The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-09-09
A DOG NAMED DIMPLE

| II ever there was case In which the In
tentions of nature were quite set at naught,
it was when my cousin Eugenia began to
bring herself up after her own pattern
without the slightest regard to the cutting
Of the CLOTH Nature had meant her for a
kitten girl or dove girl, anything that
was made up of curves and softness, whilo
| she preferred to be a composition Of angles.
Therefore, in place Of dancing, flirting
and enjoying life after the manner of
| girl with big blue conflding eyes, whose
| dimples and freckles seemed made for kiss
| ing, she propped up book to read as she
swallowed her hasty meals, apart from tho
family If possible, studied from morning
till night, frightened the men by her cru
dition despised pets, played tennis simply
for exercise rode q bicycle SO as to get
quickly from one place to another and
made all girlkind feel themselves mere
puppets and dolls
But now had the mighty fallen. Eu.
genia had purchased dog and given it
the name of-Dimple. No wonder that,
not daring to jeer, we were silent
However, when the dog arrived we were
obliged to admit that he justified his
name. OF all the dear, rolly poly little dog
babies that ever l saw Dimple was the
most fascinating, and the very first wag Of
his tail excused Eugenia's backsliding.
Not that she realized her lapse from tho
intellectual. She held and petted and ca.
ressed the small object as If ii had been
her daily occupation ever since the day Of
her leaving school-that time at which
girls are apt to develop their Weaknesses
and was sublimely unconscious Of our
smiles and gibes. Eugenia, flushed and
intent, her pretty, yellow hair twisting 1t.
self into thousands of tiny rings, her brows
knitted, one hand smoothing the fur of the
four footed baby, the other busily engaged
in writing out her paper on medieval pc.
litical economy, was a sight for the gods.
when Dimple grows up" aunty had
foolishly said one day, apropos of nothing,
and Eugenia had turned upon her with
lofty scorn and informed her that the EN-
gaging morsel, at that moment busy in
the demolition Of one of my newest and
longest evening gloves, "would never grow
any more" the man from whom she
bought him having assured her that he had
quite completed that part Of his education.
Which doubling, we were nevertheless ST.
lent.
Two or three days after this mistake Of
aunty's, Dan came out to dinner and deep.
ly annoyed Eugenia by picking up the soft
mass of fur by his neck and remarking:
when this fellow gets over being
puppy, it'll be quite dog, Eugenia.
He is not a puppy, Dan, he is full
grown" our cousin responded icily, and
then added with some asperity, II have
- A.I,
kind
My brother threw back his handsome
head and laughed low, but heartily
May I inquire the age of your full
grown dog, my cousin?"
''Hc was six months old when bought
him two months ago"
Eight months old! You dear little
goose, if he is one half that shall be as
tonished. He was probably just weaned
when you got him, and these mastiffs"-
He isn't n mastiff."
"Indeed! And what Is hep"
"a Sicilian poodle"
"O-o-hr
The peal of laughter which greeted this
digni1ied response was quite too much for
Eugenia- She picked up her dog and de.
parted, red with Indignation, leaving Dan,
the only person in the world who ever
dared to tease her, to apologize to aunty,
be by her forgiven, and, fear, encouraged
to repeat his Offense
From that time we noticed that Eugenia
was more or less uneasy. Once caught
her holding aunty's yard measure suspi-
ciously near Dimplc, but she dropped it at
once upon my approach After a few
weeks there was no use Disgusting tho
fact That full grown dog was rapidly in.
Crcasing in siZe-indeed, he seemed to en-.
large during his slumbers and wake up q
full size bigger than when he went to
sleep.
1t began with his legs, which so extend
cd themselves that, had you seen him in
collection of freaks you would have sus.
pectcd him of being on stills; then the lit
tie round body, so absurdly mounted on its
thin supports, began to swell out.
Eugcnia grew very grave She would
sit for hours over her books, glancing fur
lively from time to time at Dimplc, DOING
by her sde-for he had grown much too
large for her lap-as II they had never been
introduced. One day she forgot to go to
her lecture at the proper hour, so busy was
she trying to induce Dimple to crowd him
sell into the sumptuous basket which had
been purchased for his babyhood So care
worn did she become, indeed, that we new
err alluded to the dog IS growth. He was fed
and how he did eat; he was watered to |
the extent of several gallons a day; he was
housed at night in kennel, alas! for no
scorned the larger basket that had been
quietly provided, but no one ever spoke of
his size.
As the months rolled on the singular
happiness of Dmplcs name became posi-
lively embarrassing, for though aunty and
l could have laughed over it and made it u
perfect Eodsend in the way of n spur to
languishing conversation, Eugenia, feeling
that she had been duped, regarded it as so
keen modification that we avoided the
subject with terror.
"What mas become of your pretty little
puppy, Miss EugeniaS" asked one unwary
swain and, as if in answer, the door was
pushed open and in stalked II great, lean,
long legged, big bodied, solemn dog, wag-
ging his tail slowly. He walked up to
Eugcnia. laid his head on her knee, then
turned and winked at the qlestioner Oh,
yes, he did; he winked deliberately, then
raised one huge paw and put it down on
Eugcna's shoulder with an air of patron
izing proprietorship that was positively