Ellie's Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Okay? Find!”
    At the command I lowered my nose.
    There was one smell that was fresh and stood out: female, human, not too old. I followed the trail a few feet. She wore rubber shoes. She’d eaten something with cream cheese for breakfast. She’d gone this way. I looked back at Jakob, to see if he’d tell me I was doing this wrong. He stood still as I moved away from him, watching me with that look he only got when we were Working, as if I were the only thing in the world he could see.
    I put my nose back to the ground, not quite sure if this was the right thing to do. Still, Jakob had told me to Find. The easiest thing to Find around here was the track of the girl who’d eaten cream cheese. I started to follow her.
    Her trail led me to a bench. I stopped and sniffed hard. She’d sat here for a little while; I could smell her shoes and her clothes, her skin and her hair. But she wasn’t here now. So Find was not over yet.
    I followed the girl’s trail away from the bench, across a lawn with soft grass. Some young humans were throwing a ball there and shouting. I moved quickly across the soft grass, and a red ball rolled right in front of my nose. It would have been so easy to pick it up and run back with it to the boy who had thrown it. Jakob wasn’t here to see me do it, and it would only be a minute or two of play. The ball was right there, just inches from my nose.…
    But what about the girl? I was supposed to Find her. Jakob had said so. I couldn’t stop and play now. There wasn’t time for that. This was Work. Play came later.
    The girl’s trail led me across a muddy path. Then it started to wind around the roots of trees. I jumped across a thick root that twisted like a snake, and there she was, sitting under a tree with a book on her lap.
    She looked up at me and smiled, then looked down and turned a page.
    I ran to find Jakob, dashing back across the lawn, running right through the game of catch, feeling a little worried. Was this right? Was this what he’d wanted me to do?

    It seemed to be. “Show me!” he said as soon as I reached him. And, “Good dog!” when I brought him to the girl. “Good dog, Ellie!”
    â€œWhat are you doing?” asked the girl, putting her book down on her lap and staring at us.
    â€œShe’s a search-and-rescue dog,” Jakob explained. “She’s training to find people.”
    The girl smiled widely. “And she found me?”
    â€œThat she did.” Jakob found a stick for me and we played around the little clearing. The girl didn’t seem to know that it was her job to play tug-on-a-stick. (Wally always knew.) But I didn’t care too much, so long as someone was willing to pull and wrestle with me.
    Maybe the girl wasn’t all that bright, but she was still nice. She laughed and put out her hand when I came near, and I hoped she might have some cream cheese to share. She didn’t have any, but she scratched behind my ears. That was nice, too.
    I didn’t like the next person I Found quite as much. He was crouched in a bush with a pair of big, strange-looking glasses held to his eyes, and he smelled sour, as if he hadn’t had a good bath in a while. Someone needed to spray him with a hose.
    â€œShoo!” he hissed at me when I Found him the first time, and when I brought Jakob to him he stood up and frowned as Jakob called me a good dog and let me tug him all around the bush with my stick.
    â€œDo you mind playing with your dog somewhere else?” the man asked grumpily. “You’ve scared off a scarlet tanager!”
    â€œSorry, sir,” Jakob said. I didn’t know what was being said, but the man seemed unhappy and Jakob didn’t seem too concerned about it.
    We Found a lot of people in the days after that. Some were glad to see us; some were not. But Jakob always told me I was a good dog, no matter how the person I Found acted. This was