Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

oA lee | OR bee AS VAAL eae A) Pap A TAL Vey ; 558 a stray pup that nobody loved. ‘“ Why not take our one and only all wool right off our beds? As long as it stays above zero I can put up with sheets.” “Well, then, isn’t there something else he can sleep on?” “T suppose he could have my bed,” I said, sarcastic, “‘ seeing as how we ain’t got no guest room.” Roy didn’t seem to catch the ironic notes in my accent. He was pursuing an elusive animate object that was playing tag in and out of the puppy’s left ear. At its capture and ensuing annihilation, the pup looked up grateful at Roy and tried to enforce a long, wet lick on his chin. Roy dodged it, laughing. “Never mind,” he answered me, good- natured. “I'll find something myself.” And he tramped resolute to the smal! cubby he fondly called his “ den,” emerging in a min- ute with his old black sweater. T gasped. That old shabby sweater was as sacred to him as a black cat to an ancient Egyp- tian, and even I had learned to leave it alone. He had had it in his dear old high school days and there was a big, dirty red “ A” on the front that he had won for be- ing some kind of an athlete. 3 Many was the time I had tried to make off with that sweater, but he had always res- cued it with a yelp of protest. And now here he was offering it of his own free will as bed and lodging to a pestiferous pup. | The thought galled me at the time, though I didn’t exactly realize it. I meandered to the kitchen and commenced mashing the potatoes as though I had something against em, the while waiting for a sudden sweet kiss to be planted on the nape of my neck. None came. Roy brushed past me twice, once to ten- derly arrange the dog’s bed and another time to give him water. And the only at- tention he.paid me was to invite me to form a duet of admiration with him over the in- telligent way the pup yawned, or the cun- ning way he laid down, or the knowing way he would look at you with his eyes. What else would he look at you with? I waited all night for that kiss. I heard Roy start to wakefulness, Once Then ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. come a soft, feeling sound in the dark as he groped for his slippers. But he tiptoed past my bed and stalked to the kitchen, whence filtered a lot of sweet nothings. ‘All right, boy? Warm enough? That’s right, feller. Stay where you are. That’s —all—right.” I finally sunk to sleep with a queer lump clogging my throat, like a lemon seed stuck in a soda straw. | The next morning, instead of leaving me with the customary farewell osculation, Roy left me with a lot of advice and in- struction as to the dear dog’s diet and bath. You’d think the pup was the prize patient in a high class hospital for nervous and rich women, the way he talked. But I merely listened, wide-eyed and at- tentive, to his instructions, holding back the pup till his honk died away over the lots. I even attempted petting the animal, but he eased away from my hand, though he followed me, indifferent but dutiful, all over the house as I done my morning work. At eleven o’clock I got around to his bath, debating a minute whether to use the bath tub or the dish pan. Each pleased my delicate sense the way cleaning the sink would Salome, but I finally decided on the dish pan. It would be easier to replace than the bathtub. Roy had told me the water must be luke- warm, as a dog’s skin is sensitive to tem- perature. From the looks of it, I should say it would be impervious to anything, but I had promised to obey my husband, though I didn’t think at the altar that it would come to this, so I took special care to get the water as lukedly warm as pos- sible. Corralling Buster by the back of the neck, I plunged him into the dish pan and tried to sit him down. I might as well have tried to throw a steer. Buster would not sit. He writhed frantic, and give a sudden leap out of my_arms, running to cringe behind the cook stove. Ten minutes later I dragged him thence by one hind leg and, after pressing him gently to my bosom to still his fears, soused him again. Here I begun to realize I should have _€omicbooks com