So Johnnie spent a good deal of time shooting at old tin cans which he set on a fence post or a stone wall. And it wasn't long before he found he could hit them at every shot.
At last he came home from the woods one day with a grouse. When he showed it to Spot the old dog actually began teasing him to go hunting.
The next day they set out together for the woods. And Johnnie knocked down the very first grouse that Spot found for him.
Spot brought the bird to Johnnie and laid it proudly at his feet.
"Did Johnnie Green ever give you any of the birds that you find for him?" Miss Kitty Cat inquired when Spot was boasting a bit about the sport he and Johnnie had in the woods. "No!" she said, answering her own question. "You're silly to hunt for him. I prefer to do my hunting alone. Then nobody can take the game away from me."
Old dog Spot walked away from her, to the barn.
"Miss Kitty Cat doesn't know what real hunting is," he told the old horse Ebenezer. "She creeps up on small birds after dark, when they are asleep."
"And you creep up on big birds in the daytime," said old Ebenezer, "so Johnnie Green can shoot them."
Being a sporting dog, Spot couldn't see anything queer in that remark.
"Certainly!" he said.