“When night come,” Mr. Wall continued, throwing another pine-knot into the fire, “Johnny got some milk for his supper, an’ then he went to bed. He helt the acorn to his ear for to tell the little chap good-night.
“‘Don’t put me on the shelf,’ says Ningapie, ’an’ don’t put me on the floor.’
“‘Why?’ says Johnny, in a whisper.
“‘Bekaze the rats might git me,’ says Ningapie.
“‘Well,’ says Johnny, ‘I’ll let you sleep on my piller.’
“Some time in the night Johnny felt sump’n run across the foot of his bed. He wuz wide awake in a minit, but he kept mighty still, bekaze he wuz skeer’d. Presently he felt sump’n jump up on his bed an’ run across it. Then it popped in his head about Ningapie, an’ he felt for the acorn tell he found it.
“‘Now’s your time,’ says Ningapie. ‘Git up an’ put on your clozes quick an’ foller the little black dog.’
“Johnny jumped up, an’ was ready in three shakes of a sheep’s tail, an’ he could hear the little black dog a-caperin’ aroun’ on the floor. When he started, he took the acorn in his han’. The door opened to let him out, an’ shot itse’f when he got out, an’ then the little black dog went trottin’ down the big road. It wuz dark, but the stars wuz a-shinin’, an’ Johnny could tell by the ell-an’-yard” (the constellation of Orion) “that it wuz nigh midnight.
“They hadn’t gone fur before they come to a big white hoss a-standin’ in the road, chompin’ his bit an’ pawin’ the groun’.
“‘Mount the hoss,’ says Ningapie.