So, after waiting a moment or two, Bowser turned and limped away through the trees, and he limped in the direction which Blacky the Crow had taken.  You see, he could still hear Blacky’s voice calling “Caw, caw, caw”, and somehow it made him feel better, less lonesome, you know, to be within hearing of a voice he knew.

Bowser had to go on three legs, for one leg had been so hurt in the fall over the bank that he could not put his foot to the ground.  Then, too, he was very, very stiff from the cold and the wetting he had received the night before.  So poor Bowser made slow work of it, and Blacky the Crow almost lost patience waiting for him to appear.

As soon as Bowser came in sight, Blacky gave what was intended for a cheery caw and then headed straight for the place he had started for that morning, giving no more thought to Bowser the Hound.  You see, he knew that Bowser would shortly come to a road.  “If he doesn’t know enough to follow that road, he deserves to starve,” thought Blacky.

Bowser did know enough to follow that road.  The instant he saw that road, he knew that if he kept on following it, it would lead him somewhere.  So with new hope in his heart, Bowser limped along.

CHAPTER IX

OLD MAN COYOTE GIVES OUT DARK HINTS

    A little hint dropped there or here,
    Is like a seed in spring of year;
    It sprouts and grows, and none may say
    How big ’twill be some future day.

    Bowser the Hound.

After leading Bowser the Hound far, far away and getting him lost in strange country, Old Man Coyote trotted back to the Old Pasture, the Green Forest, and the Green Meadows near Farmer Brown’s.  He didn’t have any trouble at all in finding his way back.  You see, all the time he was leading Bowser away, he himself was using his eyes and taking note of where he was going.  You can’t lose Old Man Coyote.  No, Sir, you can’t lose Old Man Coyote, and it is of no use to try.

So, stopping two or three times to hunt a little by the way, Old Man Coyote trotted back.  He managed to pick up a good meal on the way, and when at last he reached his home in the Old Pasture he was feeling very well satisfied with the Great World in general and himself in particular.

He grinned as only Old Man Coyote can grin.  “I don’t think any of us will be bothered by that meddlesome Bowser very soon again,” said he, as he crept into his house for a nap.  “If he had drowned in that river, I shouldn’t have cried over it.  But even as it is, I don’t think he will get back here in a hurry.  I must pass the word along.”

So a day or so later, when Sammy Jay happened along, Old Man Coyote asked him, in quite a matter-of-fact way, if he had seen anything of Bowser the Hound for a day or two.

“Why do you ask?” said Sammy sharply.

Old Man Coyote grinned slyly.  “For no reason at all, Sammy.  For no reason at all,” he replied.  “It just popped into my head that I hadn’t heard Bowser’s voice for two or three days.  It set me to wondering if he is sick, or if anything has happened to him.”