Barry Read Online Free PDF Page A

sleds up to the door, everyone inside the hospice was ready. Two marronniers went outside to help. They lifted two of the men from the sleds and carriedthem into the sitting room. Two of the men were able to get up and walk with the aid of a cleric on each arm. The clerics walked these men around and around in circles. Then they sat them down before the fire. Michel and Brother Martin knelt and took off the men’s boots and rubbed their feet. A marronnier who worked in the kitchen brought each man a goblet of hot wine. The travelers sat and sipped the wine and sighed with gratitude. As I stood near the fire and watched the two travelers, I saw the color return to their faces. I wagged my tail. One of the men smiled, reached out, and stroked the fur on my back.
    “Thank you,” he said.
    Why thank me? I had not done anything. Perhaps to him, all of us dogs looked alike. But this was good news, yes? This meant that I was getting big enough to go out in the snow and rescuetravelers. I felt the excitement coursing through my body.
    Then I turned to see what was happening with the other two men. The marronniers had stripped off all their clothing. How pale and still their bodies looked. That worried me. Then I watched in astonishment as the clerics lowered them into the basins of ice and snow!

    One of the men began to shout and splash about. The blue of his body grew pink and rosy. He sputtered. I think he was angry with the marronniers for dunking him in the cold water, and I cannot say that I blamed him. But the marronniers just smiled. They helped him out of the basin and toweled him off and dressed him in dry clothing. Then they led him to bed.
    Meanwhile, the other man just lay in the basin of ice and snow, his eyes staring up at the rafters. Michel looked at Brother Martin and they shook their heads. They lifted his body out of the ice and wrapped it in a blanket and carried it back into the snow. Outside of the hospice, there was a special building where the marronniers brought the bodies. The cold kept them fresh until the ground was soft enough to bury them or their families came to claim them and bring them home.
    The White Death had claimed one of the men, but the other three had been spared.
    Two months later, I was one year old. On a spring day when the snow was deep, Brothers Martin and Gaston took me out for a walk in the snow. I stopped and looked back at the hospice.
    Where is Michel?
my eyes asked.
    Michel was my special walking companion.
    “What’s the matter, Barry?” Brother Gaston asked. He exchanged a secretive look with Brother Martin.
    “Come along, Barry,” said Brother Martin as he set off briskly in the snow.
    Though disappointed not to have Michel at my heels, I took the lead and ran down the path. It was the path that ran south toward Italy. Brothers Gaston and Martin followed along behind me, pokingtheir long sticks into the snow as they walked.
    We were only a short distance away from the hospice when suddenly I smelled something familiar. The scent was coming from a bank of snow a little way off the path. I stopped and tested the air with my nose.
    I knew what I smelled.
    It was Michel! But where was he? I could not see him. I spun around and looked. There was nothing but snow everywhere. I ran all over the bank of snow with my nose to the ground, my tail between my legs, sniffing frantically. I ran in a wide circle. As the smell grew stronger, the circle shrank. Finally, I stopped and lifted my head. I barked loudly to call the brothers over. They were some distance away from me.
    “What is it, Barry?” Brother Martin called out.
    “I think our furry friend may have foundsomething,” Brother Gaston said.
    They struggled toward me through the drift, poking their sticks into the snow. They were so slow! I could not wait another moment. I started digging. After a while, behold, there was Michel’s pale face, looking so very cold! My friend was buried in the snow! I licked his face, his