"Come on! Help me catch a bird!"
"No! None of that," said Rick. "We must go home, Ruddy. Where is home, Ruddy?"
It took the dog some little time to find out what his master really wanted, and then it came to Ruddy in a flash. But perhaps it was more because the dog, himself, was getting hungry, and knew it was time for his supper to be given him in his kennel. He knew where that was, of course. That was "home" to him, and now he began to feel that it was time to go there.
Ruddy circled about in the leaves. His nose was close to the ground, and many smells came to him. Here a rabbit had leaped along, and over there a squirrel had jumped to the ground after a nut that had fallen from a tree. Ruddy knew these smells very well indeed, and another time he would have followed them along until he had come to where the rabbit was in his burrow, or the squirrel was perched high in some hollow tree.
But Ruddy had something else to do now. He was smelling among the leaves to catch the scent that led back along the way he and Rick had come—the trail back home—that is what Ruddy was smelling for. In a few moments it came to him. He knew he could find it when he wanted it, and here it was—through the clump of pines, down past where the willows drooped over the brook, up the hill, down a little hollow and then out on the road past Silver Lake and Weed River—that was the way home.
Ruddy knew it, even if Rick did not. With a bark the dog began to lead the way.
"Bow-wow!" he said again, and this time it was quite a different bark. It was as if he said:
"Come along, Master! Now I know what you want! Home, of course! I'll lead you home. I know the path very well!"
Ruddy ran on ahead a little way and then turned around and waited for Rick to come to him. This time the boy understood. His dog was not playing in the leaves now, flushing birds or digging for turtles.
"Home, Ruddy! Home!" said Rick.