One Dog and His Boy by Iva Ibbotson

Author:Iva Ibbotson [Ibbotson, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4071-3160-3
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Published: 2011-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

An hour later, the children and the dogs were standing at the entrance to the circus ring. Two of the clowns, Tom and Fred, had found Petroc’s cart and Myra had dragged out his dressing-up hamper and gone back to her caravan.

“Well, we’ll leave you to get on with it,” said Tom. “Just call us when you’re ready and we’ll fit our business in with you. Then we can have a proper run-through.”

They went off. Hal opened the hamper and looked at the gaudy clothes with disgust.

“What gives people the right to dress up animals and make them look as silly as they are themselves?” he asked.

Pippa did not answer, and when Hal looked at her he saw that her face was rigid and she was as pale as death.

“I can’t,” she gulped, staring at the empty expanse of sawdust, and the rows of tiers stretching upwards. “I’ve absolutely no idea what to do. I must have been mad.”

“But we’ve said—”

“I can’t,” said Pippa again. “I absolutely can’t.” She was almost crying. “We’ll have to come clean. I’m very sorry.”

The dogs had been waiting patiently, wondering what was going on. Now Francine stepped forward. She dived into the hamper, picked up a wreath of white flowers in her mouth and laid it on the ground.

“She must have done this before,” said Pippa.

They put the wreath over the poodle’s head and she sat up on her hind legs, every inch a bride. If Pippa did not know what to do, Francine quite clearly did.

After that, somehow, they managed to carry on. They found a tiny bonnet for Li-Chee, who was to be the baby, and a frilled hat for Honey, who was to be the mother. But Otto took one look at his hat and turned away.

“We can’t make him dress up – not Otto,” said Hal.

“We won’t have to,” said Pippa, “not if he’s just pulling the cart.”

Rupert, of course, was the bridegroom. There was no trouble about getting him to put on a bow tie and a silk waistcoat. He, like Francine, knew that dressing up was part of the job.

They decided that Otto should pull the cart round the ring twice, with Francine and Li-Chee and Honey on board. They would stop at the church, which the clowns would set up, and Rupert would be sitting there, waiting for his bride. The wedding would take place out of sight behind a curtain, and then the bridal party would come out again and drive to the wedding banquet in another part of the ring and the show would end with the two poodles dancing together.

“That part will work at least,” said Pippa. “There can be a spotlight on them, and then it can go out suddenly and everything will be over.”

But even such a simple routine was unbelievably difficult for the dogs to learn. Getting Otto to pull the cart round the ring took ages. He trembled with outrage, but Pippa was patient. Gradually he went round; his eyes were full of despair, but he went.

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