Not one of these dogs tried to bite Billy, and after they had given up trying to frighten him by barking in their fiercest way as if about to eat him alive, they quieted down and became as docile as lambs.
CHAPTER II
BILLY UNEXPECTEDLY MEETS A FRIEND
GOOD-MORNING, friends!” baaed Billy. “Would you allow a tired traveler to rest under the shade of your trees, and give him a drink of water? For I am a stranger in a strange land, and have traveled far. I am an American.”
“You an American?” exclaimed the dogs in chorus.
“Now we surely are glad to meet you!” barked the big Dane. “For if there is any place on earth we dogs have longed to see, it is America. Probably you will tell us about it?”
“Yes,” said another dog. “We have heard that every dog has his day over there and many of them two or three.”
“We have also heard,” added a French poodle, “that all dogs are free over there, and can go and come as they like, and that they are never tied up, shut in a house or muzzled. Is that true?”
“Yes and no,” replied Billy. “It depends on where you live and who your master or mistress is.”