Dogs and cats, as well as other animals, do dream, I believe. If you ever watch sleeping cats or dogs, you will often see them jump or twitch, when their eyes are closed. And sometimes they will whine or howl, just as children talk in their sleep. Of course no one knows what dogs and cats dream about, but I imagine it must often be of good things to eat, don’t you?
At any rate Don dreamed of being back home, but when he suddenly awakened he remembered where he was.
“Oh, I’m under the lumber pile,” Don thought to himself. “And I’ll have to go hunting in ash cans for something to eat. Oh, I wish I were back home again! No more running away for me!”
Then Don began to feel something queer on his tail. It was as though it were being pinched. He looked up, thinking perhaps Jack was doing this to awaken him. But Jack was not to be seen. And then Don saw something else.
Tied around his tail was a piece of rope that had not been there when he went to sleep the night before.
Don jumped up quickly, and, as he did so, he heard a rattling sound. At the same time a boy’s voice cried:
“Hey, Jimmie! The dog’s woke up! Now we’ll see some fun!”
Don sprang out from under the pile of boards. As he did so, the rattlety-bang sound followed him. It went wherever he went and, as he looked around, he saw that a big tin can was tied to his tail. Don did not know what to make of it. Nothing like that had ever happened to him before. He gave a jump, and ran around the lumber yard. At every step the can followed, with a rattle and bang.
“Oh, this is terrible!” yelped poor Don, as he ran faster and faster. But, no matter how fast he ran, the can on his tail followed.
“Look at him run!” cried one of the boys who had tied the tin can on Don’s tail, when the dog was asleep. “Look!”
“He certainly can go!” shouted the other boy. “Let’s see if we can’t catch him!”
But Don was running too fast for any small boy to get hold of him, and those boys were not very large. Don was running as he had never run before, because he was so frightened. Never before had he had a can tied to his tail, and it bumped along after him, making such a noise, and the rope pinched him so that, altogether, Don was very much frightened.