at, and to pin a
handkerchief to Pa's coat tail and make the dog take that, and then for
him and the dog to lite out for home. Well, you'd a dide. Pa came up
the street as dignified and important as though he had gone through
bankruptcy, and tried to walk straight, and just as he got near the
door the boy pointed to Pa's hat and said, "Fetch it!" The dog is a big
Newfoundland, but he is a jumper, and don't you forget it. Pa is short
and thick, and when the dog struck him on the shoulder and took his hat
Pa almost fell over, and then he said get out, and he kicked and backed
up toward the step, and then turned around and the boy pointed to the
handkerchief and said, "fetch it," and the dog gave one bark and went
for it, and got hold of it and a part of Pa's duster, and Pa tried to
climb up the steps on his hands and feet, and the dog pulled the other
way, and it is an old last year's duster anyway, and the whole back
breadth come out, and when I opened the door there Pa stood with the
front of his coat and the sleeves on, but the back was gone, and I
took hold of his arm, and he said, "Get out," and was going to kick me,
thinking I was a dog, and I told him I was his own little boy, and asked
him if anything was the matter, and he said, "M (hic) atter enough. New
F (hic) lanp dog chawing me last hour'n a half. Why didn't you come
and k (hic) ill'em?" I told Pa there was no dog at all, and he must be
careful of his health or I wouldn't have no Pa at all. He looked at
me and asked me, as he felt for the place where the back of his linen
duster was, what had become of his coat-tail and hat if there was no
dog, and I told him he had probably caught his coat on that barbed wire
fence down street, and he said he saw the dog and a boy just as plain as
could be, and for me to help him up stairs and go for the doctor. I got
him to the bed, and he said, "this is a hellish climate my boy," and I
went for the doctor. Pa said he wanted to be cauterised, so he wouldn't
go mad. I told the doc. the Joke, and he said he would keep it up,
and he gave Pa some powders, and told him if he drank any more before
Christmas he was a dead man. Pa says it has learned him a lesson and
they can never get any more pizen down him, but don't you give me away,
will you, cause he would go and complain to the police about the dog,
and they would shoot it. Ma will be back as soon as she gets through
sneezing, and I will tell her, and _she_ will give me a cho