The Puppy and the Orphan by Suzanne Lambert

Author:Suzanne Lambert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405933971
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

Fun and Frolics

Nancy was kept busy after New Year. She made what seemed like hundreds of trips up and down the stairs to her treasure trove in the attic. Every piece of wrapping paper was saved and folded, then placed under heavy boxes to flatten it. Glitter was scraped off the Christmas cards and placed in a tin for next year’s decorations. All the beds were stripped, the floors cleaned and polished.

Downstairs in the kitchen extra help was brought in to scrub it from top to bottom until every pan and every surface gleamed. Nobody came near the kitchen while this was going on. They didn’t dare disturb Cook’s cleaning days.

As the weeks went by the snow disappeared, and by mid February it was still cold but dry and crisp. Josephine was taken once a week to the local hospital for check-ups and physiotherapy. She was coming along nicely, they told Nancy, but she still refused to walk. Yet Nancy thought she seemed much happier. She would sit on the floor in the playroom with the other children, but outside she would stay wrapped up in her wheelchair, watching them play and run around the wood with Oliver. Nancy was teaching Josephine to read and write and had discovered she was clever, with a bright, inquisitive mind. There was talk about special help for her at school but nothing had been arranged yet.

The garden door was beneath Nancy’s window. One afternoon she heard a frantic knocking. She looked out, and there stood Mr Bell with Oliver. She called down, ‘Is something wrong?’

‘Is Billy there?’ he said. ‘Thought he might like to come with us.’

Nancy was thrilled and hurried off to find Billy, then watched him and Mr Bell walking up and down the driveway while Oliver ran in and out of the wood, always coming back to check they were still there. Nancy smiled, it was a happy sight. What joy the little chap had brought to the orphanage, she thought. She couldn’t imagine life without him now. Every day the children knocked at the cottage and Mr Bell let Oliver out. Sometimes he went with them and Nancy watched him change. He smiled more, and she had even heard him laugh at Oliver’s antics. Oliver had brought more than fun to the orphanage: he had brought a sense of peace, he was healing hearts. I never knew dogs could do that, she thought. How absolutely wonderful it is to watch. I don’t understand how it works but maybe it doesn’t matter. It is enough to know it does work and this beautiful creature is doing God’s work. He has his own little character, just like the children, Nancy thought, remembering yesterday.

That afternoon when Nancy was outside with the children, Oliver had gone to Josephine and grabbed her glove, which was attached to a string that ran up one sleeve, across her back inside her coat and down the other. (All the children’s gloves were attached to them in this way.

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