Part 7

He destroyed half the things in the house before he got over his puppy-days; but every one liked him, and he generally escaped punishment. He was sharp enough to know his way home, in a very few days after we bought him. We had him out in the park and missed him, a long way from home; seeing no sign of him, we concluded that some one had picked him up, and gave him up for lost, having no idea that the little young creature would know its way home; and we were quite surprised when we reached our own door, to find Joe sitting there waiting; he had come along the crooked walks of the park, through the streets, and up our long flight of stairs, and our opinion of his sagacity rose in proportion.

Shortly after we had bought Joe, we travelled to England, and determined to try whether we could manage to take him in the carriage with us, instead of letting the poor little fellow be shut up in a dog-box on the train, with, perhaps, a dozen other savage dogs. So Papa carried him under his cloak; Joe was very good at the station, and kept himself perfectly quiet, until we were all seated in the railway-carriage. We were beginning to think that we had him safe for that day's journey; and as soon as we had shewn our tickets, could let him run about the carriage.

The ticket-taker came to the door, had looked all round, and Papa was showing his ticket, when, at the last minute, Joe began to plunge and push about under the cloak. Papa held him fast, but the stupid little animal set up a yelp, just as the man was leaving the carriage. He immediately asked if we had a dog, and poor Joe was hauled out by his neck, and Papa had to run in great haste to see him placed in a dog-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 took him under her shawl, and got into the carriage some time before the officials came peeping about, and he lay quiet in her lap, and no one meddled with him; so the afternoon of his first day of travel was not so miserable as the commencement. Altogether, Joe was a good deal of trouble on the journey; there was always a fuss about gaining permission to have him in the carriage, and we did not know what to do with him at the inns, for fear he should go down stairs and be lost. At last we reached England, and for a time lived in London.

At first we were much afraid that Joe would be darting out of the front door, and would be stolen immediately. But he soon got used to the confinement, only having a yard behind the house to run in, and he made himself extremely happy. The house in which we were staying possessed two dogs, a cat, a variety of birds, and in the yard lived a cock with several hens.

Joe and the cat used to have famous games together, rolling each other over and over, then racing round the kitchen, over the tables and chairs. When pussy was tired, she sat upon a chair and slapped Joe's face, 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 the new comer's vivacious ways, but growled at Joe fiercely when he tried to entice him to play. The other dog was also too fat to be very active; and when Joe found that no fun was to be had with them, he merely danced round them now and then, to have the pleasure of making them angry, and seeing them show their teeth; and then he left them to their slumbers, and scampered off to the cat, who was more suited to his age and manners.

Out in the yard he had much amusement with the fowls; at first sight he had been rather frightened at them, but soon took pleasure in seeing them flutter about and run away from him. The cock, however, did not run away, but faced Master Joe, and crowed at him, and ran at him in the most valiant manner; and when Joe was too pertinacious in barking at him and teazing him, the cock actually sprang upon his back and pecked him, until Joe crouched down on the ground fairly beaten. In return, however, Joe nearly caused a death-warrant to be pronounced against the cock and all the hens, by teaching them to eat eggs.

One morning, the hens were observed to be in a great state of excitement, pecking greedily at something on the ground, which, on examination, proved to be a new-laid egg, broken and devoured by the unnatural hens. The next day another and another was found in the same way; in fact, as soon as the eggs were laid, they were brought out of the hen-house and broken. So it was agreed, that the hens having once contracted this bad habit, could never be cured, and had better all be killed. But before this determination had been put in practice, Mamma chanced to look out of the window early, just after Joe had been sent out for his morning walk, and spied the naughty creature coming out of the hen-house with an egg in his mouth. Presently all the hens and the cock ran out after him, calling, "Stop thief!" or, rather, implying those words by their cackling and noise; and they pursued Joe round and round the yard, until they came up with him all in a body, and the egg being dropped in the scuffle, was of course broken; and then the hens fell upon it and ate it up.

This it seems took place every morning. Joe fetched eggs out of the nests; and the hens, after pretending to be very angry, ended by joining in the robbery.

The next time Joe was seen with an egg in his mouth, one of the servants went out and called to him, when he placed it on the ground so gently, that it was not even cracked; and if we could manage to catch him before the hens rushed upon him, we always obtained the egg safe enough; for he did not break it or eat it himself, only put it into the hen's heads to do so; and, probably, his only object was to make the whole 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 catch him approaching the hen-house he received a good whipping.

He had, however, that sort of temper which cares not the least for whipping or scolding; he never was at all abashed or cowed; but made a most dreadful yelling whilst the whipping was inflicted, and the moment he was released he would dance about perfectly happy, and immediately go and repeat the fault--he was quite incorrigible.

We managed to prevent, in a great measure, his stealing eggs, by not letting him out so early; and when he went into the yard people were going in and out, that could watch him.

So, to make amends for the loss of his morning's fun, he used to push aside the window curtain and blind, as soon as it was light, and stand on his hind legs at the window, watching the cock and hens; now and then signifying his approval of their proceedings by a short bark.

He slept in an arm-chair, covered up with an old dressing gown. On one occasion this was removed, and we thought Joe would do just as well without it; but with his great love of warmth, he absolutely refused to sleep without a warm covering. He was much perturbed, and ran squeaking about the room, till after keeping us awake half the night, we were obliged to get up, and supply him with something soft to envelope him in the arm-chair.

When Joe was tired of playing with the cat, the dogs, and the fowls, he used to go to the top of the house into our baby-sister's nursery. He was very fond of her; but usually timed his visits so as to come in for her 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: first Joey took a lap or two, then baby had a sip; and so they emptied the mug together: and at her dinner, Joe used to eat the pudding at one side of the plate, whilst baby worked away at the other.

Then they took a roll on the floor together, and whatever rough pull or pinch 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 and biting 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 he could get hold of a bonnet, he soon dragged off ribbon, flowers, lace, and whatever it possessed; and poor little baby's toys, balls, and dolls were never presentable after they had been five minutes in the house.

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 was terrible.

His encounters with the cock did not prove sufficient exercise for the hardy little fellow; and he began to get so fat, that we determined to send him into the country, to some place where he would have a great deal of running about out of doors.

We were sorry to part with him for the time we should be in London; but we 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 some friends. He placed him with a man who was to teach him rat-hunting; and Joe showed that he had an excellent nose, and promised to be a first-rate ratter.

But when Papa had returned to London, we heard that poor Joe had made his appearance again at the house of the friend whither Papa had first taken him. He was looking sadly thin and wretched, and ran into the bed-room Papa had used, and searched for him in all directions.

The poor little fellow remained there until Papa made another arrangement for him, as evidently he had been ill-used by the rat-catcher.

He next was sent to a gamekeeper's, who lived in a nice park, where there was a beautiful rabbit-warren, plenty of stacks for ratting, a stream to swim in, and fields and farms to range about.

There we hoped he would be very happy; and as poor little Joe is still alive, I have not to relate his end at present, and hope that he will still 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 much pleasure we derived from them! And what a mixture of pity and contempt we always felt for children who feared or disliked animals!

There was a family of little children near us once, when we had our dear 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 they would take up stones and throw them at him, really intending to hurt him; for their intense fear of the dog rendered them quite cruel; and when he found that they tried to hurt him, and shouted at him, he used to bark in return, which of course terrified them more.

Then some of our friends had quite a horror of our hedgehog, and our bat, and wondered how we could kiss Neddy's nose, and Bluebeard's. I am sure their soft nice coats were quite as pleasant to kiss, as many people's faces.

I only wish that all little children would love animals, and find as much amusement as we did in the care of our Live Toys.

THE END.

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