The 12 Dogs of Christmas Read Online Free Page A

not something that would make any child feel good, and Emma, at this moment certainly didn’t. She slowly turned to go.
    â€œDolores!” Mabel admonished as she got out of her chair and walked toward Emma, holding out a hand. “For goodness’ sake, you come back here, child.” Mabel retrieved—and rescued—Emma just as she was leaving the room, then turned to glare at Dolores, her friend of many years, whom she knew for a fact was not as hard-hearted as she was pretending to be. Dolores looked at Emma, whose eyes were sad, and then back to Mabel, whose eyes were pleading. She lightly tapped her foot, thinking she would not budge, but found herself saying instead, “Okay,” which delighted Mabel. “But look,” Dolores now addressed Emma, “you need to get something real straight: I am not your aunt, and I did not get a letter. Your good-for-nothing father and I may . . . have . . . been . . . well, never mind. But don’t you think for one minute you and I are family.”
    â€œYou know,” Mabel said to Emma with a jolly smile, “I’ll bet you’re hungry.”
    And she was. So Dolores fed her, telling her she was going to account for everything she cost, which Mabel thought was outrageous, and telling her she expected her to get a job, which Mabel thought was even more outrageous. But Dolores was determined, and Emma didn’t mind, as she was used to working. That night, lying in bed in Dolores’s spare bedroom, Emma forced herself not to cry. Adventure heroes don’t cry , she thought, and this is certainly becoming an adventure.
    Max was glad that the boy had held him so tightly as they sped and bumped and turned sharp curves in the truck. It helped him to be less scared. When the truck finally stopped and the boy let him out, Max was hoping he was going to find Mr. Whiteside, but he could see him nowhere. There was a big building that the woman and the boy took Max and the other dogs to. Inside were several rows of pens where dogs were sleeping or eating or just scratching themselves. The woman and the boy started moving the new dogs to various pens, talking to them in sweet voices that made all the dogs feel good. But Max did not want to go to one of the pens. He had never shared a space with another dog before. The boy tried to pull him on his leash to one of the pens, but Max stood his ground. Then Max saw in a corner of the big building a big wooden doghouse, almost like the one he had had at Mr. Whiteside’s. Now he pulled the boy, trying to get to the doghouse.
    â€œLet him go,” the woman said.
    â€œBut, Mom, that’s Yeti’s.”
    â€œAnd Yeti hasn’t used it since the other dogs arrived. So if Max wants to go there, let him.”
    Mike took Max off the leash, and Max dashed to the doghouse. Inside he looked and sniffed and turned around several times. It was not as large as his old doghouse, but he liked it still, and he decided that he would just stay in this doghouse until Mr. Whiteside came and got him!

6

A Double Rescue
    The next morning Dolores gave Emma directions to the schoolhouse, and a note for the principal, Mrs. Walsh, explaining that Emma was a visitor from out of town, and rather than have her sit around and be idle, she might as well be put in school.
    As she was walking to school, Emma came upon two beautiful Cocker Spaniels. One was an adult with a black and white coat, and the other, although brown and white, Emma guessed was her pup. Emma had just stopped to admire them when suddenly an unkempt man with long, unwashed hair swooped down on the mother like a banshee from the Irish stories her father told her and captured the larger dog in a net. Then he picked up the dog and took her away. Fearing the Banshee Man would come back for the pup, Emma grabbed it and looked for a place to hide. Luckily there was an open shed nearby, and Emma ran into it, closing the door behind her. Safe, Emma