Barry Read Online Free Page A

Barry
Book: Barry Read Online Free
Author: Kate Klimo
Pages:
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sharp ears. But as the snow fell, it made no sound at all. I leapt off the porch and immediately slid onto my rump. This snow was slippery stuff! It was wet and slick like the floor after the clerics had finished moppingit. It was cold, too. Even through my thick coat, I felt that it was colder than the water from the lake. I stood up, making an effort to keep all four legs beneath me. I put out my claws and grabbed onto the snow. I walked a little way. Then I couldn’t resist a second longer. I dropped down and rolled on my back in the snow. How can I describe it? It was bliss.

    After a while, Brother Henri called me back inside and I came running, because I am an obedient dog. I went back down into the cellar and fell into a deep sleep. I was exhausted after my first encounter with the cold white stuff. I dreamed I was chasing hares through the snow.
    When I woke up, I knew it was still snowing. It was cold in the room. The older dogs were getting up and shaking themselves.
    It’s snowing again
, Old Luc said, heading for the door.
    Those travelers will not rescue themselves
, said Bernice, following him out.
    Can I come, too?
I asked.
    Not until you have learned how it’s done
, said Bernice.
You would only be in the way
.
    All day long, as men and dogs came and went, guiding travelers who had gotten lost in the snow, I stood by the door and watched. Never had I felt so left out. That evening, as I was settling down after my dinner, Michel came to visit me. He was wearing his thick woolen coat and his furry hat. He had a long stick in one hand and a lantern in the other.
    “Are you ready to learn to walk in the deep snow, Barry?” he asked.
    He did not need to ask me twice. I wagged my tail and followed him out the door. Earlier, the snow had not been this deep. I could tell by how Michel’s stick sank into the whiteness that it was twice as deep as I was tall. I remembered Mother telling me that I would sink and have to be dug out. So I hesitated on the step.
    Michel stepped onto the snow. He didn’t sink. His big, flat boots held him up. Perhaps my paws would do the same for me. I set a paw onto the snow. It sank. I pulled back. Then I widened my paw and set it down. My splayed paw stayed on the top of the snow. I tried that with my other paw, and soon I was standing with all four feet on top of the snow!
    “Come along, Barry,” said Michel, setting out. “We’re going to take a nice moonlit walk.”
    I followed Michel. The light from his lantern sparkled on the snow. But soon I was leading the way. Could it be that my sense of smell guided us along the path more surely than the lamplight? The little bush was buried in the snow. Only the rooftops of the sheds showed. When I turned to look back at the hospice, I saw drifts of snow that nearly reached the second story. In the valleybelow, the lake was covered with a crust of white. My breath steamed in the air. Did I feel the cold? Yes, but it didn’t make me shiver. It made me feel
alive
!
    In spite of the heavy blanket of snow, I could still smell the earth far down below. I could smell the hares burrowing and the bugs and the plants asleep in the dirt. I still had the scent of the path in my nose, and of all the feet that had trod over it for so many years that no dog—and very few men—could keep count. Every so often, I would halt and sniff and make sure that the path was still beneath me. Sometimes I ran quite a way ahead, but I never lost track of Michel. His tall, slender figure cloaked in black with the pointed cap was easy to see against the stark whiteness of the snow.
    Every evening, when he had finished singing in the chapel, Michel took me out to walk. I quicklylearned that the hares that were brown in the summer were now white. They skittered over the drifts, nearly invisible to my eye. White, too, were the once-brown ptarmigans. But my own coat did not turn all white. I kept my brown spots. And my fur, though thicker, was still short. This was
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