e 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. The woodshed door flew open and Miss Kitty Cat