The Spuddy Read Online Free

watched the car arrive as he had watched every other activity in the street since Marie had left. He saw the boy alight and be greeted warmly by his aunt; he saw them go into the house for a while and then come out again, when the driver got into the car and drove away, leaving the boy and his aunt standing on the pavement. The woman moved towards the house calling to Andy but he had noticed the empty looking house and the Spuddy lying there alone and ran after her, pulling at her sleeve while gesticulating towards the dog. The Spuddy affected not to notice their interest as the woman, pausing to explain, shook her head disapprovingly in the Spuddy’s direction. She disappeared inside, gesturing the boy to follow, but Andy did not go immediately. With his hands grasping the pointed railings that divided his aunt’s garden from her neighbour’s he leaned over and stared fixedly at the dog until the Spuddy’s head came round and he returned the boy’s stare with a long glance of interest.
    At tea time when Aunt Sarah wasn’t looking Andy managed to slip a couple of slices of bread and a sausage into his pocket. Since his aunt had explained that the Spuddy had been abandoned he had resolved that he himself must try to feed the dog. He estimated that if his aunt regularly put as much food on the table as she had this evening he wouldn’t have much difficulty in providing for the Spuddy. After tea while his aunt was in the kitchen washing the dishes he slipped out into the dusk and sped quietly to the gate of the empty house. Not knowing for certain whether or not the dog was savage Andy held out a hunk of bread before daring to open the gate and when the Spuddy ignored the offering he pulled the greasy cold sausage from his pocket and waved it about, hoping the dog Would smell the appetising meatiness and be tempted to come for it. The Spuddy, having eaten his one accustomed meal of the day, was not hungry and refused to show any interest. All the same he was intrigued. The Spuddy had never regarded himself as being a child’s dog. Children were noisy and excitable and he preferred to evade their approaches but though he could recall young boys trying to cajole him with soft words or to command him with curses the patient mute overtures of this boy baffled him and he continued regarding him with aloof enquiry, making no movement as he saw him unlatch the gate, sidle through and advance tentatively up the path towards him. Andy held out the sausage but the Spuddy still disdained it and the boy’s friendly expression changed to one of disappointment. Andy put down a piece of bread and the sausage on the ground beside the Spuddy but still they were ignored. Venturing closer he held out a hand, palm outstretched, hoping the dog would sniff it and realising it was the hand of a friend would perhaps even give a lick of acceptance. The Spuddy looked at the hand and looked away again. He was not in the habit of licking hands let alone strange ones: it would have been too much like an act of submission. To Andy the Spuddy seemed to be spurning his offer of friendship. He slumped down on the bottom step looking up at the dog in the gathering dark waiting for some reciprocal gesture of comradeship and when it did not come his head drooped forward until it was resting on his arms and his shoulders began to shake with the sobs that had for so long been wanting to escape from his body. Only then did the Spuddy weaken. Moving down to the bottom step he sat down and laid a paw gently on the boy’s neck, glancing about him as he did so as if he was afraid someone might witness his unwonted display of tenderness. He need not have worried. By now it was quite dark and there was no sound in the street until a door opened and Andy heard his aunt calling him.

Chapter Five

    All that night the Spuddy lay on the steps of his former home but when the first fingers of light reached over the shoulders of the hills he