we started out, william and freya and i, very early one morning for the dog show. i think it was a saturday. anyhow, i remember that we had liver for breakfast the next day, and we usually had liver on sundays. freya and i were put in the dog crate and the crate was put in the little wagon and william drove. the master, the mistress and the baby went in the carriage. father and mother were left at home. father made quite a fuss about it and climbed into the wagon twice and had to be put out, but mother just told us to be good children and not get into trouble and went back and laid down in the stable doorway.
freya was so excited that she couldn’t keep still. i was excited, too, but i didn’t show it. i just laid down on the bottom of the crate and peeked out between the slats and tried to see the world. it was hard work, though, because the slats were very close together and the wagon bumped a good deal. after a while the wagon slowed down and we heard a lot of barking and knew that we were almost there. when william lifted the crate down and opened it the master looked in and said “hello, you rascals! have a good trip?” freya and i licked his hand and he put chains on our collars and we jumped out.
i was a little frightened at first. never had i seen so many people or heard so many dogs. and as for carriages and automobiles, why, i suppose there must have been hundreds! folks were walking around over the grass and dogs were being taken out of hampers and crates and it was a strange and wonderful scene. in front of us was a monstrous big tent, oh, quite the largest tent you can possibly imagine! and from the tent came such a barking and yelping as i’d never heard. freya tugged at her chain and seemed very anxious to get to it, but i held back and sort of wished myself back home. but just then the mistress and the baby came up with some other folks, and the baby put her arms around my neck and said i was her “booful dogums” and i felt braver. so we all went into the tent.
it was full of platforms, or “benches” as they called them, which were open in front and closed at back and divided into little pens by wire screens. william led us to one of the pens and as we went all the dogs who saw us barked and yelped and said things to us and made a frightful noise. we jumped up on the bench and william tied our chains to rings in the back of the pen. there were two pieces of paper with numbers on them tacked there, and the master tied tags to our collars, and the tags had the same numbers that were on the back of the pen. mine was 86 and freya’s was 87. william brought a big armful of nice clean straw and put it on the bottom of the pen and i got as far away into a corner as i could and laid down and shivered a little. but freya jumped and tugged at her chain and barked and went on very rudely. william took a piece of cloth and rubbed us hard with it and then he brought us some water.
while i was lying in the corner a dog in the next pen tried to put his nose through the grating and i turned around quickly and nipped it. it didn’t hurt him much, i guess, but he made an awful fuss about it and a lady who was sitting on the edge of his pen scolded me and said i was a horrid dog and that if i did that again she’d have me taken away. she took that other dog in her arms and petted him and gave him something to eat out of a little bag,[134] and the dog whined and sniffled and acted terribly silly. i made up my mind that if he put his nose into our pen again i’d give him another nip. and just then he saw me looking over at him and he winked at me, and i knew that he had been making all that fuss so his mistress would give him something out of the little bag!
i asked him later on what it was she gave him and he said it was raw meat. he said i didn’t hurt him much but he wanted the meat. he was the same kind of a dog as i, only he was all brown and very fat. we got to be very good friends later. his name was sigismund. he told me that his mistress took him to all the shows but he never got a prize but once and then there were only two other dachshunds there. he said he didn’t mind not getting prizes, but that his mistress always felt very badly about it and was quite cross to the judges.
“she thinks i’m a very fine dog,” he said, “but i’m not, you know. you can see yourself that i’m too short in the body and too high at the back. besides, my teeth are bad. that comes from too much meat. it’s all rather tiresome, this sort of thing, but she likes it and i put up with it. who is the dog with you?”
i told him she was my sister and he said she was very pretty and he guessed she’d get a blue ribbon. all this was later in the day, though, after i’d got sort of used to the noise and all the people. they kept walking around and walking around until it made my head spin to see them. i did wish they’d sit down somewhere or go away. they’d stop in front of us and say the rudest things! why, one lady looked at us and said “did you ever see such funny things, tom? the idea of any one thinking them nice!” freya let folks pat her but i didn’t. i growled.
across the aisle from us were a lot of big, long-haired dogs with pointed noses. i heard william say they were collies. they did nothing but bark all the time. they were the most excited dogs i ever saw. further along were some fox terriers, and besides those there were all kinds of other dogs whose names i didn’t know.
all the time dogs were going by on chains, and sigismund said they were going to the judging pen. i couldn’t see the judging pen but i could hear people clapping their hands, and every little while a dog would pass us with a blue or a red or a yellow ribbon on his collar which the judges had given him. and if it was a blue ribbon he would look very, very proud, and if it was another coloured ribbon he looked just a little bit proud. i asked sigismund if it was very hard being judged and he said it wasn’t and that he usually took a nap while it was going on.
it got very warm in the tent after a while and william gave us some fresh water and a piece of biscuit, which was all we had for dinner. pretty soon after that a man in overalls went around saying: “class 49, dachshunds! all entries to the judging pen!” then william made us jump down and he and the master led us to where there was a square pen fenced off with boards. all around it on the outside were people looking over the top of the fence. inside there were many dachshunds when we got there and more followed us through the gate. sigismund was there, too, with his mistress. he winked at me and then closed his eyes and looked exactly as if he was going to sleep!
presently we all began to walk around in a circle at the end of our chains while two men stood in the centre of the pen and watched us. then we stopped walking and the two men came and looked us all over, and one by one we stood on a little platform in the centre andthe two judges felt of us and pulled us and looked into our mouths and made me very nervous. but when my time came i remembered what william had taught me and what mother had said and stood very quiet and held my head up and stretched my legs out. it really wasn’t bad at all because the man who judged me was very gentle and i didn’t mind what he did.
after me three other dogs went on the box and were judged. and then the two judges talked together a minute and went over to a little table in one corner and picked up some ribbons and came back. i wondered whether they would give one of them to william, and they did, but it was a red ribbon and william didn’t look very pleased even if he did say “thank you” quite nicely. a very handsome dog named champion hillside carl got the blue ribbon, which was the first prize. i was sorry i had got only the second prize because william looked so disappointed.
then it was freya’s turn to try and she and five other girl-dogs were put on the box one after the other, and freya looked so pretty that the people watching over the fence clapped their hands. that pleased freya and she wagged her tail and smiled at the judge and he patted her head. and when it was all over the judge walked right up to the master and gave him the blue ribbon, and every one clapped some more and all the dogs barked. william didn’t feel so badly after freya had got the first prize.
i thought then that we would be led back to our bench, but it seemed that we were to try for other prizes first. there were prizes for what they called “novices,” which were dogs who had never been in a show before. there was a prize for boy novices and one for girl novices, and freya and i each won a first, and by that time william was all smiles. then freya and i were judged as a pair and we each got a second prize. the first prize went to champion hillside carl and a girl-dog who was quite good-looking but not nearly so pretty as freya.
then we went back to the bench and william and the master said how well we had done and how nicely we had behaved in the pen. besides the lovely ribbons, which had gold letters on them and which william at once hung up at the back of the bench, we had won money. freya had won eleven dollars and i had won nine. the master said we should each have a fine new collar. i wanted to wear my ribbons, but william wouldn’t let me. sigismund had not won anything at all and i was very sorry for him, and told him so. but he only laughed.
“i didn’t expect to,” he said. “i never do. for my part i’d much rather stay at home, but my mistress likes this sort of thing. she told the judges that they didn’t know their business. she always tells them that. you did very well, you and your sister both. you’d have got that other blue if that hillside carl dog hadn’t been there. he’s been winning first prizes for two years now. i meet him everywhere i go. he’s an awfully stuck-up chap.” he yawned and stretched himself. “well, it’s about over now and i shall be glad to get home again.”
i curled up and took a little nap and when i awoke william was taking the ribbons down and it was time to go home. we jumped back in the crate and pretty soon we were bumping along the road once more. freya was still too excited to keep still, but i managed to get a few more winks of sleep on the way back. when we reached the stable father and mother were waiting for us and maybe they weren’t pleased when we told them about the prizes! mother jumped around and licked our faces and barked. father didn’t say much, but i could see that he was every bit as glad as mother. when i told him about champion hillside carl he sort of growled.
“humph,” he said, “was that dog there to-day? i’ve beaten carl twice and i could have done it again. he isn’t so fine. his ears are too short, and he is deaf in the left one. only the judges are too stupid to find it out! i wish i’d been there!”
we had a supper of broth and bread and went to sleep early, being pretty well tired out.
