Читать книгу The Adventures of Scamp - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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Two of the puppies went away in a big box that afternoon to their new home. Scamp wandered about trying to find them. He had only a little sister-puppy left now, and she was the small one, and ran to shelter behind her mother if Scamp got too rough.

He liked to jump out at her and roll her over. Then he would nibble her ears and her tail, and make her squeal loudly. Flossie nipped him hard once when he was doing this, and gave him a real shock. After that he didn’t tease the other puppy quite so much.

But when two disappeared to new homes he only had the little puppy left to play with, and Mother said that they must find a home for her because Scamp was so much bigger and stronger that he really was making her afraid.

So three days later the small puppy went too, and then only Scamp was left. The children were rather sad when the three puppies were gone.

“It was such fun when they were all playing around, Mother,” said Kenneth.

“A bit too much fun!” said Mother. “Life is much more peaceful now we only have one left.”

“Well, I’m glad that one is Scamp,” said Joan. “We are lucky to be able to keep one. Now we have a dog, a puppy, and a cat!”

Scamp knew the cat quite well. She was called Fluffy because she had a soft, fluffy coat that stood out all round her. Her eyes were as green as cucumbers, and her tail was long and wavy.

At first Scamp thought that Fluffy was pleased when she wagged her tail, but he soon found out that she wasn’t!

He used to dart all around her, wuffing hard, and then her tail began to wag slowly from side to side, as she grew angry. Then, when Scamp darted at her, she wagged her tail more quickly, and began to hiss.

But the puppy, seeing her wagging tail, quite thought she was pleased and friendly, and pounced on it. Then Fluffy swung round, spat at him, and hit him hard on the nose with her paws. Once she put out her claws and scratched him so that his nose began to bleed.

SCAMP RAN CRYING TO HIS MOTHER, AND SHE LICKED HIS HURT NOSE.

Scamp was astonished. He ran crying to his mother, and she licked his hurt nose.

“You are a silly puppy,” she said. “You must know that cats wag their tails when they are angry, not when they want to be friends, as we do! Whenever you see a cat wagging her tail, keep right away from her.”

“Why do we wag our tails when we are pleased?” asked Scamp, settling down beside his mother. He loved her nice warm smell.

“Well, when two dogs meet one another, they are not sure at first that the other will not fight,” said Flossie. “They cannot smile at one another, as two-legged people do, because if a dog opens its mouth and shows its teeth, it means that it is ready to bite! So dogs use their tails as signals, you see. They wag them to tell the other dog that they want to be friends, not enemies.”

“And the other dog sees and wags his tail back!” said Scamp. “It’s a good idea, isn’t it? How do cats show they are friendly?”

“You will hear them purr,” said his mother. “Now, if I were you, I’d leave Fluffy alone. You haven’t claws like sharp needles, as she has—and it’s no good chasing her because she can climb trees and jump on walls, and you can’t. So she will only laugh at you.”

All the same, Scamp often did chase Fluffy, and it was only when the cat turned on him, flew at him, and put ten of her sharp claws into his head that he really thought it would be best not to run after her any more!

Scamp loved nibbling and chewing things. He liked to go into the nursery and see what he could find there to nibble. Sometimes he found a doll’s shoe and nibbled that. Then Joan would be very cross with him and scold him.

“You bad dog! Look what you’ve done. You’ve spoilt Angela’s best shoe. I’m ashamed of you.”

Then Scamp would put his tail down and look up at Joan with such sad brown eyes that she would forgive him at once. And a minute later he would be shaking the life out of Kenneth’s new ball, biting big holes in it, and growling at it as if it were a wicked rat!

Once Scamp went into the cook’s bedroom. He heard somebody coming, and hid under the bed. The footsteps went by, and he began to sniff around. There was a round box under the bed. Scamp worried at it until the lid came off. There was something rather exciting in the box.

THE SOAP WAS EVEN WORSE THAN THE COAL!

“It looks like the flowers in the garden!” thought Scamp, as he looked at the hat inside, all trimmed with gay flowers. “But it doesn’t smell like flowers. I wonder what it is.”

He dragged the hat out on to the floor. He took it into the middle of the room and looked at it. One of the flowers shook a little and he put his paw on it. Then he began to nibble at the red roses on the hat.

They didn’t taste very nice. A bit of wire in one of them pricked his tongue. That made Scamp angry. He danced round the hat, barking loudly. “What! You dare to scratch me with your claws, like Fluffy does! I’ll chase you! Yes, I’ll chase you. Run away and I’ll come after you.”

But the hat didn’t run away. It wasn’t any fun at all. Scamp was cross. He pounced on the hat and the wire scratched him again. Then Scamp lost his temper and began to tear at the hat with his sharp puppy-teeth. He growled as he chewed the roses and the violets, and Cook heard him.

She came running upstairs and into her bedroom. When she saw her best Sunday hat on the floor, and Scamp chewing it hard, she gave an angry shout.

“Oh, you bad dog! Oh, you wicked dog! You’ve spoilt my lovely new hat! Oh, my, wait till I catch you!”

She caught up a bedroom slipper and slapped Scamp so hard with it that he yelped loudly and fled out of the room and down the stairs. The cook followed him, in tears.

Mrs. Hill heard the noise and came to see what the matter was. When she saw what the puppy had done she was very sorry. “I’ll give you a new hat,” she said to the cook. “Don’t be upset any more. That puppy really is getting into too much mischief.”

Mrs. Hill marched downstairs and found Scamp hiding under the table. She dragged him out and gave him a hard spanking.

“It’s time you learnt what to do and what not to do,” she said sternly. The children came running in when they heard poor Scamp howling.

“Oh, Mother, what has he done?” they cried. When they heard, they looked at Scamp with stern faces. Scamp crouched down and whimpered. He felt very sorry for himself indeed.

He crept up to Kenneth and tried to lick his hand. But the boy took his hand away. Scamp was terribly upset. He went to his basket and lay down there, his head over the edge, his ears down, and his tail quite still.

He felt as if he would never be happy again—never. Even kind-hearted Joan wouldn’t speak to him.

After an hour or two he crept out of his basket and went over to Mother. She put out a hand and patted him. He was overjoyed and began to bark at once. His tail went up, and he panted for joy.

“Now you’re forgiven,” said Mother, “but you must remember not to chew things up any more—only your own bones and balls, Scamp. Nothing else.”

So the next time that Scamp wanted to chew anything, he remembered his spanking and how unhappy he had been, and he ran off before he got his teeth into it. He was a good little fellow at learning his lessons!

When Scamp was a little older, the children bought him a collar. At first he couldn’t bear it. He didn’t like to feel it on his neck. He tried to wriggle it off. He put up his paw and pulled at the collar. But it wouldn’t come off.

“What are you trying to do?” asked the dog next door, when he met him, and saw him trying to get his collar off by rubbing it along the fence.

“I hate this collar-thing on my neck!” said Scamp. “I just hate it!”

“Well, don’t you want to be properly dressed, then?” said the big dog. “Haven’t you noticed that all grown-up dogs wear collars? All men wear collars too, but little boys like Kenneth usually wear jerseys. If you’ve been given a collar it means that you’re getting to be rather a grown-up dog. It’s only puppies that don’t wear collars.”

After that Scamp didn’t mind his collar. He wanted to be grown-up. He felt even more grown-up than Kenneth, who still wore only jerseys. And he felt far more important than Fluffy, who wore no collar at all.

“You wait till you see what your collar’s for!” said the big cat, swinging her tail. “It’s just to put a lead on when you go for a walk, so that you can’t run off wherever you want to! You won’t feel quite so pleased then!”

That was quite true. When Kenneth bought a lead and slipped it on to Scamp’s collar, he felt cross. That horrid lead! Whenever he wanted to run ahead it dragged him back. Certainly he didn’t like his collar any more.

But then Joan hung something on his collar that shone and tinkled. He wondered what it was. Flossie, his mother, told him.

“That’s to say who you are, and where you live,” said Flossie. “All dogs have to wear their name and address, you know.”

“Why?” asked Scamp, in surprise.

“Well, because their masters and mistresses love them, and don’t want to lose them, of course!” said Flossie. “If you should happen to be lost, anyone can look at the medal with your name and address on, and can bring you safely back home. Then Kenneth and Joan would be happy. Cats don’t wear their names and addresses on collars. That must be because we are the important animals of the house, and not the cats.”

So Scamp was pleased with his collar again and showed his name and address to Fluffy.

“Pooh!” said Fluffy. “Fancy having your name and address like that! Why, if I got lost, I’d know my way back without having to let people read my name and address, I can tell you! Dogs are poor creatures!”

“Woof!” said Scamp, in an angry voice. “You’re a horrid cat. I’m going to chase you. And I’ll nibble your tail right off this time! So look out!”

And Scamp really sounded so fierce that Fluffy thought she had better go. She ran off, her tail high up in the air, and Scamp pattered after her. Fluffy ran straight up a tree, and Scamp tried to follow. But he fell back to the ground at once and rolled over.

Fluffy sat up on a branch and laughed at him. “You may be an important dog with your name and address on your collar!” she mewed, “but I can climb a tree, and you can’t!”