Girls seated young men around the table and went to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, they saw a huge cake, ordered by Julia’s parents for the occasion of their arrival, and lots of cold snacks, that were quite to the point in such hot weather.
The girls were quickly carrying the dishes to the dining room, and putting them on the table closer to the young boys.
Such attention and care pleased the young men. Full as they were, they asked for more. Joking, the girls good-naturedly obeyed and put more food on their plates.
When the dinner was over, the friends went to their rooms to have a rest. After their rest they had to make the acquaintance of the dogs that guarded the house.
Nord – «the Lord Dog» – warily came up to a guest, slowly and deeply breathed in his or her smell, and only then put a stamp – nuzzled up the guest with his wet nose, leaving his smell on the person.
Alfa was his opposite. She did not want to accept anybody, and could just keep her patience with the strangers. Each time she looked at them with suspicion, she kept her distance. To show the strangers how much she didn’t trust them, Alfa, one by one, carefully took her hostess’s house shoes to the farthest corner from the guests’ spot. Her looks clearly showed that the hostess’s shoes were under good protection.
The last dog, Berta, was very young yet, and copied the older dogs in her behavior. She instantly joined their company in any undertaking.
The three dogs were German Shepherds, so nobody was going to take liberties with them. Nobody, but Michael. His behavior with the dogs was quite boyish, and, in response, they did not reveal any aggression towards him. It seemed they understood that he would never be different, and were indulgently patient with his tricks.
Julia took out a big piece of beef, bought specially for the dogs on her way home, fairly divided it into three parts, and put a piece onto each dog’s plate. Then she poured clean cold water into bowls and carried everything to the yard, in front of the main entrance.
The dogs started eating all at once, standing with their front legs far apart over the plates with food. From time to time, each of them began to stamp against the ground with its hind legs. This showed that they liked the food very much.