“Nor I until he told me! Here they come with my dinner now, and as they don’t like cats very well, I think your friend better hide in my dog house. I will stand before the door so they can’t see inside.”
“Hello, Towser!” called out the farmer when he saw Duke. “I see you have company and most distinguished company at that. Come here and let me see by your badge to what regiment you belong.”
Duke went up to the farmer who had a very strong but kindly face and allowed him to read what was engraved on the tag that dangled from his collar.
“Why, bless my soul! You are from the same regiment that my son is in and also the one that owns my best trained dog. Oh, if you could only talk and tell me how they are faring out on that battlefront!” And he gave a deep sigh. So did Duke for he too wished he could talk and tell the farmer of some of the noble, brave deeds his son had performed and also some of the clever, smart things his dog had done.
“Come with me up to the house and I will give you a dinner that will make your sides stick out and ready to split,” which he certainly did. Duke ate and ate and still he could not see the bottom of his plate. There was fried chicken, with mashed potatoes and gravy fit for a king to eat. He ate all he possibly could for he knew it would be a long time before he ever was offered such a dinner again. But all the time he ate he kept thinking of how Stubby would enjoy the big chicken leg he was going to carry to him in his mouth when the farmer left him and he could slip away. He was just wondering how he was going to get away from the farmer when some one in the house called him to say that he was wanted on the telephone.
He had not disappeared inside the door when Duke picked up the chicken leg and ran with it to Stubby, and as he rounded the stack from one side Button did from the other with a second drumstick in his mouth. So you see Stubby fared pretty well.
“Those people seem to be very kind,” said Stubby, “and I guess it will be a good while before we meet any one their equal again.”
CHAPTER X
BUTTON MAKES THE FARMER FIGHTING MAD
STUBBY was nibbling on his chicken leg with Duke and Button nearly half asleep when they were all startled by the farmer coming round the straw stack unexpectedly. But if they were surprised, the farmer was more so. To come unexpectedly upon two stray dogs and a black cat and one of those dogs the Red Cross dog he had just been feeding was enough to surprise any one.