So Ruddy gnawed the bone, drank a little of the fresh water and then he settled himself for a sleep. Around and around he turned on the piece of carpet Mrs. Dalton had spread in his kennel. Just as the old wolf-dogs and jungle hounds had turned around and around to drive out any stray snakes, so Ruddy turned. And then he went to sleep, waiting for Rick to come home from school.
As for Rick, I'm afraid he didn't study quite as well as he might have done if he had not been thinking so much about his dog. Once, during the day, he wrote a note, and tossed it to his chum, Chot Benson.
"I got a dog!"
That was what Rick's note said.
"Where did you get him? Is he a hunting dog?" asked Chot in his answering note.
Then, before Rick had a chance to flip over an answer in reply, the teacher saw what was going on, and, as it was against the rule to pass notes in school, both boys had to stay in five minutes after the others had left the class room. It was because of this that Mazie reached home before her brother. And, not stopping to go in the house, she hurried to the back yard.
"Ruddy! Ruddy! Where are you?" she called.
With a joyful yelp and bark the dog came from inside the kennel, wagging his tail until it thumped against the sides like the sticks of a drum.
Happy and joyous, Ruddy leaped about Mazie as far as his rope would let him, and the little girl was trying to loosen it from around his neck when her brother and Chot, released at last from their punishment, came racing into the yard.
"There's my dog!" cried Rick, pointing to Ruddy, who was leaping and jumping, trying to get as close as possible to his new master.