BOBBY'S PRIZE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3, 21 January 1909, Page 117

BOBBY'S PRIZE

A group of boys were standing one day by a village pond. They were evidently tormenting something in the water and enjoying themselves very much. Only now andthen one less hardened than the others would exclaim, 'Let the poor little wretch be!' Fortunately for the poor little kitten which was struggling in the water, there was more grass than stones at hand, or it must have been killed, and then the great bull-dog Bob might have never have won a prize. Suddenly a deep-toned bark sounded near at hand. At the first notes, the bullies dropped the pebbles or grass they held and listened; but when the second cry came nearer still there was a cry from all : ' ' It's Bob !' And all the boys took to their heels like the cowards that they were. _ / Bob, the squire's bull-dog, came bounding to the scene of action. He hated boys of any kind, but most of all hated ragged, naughty boys, and he never saw a knot of them .together without considering it was his duty to djs-' perse them. He caught sight of tlie youngsters at the pond as he was starting for his morning walk, and he ■ dashed up like a steam engine to see what they were after. The boys, meanwhile, had scrambled into various trees, and watched the enemy's proceedings. Bob looked round with a sneer on his already well-turned-up nose, and was perhaps reflecting on the cowardice of bullies, when he caught sight of something struggling to cjimb up the edge of the pond. ' My !' exclaimed Jack Hunter, the boy who had pleaded * for mercy, ' I wouldn't give much *f or the little beggar's life if Bob gets hold of it..' . But Jack was wrong. Bob could be gentle as he was . strong. He seized the poor, exhausted kitten and trotted gravely home with it in his mouth. 'No, Bob, no; we don't want any drowned rats here,' said the squire -as he met his favorite dog. ■ ■- But Bob trod majestically on till he reached his own kennel, then he dropped the poor kitten on the nice clean straw and began licking it all over. Half an hour afterwards Squire Strange, looking in, found Bob lying fast asleep with the kitten nestled between his big paws. That was the beginning of the strange friendship Joe-" tween the wee kitten and the big bull-dog. Where Bob went, there pussie was bound to go too. Sometimes she would ride on his back, sometimes Bob would carry her in his mouth, and sometimes the kitten would leap about by his side; but wherever one was, there you would find the other. Now, it happened one day that a dog show was to be held about three miles off, and Bob's master determined that he should go. - ? - 'He's bound to get a prize,' the squire said to his' coachman.

' Yes, sir, if he don't cut up rusty at being shut up in one of them cages. Bob's. got a temper, sir, and if they do anything he don't like he'll let 'em know it.' The squire laughed. ' Never fear, Bob will be all right. You'd better take the. kitten away overnight. Lock her up in the loft, and -tell your boy George to ' feed her, but not to let her all day to-morrow.' The kitten was taken- away, and Bob spent the night ,howiing, till the coachman got out of bed and whipped him. ' I suppose it was the moon,' he remarked next morn"ing to the squire, but his eight-year-old son knew better. * _ jje. fed the kitten as his father had .told him, then he"~tied a piece "of blue ribbon around her neck and crept out of the loft very quietly, "with pussie in his arms. - Meanwhile Bob had been- dragged most unwillingly to ' the show. He was accustomed to freedom," and resented the _chain by which the coachman led him. Still more did he resenir being "thrust into a sort of cage;TShd having numbers of people sharing at him. Finally he turned his back %on everyone, curled himself up in the farthest corner of his box, giving an occasionaL-growl " if anyone- rattled the bars to rouse him, and looking a perfect picture of siilkiness and discontent. • - ' I thought Squire Strange's bull-dog was to be there,' said one of the judges. 'He ought certainly to take the first- prize.' ' He is here, I believe,' was the reply; ' but lie's in such bad^. temper that no one can get a look at his points." Hello! what's that? This isn't a cat show!' A tabby kitten with a blue ribbon round its "neck; was rushing about from cage to cage, mewing piteously, as if looking for something. Suddenly Bob gave a start, shook himself out of his bad temper, .and uttered one -loud glad bark. The kitten sprang through the bars, and when the judges came round again they had no difficulty in finding ' Squire Strange's Bob, for- there wasn't another dog to - equal him. - - ..-----. . - „ .-■-- ~ ' " As for the kitten, she was just bubbling .over - with delight at having found her big friend and began playing with his tail as if it were a mere reel of cotton. ' How on earth did the kitten get here, I wonder ?' said the squire, when he saw. them together. He did «iot know for a long time that .little George had carried her all the way, and then given her a push in among the dog kennels, to find her friend. .