There were no more dog shows for us that summer, although Father and Mother went to one in August and Father came back with three blue ribbons and Mother with a blue and two reds. Father had beaten Champion Hillside Carl quite easily and was very proud for several days and Mother her feet off finding bones for him.
It was just after the show that Alfred and his mother came to visit us again, and I was glad to see him. He had grown a good deal since the summer before. But then I had grown too and he said he would scarcely have known me! I don’t know which of us was gladder to see him, the Baby or I. We had some fine times in the next two weeks. We hunted squirrels in the and had picnics in the woods and played all sorts of games. But we didn’t look for Indians in the swamp, I can tell you!
Alfred liked me best of all the dogs and one evening he came down to the after it was dark and carried me to the house and took me to bed with him and I slept there all night curled up in his arms. In the morning we had a fine when we woke up, but I guess we must have made too much noise, for Nurse heard us and came in and said, “Why, Master Alfred, wherever did you get that dog? Put him right off the bed this very instant!”
Nurse had left the door open and so I ran out as hard as I could and down the stairs. It wasn’t my fault that Delia was coming up just then with a tray of toast and coffee for Alfred’s mother, was it? Besides, she might have seen me if she had been looking. She didn’t, though, and I was in a great hurry and tried to run between her feet. I was almost at the bottom of the stairs when I heard the tray fall, and a piece of toast came rolling down after me. I thought it best not to stop for it, however, although I am very fond of buttered toast. Fortunately, William was shining the knocker on the front door and I was able to get out without more trouble.
I went right down to the stable and got behind the flower-pots and stayed there until the middle of the forenoon, but nothing happened, and so, when I heard Alfred whistling, I came out. William was there, too, and when I saw him I laid down on my back and put my feet up. But he only laughed.
“Don’t be letting Delia get hold of you to-day,” he said. “Keep away from the kitchen, Fritzie, my boy.”
And then he and Alfred both looked at each other and laughed again, and Alfred and I found the Baby and Freya and went down to the and . When I saw Delia she had a piece of white cloth tied around her head. I don’t know why she did it, because it didn’t make her look any prettier.
After that Alfred took me to bed with him several times and I liked it a lot. And Nurse didn’t say a thing when she found me there. Delia and I made it up and were good friends again in a day or two. And then it came time for Alfred to go back to the city and I felt very sad and lonesome. So did the Baby, and she and I used to sit together in the hammock on the and talk about Alfred and wish him back again. I was a great comfort to the Baby, I’m sure.
I was a year and a half old that Autumn, which, for a dog, is quite grown-up, you know. When I did anything silly Mother would say: “Remember, Fritz, you are no longer a puppy.” It was hard to do that, though, and I was just as fond of play as ever. But, of course, I had grown much more sensible and wise. Experience is a great teacher. I heard Father say that once, and I guess it must be so. I didn’t get into scrapes any more; at least, not many. I did dig a hole under the stable one day and then couldn’t get out again until William had taken some of the stones out of the wall. But that was because I didn’t know that the ground under the stable was so much lower than it was outside. It was rather a jolly place down there and I think there were rats there, but I was too frightened when I found I couldn’t get out again to do any hunting. And after that William put a stone where I’d gone in and I was never able to............