HOW CANDY IGNORED
THE SNOWMAN
AND HOW HER STICK SAVED JEFF
It was the day the snow came, although I didn’t know what snow was then, not until Jeff came bounding down the stairs to the front door. He threw it open and called:
“Hey Candy, Candy! Come! Mumble mumble. Come! SNOW!”
I rolled off the dog chair in the kitchen and ambled round to the front door and looked out. It was all white! Tiny white leafs fluttered down, flittering and fluttering until they settled on top of more white leafs—more and more, until everything was covered, the grass in front of the house, the little trees around the house, and the big trees in the Dark Woods, which were no longer dark. The hole in the bank where the fat furry animal lived looked black against the white bank.
I barked a little because I didn’t quite know what it was all about. Jeff put his hand on my neck where the fur was thick and ran his fingers through the fur. He went out and took some of the white stuff in his hand. He held it to my nose. I sniffed but couldn’t smell anything, so I tasted it. I didn’t taste anything. It wasn’t worth eating. But Jeff liked it.
“It’s all right Candy”, he said. “It’s snow! It’s good!”
I felt better at that and rubbed against his leg.
“Come, Candy, he said. “Let’s go!”
I stepped out on to the snow. It came almost all the way up my legs, and it was cold. In fact it had been cold for days and days, long before the snow came. But I’ve got thick fur and I don’t mind cold, although sometimes my paws can get cold, particularly when little chunks of snow get caught in them and get hard. Then I have to sit down and bite the little chunks out. Not like people. People get all dressed up in thick clothes and furs and big boots, and if they get little chunks in their boots they don’t have to bite them out
So I ran through the snow with my tail up and my ears flopping and the snow fluffed and fluttered around me while Jeff went back into the house. When he came back he was all dressed up in great thick clothes so that you couldn’t see it was really Jeff.
“Let’s go, Candy,” he said. “Mumble, mumble Snowman!”
I had no idea what a snowman was but Jeff ran into the snow, and I followed him. He took some snow in his hands and rolled it into a ball. When he threw the ball at me I jumped and caught it, but it disappeared in my mouth and all I had was funny water. Jeff laughed.
“Good girl, Candy,” he said. “OK, mumble, mumble, Snowman!”
He took another ball and he rolled it in the snow until it got bigger—and bigger, and bigger. Then he took another ball and rolled it bigger until it was big enough to sit on top of the first one. And then he took another one, smaller, and put it on top of the first two. Then he picked up a stick from under the snow and stuck it into the little ball and took off his hat and put it on top of the little ball. Then he stood back and said:
“Look, Candy! Snowman!”
But I couldn’t see any Snowman. All I could see was some lumps of snow with a stick. I jumped on it to have some fun but it just fell down, so I turned away and started to sniff in the snow to see if there were any little animals inside, but I couldn’t find any.
I don’t think Jeff was very pleased either for he said “Bad dog, Candy!” And took the stick away from the top ball and threw it over the snow. I saw the stick arching away as Jeff said:
“Candy! Get the stick!”
That’s easy. I’ve done that often enough. I shuffled through the snow as fast as I could go and brought it back to him. “Good girl!” He said, and threw it again. I got it again, and again and again, until we both got tired of it and finally Jeff said:
“O.K. Candy, Come!”, and he went off towards the Dark Woods.
The trees were all covered with snow, just like the tree from which I got my name, but not so nice. He walked along the trail through the trees, and I scampered alongside him bumping into trees and knocking snow down on top of him while I looked for Tigers. In the end we came to where the river was, but it looked different somehow. It didn’t seem to be moving, and everything was very still. I still had the stick in my mouth. Jeff took it and threw it into the river. I jumped forward into the water to get it, but it wasn’t water. It was HARD!
I didn’t know water could be hard, but I slipped and slithered forward until I finally reached the stick and brought it back, laying it down at Jeff’s feet. He picked it up and threw it again, but I was looking for Tigers and didn’t see it go.
“Get the stick!” Said Jeff, but I couldn’t see any stick and went back to sniff for Tigers. So Jeff walked out on to the hard river to get the stick himself. He was out quite a long way when I heard a cracking noise and I heard him yell.
He was in the real water, not the hard stuff. I didn’t know why he wanted to go into the water when it was so cold, but you never know what people do. I could see him try to get out, but every time he got to the edge of the hole it seemed to break and get bigger and he couldn’t get out. And then I heard him shout:
“CANDY! GET THE STICK!”
Now, my stick was gone. I don’t know where, and I didn’t know why he was wanting to play with the stick when he was in the river. And then I heard him yell again:
“CANDY! GET THE STICK!”
I looked around. I couldn’t see my stick. I couldn’t see any stick. And then I saw a stick poking out of the snow. A big thick stick. A long stick. Longer than me. But I pulled and tugged until out it came, a big long thick stick. I pulled it behind me and walked on to the hard river towards Jeff. He was still yelling. The hard river creaked and cracked and I thought I would join Jeff in the water, but it just kept on creaking and cracking until I got up to Jeff.
He said: “Good dog, Candy! Good dog!”
I wagged my tail, pleased that I was a good dog. He took the stick from me and placed it across the hole. He struggled on top of the stick and over on to the hard river. It didn’t break. I went up and licked his nose. He grabbed my collar and said:
“Go home, Candy!”
I knew what that meant. I turned towards home with Jeff holding my collar, and as I pulled he slowly came out of the river until we finally got to the bank. He was cold, very cold, and he started to run. We ran all the way home until Jeff fell against the door with a bump. Honey Babe opened the door and Jeff fell in.
“Oh, Jeff,” she said, “Mumble, mumble,” and pulled him in.
Nobody paid any attention to me so I went back into the Dark Woods to look for Tigers.