Dogsbody Read Free Page B

die anyway.”
    “No it won’t.” The hands holding Sirius became defiantly steady. “It can have that old baby bottle. I’m not going to let it die.”
    “Mum won’t let you keep it,” the rough voice said nastily.
    “She won’t. And the cats’ll kill it,” said the youngest voice. “Honest, Kathleen.”
    The girl holding Sirius hugged him defensively to her chest and began to walk—bump, jerk, bump—away from the river across the meadow. “Poor little thing,” she said. The two boys followed, arguing with her. Their clamor hurt Sirius’s ears, and the girl kept jerking him by turning around to argue back. But he realized she was defending him from the other two and was grateful. Her convulsive hugging was making him feel safer and a great deal warmer. “Oh!” Kathleen exclaimed, bending over him. “Its tail’s wagging!”
    Robin, the younger boy, demanded to see. “It’s a queer little tail,” he said doubtfully. “You don’t think it’s really a rat, do you?”
    “No,” said Kathleen. “It’s a dog.”
    “It’s a rat,” said Basil, the elder boy. “An Irish rat. Shamus O’Rat!”
    “Shut up,” Kathleen said wearily.

2
    S irius was brought somewhere warm, and tenderly put in a basket. He went to sleep. As he slept, his draggled coat dried and became slightly curly. The hair on his reddish lapped-over ears dried last of all, and then he was truly comfortable. He woke up, stretching his back pair of legs and his front hard and straight, to find there were hostile, alien things nearby.
    These creatures did not speak. They had no language exactly. But they felt things so firmly and acutely that Sirius knew what they meant just as if they had spoken.
    “What is it? It doesn’t smell nice.”
    Sirius’s nose twitched. He did not care for the way these creatures smelled either, come to that.
    “It’s one of those things that bark and chase you up trees.”
    “Are you sure? It doesn’t look big enough.”
    “That”—with great contempt—“is because it’s a baby still. It’ll grow.”
    “They’d no business to bring it to our house!”
    “It had better not chase
us
up trees!”
    “Let’s get rid of it before it can.”
    “We certainly will, the first chance we get. Don’t have anything to do with it till then. It’s beneath our notice.”
    “Shoo! Get out, Tibbles. Buzz off, Romulus and Remus.” Kathleen and Robin came to kneel down beside the basket. The queer creatures vanished, in unmistakable disdain and annoyance. Sirius wagged his tail. Then he opened his eyes and tried to see what his two rescuers looked like. They were so big that he found it hard to focus on them.
    “Funny tail!” said Kathleen, laughing.
    “Funny
eyes
!” said Robin. “Kathleen, its eyes are green. Dogs don’t have green eyes, do they? Do you think it’s something else?”
    “I know it’s a puppy,” said Kathleen.
    “Basil’s going to say it’s a cat,” said Robin. “He’ll call it Shamus O’Cat, I know he will.”
    “Let him,” Kathleen said recklessly. It was the only way she could express the feeling the puppy’s eyes gave her. They were like grass-green drops in its round head, shining and deep. On top of the green was that milkiness that the eyes of all young creatures have, and she could tell that the puppy was finding it hard to see her. But, somewhere in the green depths, she had a glimpse of something huge and wonderful which made her feel almost respectful.
    “Why not call it Shamus?” Robin suggested. “Then you’d get in first before Basil does.”
    “That’s a silly name,” said Kathleen.
    “Then you ought to give it a cat sort of name. How about Leo? That means a lion.”
    “I think lions have yellow eyes,” Kathleen said dubiously. “But it’s more majestic than Shamus. I’ll think about it while I give him his bottle.”
    She presented Sirius with a rubbery nipple leaking milk. He fastened on it gladly, and Kathleen fed him tenderly—and far