“Too many people have complained,” was the reply.  “The dogs are noisy, and no one is allowed to have so many dogs inside the city limits.  You know it is against the law, Smith.  That settles it.”

Both men rose to their feet and looked at the old man, but at the door they stopped and talked together in low voices.  Then one of them turned and said, “We don’t want to be too hard on you, for we know you love dogs, so we will give you two days to find places for them.  After that, the dogs that are still here must be killed, or you will have to resign your position as poundmaster.”

Smith watched them go down the pathway to the front gate, then with low drooping head and slow steps he went back to the little room.  Jan pressed closely against him as the old man sank into his chair.  Cheepsie flew from his cage and perched on the captain’s shoulder, singing loudly, and Hippity-Hop, not to be left from the little family group, limped across the room and rubbed, purring, against the old poundmaster’s leg.  They knew that he was troubled, and all of them tried to make him understand they were sorry for him and loved him.

“We’ve got to do something for those poor dogs,” he said to Jan, at last.  “Even if I do give up my job it won’t help them, now.  I can’t find homes for them all in such a short time, Jan.  Nearly every one I know here has a dog already, and some of them have two.  Folks have been mighty good taking my dogs.”

Cheepsie sang an answer, Hippity-Hop purred her reply, and Prince Jan’s tail, thumping the floor, said very plainly that he agreed with his master.  The captain smiled at them all, for he understood their languages.  “It’s bound to work out right, somehow,” he asserted cheerfully, and again his three dumb friends answered him.

The next morning Captain Smith left Jan and Hippity-Hop in the front yard.  It was the first time the old man had ever carried his violin with him, and he trudged briskly down the street, only stopping when he reached a corner to wave his hand back where Jan and the kitten stood with noses pushed between the pickets of the fence.  Jan was worried because it was the first time the captain had gone away from the house without him.

So, while Hippity-Hop climbed trees, chased butterflies, and washed her face and paws many times, the dog kept perfectly quiet, watching for his master’s return.  A big bark welcomed the captain home as Jan ran down the street to meet him.

“Come along, Jan,” the old man was smiling, and the dog trotted beside him into the pound, where the other dogs pulled on their ropes and greeted them noisily.

The poundmaster stopped in front of each dog and fastened a small metal tag to its collar, then he took them all into his own back yard, where they crowded and leaped about him or chased each other in play.  One dog was so happy that he kept turning around and around after his own short tail until he was too dizzy to stand up.