Renni the Rescuer by Felix Salten Read Free Book Online Page A

days were terrible. Blows, nothing to eat, kicks.”
    â€œI don’t know anything about such things.”
    â€œWhy, I always got whipped. A long time ago Hewhipped me whenever I couldn’t resist running after a rabbit. Of course, that was forbidden.”
    â€œYou oughtn’t to have done it.”
    â€œI got over the habit, but how much pain it caused me! Or perhaps I could not find a partridge that He’d shot. A whipping for me! Maybe He’d really missed it. Still . . . a whipping.”
    â€œAnd you love Him, you dumb dog?”
    â€œNo, I’m not dumb. Not at all. Oh, but He was nice to me, too. It was wonderful to be petted by Him when He was happy. I can never forget it . . . . Alas, He wasn’t happy very often.”
    â€œAnd can you forget how He drove you away?”
    â€œNo, that was too awful.”
    â€œHow did it happen?”
    â€œHe kicked me out of the house. In spite of the pain in my body I scratched at His door. He whipped me away. Again and again. I felt as if I were going to die.”
    Kitty’s fine voice said, “I can’t understand you people. Things like that could happen to me only once, and a mighty short once, too. I’d scratch. I’d scratch until Hebled, and then I’d run away.” Now with her back arched and her fur bristling with sparks she looked savage indeed. The dogs stared at her.
    â€œDon’t you love your master then?” stammered Renni.
    â€œNobody’s my master,” declared Kitty. “To obey anyone who likes to whip—only you silly dogs are capable of that.”
    â€œI don’t know you when you’re like this,” said Renni in a humble tone.
    â€œWell then, you know me now.” Kitty quieted down, rolled up gently against Renni’s side and purred. For a while they were all silent.
    â€œWhat a kind master you have!” whispered Nemo. “I envy you. It’s great to have a thing like this happen to me at the end of my life. I’d never have thought there was so much kindness anywhere, so much pity. I haven’t any way to tell you how much good the help I’ve received here has done me. I was on my last legs after wandering about for days in this awful weather, after the loneliness, the hunger. It took all my strength.I’d like to love your master . . . but I don’t know. Love for my old master, cruel as He was to me, is still firm in my heart. I can’t root it out. Do you hear me?”
    But nether Kitty nor Renni heard the poor pointer’s whispering. They were asleep. For a long time Nemo looked sadly into the dark. Finally slumber wrapped him too. Uneasy dreams brought back vague images of the suffering he had endured. His legs pressed close against his body, twitching violently as though he were running. He whimpered in a high, choking voice which did not reach very far. Much later he slipped into the depths of unconscious sleep, and that gave him strength again.
    There is a barrier between man and beast; even when they live together on the best of terms, distance lies between them. Those two good people, George and his mother, had not the slightest inkling of the night-time conversation of their protégés. They were happy to see the friendship which Renni, Kitty and Nemo had formed. They were happy when the three ate their meals together from the same dish, andwhen Renni and Kitty drew back to leave most of it to Nemo, who devoured all that was left in gluttonous eagerness.
    â€œRenni acts like a gentleman,” George praised his dog.
    â€œAnd Kitty is a perfect lady,” smiled Mother Marie.
    â€œLook, won’t you, Mother? Nemo’s already getting a little stronger.”
    He called the pointer, who at once crept humbly up, lay down and rolled over on his back at George’s feet, wagging his tail timidly. George petted him, talked kindly to him.
    â€œNow, Nemo, don’t you be