The Tale of Old Dog Spot Part 6

"Wow!" he yelped. "You must have sampled that leg of mutton when you thought Mrs. Green's back was turned. And she must have caught you in the act."

Though that was exactly what had happened, Miss Kitty Cat wouldn't say a word. But she _looked_ whole sentences at him.

Soon Farmer Green's wife came to the door again and called, "Come, Spot!

Come, Spot!"

He hurried up to her and caught the piece of meat that she tossed to him.

It was mutton.

XIII

HUNTING

To please old dog Spot Johnnie Green had only to ask him this question, "Want to go hunting, Spot?"

When he heard that, Spot would leave anything he happened to be doing, or give up anything he had intended to do. Perhaps he had expected to dig up and gnaw a choice bone that he had buried somewhere. It might be that he had been planning to chase the cat, or tease Turkey Proudfoot in order to hear him gobble. There wasn't one of those pleasures that Spot wouldn't gladly forgo for the sake of going hunting with Johnnie Green.

When Johnnie Green's father first gave him a shotgun Spot went almost frantic with delight. And they lost no time in starting for the woods.

Johnnie Green trudged up the lane with the gun on his shoulder, while Spot ran on ahead of him, returning now and then as if to urge Johnnie to hurry.

They hadn't been long in the woods when Spot suddenly stood still and pointed ahead of him with his nose.

Try as he would, Johnnie couldn't see what Spot was pointing at. So he took a few steps forward until he came abreast of the old dog. Then all at once there was a rumbling _whir_ that sounded to Johnnie Green almost as loud as thunder. A brownish streak flashed from the ground just ahead of him.

He knew that it was a grouse rising. And he fired.

Johnnie Green missed the bird. It had given him such a start that he was still shaking long afterward. He was disappointed, but not less downcast than old Spot.

"Never mind, old boy!" Johnnie said. "We'll have better luck next time!"

But they didn't. Twice more that same thing happened. And after the third miss old Sport turned tail and ran away.

"I don't see what's the matter with that boy," he muttered. "I've pointed three birds for him. And he has let every one of them get away.... There's no fun in that kind of shooting."

After that Johnnie couldn't get Spot to go into the woods with him.

Whenever Johnnie appeared in the yard with his gun, Spot promptly vanished.

So Johnnie spent a good deal of time shooting at old tin cans which he set on a fence post or a stone wall. And it wasn't long before he found he could hit them at every shot.

At last he came home from the woods one day with a grouse. When he showed it to Spot the old dog actually began teasing him to go hunting.

The next day they set out together for the woods. And Johnnie knocked down the very first grouse that Spot found for him.

Spot brought the bird to Johnnie and laid it proudly at his feet.

"Did Johnnie Green ever give you any of the birds that you find for him?" Miss Kitty Cat inquired when Spot was boasting a bit about the sport he and Johnnie had in the woods. "No!" she said, answering her own question. "You're silly to hunt for him. I prefer to do my hunting alone. Then n.o.body can take the game away from me."

Old dog Spot walked away from her, to the barn.

"Miss Kitty Cat doesn't know what real hunting is," he told the old horse Ebenezer. "She creeps up on small birds after dark, when they are asleep."

"And you creep up on big birds in the daytime," said old Ebenezer, "so Johnnie Green can shoot them."

Being a sporting dog, Spot couldn't see anything queer in that remark.

"Certainly!" he said.

XIV

MISSING HIS MASTER

Johnnie Green went visiting one summer, after haying was done. Much to old dog Spot's disgust, Johnnie did not take him on this journey. But it was not Spot's fault that he was left at home. Had he not been shut up in the harness room in the barn when Johnnie drove the old horse Ebenezer out of the yard Spot would have followed beneath the buggy.

It was hours before Farmer Green set Spot free. When Farmer Green at last flung open the door of the harness room Spot rushed out and dashed into the road. To his sorrow he couldn't smell a trace of Ebenezer's track. So many other horses had pa.s.sed by the house since morning that Spot couldn't even tell which way Ebenezer had gone.

In desperation Spot ran up the road a little way. Then he turned around and ran down the hill as far as the gristmill.

By the time he reached the mill pond Spot gave up the chase. He knew it was hopeless.

And seeing several of Johnnie Green's friends swimming in the pond, he joined them.

The boys welcomed him with shouts. And the water was just as cool as ever. But somehow Spot didn't find swimming as pleasant as he always had before. He missed Johnnie Green. There wasn't another boy there that gave Spot the same thrill by whistling to him, or patting him, or romping with him that Johnnie Green gave him.

After a while Spot shook himself and trotted back to Farmer Green's place. He felt homesick. But when he reached the house somehow he felt worse than ever. It was terribly quiet. It was just like a Sunday morning, when everybody was at church. Farmer Green and the hired man were working in the fields. Mrs. Green was busy in the house--too busy to stop and talk with old Spot.

"It's frightfully dull here," Spot groaned. "I wish somebody would shout." And just to break the silence he lifted up his nose and tried to bark.

It was far from a cheerful noise that he made, for he only succeeded in giving a mournful howl. And that sad sound made Spot gloomier than ever.

"Well," he muttered, "there's nothing else to do, so I'll go and dig up that bone that I buried in the orchard last week."

He found the bone where he had hidden it. Yet it did not look half as inviting as it had when he covered it with dirt a few days before. He stared at it dully. Then he put it back in its hole and pawed the dirt over it again.

He found no pleasure in anything. No longer was there any fun in chasing woodchucks. The cows might have stayed in the cornfield all day long and Spot wouldn't have bothered them. He didn't even get any sport out of teasing Miss Kitty Cat.

Strangest of all, he couldn't find any comfort in lying down for a quiet nap. The moment he tried to pa.s.s the time away in that fashion he began to think about Johnnie Green and what a nice boy he was. And then he would get up and walk around and around the house. Hour after hour Spot spent in that fashion.

It wasn't many days before he had worn a path in the gra.s.s all the way around the farmhouse. When Farmer Green noticed it he didn't scold Spot.

He patted his head and said, "Cheer up, old boy! Johnnie'll be back one of these days."