n cleared
away, and they all had lit their pipes and Mr. Dog was sitting outside
to enjoy the mild evening, he told them something very astonishing. He
said he supposed that they had now over at their house (meaning, of
course, at Mr. Man's house) the most wonderful thing in the world. He
said it was called an automobile, and was a kind of large carriage, but
the strange part about it was that it went without any horse or any kind
of live thing at all. When Mr. Man brought it home, Mr. Dog said, their
Mr. Horse had been looking over the fence into the road, and when he saw
that strange object, with Mr. Man sitting in it, holding to a wheel, go
flying by, twice as fast as Mr. Horse could run, also making much more
noise, and trailing smoke, Mr. Horse gave one snort and took out for the
back lots, and they hadn't seen him since. Mr. Dog owned that he himself
had thought it best to go under the house, and that he had spent a good
deal of the first day there watching Mr. Man open a number of doors and
covers that were attached to the new machine, which seemed to be full of
sudden noises that Mr. Man could stop whenever he wanted to, though he
was not always able to start them with the handle that he turned for
that purpose. Sometimes Mr. Man had to turn the handle until he was
quite weak before he could get a single noise, and without the noise the
carriage would not start.

Mr. Dog said that at first he had been rather uncertain in his feelings
toward the automobile, but that, little by little, he had felt more
friendly and had come up closer to look at it, only going back under the
house again when it started one of those sudden sounds which seemed to
make his head ache. Then he got used to those, too, and about the third
day Mr. Man suddenly caught him by the collar and invited him to ride,
and put him in the back of the carriage, and tied him there with a
strong rope so he wouldn't fall out, and so nobody would steal him,
because Mr. Man valued him so highly.

Mr. Dog said that when the automobile started he almost wished he
_could_ fall out, at first, or that somebody would steal him, because
he was sure it would affect his heart, and that when they got to going
faster and faster he forgot about the rope, and even tried to jump out,
but the rope was quite a good one, and probably saved his life. Then
pretty soon he didn't want to jump out any more, and laid down on the
floor to enjoy it, and was sorry to get home. Whe