Don ran on, and, after a while, his leg, that had been hit by the stone, did not hurt him so much. His feeling of hunger, which had gone away for a little while, after he was hit, came back again worse than before.
“I _must_ find something to eat,” thought Don. “I’ll get so weak that I’ll fall down in the street, if I don’t eat.”
So, with his nose, he sniffed and snuffed until, once more, he caught the smell of meat. Of course dogs can look for food, but their noses are sharper than their eyes, and they can smell something good to eat long before they can see it.
Other animals do, too. You just watch your cat some time. She may see a wagon coming down the street, but she does not pay any attention to it because it is only a wagon from the drygoods store.
Then another wagon comes down the street. It looks almost like the one from the drygoods store, but as soon as pussy sees that, she meows, and runs to meet it. For this is the fish wagon, and she can smell the fish in it before you can. Cats like fish.
It was that way with Don. And once more he smelled meat. This time he followed the smell to a can that stood on the edge of the gutter. It was an ash can, but in it was a piece of meat.
Don reached in, and grabbed it out as quickly as he could, running around the corner, for he had not forgotten the time a stone was thrown at him when he took a bone from a yard.
The meat was not as clean and as nice as Don would have gotten at his kennel at the farm, but he was so hungry that he did not stop to think of that. He ate the meat up at once.
“My, that tasted good!” said Don to himself. “I wish I could find another piece like that. And to think I wouldn’t look twice at such a piece of meat at home. Well, running away is certainly a strange life! I’ll never do it again, and I’m going to run home as soon as I can.”
It was easier to say this than to do it. Don was far, far from the nice farm, and he did not even know which way to start to get back there.
My! what a noisy place the city was. Trolley cars and automobiles raced through the streets, and there were many horses and wagons. And so many persons were hurrying here, there and everywhere.
Poor Don was very lonesome. He finished the last scrap of meat he had pulled out of the ash can, and walked on. He did not know where he was going, or what to do, but every one in the city seemed to keep moving, so Don did the same.