[CHAPTER V.]
THE STOLEN DOG.
ONE day, Frankie was going an errand for his mother; and Tony, of course, was following closely at his heels, when he heard the sound of a hand-organ down a lane, and he ran to find it.
The organ-grinder had a box with dolls dressed in lace, dancing and bowing in the funniest manner. There was a crowd of boys around him, who were laughing merrily at the novel sight. Frankie laughed, too. Indeed, I don't think one of the boys enjoyed it more than he did.
By and by, he thought of his errand, and was frightened when he found he had lost the package of thread for which his mother had sent him to the store. He looked on the ground near the place where he had been standing; but it was nowhere to be seen, neither could it be found.
Then he looked behind him for Tony; but she, too, was missing. He called, loudly, "Tony! Tony!" But there was no answer back.
"I saw a dog running off that way," said a boy, pointing in the direction of Frankie's home. "I guess that was your dog."
Frankie looked in the boy's face, and, child though he was, he knew it was not an honest one; then he started off for home, resolved to tell his mother the whole story. The fright about Tony had made him very warm; and he put his hand in his pocket to find his handkerchief to wipe the perspiration from his forehead. But to his surprise, his handkerchief had followed Tony and the package.
He ran now as fast as he could go, looking in every direction for the lost dog, and calling, "Tony! Tony! Good doggy!"
When he reached home, his mother was standing at the door, and she wondered to see him so flushed, and that the dog was not with him.