The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-13

said Mamma, as she drew up a
/ chair beside the bed to tell the
usual sleepy-time story, you should
have seen one had when l was a
little girl.
His name was Victor, though of
course we all called him Vickie. He
was a perfect ball of white and, oh,
so cute and darling and clean! AL
ways in the summer, remember, we
used to have his long, curly. fluffy
hair clipped close all over-except a
great bang of 1t which was left hang
ing down over his shining. little black
eyes to protect them from the glare
of the sun.
Nothing seemed to delight him
more than, when we were out riding
of an evening, to lean far out the
side of the carriage and bark just as
loudly and fiercely as ever he could
at the dogs we passed-even the big
gest of them. And when they would
come dashing along after the car
riage, Vickie would bark all the
louder, and most anyone would think
him a dreadfully ferocious dog. OF
course, he was perfectly safe in the
carriage-and we sometimes thought
he knew it, for he would never bark
while passing another dog when we
were walking.
zone summer, Sister Florence and
I went up to Uncle Arthur's farm to
spend a week or two. We took Vickie
with US. And he enjoyed the coun-
try and all the strange animals and
flowers and birds just as much as we
did.
Uncle Arthur had three dogs of his
own, for people who live in the coun-
try always have them. One was a
Great big Watchdog, another a
squatty, bow-legged bull dog and the
third beautiful silky-haired collie.
Strange to say, Vickie seemed to make
friends with all three of them. At
first, he was very quiet and well-be-
haved-and scared of them, too, for
when he saw one of them coming up
on the porch he would jump up on
the lap of the very nearest person.
But after a while, when he saw
that they had no intention of harming
him, he became bolder; and it was
not many days before he was play
ing around the yard with them and
dashing across fields and through the
cool, green woods, barking and yelp-
ing and scampering along as though
he were indeed just as much a real
dog as they
Now Uncle Arthur also had two
little kittens. One was pure white
and the other as black as your stock
ing, with white star right, in the
middle of his forehead. Uncle Arthur
hadn't had them so very long, but his
dogs had become thoroughly accus-
toned to them and never chased them
or barked at them, much less trying
to bite them.
"But not Vickie. Oh, no, Mr..
Smarty Vickie had no sooner set eyes
on them one day, when he happened
10 steal into the kitchen unobserved,
than he set up most terrific bark
ing. Why, you would have imagined
he was a great fierce watch h-dog and
there were burglars attempting to
break in and carry off the entire
house.
II rushed into the kitchen to see
what in the world was the matter
with Vickie. And there I found him
his feet spread out, his cunning little
bang hanging down over his eyes and
his cute little tail wiggling and wag-
ging for all the world like Timber
switch when you're holding it by one
cnl and shaking it,
"And the poor kittens-Blackie and
Whitie-well, he had them crowded
back into a corner, their little back:
arched up until it seemed they would
surely break, every hair of then
standing right up on end and the most
frightened, pitiable look on their tiny
little faces you ever saw
IT grabbed him up and ran out or
the front porch with him. l didn't
spank him, but l did try to tell him
what a bad little doggie he had beer
and I asked him. how he would feel il
Uncle Arthur's big dogs drove him
into corner and barked and jumped
at him!
"He wagged his little head and
stuck out his little tongue, trying tc
lick my cheek, as much as to say
but they're only cats, you see-anc
it's such fun TO make out you're GO
ing TO eat them up,
Indeed, on second thought, | an
quite certain Vickie didn't under
stand me, or, if he did, it went in one
of his cunning little perked-up ear:
and out the other. For the very mex