about a week after i got my collar it was the cause of much pain to me. the baby took it off one day and laid it on the ground. after she had gone i went back and found it. there is something about leather that i like. i didn’t mean to do any harm to the collar, but it tasted very good and so i closed my eyes and chewed and chewed and chewed. freya came and watched me and asked me to give her some.
“you’ve got a collar of your own,” i growled. “go away.”
“all right,” she said. “but you’ll catch it. just you wait!”
she went off to bark at ju-ju, who was asleep on a window-sill, and i thought of what she had said. i looked at the collar. it was a very sad looking collar. there wasn’t much left except the brass tag. freya was right; i would catch it if any one saw it. so i took what was left of it and dug a hole in a flower-bed and buried it. not ten minutes after that the mistress came out and called me. i made believe i didn’t hear her, but it did no good, for she kept on calling me and so i had to go to her. when i got near her i rolled over on my back and whined.
“why,” she said, “you funny dog! i’m not angry with you, even if you didn’t come as soon as you should have. you’re a nice puppums and—why, where’s your collar?”
i didn’t say anything, of course. instead i pounced on a twig and shook it and ran around with it in my mouth. i thought perhaps she would forget about the collar. but she didn’t even smile.
“naughty fritz!” she said. “what have you done with your collar?”
freya came up and looked at me in a way which said: “there! now you are in for it! and i’m glad, because you were selfish and wouldn’t give me any.” and then she trotted over to the mistress with her tail curled up very proudly as much as to say: “see what a good dog i am! i haven’t lost my collar!”
“you wait till i catch you,” i growled.
then the baby came out and the mistress said: “look, baby, at what a naughty, bad dog fritz has been. he’s lost his nice new collar.”
baby laughed and gurgled. “collar!” she said.
“yes, dear, and see how ashamed he looks. naughty dog!”
“mild’ed tooked it off,” said the baby.
“you took it off? oh, you shouldn’t have done that, dear,” said the mistress. “what did you do with it?”
“tooked it off!” said the baby, and clapped her hands.
by that time william had come up, with a rake in his hands, and the mistress told him about it. william scratched his head, which is what he always does when he tries to think very hard.
“where were you when you took it off, dear?” asked the mistress.
the baby toddled across to the lawn and we all followed her. i pretended to be very much surprised when we found that the collar wasn’t there.
“are you sure this is the place, dear?” asked the mistress.
the baby nodded hard. “mild’ed tooked off collar!” she cried and looked very proud of herself. i hunted all around, but couldn’t find anything but a small stone. so i took that to the mistress, but she just tossed it away. freya chased it. william scratched his head some more.
“if she took it off him, mum,” he said, “it’s gone by now. sure, he chews up everything he finds, he’s that de-struct-ive, mum.”
i didn’t know what “de-struct-ive” meant, but i didn’t like the sound of it.
“oh, i hope not,” said the mistress, looking at me very hard. i turned my head away and made believe i didn’t hear. freya wagged her tail and trotted off to the flower bed. i watched her and growled.
“well, perhaps we’ll find it,” said the mistress. “you’d better look around, william.”
“yes, mum,” said william. then he cried “hi, there! stop that!” and ran over to the flower be mouth and was holding it out to him, wagging her tail.
“here it is, mum,” called william. “and all chewed up, mum, just like i said, mum!”
i didn’t wait to hear any more, but very quietly slipped away from them and ran for the stable. but william found me. he dragged me out by the scruff of my neck from behind a pile of flower-pots and showed me the collar. then he—but i don’t like to think of what he did. it was very painful. after he had gone i cried myself to sleep behind the flower-pots and slept quite a while. and when i woke up again i didn’t come out until i was sure that william had gone to his dinner. i was very hungry, too, but i was afraid to go near the house. so i went off to the meadow and dug up a bone i had buried a long while before. i heard them calling me to come to dinner, but i didn’t go. i hoped they would be sorry they had treated me as they had. after a while, though, they stopped calling me. so i chewed on my bone, which was very good but a little too dry. still, when you’re very hungry most any bone tastes good. after that i felt much better and set off to find freya. i met my father in the stable yard and asked him where she was, and he said she was in the kitchen.
“delia is giving her gingerbread because she found your collar. if you go up there perhaps they’ll give you some, too.”
“i guess i don’t want any,” i said.
“you don’t deserve any,” said father. “after this you will know better than to eat your collar.”
i went on toward the house and lay down behind a bush and waited. after awhile freya came out looking very pleased with herself. she had a piece of cake in her mouth and went over to the orchard to bury it because she had had so much already she couldn’t eat it. i followed her, keeping away from the house, and went up to her very quietly while she was digging a hole. when she saw me she dropped the cake and tried to run, but i got her....
afterwards i ate the cake.
of course freya told mother that i had hurt her. she’s such a tattle-tale! when i went back to the stable mother wanted to punish me, but father said: “no, freya deserved what she got. she should not have told on fritz.” so mother said we were both very bad children and we must go to the kennel and stay there until we could behave. so we went. after a while freya crawled over to me and licked my ear and said she was sorry. i just growled. so then she licked the other ear and said she was sorry again, and i forgave her and we made it up and went off together to the pond to hunt frogs.
a day or two later william came with another collar and wanted to put it on me, but i ran as fast as i could and hid behind the flower-pots again. i don’t know why i always went there when i wanted to hide, because william always found me right away, just as he did this time. i whined a little when he pulled me out, but he patted me and rubbed my neck and said he wasn’t going to hurt me.
“look at the fine new collar i have for you,” he said. “hold still now till i get it on.”
so i held still, as still as i could for trembling, and he put it around my neck and buckled it.
“there, now,” he said. “aren’t you the proud puppy? sure, it looks fine on you. run along now and show it to your father and mother. but don’t you be eating it up, mind!”
just as though i would! why, i’ve hated the taste of collars ever since!
