And now Charlie knew for himself how _very_ important the traffic laws are, for if one single automobile had disobeyed the policeman when he blew three blasts on his whistle and had not stopped _immediately_, Bingo might have been run over!
So, ever after that, when Charlie was in his automobile he was _always_ careful to follow every one of the traffic laws that he had learned.
He _never_ pedaled faster than he could steer, and he _always_ kept on the right side of the pavement so as not to run into people by accident. When he came to a corner, he _always_ stretched out his arm to show the direction he was going in. And, when a street car stopped in the middle of the road to let off passengers, Charlie always stopped too, until it had gone on again.
Yes, Charlie followed the traffic laws so carefully that the policeman, who always stood at the Park gate, noticed it; and he said to him one day, “As soon as you are sixteen years old, you can come to me, and I will see that you get a license to drive a _real_ automobile. If everybody obeyed the traffic laws as well as you do, there would never be any accidents at all.”
Bingo was a nice little puppy and a dear little puppy. He played with Charlie and Topsy all day long. He frisked around and barked “Yap, yap,” for though he was getting to be a big little puppy, he could not yet say “Bow-wow,” though you may be sure he tried to over and over again.
Charlie and Topsy and Bingo had lots of fun playing together and, when Charlie was playing with them, Topsy and Bingo were always good; but sometimes, when Topsy and Bingo played alone together, they were as bad as bad could be and got into all kinds of mischief--especially Bingo.
Yes, Bingo could think up the _naughtiest_ things to do! He liked to dig in the flower beds and bury bits of sticks that he pretended were bones. That was lots of fun for Bingo but very bad for the flowers! And he liked to go into people’s bedrooms and hide their bedroom slippers so that they could not find them anywhere.
But most of all he liked to eat up the carpet in the dining room. Oh, my goodness! What fun Bingo did have with that carpet! He would hold one corner in his mouth and he would waggle his tail and scrabble with his paws and he would growl and growl and he would chew at that carpet till the wonder was he did not chew it all up.