Читать книгу Dogtown. Being Some Chapters from the Annals of the Waddles Family Set Down in the Language of Housepeople онлайн

49 страница из 63

ssss1

During all these days Lumberlegs, the St. Bernard, grew mightily. When he was a year old, he looked like an awkward young calf; but when his second year was ended, he had the tawny head of a lioness, and his body, well rounded yet muscular, was in keeping with his huge paws.

When he sat and Tommy stood, their heads were on a level, and when they walked abroad together, Tommy tugging sturdily at his collar to keep pace, they usually had the roadway to themselves, for Lumberlegs was not only the largest inhabitant of Dogtown, but of the whole county, and people made so many remarks about his size that Tommy dubbed him Bigness.

Lumberlegs and Tommy.

These same people predicted that some day there would be a dog fight at Happy Hall when Lumberlegs came to realize his strength, and the feeling of jealousy that comes to a dog with full growth. Surely there was material for both jealousy and a fight. Waddles loved Anne with the sort of love that thinks it owns the object of its devotion; Lumberlegs loved both Tommy and Anne in the same way; while Lily, the bulldog, was devoted to Tommy alone, and deeply resented the coming of Happy, who loved every one, as an infringement of her rights; so that at the time Happy became the mother of Jack and Jill, and consequently an object of much attention, there was a considerable strain upon dog tempers.