“Oh, we can walk; you know we don’t have to run at all, only they call it running away if you go off where people can’t find you,” said Mr. Tom Cat. “I know a place we can go. Come with me.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Mr. Dog. “Lead the way, Thomas.”
Just as they were passing the barn-yard they saw Mr. Rooster scrooged under the fence.
“Hello, Mr. Rooster!” said Mr. Dog. “What has happened to you that you look so unhappy this morning?”
“Why wouldn’t I look unhappy?” replied Mr. Rooster. “Here I have been on this farm and looking after all those silly hens these long years, and this morning the master said he wished the fox had got me last night instead of the hen he carried off. I tell you it is hard luck, after all I have done for the master.”
“Come with us,” said Mr. Tom Cat. “We are running away; the cook chased me out this morning because I happened to sleep all night and didn’t catch the mice, and Mr. Dog was blamed because the fox got into your house last night. We are not appreciated around here, that is plain. Will you come along?”
“I had never thought of running away,” said Mr. Rooster, getting out from under the fence and flapping the dust from his wings, “but I think I like the idea of running away. I will go along with you. Perhaps the master and those foolish hens of mine will begin to think what a fine fellow I am and wish I had not gone. Where are you going?”
“Oh, to a place I know where no one will find us,” said Mr. Tom Cat, running ahead.
Mr. Dog and Mr. Rooster followed Mr. Tom Cat, and soon they were in the woods where the bushes grew thick and the trees shut out the sun.
“Here we are,” said Mr. Tom Cat; “now no one will find us and we can rest in ease.”