Old dog Spot didn't want to be left behind. He tugged at the rope and whined.
"Be quiet!" Johnnie Green's father said to him. "You followed us to the village. And now you'll have to behave yourself. They wouldn't let you into the show."
Then the Green family turned their backs on him.
"They needn't think they can keep me here," Spot growled. "I didn't run all the way from the farm to the village to be tied to a wagon wheel."
Johnnie Green and his father and mother hadn't been gone a quarter of an hour when Spot succeeded in slipping his collar over his head. Then he dashed out of the yard and ran to the circus grounds as fast as he could go.
Spot mingled with the crowds of people that were pouring into the big tent. He worked his way in and out among the throng, all but tripping many of the pleasure seekers.
Though he looked everywhere, he couldn't find the Green family. They had already passed through the entrance and were enjoying the sights inside the canvas.
At last Spot met a man—a circus man—who was very friendly. It was pleasant to get a kind word from somebody, after so many people had told him to "get out," and had given him a shove.
This kindly person called Spot into a low tent and patted him. He gave Spot a bit of meat and even thought to offer him a drink of water.
"This is a fine pointer," the man remarked to a friend of his who was with him. "He hasn't any collar; so he must be anybody's dog. And he might as well be mine."