Page:Lippincotts Monthly Magazine-70.djvu/495

Rh laughed at him. Sometimes stray chickens from over beyond the cross street, which was in the country, came in, and when Spot saw them he made a run for them that sent them screaming and fluttering over the low iron fence. One day a little wasp of a game-cock slipped through between the pickets, and when Spot saw him he went for him. The little boy and the little girl watched him lope down the lawn, his tail swinging round and round like a switchman's arm in a back-up signal. The game-cock stood his ground until Spot was only about four inches away, when he moved to one side as the pup panted past him. The pup stopped, went about, and made another run at the chicken, but the cock side-stepped. Spot appeared to see here what promised to be a great game of bumble puppy, but the game-cock was not playful. After tilting his head this way and that way and giving the cock another back-up signal with his tail, the pup started to walk the chicken down. He approached slowly, two or three steps at a time. When he had come up to within a few feet of the cock he rushed him. It never once occurred to the game-cock to caitiff, but when the pup approached he winged himself up about eleven inches from the lawn. As the pup passed under the cock hooked him in behind with his keen gaffs, and the pup screamed murder. Making a wide circle he loped back to his friends.

After flapping his wings and crowing loudly the little game-cock walked away to the country again, while the boy, red-faced and severe looking, heaved great imaginary stones at the scene of the trouble. The frightened pup put his head down in his mistress's lap and cried himself to sleep. Once he woke with a start and a little cry, and then with a long, deep, quivering sob he fell asleep again, while the child patted and petted and little-mothered him in that gentle way that women have with things they love.

Under the arch of the evergreen gate the squatter slouched into the side-yard one sultry Saturday afternoon. The little girl was having a party. Instinctively the little folks shrank from the strong, rough man, but the pup bounded out, jumping two jumps forward and one back, with an occasional half jump sidewise. Encouraged by the pup, the little girl stepped out from the group, called "Spot! Spot!" stamped her feet, and then waited. The squatter made an awkward grab at his soiled cap and asked for a drink of water. The little girl tripped off to fetch it, while the squatter petted the pup and called him by his name. When the man passed out under the green gateway the pup followed him. Across the front lawn he loped, while the squatter, pretending not to notice him, stopped occasionally, called him Spot, and petted him. At the gate the pup stopped, but the man, fooling with his horse's harness, kept calling "Spot! nice Spot! Come, Spot!"