But when darkness settled down over the city, he felt uneasy. He began to tire of gazing at shop windows.
"Guess I'll get a drink," he thought. But where?
On and on he wandered. Although he did not notice it, the stores had been left behind and the houses were growing fewer, and farther and farther apart. Suddenly he stopped and looked about him. "Why, I'm out in the country," he exclaimed. "Now I can find a well of good water. It's rather smart of me to come out where I can find a drink!"
But finding a well seemed not so easy, after all. It was dreadfully dark, now that the street lights were far behind. Somehow, the night was full of noises he had never before heard. "Maybe the moon will come up by and by," he told himself. "It wouldn't be so bad if I had a drink and—"
A long drawn-out howl made him tremble with fright! He knew that sound, though never before had he heard it. Had not Mother Grunty told him often just what noise the Wandering Wolf made when he came to eat up her two fat brothers!
Blacky-ears never looked to left or to right. He did not dare. He simply broke into a run! He had no time to remember how tired and thirsty and hungry he was. He remembered only one thing—that a dreadful wolf had howled!
Down went his poor little face kersplash! in the mud. He could not breathe through his poor bruised, muddy nose. But up he jumped and on he ran. Great muddy tears rolled off his face onto the ground, but never once did he dare to think of stopping. Something hurt inside. Every few steps he stumbled. Then he fell and could not move or cry out.
He remembered not at all that someone picked him up and dragged him into shelter. He lay very still for a long time. Finally, he slowly opened his eyes, and there stood the one person in the whole world he wanted to see—his mother.
Yes, he had run for miles and had fallen exhausted near his own front gate and right at the feet of Mother Grunty, who was watching anxiously for any sign of her lost boy.
Never had the little brick house seemed so safe and cozy. "I'll be good, Mother," he promised in a very weak voice. "I'll—I'll never-r-r disobey again!" he sobbed.