DON SEES TUM TUM
Don hardly knew what to think when Bob, his boyish master, called to
him that way. The little dog had not lived long enough in the world to
know much about bulls jumping fences. But he could easily tell that
Bob’s sister, Sallie, was very much frightened. A dog can tell very
quickly when a person is frightened, or glad, or cross.
“Come on, Don!” cried Bob, as he ran as fast as he could.
“Where are you going?” asked Sallie. “Oh, Bob! Don’t you know the bad
black bull is loose?”
“Yes, of course I know it,” answered Bob. “And that’s where I’m going.”
“What! Not to the bull, are you?” asked Sallie.
“That’s just where I’m going,” said Bob.
“But he’ll hook you with his horns, and maybe――maybe he’ll step on
you!” exclaimed Sallie. “Listen to him call!”
From a field, not far away, came a noise that sounded like:
“Boo! Boo! Boo!”
“Bow wow!” barked Don.
“Yes, that’s the bull all right,” said Bob. “But we’ll drive him back
in the lot where he belongs, won’t we, Don, old fellow?”
“Bow wow!” barked Don again. I suppose he was saying: “Yes, yes! Of
course we will!”
Don knew nothing about bad black bulls, and Bob was not a very big boy.
Still he was brave, and so was Don.
“Come on, old fellow!” called Bob to the dog.
“Bow wow!” barked Don. “I’m coming!”
“Oh dear!” cried Sallie. She couldn’t help being just a little bit
afraid. Girls are made that way on purpose, so boys and dogs can
protect them.
“Boo! Boo!” bellowed the bull again, and Bob, running on ahead, with
Don coming after him, soon came to the field where the big animal, with
his sharp horns, was pawing up the dirt.
“Get back where you belong!” called Bob to the bull. “Get back, I say!”
“Bow wow!” barked Don, the brave dog. At first Don felt a little afraid
when he saw the big black animal.
But when Don saw how close his brave master Bob went to the bull, and
shook a stick at him, Don said to himself:
“Well, if Bob is brave, I must be brave too. It would never do to run
away and leave him to drive the bull all by himself. I must stay with
him.”
That is the way dogs nearly always do. They are very brave, and
faithful to their masters, staying by them when they are in danger or
when they are hurt. So Don did not run away.
Instead he ran close to the heels of the bull, and barked as loudly as
he could. It is a good thing Don did that, for the bull, with a shake
of his head, had just made up his mind to run at Bob and maybe stick
the boy with the sharp horns, for all I know. Mind, I am not saying for
sure, but maybe.
When Don barked so close to the bull’s legs, the big black animal
thought he was going to be bitten. So he turned quickly, to shake his
head and horns at Don, and in that way Bob was not hurt.
Bob was not the least bit afraid. He kept on shaking his stick at the
bull, and throwing stones and pieces of dirt at him, sometimes hitting
him on the nose. The bull did not like this.
And the big animal did not like Don barking at his heels, either. It
made the big, black animal think he was going to be bitten.
“Keep at it, Don!” cried Bob. “We’ll soon have this bull back where he
belongs! Drive him out of this field!”
[Illustration: He turned quickly to shake his head and horns at Don.]
“Bow wow!” barked Don, which meant, in dog language: “Of course we’ll
drive him back. I’m not afraid.”
So, with the barking of the dog, and the way Bob shook his stick and
threw stones, the bull began to feel that perhaps he had better be
good, and go back where he belonged.
The bull was still rather angry, and he kept shaking his head and his
horns, and pawing up the ground with his front feet. Still he backed
slowly out of the lot where he did not belong, and pretty soon along
came Bob’s father, with a big stick. Sallie, Bob’s sister, had gone to
call her father when she saw Bob and Don trying to keep the bull from
getting into the road.
“Get back there!” cried Bob’s father, and slowly the bull went back,
until he was safely locked in the pasture from which he had gotten out
by jumping the fence.
“Well, Bob,” said his father, “you are a brave little chap. Did you
drive back the black bull all alone?”
“Oh, no,” answered Bob. “Don helped me, didn’t you, Don?”
“Bow wow!” barked Don, as Bob put his arms around the shaggy neck of
his pet.
“Well, he certainly is a fine dog!” said the man, as he patted Don on
the head. And you can just imagine how proud Don was. For he was only
a puppy yet, and I think even a larger dog might have been a little
afraid to bark at the big, black bull. But Don started in by being
brave, and that is a good way to begin life.
“Yes, my dog is a good one,” said Bob. “We’re not afraid of bulls, are
we, Don?”
“Bow wow!” barked Don. “No indeed!”
“Well, I must make the fence higher so the bull can’t get out again,”
said the farmer.
Then he and Bob and Don went up to the farmhouse, Don wagging his tail
on the way, for that is what dogs do when they are pleased and happy.
Don was growing every day. He had good things to eat, he could run
about and play as he pleased, and he had a nice warm place to sleep.
All those things make puppies grow into big dogs. Of course some dogs
are little, and always stay that way, but Don was one of the kind that
grows to be large.
Bob, his master, was very fond of Don, and took him with him everywhere
he went――except to school, of course. A dog could not go to school any
more than could Mary’s little lamb. But often, when it was nearly time
for school to be out, Don would slip off down the road, toward the
little red schoolhouse.
Not far from it he would lie down in the shade of a tree to wait until
the boys and girls came out. Then Don would rush up, barking as loudly
as he could, and wagging his tail, for he wanted to see Bob. Don was
lonesome without him.
And what fun Bob and his boy chums had with Don on the way home from
school! Don would carry Bob’s books, and if any other boy, even in fun,
tried to take the books away from Don, the dog would growl and bark a
little, as though saying:
“Now that’s all very well, in fun. But you must not take these books.
If you do, I might have to bite you, just a least little bit, and I
wouldn’t like to do that. So please don’t touch Bob’s books.”
And none of the boys dared.
Bob taught Don how to lie down and roll over when he was told, and how
to sit up on his hind legs and not move even when a sweet cracker, or
something else good to eat, was put on the dog’s nose. Don would sit
there, just as steady as a clock, until Bob called out:
“Now you may eat it, Don!”
Then Don would flip his nose, toss the cracker up into the air, and as
it came down he would grab it in his white teeth and chew it up. Oh,
how good it tasted!
Bob also taught Don how to play soldier, and march around with a paper
cap on his head, and a broom for a gun. And Don could jump over
chairs, and do many other things, that only circus dogs are supposed to
do. Bob was very fond of his pet Don.
Sometimes, when Bob was off to school, Don would walk around the farm,
looking at the cows, horses and chickens. He was not afraid of the big
red rooster now, though once he had been, when he was a little puppy.
Instead the rooster was afraid of Don, though the dog would not harm
even a baby chicken. All Don did was to drive the chickens out of the
garden when he was told.
“How de doo――de doo!” the rooster would crow, when he saw Don outside
the chicken yard. “How de doo――de doo?”
“Oh, I’m pretty well, thank you,” Don would answer. “How are you? Bow
wow!”
Then they would talk together in rooster and dog language――that is,
after the rooster got over being afraid of Don.
Sometimes Don would go to see if the big, black bull was safely shut up
in his pasture lot. Don and the bull never got to be good friends. I
guess the bull was rather angry at Don for having driven him back that
time he got loose. On some days Don would go to the pen where Squinty,
the comical pig, lived with his mother and brothers and sisters. Don
could look through a crack in the boards and see the pigs.
“Oh, come now, I say, help me get a board off the pen and run out,”
Squinty would beg of Don.
“No indeed! I’m not going to let you out,” Don would answer.
“Then I’ll get out all by myself,” Squinty would say.
And one day he did. With his strong, rubbery nose Squinty pushed and
pushed on a loose board of his pen, until the board came off, and
Squinty was out in the garden. He had a good time, as I have told
you in the book about the comical little pig, so I will not put his
adventures in here. For this book is to be about Don, or, at least,
mostly about him.
Then the farmer found out that Squinty was loose.
“Here Don! Don!” called Bob’s father, for Bob was off to school.
“There’s a pig loose, Don! Drive him back to his pen!”
“Bow wow! I will!” cried Don, and he ran up to take Squinty by the ear
and lead him back. Don did not bite Squinty, though the comical little
pig squealed as though he were badly hurt. But Don took him safely back
to the pen.
Then, one day, Squinty got out again, and this time he wandered off
a long distance before Don was sent after him. When the dog did find
the little pig, Don saw a strange sight. Along the country road were
rumbling big red, green and golden colored wagons, drawn by many horses.
But, strangest of all, Don saw in the woods a little hairy animal, with
a long tail, and four hands――or so it seemed to Don. And then there was
another queer animal, with two tails, one in front, and one behind.
“Bow wow!” barked Don when he saw this animal. “I had better run away
from here. I don’t like this! Two tails! Oh my!”
“Oh, don’t be afraid,” said Squinty. “That’s only Tum Tum.”