THE DOG THAT RAN UP A TREE.
Spot is a great, good-natured, black-and-white dog, as full of fun as his skin can hold. If there is anything he loves to do, it is to chase a cat, just to see her run. He has not the least wish to hurt her.
One day as he was following his master's team he went by a house where a white cat lay on the porch. Spot made a dash for her. She left the porch and ran like a white streak straight up a large tree in the yard.
Spot was right at her heels. And because she went up the tree, he followed. I suppose he had never thought but that a dog could climb a tree just as well as a cat.
He was running so fast that he did go up the tree, quite a little way, six feet or more. But about that time he began to slip, and then something fell heavily to the ground. It was Spot!
When he picked himself up, he took no further interest in that cat, but just ran on, somewhat stiffly, to be sure, after his master. I think if he could have spoken he would have said, "Let cats climb trees if they wish to, I prefer to run on the ground!"
—C. W. B. Vermont.
