When Prince Coco said that I jumped up.
“Tommy won’t let them send me away,” I barked.
“Oh! so you weren’t asleep after all,” said Prince Coco in his lazy voice; and Fifine snarled, “Just pretending!”
“Yes, I was pretending,” said I, “and I heard all you said, and if you think Tommy’s going to let them send me away you’re mistaken, so you needn’t be counting on that!”
And then I marched out of the room and didn’t stop to hear anything else they might say. But for all that I spoke up that way, so bravely, I was worried, and I went upstairs and crawled in under Tommy’s bed and lay there till he came home; and then when I heard him I ran down to meet him, and we had such a fine play that I forgot all about what Prince Coco had been saying. As long as Tommy loved me and kept me with him, I didn’t care what any one else said.
III
TOMMY had to go to school every day, and while he was away I either stayed in the house or played in the backyard. I had some bones out there and an old rubber ball someone had thrown over the fence, and I played with them. Now and then a cat scrambled up on the fence and walked along it, and I barked at the cat.
Once one fell off in our yard and I almost caught it, but it put up its back and spit at me, so I thought I’d better not, and it ran up the fence again and jumped over into the next yard.