Caught in one corner of the broken box was a bone with some meat on it. Perhaps the dog himself had put the bone there during the day and had come back in the night to get it. But the bone had become wedged fast and in pulling on it the dog moved the box over the floor.
“And that’s what made the noise that awakened Freddie,” said Mr. Bobbsey, when he had finished looking in the corner. “The dog came back here to get the midnight lunch he had hidden, for it is midnight and past,” Mr. Bobbsey went on, looking at his watch.
“Well, I’m glad it was only a dog,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “He may come back and disturb us again, for the door is so broken that it cannot be tightly shut,” she added.
“But I can toss the dog’s bone outside so he will not need to come in after it,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “That will keep him outside. And since there is a dog around here I believe we aren’t as far from a house where people live as I thought at first. There may be a settlement just over the hill. We’ll find out in the morning. Now we can all go back to sleep.”
This they did, and nothing more disturbed them until the sun was shining in the morning, when it was time to arise.
Mr. Bobbsey’s guess, about people living just over the hill, was correct. He and Bert, walking to the top of the hill and looking about, saw several houses not more than half a mile from the lonely cabin. At one of these houses Mr. Bobbsey arranged for his family to have breakfast.
“Have you got a dog?” asked Freddie of the farmer, whose wife had agreed to set a morning meal for the travelers.
“Yes, we have a dog,” was the answer. “At least, he stays here some of the time, but mostly he roams around nights. There he is now—been out all night, as usual,” and with a laugh the man pointed to a small black and white dog that came into the yard, wagging its tail in a friendly fashion.
“That’s the dog that made a noise in the night when I fell over the box!” declared Freddie, and Bert said it was the same animal that had come into the cabin after the bone.
“It would be just like Major,” chuckled the farmer. “So you stayed all night in the old cabin, did you?”