Zip was so frightened he turned to run, but Jerry, with his tail between his legs, stood his ground. He raised his head and barked.
“What are you about you rascals?”
“Bow-wow!”
“Don’t you know any better than to do such a thing?”
“Bow-wow, bow-wow!”
“Crack my plates and make such a mess!”
“Bow-wow-wow, bow-wow-wow.”
“What do you mean by barking?”
Jerry whined and tried to wag his fallen tail. He tried to explain as well as he could in dog language. He wished to say, “You wouldn’t give us enough to eat, and we were so hungry we had to help ourselves.”
The master sat down to think. His dogs had never done such a thing before. Perhaps they were hungry. He remembered that he hadn’t over-fed them for some time, and that very day they had asked for food and he had forgotten to give it. Although he was still pretty angry about his broken dishes, he felt a little ashamed of himself. After that day, he gave his dogs better food, and enough of it.