CHAPTER III MORE LESSONS

 It was in February that Father and Mother began going away from home for three and four days at a time. William usually went with them, but once the Master went. Each time they came back they brought a bunch of pretty ribbons, blue and red and yellow and white, and William put them in a glass case in the harness room where there were lots more. Of course we asked Mother where the ribbons came from and she said from the dog shows and told us about them. But we didn’t understand very well. It seemed that the ribbons were prizes given to Father and Mother because they were such fine dogs, and William and the Master and every one was very pleased and proud each time Father and Mother came home.

 

 

Father was proud, too. He got more ribbons than Mother. I didn’t think that was fair, but Mother didn’t seem to mind. After each show Father would be very lazy and just lie around and look proud and Mother would fetch him bones. But after a day or two Father would forget to be proud and find his own bones. It wasn’t much fun for Freya and I when Father was being proud, because he slept a lot and if we made the least noise Mother would say “Hush, children! Your father is taking a nap and you mustn’t waken him. Go somewhere else and play.” So we were glad when the dog shows stopped for a while.

 

Freya and I were to learn about dog shows for ourselves, though. When we were almost a year old William began putting a leash¹ on my collar and Freya’s and walking us about. At first I didn’t like it at all. It made me quite nervous to have that strap² holding me back. The first time William put it on I stood still and he kept tugging³ at it and saying “Come on, now, Fritzie! Come on now!” I was quite willing to go with him, but I didn’t like the feeling of that collar up around my ears. Still, it didn’t do any good to put my feet out and hold back because William dragged me, and when I found that out I decided⁵ I’d run away from him. So I started off in a hurry. But there was that horrid⁶ strap, and when I’d gone a little ways my feet went out from under me and I turned a somersault. That frightened me and I ran off in another direction. But each time that leash stopped me. Then I began to run around William in circles and howl and presently, when I couldn’t run any more, because the leash was wrapped around William’s legs, I gave a final tug⁴ and William fell over on his back in a flower-bed where there were some sweet peas just coming up. He was very angry. I saw that at once and so I tried my best to get away from there. But the more I tried to run the angrier William got. You see, he couldn’t get the strap from around his legs and so he couldn’t get on his feet. And just then I heard the Baby clapping her hands and Nurse saying “Why, William! Whatever are you doing there?”

 

And then William was so surprised and felt so silly that he let go the leash and I pulled it loose and ran as hard as I could run to the stable and crawled behind the flower-pots. But of course he found me and pulled me out. He always did. Sometimes now I wonder why I didn’t find a better place to hide in.

 

Well, William had his way in the end and I got so I didn’t mind being on the leash and would walk along ahead of him quite nicely. Freya had to learn too. She didn’t mind it as much as I had, but then she never had much spirit. After we got used to the leash William would put a flat box in the middle of the carriage room floor and make us get up on it and stand there for minutes at a time. I didn’t see much fun in that, and at first when he got me on the box I jumped right down again. But he was very—very—Now what was it that Mother said he was? Oh, patient; that was it; very patient. That was what Mother called it, but I said he was stubborn.

 

Anyway, he kept at me until I did just what he wanted me to, and after a while I didn’t mind standing⁷ on the box, although I couldn’t see much sense in it and it seemed a dreadful waste of time. But Mother told us what it was all for, and then I was quite willing to do what William wanted. You see, we were being trained for the dog shows. I thought that was very nice because it meant going on a journey, just as Father and Mother had, and bringing back a lot of pretty ribbons. Father said, though, that if I didn’t behave better than I’d been behaving I wouldn’t get any ribbons. Father can be quite gruff at times. Freya was so excited about it that she could talk of nothing else.

 

“Won’t it be fine,” she would say, “to be in a show and have hundreds of people admiring you and patting you and saying what a lovely dog you are? I know I shall just love it, Fritz!”

 

Girl-dogs are always vain, you see. Vanity is not becoming in dogs any more than in Two-Legged Folks and so I growled⁸ and said: “I guess no one will look twice at you, Miss Stuck-Up! You’re much too homely⁹.”

 

That made Freya cry and she ran off to ask her mother if it was so. Of course she really wasn’t homely. I only said that so she wouldn’t be vain and proud. Freya in some ways was a better looking dog than I was. Her coat was what the Master called “perfectly wonderful.” It was very black and very shiny; just like satin. And her ears were fine and long and silky. And she had nice eyes, too, and a good tail. My tail had a place on the tip where there was no hair. Poor William troubled a lot about that spot and rubbed it with grease for weeks and weeks. The grease didn’t seem to do much good, though. Perhaps I licked it off too soon. That place never has got quite right and I don’t think it ever will. But even if Freya was a little better looking than I, she couldn’t run as fast or dig as deep or do useful things as well as I could. I was lots stronger and bigger. Mother said that was as it should be; that girl-dogs were not supposed to be as big and brave and strong as boy-dogs.

 

Well, William taught us all sorts of things that Spring. It was a good deal of a bother, but the thought of being taken to the dog show helped me to be patient and go through with it. After we had been in training for a month or more I asked Mother when the show was to be and she said she didn’t know; that maybe it wouldn’t come for a long time. I didn’t like that and I had made up my mind that there wasn’t any use in going through with so many lessons if nothing was to come of it when, one morning, the Master came down to the stable.

 

“Well, how are they getting on, William?” he asked.

 

“Fair, sir,” said William. “Freya takes to it like the lady she is, sir, but Young Fritz is slower. He’s as stubborn as his father, sir.”

 

Now I thought that very unkind of William after all the trouble I had taken to please him, and just to show that my feelings were hurt I sneaked¹⁰ off and got behind the flower-pots. But I could hear what they were saying in the carriage room, and pretty soon the Master said:

 

“Well, I think we’ll try them out at the Oak Cliff Show in June. It’s nearby and there’s only one day of it. They’re bound to be nervous the first time and a small show is a good one to start them with.”

 

I pricked¹¹ up my ears at that, because it was already the last of May, and crawled out from back of the flower-pots.

 

1 leash   

n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住

参考例句：

• I reached for the leash,but the dog got in between.我伸手去拿系狗绳，但被狗挡住了路。
• The dog strains at the leash,eager to be off.狗拼命地扯拉皮带，想挣脱开去。

2 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

3 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

4 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 homely   

adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的

参考例句：

• We had a homely meal of bread and cheese.我们吃了一顿面包加乳酪的家常便餐。
• Come and have a homely meal with us,will you?来和我们一起吃顿家常便饭，好吗？

10 sneaked   

v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状

参考例句：

• I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
• She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。

11 pricked   

刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry. 厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• He was pricked by his conscience. 他受到良心的谴责。