A DOG'S WISH.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13655, 21 February 1913, Page 3

A DOG'S WISH.

I think you will like this little dog stopy by Constance Clyde. .. "How I, do wish I was a humdn being;" barked little Fido one evening; "human beings are so superior to us, aren't they?"

"Where do you young people get your wild ideas?" smiled his wise parent. "Human beings are always unhappy unless they are with dogs." "But they are so free,". replied little Fido. "When I dig In the garden my master scolds me, but I know men who.are allowed to dig all day long. And other human beings—they must be kings'^ I suppose —are allowed to carry heavy parceils about; I only get a stick occasionally. Again, some break stones in the road all day. I can't do that at all." ■■■■■■

"Still, you would not enjoy being human for long," returned his parent, but Fido ran away whining, and would not believe her:.

That.'night Fido had a ' curious dream. He stood beside a dog-rose on- a dog-day, and that means that a dog's wish will be granted. The dog-fairy, a small greyhound,, slipped out of the rose : "Your wish to be a human being will be given ypu, but remember, you can never get back."

"I'll never want to get back," cried little Fido, and a minute later he found himself changed into a human being.

How happy was Fido at this good fortune. He went for a spade at once, and began to dig in "the garden. The man.-who employed him was much pleased at his industry. After a little while, however, Fido discovered that hands are more easily tired than paws, when 't comes to long hours of work. He discovered also thnt he would liave to continue working after he was tired; that was what work meant; and he did not like that at a!!.

Besides, as a human being, he found out that he wanted to do o.ther things besides toil. He desired now vtb read the newspapers. He felt ashamed to remember that he once used to eat pieces of newspaper because his master sometimes read it instead of taking him for a walk. Well, he would go to some other place where he needn't work so hard. " , "•So off Fido went; but whal'troab-* les he had. Now that he was human nobody wanted him; nobody patted him, and called him "Fine fellow," and "Splendid chap!" They called him now a-lazy hound, and told him that he was going to the dogs. How Fido wished thnt he could .-

Formerly he had only to wn.'j his tail and look- pathetic if he wanted ;i good dinner. Now. unless he had some silver and copper things to give people they turned him away, and jl they did, give him anything it never tasted as nice as it used to do.

And at last someone sent for the police, and he was to be put in prison for begging-—a thing that pco v plc liked him to do when he was a dog —and he called his old master into court to prove that he had taught him. to beg, and his master indignantly denied it, and Fido was going to get fourteen days for being troublesome.

At this point Fido began to whine so piteously in his sleep that his mother anxiously woke him up. Not till he had gnawed a chicken bone that his master had sent him,, and buried it beneath a valuable rose tree in the garden, did Fido quite get over his dreadful nightmare.