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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Friday, December 21, 2012

A dog's christmas-tree, 1896

From The Unitarian comes this apparently true story of a beloved dog who gets his very own people-style Christmas.  I've offered the whole story here, as it's plain and sweet and worth a couple of minutes.
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CHILDREN'S CORNER.
A DOG'S CHRISTMAS-TREE.

BY ESTELLE M. HART.

Yes, a Christmas-tree just for a dog, and he liked it, too. Liked it, did I say? He thought it was the loveliest thing he had ever seen, and barking couldn't half begin to express his feelings. His eyes, his ears, his feet, his tail, all were animated to the last degree, in his vain attempt to express his rapture.

Shep's mistress didn't have any little boys and girls at her house, and I suspect that Shep got a good deal of the petting that would have belonged to them if they had been there. But it was Tina, the maid, that thought of a Christmas-tree for his favored dogship. She got a tiny green tree, and set it up in a box, and hung it with popcorns and Shep's favorite candies. Then she placed it in the corner of the parlor, and Shep's mistress invited him in, and explained all about Christmas-trees to him, and told him that this was his very own. Don't you think he knew every word she said? Then why did he begin to bark with all his might, and jump around the tree, and around his mistress, and race about the room as if he had lost his wits, and then go over to the tree, and, sitting down beside it, put his little paws together and "beg" for some of the goodies "this very minute"?— that's what his eyes said. The tree lasted several days, for Shep's mistress dealt out the candies to him a few at a time; and how they did enjoy the fun!

That was two years ago. Last year Tina got another little tree, and dressed it up in her room, where no one could see it. When she had finished it, she opened the door and came out into the hall with it in her hands, intending to take it down into the parlor when no one was looking. But a pair of sharp eyes in the lower hall spied her the minute she started, and what an excitement there was! Don't you suppose that a dog can remember such a splendid thing as a Christmas-tree a whole year? If you don't, you would have been convinced if you could have seen the rapture that was expressed in every motion of his ecstatic little body, as he scampered up the stairs and round and round Tina, barking with all his might, and almost upsetting her and her precious burden. He superintended the placing of the tree in the parlor, then he rushed off, post-haste to tell his mistress. She was in her room, but a frantic barking outside the door told her that something important must be attended to at once. As soon as she appeared, Shep jumped upon her in wild delight, then rushed as fast as he could back to the parlor, barking to her all the way to "come quick." She followed him in, and there stood Tina and the Christmas-tree.

"Why, Tina," said her mistress, "I had forgotten all about it I"
But Shep said, "Not I"; and he suddenly sat down before it and began to beg.

Wasn't that a funny thing to please a dog?

This is a true story; and you may be sure that there will be another tiny tree for a merry little dog when Christmas comes again this year.

-- vol. 11 (1896), p.569

2 comments:

parlance said...

After reading this lovely little story, I popped over to Google to read about Unitarianism. Is the magazine attached to that religion?

curator said...

Hi Parlance, Apparently the magazine is attached to the religion. Actually "was" attached, as the version I read stopping being published at later dates. It seems to have been revived elsewhere.