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

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After it had happened Anne was continually remembering little things that might have given her warning.

Waddles had a favourite afternoon station on the end of the porch that commanded the front and barn roads, the front door, and the garden also if he turned his head. Suddenly Lumberlegs regularly appropriated this watch-tower, and his length being so great that there was no view from a back seat Waddles, after unavailing verbal remonstrance, was forced to lie upon the grass.

Waddles was the only dog that had been allowed in the dining room at meal times, when he sat quietly under the table at Anne’s feet. Soon Lumberlegs discovered a way of opening the door and he would hide under the table, lying at Tommy’s feet. As he was quiet, and Tommy declared that he made “a fine feet bench,” he was allowed to remain. Consequently Waddles was squeezed against the table’s claw legs and presently left his old place and lay disconsolately upon the door-mat.

When Lumberlegs came, a gift from Miss Jule, he was regarded as Tommy’s property; but when the novelty wore off, and Jack and Jill became counter attractions, he turned wholly to Anne to supply his needs both of food and affection, and became devotedly attached to her as big dogs usually are to only one person; while Anne, though faithful to Waddles, returned his devotion, for he was in many ways a noble dog.