They said I had once been at a fire, and worked a fire-engine all by myself; that I had gone up a ladder to the third story, opened my mistress’s door, awakened her, picked her up, and jumped off the roof with her in safety to the ground. They said that another time I had, all alone, slain fifty robbers, strangling them so cleverly one after the other with my teeth when they were asleep, that not one had time to wake up and give the alarm to the others; that I had then gone into the caves where the robbers lived, and had set free a hundred and fifty prisoners whom the robbers had captured. At another time, they said, I had beaten in a race all the swiftest horses in the country, and had run seventy-five miles in five hours without stopping.
The crowd grew thicker and thicker to hear these wonderful tales, until the crush was so great that some of the people could hardly breathe, and the police had to come to the rescue. It was with the greatest difficulty, even with the help of the policemen, that I was able to get away, and I was obliged to pretend both to bite and to kick in order to clear a path; but of course I didn’t hurt anybody.
At last I got free from the crowd and into the road. I looked about for Jack and Harry and the others, but they were nowhere to be seen; for as soon as the crowding became dangerous, their parents had hurried them away. Losing no time, I took the road home. Before I had gone a mile I overtook them, fifteen people packed into the two carriages; and by tea-time we all reached home safe and sound, everybody delighted with my remarkable sagacity.
[Illustration: “IN ORDER TO CLEAR A PATH.”]
But after it was all over, I began to think of the unfortunate showman, and I felt very, very sorry for the unkind trick I had played him.
I never could like that boy Norman; I thought him both cowardly and conceited. I could not forget that he had killed my friend, the poor dog, Jenny. One day, when he came to my mistress’s house on a visit, he insisted on riding on my back. “Now,” thought I to myself, “I’ll have my revenge.”
Just beyond the garden there was a wood, and beyond the wood there was a very deep and dirty ditch, generally full to the brim with mud. Norman had been boasting what an excellent rider he was, and invited the others to come with him through the wood to see him jump the ditch. They all came, though they did not believe he could do it.