Johnnie talked pleasantly enough. But he had a queer look in his eye. Spot thought it safer to keep out of his clutches.

Just then the miller came driving up the hill on a load of corn. When he saw the boys in the pond he stopped his horses.

"Anybody here lost any clothes?" he asked, holding a bundle up in his hand. "I found these by the side of the road. I noticed them hanging on a blackberry bush."

"I'll take 'em!" Johnnie Green cried. "They belong to Red. But you can leave them with me."

The miller tossed the bundle to him.

The boy Red, wearing Johnnie's clothes, was watching everything that went on, from behind a tree. He waited until Johnnie had untied the hard, wet knots in the clothes. Then he stepped out from his hiding place.

"Let's swap!" he said. And while they were swapping, old dog Spot took a swim in the mill pond. Somehow he felt that all was well again.

X
DROPPING HINTS

On the table in the kitchen of the farmhouse was a leg of mutton. Farmer Green had left it there and gone away. And Mrs. Green had stepped out of the kitchen—nobody knew for how long.

At least old dog Spot and Miss Kitty Cat didn't know. They were left there in the kitchen alone—alone with the leg of mutton.

"Ahem!" said Miss Kitty Cat to old dog Spot. "Don't you think you'd better go and see what's become of Farmer Green?"

She was unusually pleasant, for her. As a rule she had little to say to Spot, except to scold at him.

"I'm comfortable here, thank you," Spot answered. "Farmer Green must be out of sight by this time. So I won't bother to chase after him."

"You could smell out his track, couldn't you?" Miss Kitty Cat suggested.

"Perhaps!" said Spot. "Perhaps! But as I said, I'm comfortable here. I'm going to stay right here in the kitchen." Out of the corner of his eye he looked at Miss Kitty Cat. He could see that she was somewhat displeased by something or other. Her tail was beginning to swell slightly. And that was a sure sign that she was losing her temper. But when she spoke again her voice was as sweet as honey.

"What a beautiful day to go hunting!" she remarked as she sprang into a chair beside the window and looked out. "The woods must be full of birds."

"No doubt!" said Spot dryly. "I went hunting early this morning; and there was plenty of game then."

"Ha!" Miss Kitty exclaimed suddenly. "Do I hear the cows in the cornfield?"

Now, Spot loved to drive the cows out of the corn. But for a wonder, he never even moved an ear.

"I hope the sheep haven't scrambled over the stone wall," Miss Kitty Cat mewed. "If they have, Farmer Green would want you to get them back into the pasture for him."

"Yes!" said Spot with a yawn. "I'm sure he would. And if he needs me he knows where he can find me."

Miss Kitty Cat's tail was growing bigger every moment. And the fur on her back was beginning to stand on end. Still she managed to speak in her very softest voice.

"Did you know—" she inquired—"did you know that Johnnie Green had gone swimming in the mill pond?"

"No!" said Spot. "Has he? I hope he'll have a good time. I had a fine swim yesterday in Black Creek. And I almost caught a muskrat there."

As he spoke he rose and walked across the big, square kitchen and stretched himself out on the floor right in front of the table where the leg of mutton lay.

At that Miss Kitty Cat gave a terrible cry of rage.

"I know why you won't leave the kitchen!" she yowled. "You think I'm going to eat some of that mutton. And that's why you've lain down alongside it."

XI
MRS. GREEN'S MISTAKE

Old dog Spot never moved from the place where he was lying in front of the kitchen table. Although Miss Kitty Cat had told him angrily that he thought she was going to enjoy a luncheon on the leg of mutton that was on the kitchen table, he didn't lose his temper.

"Pardon me!" he said. "You are mistaken. I don't think you're going to have even a taste of this mutton—not while I'm in the kitchen!"

Miss Kitty Cat was furious. She had done her best to make Spot go away. She had dropped a number of hints to get him out of doors. But Spot hadn't taken a single one of them.

"You're a meddlesome old dog," she scolded. "I've a good mind to drag my claws across your nose."

Spot grinned at her.

"If you do," he warned her, "I shall yelp. Then Mrs. Green will hurry back here to see what's going on. And you certainly won't get any mutton while she's in the kitchen. I happen to know that the family's going to have that leg of mutton for dinner to-morrow."

"There ought to be enough of it for everybody," Miss Kitty Cat grumbled. "If I ate a bit of it nobody would ever miss it. And after I've finished my meal there would be nothing to prevent your helping yourself. I certainly shouldn't stand in your way—nor lie in it, either."

Old dog Spot couldn't help sniffing.

"I never snatch any food when Mrs. Green's back is turned," he told Miss Kitty Cat severely. "She feeds me all she thinks I ought to eat. And if I want more, I hunt for it in the woods and fields."

"Don't I hunt?" Miss Kitty Cat hissed. "I keep the house free of rats and mice. Mrs. Green could well spare me a bit of that mutton in return for all I do for her.... I'll thank you, sir, to move away from that table!"

Old Spot began to look somewhat anxious. He had once felt Miss Kitty's sharp claws on his nose. And he didn't care to be scratched by her again. But there was the leg of mutton! He had to guard that for Mrs. Green.

"I wish Mrs. Green would come back," he said to himself. "I don't want a row with this Cat person."

Miss Kitty suddenly spat at him.

Spot knew that that was a danger sign. And he gave a few short, sharp barks.

"There!" he muttered. "That ought to fetch Mrs. Green. If she's in the house she can't help hearing me."

Spot was right. In about a minute Farmer Green's wife came hurrying into the kitchen.

Old dog Spot jumped up and wagged his tail and gave a low-pitched bark as if to say, "I've saved your leg of mutton for you, Mrs. Green."

But she didn't understand him.

"You rascal!" Mrs. Green exclaimed. "You've been teasing the cat again. I can tell by the way she acts. Out you go!" And she opened the door.

Spot went.

XII
RIGHTING A WRONG

Poor Spot! He felt so mournful that he lifted up his muzzle and howled. Farmer Green's wife had just ordered him out of the kitchen. She thought he had been teasing Miss Kitty Cat. And instead he had kept Miss Kitty from tasting the leg of mutton that lay on the kitchen table.

"It's a sad, sad world!" he howled. "I thought Mrs. Green would praise me. But she didn't. She scolded me!"

"Sakes alive!" cried Henrietta Hen as she rushed up to him in the farmyard. "What's the matter with you? Are you trying to bay the moon in the daytime?"

Turkey Proudfoot gobbled at Spot and bade him be still. Turkey Proudfoot was very pompous, for he had an idea that he ruled the farmyard.

Old dog Spot felt so meek, after the scolding that Mrs. Green gave him, that he couldn't find a word to say to anybody that spoke to him.

"I've expected this for some time," the Rooster told Henrietta Hen. "Mrs. Green has put old Spot out of the farmhouse. And Farmer Green intends to put him off the farm. Everyone agrees that he's a nuisance. It's a wonder the folks in the Green family have kept him all these years."

Well, old dog Spot couldn't help hearing what the Rooster said. And he hadn't even heart enough to answer that impertinent boaster.

"Maybe he knows what he's talking about," Spot groaned. "I wish Johnnie Green would come home. He'd stand up for me, if nobody else will."

Then something happened all at once that helped Spot's spirits amazingly.