Judge — April 26, 1919 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ‘BEST STORY OF THE WEEK FROM ABROAD HE Too Little Dog [with energy] Yes, it was I who broke the Chi nese vase. And now 2 Ves, it was I, and no other. It was not the bull dog, not the yellow collie not the shepherd with the sullen eves or the rough and tumble terrier—it was I And now what can you do, you who stand about me saying, “Oh,” and clasping vour hands in indignation, and now . . I broke the Chinese vase. I did it out of bravado, because 1 had noth to do. Only an hour ago I was walking in the street, claiming all the sidewa my arrogant eyes and frighten great danes with my alarming littleness you! I bit the of your cries, chased a huge cat, tore to fragments an old newspaper deliciously nted with fish and rancid oil, and brought back to the house a little green bone, odorous and rare. Where did I put it? Ino longer know. Here I am I have just broken the Chinese vase! You shall not find the shadow of an excuse. No, I have no stomach ache; I have not lapped too much water from my blue cup. Iam not cold, not fever ish, and my nose is as cool as a grape beneath an October dawn What punishment are you going to give me? Lam waiting. Will you strike me? There is not room enough on my body for half of your punishing hand I am too little, that is all there is to it. I am smaller than all the dogs, smaller even than the cat, smaller than the parrot in his cage, smaller than the turtle promenading on the terrace Put away your hopes that I shall g larger. Two summers have Iready passed over my head without adding an ounce to my ridiculous bod) In your hand I am as light as a bird, but hard and corded with muscles. An insect’s audacity is mine. My bravery is that of a fighting ant over whom dan- ger, enormous, negligible, passes. I d not sce the danger; Iam too small. And not seeing, I defy my little share of all risks, I bark around a big dog’s paw, 1 work myself into a fury against a great boot. The wheel of a wagon touched me, but I did not see the wagon—I am too small. How large you are, you who are gath ered about me, leaning over like trees heavy, too, and swept by the scandal of else You all saw me, all o} policeman, crossed the street in sp MIRETTE By Concerre Winty my doing. What are you going to do? There weighs on you the crushing re sponsibility of protecting, prolonging, and delighting my scintillating, precious elfin life How you fear losing me! A. super stition of love’ thrusts you toward me Ah! Ah! when I came here, you did not know me? A little tiny dog with mole colored hair—was that all you saw? When Time had dispelled the dejec tion in which I arrived, when Time had tom away that veil of sadness, defiance, and nervous fever, which every animal that is for sale wears like a dark coat then it was that I revealed myself to you Admit it: you thought for the first few weeks that a demon had entered your dwelling. No rest, no rest for anyone! A searching and grumbling humor led me from room to room, the least touch at a door tore from me shrill batlike cries Heavy Ammunition Editor—Ex, Smith, I want you to orde ton or so of new type—Z’s and Ys and ‘They are starting another upheaval in Russia. —London Opinion. If you sought to leave me alone, you found me half-smothered with rage, but two of you still wear the scars with which I recompensed their solicitude and zea No rest Then were the times when L used to escape as if by magic, each time you opened the door to the street. 1 slid about in the hallway flattened like a rat or I sought the protection of an over hanging skirt And you sought me! I saw you, anx ious, forgetful of your dinner, calling with your eyes full of tears, “ Mirette you have found me in the gutter, hidden in the carpenter’s shop, at the rug seller’s; once you found me at the creamery drinking a saucerful of warm milk the good wife had given me No rest! I have almost drowned my self in a tub, I have burned my nose on the boiler; a piece of sponge, eaten in secret, very nearly finished me... . So you, sighing with fatigue. remember those unhappy days? And still I had not had enough; 1 wished your nights to. be sleepless Towards two in the morning, I would wake, you remember, and demand my rubber ball, my old torn leather glove Never gentle, never in a coaxing mood I played as one fights, in deadly earnest and my sleep of fatigue did not assure your rest, for I strayed from dreams into nightmares, and from nightmares into trembling convulsions. You remember yet that trying time, the night lamp burning by my saucer of milk, and the syrup which I accepted from a spoon but refused in a saucer. Any other would have wearied you yu rocked me anxiously in your h. y “Heavens, how little she is! So little? vet I filled your world. Oh, my tall and wonderful: masters, before the fragments of this broken vase. I render you the justice due you; long have you merited your recompense. 1 gave it you, a recompense that in an hour rewarded you for weeks of patience. Do not forget, when I am gone, that when my glance tured upon one of you, no longer the glance of a too little dog, aflame with a pride of hatred and a hob- goblin joy, but the look of a friend who gives you his very heart and soul. I myself remember the sudden gravity that overcame me, the suave tenderness with which I lay in your hands. All was over, I loved you. I tasted the irremediable comicbooks.com