"Terrible fast. Faster than when he chased the rabbit."
There were a few red spots on Zip's nose where the cat had scratched him. The dog licked them away with his tongue, and looked rather silly. It wasn't very often a cat stayed to fight him.
Russ and Laddie started for the overturned cart, to set it up on the wheels again, when the door of the log cabin opened and out came a red-haired man, whose clothes were quite old and ragged. He wore a pair of boots, into the tops of which his trousers were tucked, but he had on no coat. Russ and Laddie looked particularly to see if he had a coat, but he had none.
"Hello! What's going on here?" asked the man.
"If you please, our dog chased your cat," said Russ, "but he didn't hurt him—I mean our dog didn't hurt your cat."
"I'm glad of that," said the man with a smile. "That's a good cat of mine. I haven't had her very long, but I wouldn't want a dog to hurt her. But your dog seems to be scratched," went on the man, as he looked carefully and saw some more red spots of blood on Zip's nose.
"Yes, your cat scratched him," returned Russ. "I guess Zip won't chase her any more."
"I guess not," the red-haired man agreed. "So you had an upset, did you?" he went on as he noticed the overturned cart. "Did either of you get hurt?"
"No, thank you," answered Russ. "We fell on the soft grass."
"That's good," returned the man. "I suppose you belong up in the big house, though I haven't seen you before, and I didn't know there were any children up there."