JOE, THE GERMAN DOG.
Being for some months in a German town, we proposed, before returningto England, that we should procure one of the strange-looking littleGerman terriers, with long backs and short legs; and we made inquiriesas to where we could obtain one of the real German breed. We found thatthere are several different races of these dogs; they have all the longback, and short bandy legs; but one kind is very large, with pointednose and long tail; another kind is small, with excessively soft hair,small head and magnificent large eyes; another kind is small, ratherwiry in the hair, and unusually long and pointed in the nose.
After seeing several, we at last had one offered to us that we liked,and bought; he was of the last-described species; his body long andnarrow, his legs very short and crooked, and his feet enormous, bigenough for a dog of three times the size; his tail was long, anddangled down in an ungainly sort of way; his head was small, and hisnose much elongated and pointed; his eyes small and sparkling, and hisears rather soft and long. Altogether, he was the queerest-lookinglittle animal you would wish to see. We named him Joe, and commencedhis education by showing him, that he was not to consider our babysister a species of rat, and to worry her accordingly, and by teachinghim to sleep on a rug in the corner of one of the bed-rooms. He was avery sociable merry little fellow, liked scampering after us throughthe range of rooms, all on one floor or flat, and enjoyed running alongthe roads and in the park with us; but he was terribly chilly; he couldnot bear sleeping on his mat, always wanting to be on the bed, or atleast muffled up in a flannel gown; and in the day, he was happiestwhen he was allowed to creep under the stove and lie there, reallyalmost undergoing baking. I never saw an animal bear so much heat withsatisfaction to himself.
He destroyed half the things in the house before he got over hispuppy-days; but every one liked him, and he generally escapedpunishment. He was sharp enough to know his way home, in a very fewdays after we bought him. We had him out in the park and missed him, along way from home; seeing no sign of him, we concluded that some onehad picked him up, and gave him up for lost, having no idea that thelittle young creature would know its way home; and we were quitesurprised when we reached our own door, to find Joe sitting therewaiting; he had come along the crooked walks of the park, through thestreets, and up our long flight of stairs, and our opinion of hissagacity rose in proportion.
Shortly after we had bought Joe, we travelled to England, anddetermined to try whether we could manage to take him in the carriagewith us, instead of letting the poor little fellow be shut up in adog-box on the train, with, perhaps, a dozen other savage dogs. SoPapa carried him under his cloak; Joe was very good at the station,and kept himself perfectly quiet, until we were all seated in therailway-carriage. We were beginning to think that we had him safe forthat day's journey; and as soon as we had shewn our tickets, could lethim run about the carriage.
The ticket-taker came to the door, had looked all round, and Papa wasshowing his ticket, when, at the last minute, Joe began to plunge andpush about under the cloak. Papa held him fast, but the stupid littleanimal set up a yelp, just as the man was leaving the carriage. Heimmediately asked if we had a dog, and poor Joe was hauled out by hisneck, and Papa had to run in great haste to see him placed in adog-box. And for the next three or four hours, Joe howled incessantly.
When we halted in the middle of the day, we managed better; Mamma tookhim under her shawl, and got into the carriage some time before theofficials came peeping about, and he lay quiet in her lap, and no onemeddled with him; so the afternoon of his first day of travel was notso miserable as the commencement. Altogether, Joe was a good deal oftrouble on the journey; there was always a fuss about gainingpermission to have him in the carriage, and we did not know what to dowith him at the inns, for fear he should go down stairs and be lost. Atlast we reached England, and for a time lived in London.
At first we were much afraid that Joe would be darting out of the frontdoor, and would be stolen immediately. But he soon got used to theconfinement, only having a yard behind the house to run in, and he madehimself extremely happy. The house in which we were staying possessedtwo dogs, a cat, a variety of birds, and in the yard lived a cock withseveral hens.
Joe and the cat used to have famous games together, rolling each otherover and over, then racing round the kitchen, over the tables andchairs. When pussy was tired, she sat upon a chair and slapped Joe'sface, whenever she could reach him, as he ran barking round the chair.One of the dogs was very old and fat, and did not at all approve of thenew comer's vivacious ways, but growled at Joe fiercely when he triedto entice him to play. The other dog was also too fat to be veryactive; and when Joe found that no fun was to be had with them, hemerely danced round them now and then, to have the pleasure of makingthem angry, and seeing them show their teeth; and then he left them totheir slumbers, and scampered off to the cat, who was more suited tohis age and manners.
Out in the yard he had much amusement with the fowls; at first sight hehad been rather frightened at them, but soon took pleasure in seeingthem flutter about and run away from him. The cock, however, did notrun away, but faced Master Joe, and crowed at him, and ran at him inthe most valiant manner; and when Joe was too pertinacious in barkingat him and teazing him, the cock actually sprang upon his back andpecked him, until Joe crouched down on the ground fairly beaten. Inreturn, however, Joe nearly caused a death-warrant to be pronouncedagainst the cock and all the hens, by teaching them to eat eggs.
One morning, the hens were observed to be in a great state ofexcitement, pecking greedily at something on the ground, which, onexamination, proved to be a new-laid egg, broken and devoured by theunnatural hens. The next day another and another was found in the sameway; in fact, as soon as the eggs were laid, they were brought out ofthe hen-house and broken. So it was agreed, that the hens having oncecontracted this bad habit, could never be cured, and had better all bekilled. But before this determination had been put in practice, Mammachanced to look out of the window early, just after Joe had been sentout for his morning walk, and spied the naughty creature coming out ofthe hen-house with an egg in his mouth. Presently all the hens and thecock ran out after him, calling, "Stop thief!" or, rather, implyingthose words by their cackling and noise; and they pursued Joe round andround the yard, until they came up with him all in a body, and the eggbeing dropped in the scuffle, was of course broken; and then the hensfell upon it and ate it up.
This it seems took place every morning. Joe fetched eggs out of thenests; and the hens, after pretending to be very angry, ended byjoining in the robbery.
The next time Joe was seen with an egg in his mouth, one of theservants went out and called to him, when he placed it on the ground sogently, that it was not even cracked; and if we could manage to catchhim before the hens rushed upon him, we always obtained the egg safeenough; for he did not break it or eat it himself, only put it into thehen's heads to do so; and, probably, his only object was to make thewhole family of hens run after him, which he seemed much to enjoy.
So the sentence of death against the cock and hens was not pronounced,as it seemed the whole fault lay with Joe; and whenever we could catchhim approaching the hen-house he received a good whipping.
He had, however, that sort of temper which cares not the least forwhipping or scolding; he never was at all abashed or cowed; but made amost dreadful yelling whilst the whipping was inflicted, and the momenthe was released he would dance about perfectly happy, and immediatelygo and repeat the fault--he was quite incorrigible.
We managed to prevent, in a great measure, his stealing eggs, by notletting him out so early; and when he went into the yard people weregoing in and out, that could watch him.
So, to make amends for the loss of his morning's fun, he used to pushaside the window curtain and blind, as soon as it was light, and standon his hind legs at the window, watching the cock and hens; now andthen signifying his approval of their proceedings by a short bark.
He slept in an arm-chair, covered
up with an old dressing gown. On oneoccasion this was removed, and we thought Joe would do just as wellwithout it; but with his great love of warmth, he absolutely refused tosleep without a warm covering. He was much perturbed, and ran squeakingabout the room, till after keeping us awake half the night, we wereobliged to get up, and supply him with something soft to envelope himin the arm-chair.
When Joe was tired of playing with the cat, the dogs, and the fowls, heused to go to the top of the house into our baby-sister's nursery. Hewas very fond of her; but usually timed his visits so as to come in forher dinner or supper, of which he always had a share.
She used to put her tin of milk on the floor and sit beside it: firstJoey took a lap or two, then baby had a sip; and so they emptied themug together: and at her dinner, Joe used to eat the pudding at oneside of the plate, whilst baby worked away at the other.
Then they took a roll on the floor together, and whatever rough pull orpinch was bestowed on Joe, he never snapped or hurt the little girl;indeed, would let her do anything she liked with him.
He was very long before he gave up his puppy fashion of tearing andbiting everything. If a book or a piece of work fell on the ground,Joey's sharp teeth soon brought them into a deplorable condition. If hecould get hold of a bonnet, he soon dragged off ribbon, flowers, lace,and whatever it possessed; and poor little baby's toys, balls, anddolls were never presentable after they had been five minutes in thehouse.
Then he wickedly pulled to pieces the mat at the bottom of the stairs,for which he was well whipped; in short, the mischief he did wasterrible.
His encounters with the cock did not prove sufficient exercise for thehardy little fellow; and he began to get so fat, that we determined tosend him into the country, to some place where he would have a greatdeal of running about out of doors.
We were sorry to part with him for the time we should be in London; butwe did not wish to see him become too fat to waddle.
So Papa took him with him when he went into the country to visit somefriends. He placed him with a man who was to teach him rat-hunting; andJoe showed that he had an excellent nose, and promised to be afirst-rate ratter.
But when Papa had returned to London, we heard that poor Joe had madehis appearance again at the house of the friend whither Papa had firsttaken him. He was looking sadly thin and wretched, and ran into thebed-room Papa had used, and searched for him in all directions.
The poor little fellow remained there until Papa made anotherarrangement for him, as evidently he had been ill-used by therat-catcher.
He next was sent to a gamekeeper's, who lived in a nice park, wherethere was a beautiful rabbit-warren, plenty of stacks for ratting, astream to swim in, and fields and farms to range about.
There we hoped he would be very happy; and as poor little Joe is stillalive, I have not to relate his end at present, and hope that he willstill afford us much amusement.
* * * * *
Now I think I have described the greater part of the animals, birds,and creatures of all kinds that belonged to me and my sister. How muchpleasure we derived from them! And what a mixture of pity and contemptwe always felt for children who feared or disliked animals!
There was a family of little children near us once, when we had ourdear dog Tawney; how they used to scream and run whenever they saw him!even though he was taking no notice of them in particular. Then theywould take up stones and throw them at him, really intending to hurthim; for their intense fear of the dog rendered them quite cruel; andwhen he found that they tried to hurt him, and shouted at him, he usedto bark in return, which of course terrified them more.
Then some of our friends had quite a horror of our hedgehog, and ourbat, and wondered how we could kiss Neddy's nose, and Bluebeard's. I amsure their soft nice coats were quite as pleasant to kiss, as manypeople's faces.
I only wish that all little children would love animals, and find asmuch amusement as we did in the care of our Live Toys.
THE END.
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