I can work hard, Sadie said. I think I can. Do you think I can? Because I found the sheep, too, didn’t I?
It’s not the same if you don’t bark, Angus explained patiently.
7
How it’s fall, and Thanksgiving
The days grew shorter, and colder, too. Leaves were blown off the trees by winds that whistled at the windows and doors of the farmhouse, and blew cold into the barn, especially at night. Missus and Sadie emptied the garden of everything good, and then Mister used the rototiller to turn the soil, plowing under all the stalks and leaves that remained, so they would rot and enrich the soil for next year’s garden.
When the garden had been emptied and the air had become bitter cold, Missus worked on her quilt, sitting in her chair in the living room. Sadie stayed with her to help. Unless there was a rainstorm, Angus and Mister went out, sometimes to plow the fields, sometimes to burn the piles of brush they had gathered, sometimes to check the fences.
One sunny, cold day, Missus and Sadie gave Mister and Angus a ride in the truck up to the summer sheep pasture. Mister and Angus got out to find the sheep and bring them all back to the pasture they had left in the spring. “Sheep want a more protected pasture in fall,” Mister explained to Angus. “Fall weather can get rough.” For that job, Angus had to be on the leash.
Even though it was colder, they still had training, three times each day. Sadie sometimes remembered the commands and sometimes obeyed, but Angus could remember and obey most of the time.
All of the time was what Mister wanted, so Angus wanted that, too. Angus knew that if he just worked harder, he would be able to get it right all of the time. He worked as hard as he could to remember everything, the commands he already knew—Sit! Come! Stay!, and Heel!—and the new one they were learning, Down! He tried his best, three times a day, every day. He liked doing it right. He liked making Mister happy. Sadie wanted to remember, too, but a lot of the time she couldn’t. But she didn’t worry. She did what she could and hoped training would be over with soon so she could get back to doing what she liked, which was sitting with Mister and Missus in the living room, or checking the pastures and barns and chicken houses with Angus, or napping in the kitchen with Patches, smelling all the good food smells.
One cold day, a great variety of smells spread from the kitchen throughout the whole inside of the house, all the rooms downstairs and upstairs, too. Missus spent all that day in the kitchen, and Patches spent all day on the windowsill, napping. Sadie couldn’t stay in one place that long, so she came and went, smelling all the sweet fruity smells, mixed in with the warm bready smells and sharp onion smells.
The next morning, Missus added another smell, richer than any of the previous ones. “The turkey is stuffed and in the oven,” she reported to Mister at breakfast.
“I can smell it,” he said. “It smells great.”
Angus and Sadie hadn’t known that Mister could smell, too.
That day, Mister didn’t leave the house to work in the fields, or the barn, except to take care of the cows and train the dogs. While Missus cooked, he worked briefly with Sadie, practicing Sit! and Stay! But he had Angus do everything, over and over. “My brother’s bringing Lucy this afternoon,” he said to Angus. “Lucy’ll give you some real competition. She’s already been in a trial. So you better look sharp.”
What’s a trial, do you know?
Not yet. I’ll ask Lucy.
Who’s Lucy?
She’s competition.
What’s competition?
It’s a trial.
After training, Mister went inside to help Missus put plates and silverware out on the big dining room table, and napkins and glasses, too, walking back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room. Angus and Sadie followed him, to help, too.
“I like Thanksgiving,” Mister said. “I may even like it better than Christmas.”
“What are you giving thanks for this year?” Missus asked.
“For you, and our life together here. As usual.”
“Me, too, but what else? I’m giving thanks for those four healthy lambs.”
“Well, I guess I’m giving thanks for how trainable Angus is. He’ll take a little of the wind out of my brother’s sails, the way he’s always boasting about Lucy. And for Sadie, too. Just for being herself.”
What are thanks? Sadie wondered.
Angus didn’t know. They’re things you give.
But I didn’t see anything.
You can’t see them. They’re things you give that you can’t see.
“I’m giving thanks for having a friend around the house all day,” Missus said, and bent down to rub Sadie’s neck. “And for you, too, Angus. You’re a friend, too.”
“What about me, aren’t I your friend?” Mister asked, and he laughed, and she laughed, too.
In the afternoon, three cars arrived, all filled with brothers and sisters. One of the brothers brought his dog, who was named Lucy. The brothers and sisters brought children, too, and one brought a baby in its own special basket.
When all of those people came into the house, Patches didn’t hesitate for one second. He ran upstairs to a bedroom, jumped onto the bed, curled up on the pillow, and went to sleep.
Downstairs, everybody was taking off their coats and hanging them up on hooks in the mudroom. They were talking about how good the house smelled and how nice everyone looked and how glad they were to see one another again. The children ran around and around, going outside and then coming back inside to call, “I touched the cow!”
A sister called back. “Don’t touch the cow! I told you not to touch the cow!”
Missus said, “It’s all right. She can’t hurt a cow.”
“But a cow could hurt her.”
“The cat scratched me! Twice!”
“What cat? Are those barn cats feral?”
“All the cats have annual shots and checkups. It’ll be all right. We’ll wash it off with hydrogen peroxide. Okay, sweetie?”
“Yes! And a bandage! Two bandages!”
Mister said to a brother, “So, are you going to show me what your famous Lucy can do this year? And I’ll show you Angus? I’d like to see how they stack up against each other.”
“Absolutely,” the brother said. “But you have to remember that Lucy’s eighteen months old. That’s a big advantage, plus she has experience in a trial. So don’t get upset if your dog can’t keep up with her. He’s not even a year yet, is he?”
“Almost,” Mister said. “Eleven months, he’s about full-sized now. Let’s take the dogs outside. That’ll also calm things down in here. Sadie, Angus, Come!” he said.
“Lucy, Heel!” the brother said, even though she was already at his side, a dog no bigger than Angus. She hadn’t said hello, or explored the kitchen, or done anything other than stay right beside the brother, watching him.
I can Heel! and Down!, Lucy told Angus. Sadie trailed them out the door, and some of the children trailed behind Sadie.
I can stay for a long down, Lucy said. What about you? I’m going to the trials in the spring, and I went to one this fall, and I already have one leg.
What’s a leg? Angus asked.
Sadie said, You already have four legs.
Lucy paid no attention to Sadie. Don’t you know anything? Lucy asked Angus. When you go to a trial and you can obey, the judge gives you a leg.
I had a broken leg, and they fixed it.
Why do you keep interrupting us? Lucy asked.
I’m not. Am I?
Outside, the two men gave orders to their dogs. “Down! Stay!”
All three dogs flattened themselves down onto the ground, and stayed there. Lucy and Angus were side by side, but Sadie was a little apart and behind them.
I worked with sheep once, Lucy said to Angus. Probably, you haven’t done that yet.
This farm has its own herd of sheep, Angus answered.
The two men pretended not to remember the dogs. Instead, they talked to each other.
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“Maturity counts,” the brother said. “How does Angus do with standing for examination?”
“I don’t know,” Mister answered. “We’ll try him, shall we?”
“Because some dogs don’t like strangers handling them. Some dogs growl or snap at the judges. Or they move away and break the pose. That’s an automatic disqualification.”
“I bet Angus can do it, although I’m not so sure about Sadie.”
“She’d growl? Would she bite?”
Mister laughed. “Sadie bite? You’ve got to be kidding. She’d never do that. She’d just back away. Either that or she’d sneak up close to the judge so he could pet her.”
“A lot of the judges are women,” the brother said.
“You know what I mean,” Mister said. “Do you want to say hello to Bethie and Annie?”
They walked over to the cow pen, but every now and then they turned their heads to be sure the dogs were staying down.
The sky was low and heavy with gray clouds, and the air tasted cold. A wind blew through the bare tree branches, combing through the dogs’ new thick coats, winding around the house and barn with a rushing sound, like water.
The three dogs lay still, watching the two men, waiting. From the house, they could hear voices talking and the wailing of the baby. They could see and hear the two men, who pretended they weren’t keeping an eye on the dogs.
Snake strolled out of the barn with Fox behind him, and they also pretended not to see the dogs.
Are those your cats?
Them? They’re just barn cats.
Ours is a house cat. Patches. He went upstairs.
Snake and Fox sauntered over toward the empty garden and then strolled back behind the three dogs. They were talking about the cold day, and the colder nights. They compared how thick their fur was, complimenting each other.
No, Snake, yours is much thicker.
But your undercoat has come in more evenly. You’re the lucky one, Fox.
The dogs didn’t move, but they cocked one ear apiece to hear where the cats were, and what they might be getting up to. None of them much trusted cats, especially barn cats.
Snake strolled closer to the dogs. Fox followed. A few feet away from the dogs’ noses, the two cats came to a halt. They arched their backs, and hissed. Their tails, which they stuck straight up in the air, got thicker.
Lucy growled, low in her throat. Stay off me.
Or what? Snake sneered and Fox sneered, too. Yeah, or what? But they backed away from Lucy.
The two men turned to watch.
You feel like scaring ourselves some dogs? Snake asked Fox.
We could start with Sadie, Snake suggested, and took two steps closer to Sadie.
Sadie stayed down, but she backed away.
We could start by both jumping on Sadie, Fox agreed, also taking two steps closer to her, and then two more. She pulled back her mouth and hissed through her teeth. At the same time, Snake jumped high into the air with his legs out and claws unsheathed.
Sadie jumped up, wheeled around, and fled back to the house and up the steps. At the kitchen door, she barked and barked. She heard Mister calling her, but she didn’t stop. She heard Lucy ask, She isn’t afraid of cats, is she? Angus answered, as if embarrassed, She’s afraid of everything. And she heard Snake and Fox, screeching in what would have been laughter if cats could laugh.
Then Missus opened the door. “What is it, Sadie? Whatever it is, it’s all right now. You’re with me now. Everything’s all right.”
But everything wasn’t all right. Angus was saying that she was afraid of everything, and she wasn’t, and Lucy wouldn’t talk to her, and there were children all over her house. Two of those children came right up to Sadie and grabbed at her.
“Doggie! Doggie!”
“I’m petting a dog!”
“Be gentle, sweetie. You don’t want to frighten her.”
The children hung over Sadie so heavy that her legs almost went flat on the floor.
“Mommy! Look! I’m riding the dog.”
“Be nice now.”
One of the children tried to stick her fingers into Sadie’s mouth.
Sadie knew she couldn’t snap at children, and she couldn’t bite them. Nobody had told her that, she just knew it. She thought that probably, also, she shouldn’t growl at them. She was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to scare children.
But they were scaring her, and they wouldn’t stop. They wouldn’t go away, either. Sadie couldn’t get away from them. So she barked. Help! Missus!
“Quiet, Sadie,” Missus called from the dining room.
Help! she barked again. They’re—
But now the child who had poked her fingers into Sadie’s mouth was crying, and all the others were going away. Sadie didn’t wait for whatever those children might get up to next. She ran into the living room and hid behind the carrier in which the baby slept, where there was just enough room for her. She thought that maybe no child could see her when she was behind the baby, with her head down on her paws. The baby smelled milky and powdery, and those smells made Sadie feel quiet and safe again. She decided to stay with the baby, never mind all the excited voices and good smells coming from the kitchen.
After a while, Sadie heard the men and the dogs come back into the house, and a while after that Angus came to find her.
What are you doing? We’ve been standing for examination. Lucy knows a lot, more even than me. Come into the kitchen with us, Sadie.
Sadie didn’t want to go anywhere.
What’s the matter?
The children.
They’re only children, they can’t hurt. Not like cats. Why are you afraid of them?
I’m not afraid, I just don’t like them. I’m not like you.
You have to try.
I do.
You have to try harder. Come back into the kitchen with me.
Sadie didn’t want to. She knew that Missus and Mister were in there, too, and she wanted to be where Missus and Mister were. But the children were in the kitchen, too, and she couldn’t tell what children would do.
Angus said, Come on, Sadie.
Sadie obeyed.
She obeyed, but she didn’t like it in the kitchen, where everybody was moving around and she didn’t know where a child might go next.
There’s nothing to be afraid of, Angus told her.
They poke.
She’s afraid of children? Lucy asked. Why would anybody be afraid of children?
They poke, Sadie said again, but the others weren’t listening.
Later, in the dining room, everybody sat in chairs at the table, and nobody even noticed the dogs, who stayed under the table, napping, while everybody ate and talked. After that, as a special treat, Mister turned out the lights in the dining room, and Missus made the round, flat light move around on the floor.
When Sadie saw that light, she came out from under the table to try to touch it with her paws. When she chased the light, they all laughed, the men low and round, the children squeaky, and the women softly, with clapping. Because she was trying to get a paw on the light, Sadie barely noticed when one of the children came to try and help her catch it. When at last they turned on the big lights that made the little round light go away, the child started to cry, so Sadie went up to lick his face to help him feel better. The light’ll come back sometime, she told the child. It comes back. The child’s face tasted salty, and good, so she licked again. And then the child laughed, and so did everybody else again. It turned out that when she was licking his face and he was laughing, Sadie didn’t mind that child.
First, they all washed the dishes, and then all the guests left with their children and Lucy, too. “Thank you,” they said. “It was delicious. Thank you. Will you come to our house next year?”
Lucy told Angus, I can show you some things next time. But don’t bring Sadie.
Mister and Missus, Angus and Sadie stood on the porch and watched as the cars drove down the long drive
way and away. Then they all stood together on the porch in the quiet darkness for a little while longer.
“That was a good Thanksgiving,” Mister said.
“It was a good dinner,” Missus said.
“Angus isn’t very much behind Lucy at all,” Mister reported. “Even if my brother did hire her a professional trainer.”
“You did have a good Thanksgiving, didn’t you?” Missus laughed.
Later, when Angus and Sadie were alone in their stall, he told her, When you do that, with dancing, and they laugh, they’re laughing at you.
I like it when they’re laughing, Sadie said.
I don’t, Angus told her. And you shouldn’t.
Sadie didn’t agree about that, so she didn’t say anything.
Angus didn’t notice.
8
How it’s snow, not Snowing, and then Christmas
A few days after Thanksgiving, when Angus and Mister had been gone all afternoon doing something about the fences, Missus looked up from the piece of quilt she was sewing. She went over to the window and said, “Well, well. It’s about time.” Then she went through the kitchen and out onto the porch, putting on her coat, then down into the yard. Sadie followed. “It’s snowing,” Missus said.
Sadie looked around to see Snowing, but no one was there. The air was cold and full of floating things.
“Look, Sadie,” said Missus. She put her hand out to catch some of the floating things, so Sadie knew that they were Snowing.
“Now it’s officially winter,” Missus said, sounding glad.
Was it Snowing or Winter, the floating things? Sadie wondered. Could it be both?
“What do you think of that?” Missus asked.
Snowing! Sadie barked. Winter! She didn’t care which it was.
Missus laughed. “We’ll have hot chocolate to celebrate. Snow and hot chocolate go together. You watch, those two will be back here in no time at—”
Angus and Mister were walking through the Snowing, coming up to the house from the barn. “Did you see this?” Mister called.
“I’m making hot chocolate!” Missus called back.
This is wet, Angus said, as he ran up onto the porch. It doesn’t look like rain, but it is.