Angus and Sadie (11 page)

What do you mean, slave?

A slave does what he's told, like Sadie's your slave
.

I am not
, Angus said.
So what if I am? So are you
.

Oh yeah? Nobody tells me what to do or when to do it. I catch my own food
.

Crunch, smush, she went on eating while Angus thought about that.

I could catch my own. I just don't want to
.

Ha. Ha-ha. The way you let them tell you what to eat and what to do?

You aren't even allowed in the house
.

As if I wanted to
.

Angus walked away. You could never win an argument with a cat, even if you were right. He decided he'd go find Sadie and make her come with him to watch the big harvesting machine. It wasn't good for her to be so afraid of everything.

A
s summer came to an end, the days grew shorter and cooler. Then it was September. Mister used his tractor to bring in the baled hay, stacking it in the barn loft, and Missus no longer sold eggs and vegetables at the farm stand. Instead, in the morning she picked tomatoes in the garden, so that in the afternoon she could skin them and chop them and get them into the freezer for winter. Now that evening came earlier, Mister and Missus liked to sit together on the porch steps after dinner, to talk and listen and watch as the forests and hills, stream, farm, and fields faded away into darkness. But, on one of those evenings, just as they were finishing their supper, Missus said, “It's about time to board up the farm stand.”

“Let's do it right now,” Mister decided. “There's still enough light. We'll take the pickup to carry back the tables and baskets, and I'll bring my toolbox so I can winterize the shed. Ready?”

Angus and Sadie—who always ate more quickly than the humans, and were resting by the kitchen stove—knew what “ready” meant. Both dogs jumped up and went to the door. They stood there, ready.

“Look at those two,” Missus said, and she laughed.

“I guess they can come with us,” Mister decided. “Let's go, Angus, Sadie.” He held the kitchen door open.

The dogs ran out, jumped down the steps, and dashed to the truck, which was parked in front of the barn. When Mister caught up with them, he lowered the transom, and they jumped up onto the bed. He closed the transom behind them.

They bounced along down the dirt driveway to the farm stand. Sadie wanted to tell Angus about the ditches, and everything she'd found there over the summer, but Angus was thinking about something else.
Mister is the boss of everyone. He's the one who decides everything. Have you noticed?

No
.

He's the boss, so I'm supposed to do what he says. And so should you
.

I try
.

Try harder
.

All right. But will you come into the ditch? Sometimes, I can smell something. Maybe it's a squirrel, or maybe a raccoon
.

Or a skunk
.

What's a skunk?

Something you don't want to meet up with. Mister said
.

All right, I won't
.

Or maybe a porcupine
.

What's that?

Something else you never want to meet. Don't worry, Sadie. Maybe it's a fox. I'd recognize that smell
.

If it's a fox smell in the ditch, you can tell me and then I'll know it, too
.

When the truck stopped at the farm stand, Mister didn't come around to let them jump out. He told them, “Angus, Stay! Sadie, Stay!” then said to Missus, “Let's get to work. You load up the rear while I check out the building.”

Angus pointed this out to Sadie.
See what I mean about Mister deciding? Everybody does what Mister tells them to
.

I want to go to the ditch
, Sadie said.

Mister said Stay! You have to
.

They waited, standing with their front paws on the edge of the pickup bed, watching Missus stack baskets into piles and getting out of the way when she dumped the piles into the back of the truck, watching Mister walk all around the inside of the stand and then all around the outside. Sometimes he hammered at a board. After Missus carried baskets out to the pickup, she dragged out the two long pieces of wood that made the tops of the tables, and put them in, too. The back of the truck was getting crowded, but the dogs stayed put, as they had been told.

“Good dogs,” Missus said.

“Good dogs,” Mister said. “Let me help with the sawhorses.”

It was dark by the time they jounced back along the driveway to stop in front of the big barn door. “You take the tables into the barn,” Mister said, as he lowered the transom at the back of the truck.

“The baskets go on the porch,” Missus said. “For storing potatoes and carrots in the cellar.”

“That'll do! Angus,” Mister said to the dogs. “That'll do! Sadie.” Angus and Sadie jumped down out of the truck, and that's when trouble began.

Because Sadie saw something. She saw something moving. A shadow darker than the dark air moved in the garden.

Look!

She barked two short sharp barks. At the same time, she ran.

What she had seen seemed like a cat, but it didn't run like a cat. What she had seen was black and bright white, and it was humping along through the shadows.

Mister called out in a big, loud voice. “Angus, Sit! Stay! Sadie, Sit!”

“Oh no,” Missus said, as Sadie passed her and kept on running. Missus was on her way to the porch, where the not-a-cat was also headed. “No, Sadie. Leave it—”

“Sadie, Sit!” roared Mister.

Sadie couldn't stop, and she didn't want to. She was going to chase this animal away even if Angus wasn't going to show her how and help her. The animal was running away from her, and she was chasing it away.

Missus put the baskets down on the ground and hurried back to the truck, and Mister, and Angus. “Good dog, Angus. Good sitting, good staying,” she said.

Sadie went right after that strange animal.
Get out! Get away from the house! Go away! Or I'll—

The animal stopped and turned to look at her.

Sadie stopped, too. She was much bigger than it was.
Out! Get out!

The animal stamped its front foot. Stamp, stamp, stamp.

Sadie wasn't afraid of any stamping. She started toward it, and growled.
Or you'll be sorry
.

The animal stopped stamping and turned around. Sadie took a couple of quick steps forward, ready to run after it some more and finish chasing it away. It raised its tail up into the air and—

Terrible! Help! Stop! Angus!

Sadie turned and ran, howling and howling. Her eyes burned! She couldn't see!

Help! It hurts!

And then she ran as fast as she could to get away from the smell. That smell was horrible. She didn't like to breathe it in, and she couldn't get away from it. It was following her—no, it wasn't following her—it
was
her. The horrible nasty scary smell was all over her!

Sadie ran up to Missus, who was hiding behind Mister, who was hiding behind the truck.

Don't come near me
, Angus warned her.

“It was a skunk,” Missus said.

“It had to happen sooner or later,” Mister said. “Maybe this will teach her to obey.”

I told you
, Angus said.

Help!
cried Sadie, and she didn't care who helped her as long as she could stop feeling so horrible.

“All right, all right. Come! Sadie,” Mister said.

Sadie came.

“Sit!” Mister said, when she was still a distance away from him.

Sadie sat.

“Good dog, now, Stay!” Mister said. “We'll get some—do we have any lemons? Any tomato juice? You go up and see what we have, and I'll get the tub out, and the hose. Smart dog, Angus, keep your distance from her.”

How can I help you if you don't obey?
Angus explained.

I will now
, Sadie said, and she meant it. She sat there, shaking. This was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

They covered her with sharp-smelling tomato juice, and they rubbed her with canned tomatoes, too, and then they washed her with soap and hosed her down. But she could still smell her own terrible smell. Angus wouldn't sleep in the stall with her that night, and all the next day, Missus wouldn't let her into the house.

“You stink, Sadie,” they all said.

She did stink, she knew it, and she was sorry. But she didn't want them telling her that all the time, all day, even if it was true. That night, however, Angus returned to their stall to sleep on the blanket with her, so Sadie could begin to stop remembering.

After the skunk, the days kept on getting shorter and the air colder until one day Missus dug potatoes and carrots out of the garden and carried them down into the cellar in big bushel baskets. Later, in the middle of the night, Angus heard something.

Wake up!
he said to Sadie.
We have work to do
.

Where? What? Angus?

There's something in the garden. Follow me!

What if it's a skunk?

Don't worry, I'm going first. I'll tell you if it is
.

Angus ran out of the barn, barking. Sadie, also barking, followed, but she kept back behind Angus, in case it might turn out to be a skunk. She could see something shambling along, moving away, around the back of the barn. Angus didn't chase it. He stayed in the garden, barking. Then,
Gone. Only a raccoon
, he said.

The dogs returned to their stall, but it wasn't long before Angus woke Sadie up again.
They're back! Stay behind me! Don't worry, they're afraid when we bark
. He ran out of the barn, barking and barking and barking. Sadie followed at a distance, and she barked, too. This time Mister and Missus came running outside, slamming the kitchen door and thumping their feet on the steps.