The Tale of Old Dog Spot Part 11

Spot mingled with the crowds of people that were pouring into the big tent. He worked his way in and out among the throng, all but tripping many of the pleasure seekers.

Though he looked everywhere, he couldn't find the Green family. They had already pa.s.sed through the entrance and were enjoying the sights inside the canvas.

At last Spot met a man--a circus man--who was very friendly. It was pleasant to get a kind word from somebody, after so many people had told him to "get out," and had given him a shove.

This kindly person called Spot into a low tent and patted him. He gave Spot a bit of meat and even thought to offer him a drink of water.

"This is a fine pointer," the man remarked to a friend of his who was with him. "He hasn't any collar; so he must be anybody's dog. And he might as well be mine."

Spot wagged his tail. He didn't quite understand what his new acquaintance was saying. But it seemed to be something nice.

And then Spot decided, suddenly, that he had stayed in that tent long enough. For the pleasant man found a piece of rope and tried to tie it about Spot's neck.

"I've been tied up once to-day; and once is enough," Spot growled.

Slipping out of the man's grasp, Spot ran out of doors.

Both men followed him. For a few minutes they chased him. One of them tripped over a guy rope and sprawled on the ground. And to escape the other Spot dodged under a canvas wall where it lifted slightly at the bottom.

He found himself in a huge tent where hundreds of people sat all around on tiers of seats. Men and horses were capering about in the center of the place. And somewhere a band was playing.

He was under the big top.

XXIII

SPOT SEES THE SHOW

Old dog Spot was bewildered. When he crawled under the canvas he had not dreamed that he was entering the main tent of the circus. He saw so many strange sights that he didn't know whether to bark or to crawl away and hide somewhere. Yet among all those people he felt lonely. He couldn't see anybody he knew.

All at once the bandsmen began to play louder than ever. They seemed to be trying to burst their horns--or themselves. And men in flowing robes, each one standing in a sort of little two-wheeled cart and driving four horses abreast, came tearing past the place where Spot was standing.

It was a race! And if there was one thing that Spot liked more than another it was a race of any kind. He gave a few delighted barks and ran after the galloping horses.

Spot followed them twice around the big tent. And just as he fell into a jog--for the race was finished--he heard a whistle that gave him a great thrill. He stood still for an instant. Then he dashed toward the nearest seats.

A moment later he was fawning upon Johnnie Green, who sat in the lowest row and seemed as glad to see Spot as Spot was to see him.

Lying between Johnnie's feet, Spot watched the rest of the show.

At last the circus was over. The Green family, with Spot at their heels, went back to the place where they had left the bays and the carryall.

And in a few minutes more they were on their way back to Pleasant Valley and home.

That morning everybody on the road had seemed to be in a great hurry to get to the village. And now, late in the afternoon, everybody was in just as great a hurry to get away from it. Farmer Green kept the bays at a spanking trot, only pausing to let them breathe now and then on the hills.

Spot, however, was not in such haste that he didn't stop and give a good trouncing to the dog that had rushed out at him earlier in the day. Spot sent the surly fellow yelping into his master's yard. Then he rushed down the road to overtake the carryall.

But, to everybody's surprise, when they reached home old dog Spot was missing.

"He'll come back," Farmer Green said. "Probably he's stopped somewhere to chase a rabbit or something. He'll be along after a while."

But after the cows were milked old Spot was still absent. And after the family had eaten supper he had failed to appear. Bedtime came. Still no Spot!

Johnnie Green felt very sad when he went upstairs.

He felt even worse when morning came. He had hoped that Spot would be in the yard, begging for his breakfast.

Johnnie Green was able to eat only a little of his own breakfast. And as soon as he left the table he went to the barn and harnessed his pony, Twinkleheels, to the little buggy with the red wheels.

Then Johnnie started for the village.

XXIV

HOME AGAIN

Johnnie Green drove his pony, Twinkleheels, back over the road that led to the village. Now and then he stopped at a farmhouse to inquire whether anybody had seen old dog Spot, who had vanished on the way home from the circus the evening before.

n.o.body had set eyes on him. And Johnnie Green drove on and on, feeling more and more miserable all the while.

At last, as he turned a sharp bend of the road, he heard a bark. There was no mistaking it. It was Spot's.

There was a joyful meeting then. Johnnie sprang out of the buggy and Spot sprang into his arms. And Johnnie hugged the old fellow tightly, right there in the middle of the road.

"What in the world has kept you here ever since yesterday?" Johnnie asked.

Spot must have understood. Anyhow, he dashed to one side of the road.

And, following him, Johnnie found there a robe that belonged to his father. It had dropped out of the carryall the evening before, when the Green family were on their way home from seeing the circus. n.o.body in the carriage had missed it. But old Spot, running under the carriage, had seen it fall. And he had stayed behind to guard it all through the long night.

Of course Spot couldn't tell Johnnie Green all this. But Johnnie wasn't slow in guessing what had happened.

He picked up the robe and put it under the seat of the little buggy.

Then he and Spot both jumped in. And Johnnie turned Twinkleheels' head toward home.

Back at the farm almost everybody said that old dog Spot was a hero.

Farmer Green exclaimed that Spot was a faithful old fellow. And Mrs.

Green set out such a meal for him as Spot had never seen before in all his life.

Now, there were two or three of Spot's neighbors in the farmyard that didn't like the praise he was getting. Turkey Proudfoot, the gobbler, remarked that if people didn't know enough to come home to roost at night he saw no reason for making a fuss about it. Miss Kitty Cat declared that so far as she was concerned she would have been just as well pleased if Spot hadn't come back to the farm at all. And Henrietta Hen had more to say than anyone else. She hurried up to old dog Spot himself and insisted on talking with him.

"Huh!" she exclaimed. "You only spent one day at the circus, while last fall I stayed a whole week at the county fair."

"Did you hear a band at the fair?" Spot asked her.