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Angus MacScot put a large
bone into Malcolm’s dog dish. "Here boy," he called. Malcolm came running
through, hungry and ready to eat. "I’ve got a nice bone for you, and I
even left some scraps of ham on it. I know how much you like ham bones."
He petted Malcolm on the head and went into the living room.
Malcolm picked the bone up
in his mouth. He could taste the delicious flavor of the ham. Holding it
tightly in his mouth, Malcolm stepped through his doggie door and went
outside. He found a nice comfortable spot on the grass, lay down, and
began gnawing on the bone. He sat there all day long tugging the meat and
gristle off and then chewed the whole bone to bits. He savored the marrow,
his favorite part.
Feeling satisfied and no
longer the slightest bit hungry, Malcolm ran up the dirt lane to visit his
friend Fiona, the Shetland collie. As he trotted towards her place he saw
patches of bluebells growing along the side of the road. He ran up to them
and sniffed them. He loved blue bells. When he arrived at Fiona’s, he
started to bark. BARK! BARK! Fiona came running to the front gate and
opened it so Malcolm could come into her garden. For the rest of the day,
the two dogs played and rested in the shade of an old willow tree. There
were some larks standing on one of the branches. Malcolm and Fiona
listened to them singing and chirping. As the sun began to set, Malcolm
ran home. He would come back tomorrow.
The next morning, after
breakfast, Malcolm dashed up to Fiona’s house. They were going to get Jock
and Paddy and go exploring in the hills near the village. After the four
dogs were together, they were on their way. Paddy, the largest of the
dogs, ran ahead. The others had to struggle to keep up with him. Their
legs were much shorter.
At last they reached the
hills. They were covered with bright lemon-yellow buttercups and small
white daisies with sunshine-yellow centers and bright green leaves. The
dogs had so much fun running through the flowers, chasing bees and
butterflies. Jock found a plump orange caterpillar standing on a
nasturtium leaf. The others gathered around to see it. It was the funniest
looking thing any of them had ever seen. It had a big black spot with a
white center on its back. They watched it for a while then ran off to play
some more.
Paddy wanted to dig for
bones. The others thought that was a good idea. They each started digging
up the grass into the dirt with their front paws. Paddy, of course, dug
the biggest hole, as his paws were the largest. Soon all the dogs were
covered with cocoa- brown dirt. Jock started to bark madly. He growled and
was very anxious. The others ran over to see what was wrong. Jock had dug
up a huge bone. He’d only dug some of it. The others helped him dig around
it. It took them a long time. The bone was big!
When all the dirt had been
tossed aside, there lay a bone, bigger than all four dogs put together. It
must be a dinosaur bone, thought Malcolm. It took all four of them to lift
it up and put it onto the grass. None of their mouths could hold it so
they had to lift it with their legs and paws and their backs and
shoulders.
Jock licked it. He was
surprised to discover that it tasted like a normal bone. Paddy joined in,
trying a taste. Fiona and Malcolm each took at lick. It was delicious.
This bone was much larger than the hambone Malcolm had eaten the day
before. The rest of the day the four dogs sat and chewed on the bone. As
the sun set that night, they had barely made a dent in it. Every day they
went back to the huge bone and gnawed at it. None of them every wanted to
eat the food at home. Angus MacScot wondered if Malcolm didn’t feel well.
Finally, after a week, they finished the bone. They were so full that none
of them were hungry for several days. But things got back to normal.
They went into the hills
now and then to dig for bones, but they never found one as big as the one
they found that day. |
