The Spuddy Read Online Free PDF

ground, opened the tin and tipped the contents into the bowl, pushing it towards the dog and nodding vigorously as he did so. The Spuddy regarded the boy in the same dubious manner as a shopkeeper might regard an urchin who has offered him a five pound note to change. His glance dropped to the food and his nose twitched. With diminished uncertainty yet still without complete conviction his glance returned to the boy. Andy pushed the bowl nearer; he lifted it up and held it close to the dog’s nose before putting it down again and only then did the Spuddy, with a dignified swing of his tail which Andy interpreted as a gracious ‘thank you’, begin to eat. Crouching with his back against the wall of the shed Andy smiled with satisfaction.
    The next thing he must do for the Spuddy, Andy resolved, was to try to find a place where the dog might sleep unmolested at nights. While Andy was disposing of the empty meat tin by tossing it into the harbour and while he washed the feeding bowl under the tap on the pier he pondered over his problem. One of the empty sheds where he had fed the dog was a possibility but where and how he would get sacks or some other form of bedding to cover the damp-looking earth floor? When you were unable to speak it was difficult to indicate even the simplest things you wanted. How was he to mime to strangers his request for bedding for a dog he was not supposed to have? All afternoon the boy and the dog roamed Gaymal but when tea-time came Andy had still found neither bedding nor a cosier alternative to the shed for his companion.
    The evening dusk was thickening and since his aunt had stipulated that he must be home by dark he knew the time had come when he must leave the Spuddy. Clapping his hands he gestured towards the kipper yard but the Spuddy stayed beside him. He tried stamping his feet; a pretence of kicking and of throwing. He tried dodging and hiding but the Spuddy was not to be diverted. Feeling traitorous Andy at last picked up a stone and throwing it so as not to hit the dog he made what he hoped was a menacing rush towards him. The Spuddy was surprised but not deterred. Andy grew desperate but it was Uncle Ben coming home from work who solved the problem for him. ‘Way back, boy!’ he commanded the Spuddy. ‘Way back! You mustn’t come near this place. Go!’ His voice was quietly authoritative and the dog, understanding at last, turned away arid loped off in the direction of the kipper yard. Miserably Andy wondered if the Spuddy would ever come near him again but the next morning when he rounded the corner into the main road there was the Spuddy waiting for him as gladly as if he recalled nothing of their parting. Always after that when Andy had to return to his aunt’s house the Spuddy escorted him until they had almost reached the street when he would stop and allow Andy to go on without him. When Andy came out again the Spuddy would be waiting to greet him and where he spent the intervening time Andy never discovered.

Chapter Six

    It seemed to Andy that the days raced by with the speed of the wind-chased wavelets he liked to watch rolling past the end of the pier and so captivated was he by the kaleidoscopic pageantry of the harbour he had little time to dwell on the crisis which had brought him to Gaymal. For the first few weeks after his arrival he had looked every morning to see if the postman had brought him word from his mother – perhaps a picture postcard like those his father sent him with lots of X’s on the back to let him know she still loved him but as the days became weeks and there was still no sign from her he began to accept that either she had forgotten him or she wished him to forget her. If he could not make himself forget her he did at least succeed in decolourizing his memories of her sufficiently to open his eyes to the affection that was being offered to him in his new surroundings. The Spuddy’s attachment to him