Renni the Rescuer Read Online Free PDF

answer, “He won’t let me.”
    Renni would chase a mouse and call out to Pasha, “Catch it!”
    Pasha would give the same answer: “He won’t let me.”
    â€œCan’t you have any fun at all?” Renni asked, wondering.
    Pasha would say sadly, “No. Practically everything is forbidden. I don’t know yet just what I am allowed to do and so I’m very careful.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWell, I’m afraid.”
    Renni asked curiously, “Afraid of what?”
    â€œWhy, you know! Of the pain.”
    Renni was amazed. “I don’t know. What’s pain?”
    â€œIt’s something that comes from Him,” Pasha said. “Hasn’t your master ever caused you any pain?”
    â€œNo, never.”
    â€œBut surely you know that long slithering thing thatwhistles so when He brings it down on us—the thing that cuts so, clear to the bone?”
    Renni shook his head. He didn’t know what Pasha was talking about. It didn’t make sense to him. He suggested this must be the reason why Pasha was unhappy.
    â€œHow can anyone be happy?” Pasha’s eye was sad. “Oh, to be sure, right at first, when I didn’t know about such things, I was happy. But the first time it happened my happiness was over. At the first blow I lost control of my feelings, I was so afraid. When the blows kept coming one after another, striking me down again and again, I was scared for good and all. You can’t imagine how horribly that thing hurts. It burns you through and through. It sets your blood on fire. When it reaches the worst, I simply lose all hope, all courage. That’s what makes me so sad.”
    â€œOh,” cried Renni, “I would have bitten.”
    â€œI did try it . . . but the way the blows rained down . . . it was enough to kill me . . . . ”
    â€œYou ought to have run away.”
    â€œDon’t say that! Run away from Him? Impossible! I love Him. In spite of it all I love Him more than anything else.”
    After this Renni timidly kept to George’s side when they went into Karl’s room for a visit. Pasha, at an order, crept at once to his place and did not dare make the slightest move. It was a modest room, sparingly furnished with hard chairs, a hard sofa, a bare table, cheap bric-a-brac. Karl offered George a little refreshment.
    â€œHave you made your mind up yet what your Renni is to be?”
    â€œNot yet,” George admitted uncertainly, stroking Renni, who had pricked up his ears at mention of his name.
    â€œI’m going to train Pasha for police work.”
    â€œHow do you go about it?”
    â€œWell, the fundamental thing, absolute obedience, he already has. The other points I shall soon teach him. Here—” he interrupted himself—“take this book. You’ll find directions in it for all types of training—police work, messenger work, Red Cross service, and SeeingEyes for the blind. You’ll soon get the idea how it’s done.”
    â€œInteresting!” George reached for the book. “I’m really very much obliged to you.”
    Renni was looking Karl steadily in the face as though he understood every word.
    â€œOf course you have to wait until the dog is full grown before you begin the training seriously.”
    â€œOh, of course,” agreed George. And Renni seemed, to judge from his expression, to be entirely of that opinion.
    As they started to go, Karl smiled. “That book will cure you of your soft-hearted nonsense.”
    When he saw that George was about to give it back, he laughed aloud. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to train yourself to torture animals. Why, even I am not really cruel.”
    Pasha might have had something to say on that score if he’d been able to talk in human fashion.
    When George reached the street, he drew a long breath. Renni, feeling suddenly free,