← Sleep Tight Stories - Bedtime Stories for Kids
Sleep Tight Stories - Bedtime Stories for Kids
Don, the Runaway Dog - Part 5 🐕
00:21:00
A bedtime story for kids about a farm dog who runs away
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Hi friends. Our SleepType premium was made for families who want a little more. No ads across all 17 of our shows. Extra stories every month, 12 classic children's chapter books recorded in our style and a shout out for yearly subscribers. Sleeptite is written, recorded and produced by two parents in a small fishing village on Prince Edward Island. A second grade teacher and her husband, a second grader at heart. Premium is the best way to support what we make here and to have a little more of it waiting for you each week. Find us on Apple podcasts or at sleeptight.supercast.com. Hello friends and welcome to sleept Stories. Each week we share a few shout outs and birthday wishes for listeners who help support the show. It's a small way we say thank you and it always makes us smile. Happy belated 8th birthday, Teddy. You are the best son we could ever ask for. You make us laugh every day and amaze us with your kindness and intelligence and big heart. We are so proud to be your parents and your hugs will always be our favorite. We love you more than you'll ever know. Love, Daddy and mommy. Happy belated 10th birthday to Wesley from Chino Hills. Mommy, Daddy, Vivian and Blondie love you and can't wait to see what the next decade brings for our soccer superstar. Your intelligence, kindness and wildness brings us joy every day. You are truly one of one. Keep being you. Happy seventh birthday Sam. We love your enthusiasm and creativity. The kindness you show others is inspiring to all of us. Our family wouldn't be the same without you. Your love and hugs mean the world to us. Can't wait for your adventures next year. Love Mama, Dada and Teddy. Happy third birthday to our sweet Minnie Mouse. Loving Princess Addy. I hope your birthday is full of singing and dancing. Love you bunches. Mommy, Daddy, Zay, Jace and Cole. Happy 11th birthday wishes to Agnes from your family and all your pets. We love you so much and are so proud of the amazing person you are becoming as you grow up. To our starshine Nora. Happy 7th birthday. You fill our lives with mud, giggles and hugs. Keep listening to your heart. It is your superpower. Love you plus one forever. Mom, dad, Ivy and Mac. Happy seventh birthday to Wesley. You are a wonderfully kind and loving boy who collects interesting facts, likes to read and explore, plays the piano, plays Kirby with Dad and loves your little sisters, Adeline and Lily. Wesley, you are such a gift to our family. We all love you very much. Happy 8th birthday Reece K. We are so incredibly lucky to have you as our daughter and we love you more than you could ever know. Love, Mama, mom and Leif. Magical 10th birthday to Lily in Warboys, Cambridgeshire, UK from dad and Mom, Nanny and Granddad and friends and family both in UK and Finland. And Happy seventh Birthday Alistair. You bring so much joy and laughter to our lives and we're so proud of the wonderful boy you're becoming. Always be kind, be brave and chase your dreams. Mommy, Daddy and Melody love you so much. Have a wonderful birthday. Happy Birthday to you all. If you'd like to support the show and enjoy ad free episodes and bonus stories, SleepType Premium is in the show notes. And if you know a little someone with a birthday coming up, shoutout details are there too. Now onto our story. After Don decides to run away just to prove to Squinty that being on the farm is better, Don realizes that there were things he forgot to ask Squinty about, like where to get food. He gets a bone from a kind lady and after a while finds a quiet place to eat it. After filling his tummy, he is tired and falls asleep. Don the Runaway Dog Part 5. Poor Don didn didn't know what to do. There he was, shut up tight in a dark freight car, rumbling over the rails as fast as the train could carry him. Well, he thought, I'm in a fix now. I'd have done far better to stay home. Running away isn't half the fun I thought it was. He went all around the car, sniffing, but there was no way out, and nothing good to eat among the boxes and barrels in the corner. What a racket the train made, puffing and clattering along. I wonder where I'm being taken, thought Don. Well, I'm in for an adventure now. I'd best make the best of it. He could stand being hungry, for he'd had his bone not long before. But the thirst was another matter. There wasn't a drop of water anywhere in the car, and Don's tongue went dry and his breath came quick and short. Up and down the car he padded, hunting in every corner. Nothing. I'll bark and howl, he thought. Then the men will know I want a drink, and they'll bring me some. Why didn't I think of that before? So Don sat back on his hind legs, lifted his head, and howled and barked as loud as ever he could, but the train made such a rumbling and the engine whistled so shrill that nobody heard him. He kept it up until his throat was sore and he was thirstier than before. This is no good, he thought. Worn out. It only makes me feel worse. Oh If I could just get out. And tired as he was, he lay down and at last dozed off, swaying with the car. Then, all at once, he woke. It wasn't a noise that woke him. It was the quiet. The rumbling had stopped and the car had stood. Stopped swaying. The train was standing still. Maybe I can get out now, thought Don, jumping up. He howled again, though not so loudly this time, for his throat was so dry it felt near shut. After one last pitiful howl, he heard men's voices outside. Don't you hear a dog somewhere? Said one. Seems to me I do, said another. Wonder where it is. I'll show you, thought Don, and he howled and barked again. Why, the dog's shut up in this freight car. Cried the first man. So he is. Let's let him out. We don't want to be hauling a dog along with us. The door slid open, and at the first streak of daylight, Don gave a yelp of pure joy. He didn't wait about. With one short bark that meant thank you, he leaped to the ground and ran, not caring which way, so long as he could find water. Look at that dog go, laughed one of the men. Scared half to death, I expect, said the other. But Don wasn't so much scared as he was thirsty. Then, all of a sudden, he smelled water. He followed the smell, and there was the big engine, taking on water from a tall tank the way an engine has to. Only an engine turns its water into steam. Some of it had splashed down and made a little puddle by the track. Don trotted over and drank long and deep. Oh, how good it was. Even if it was a bit muddy. At home, Bob would never have given his dog anything but clean, fresh water. But it's different when you've run away, thought Don. Then you take what you can get. He felt much better with the thirst gone, though now the hunger was back, and for the first time he looked around to see where he was. Off in the distance were rows of houses and church steeples and tall factory chimneys with smoke rising up. I must be in a city, thought Don. And so he was. The train had stopped at a great big city, far bigger than the little town he'd once visited with Bob and the farmer. And here Don didn't have a single friend. He was tired and dusty and hungrier by the minute. Well, I've done it now, he thought, so I'll have to make the best of it. And the first thing is to find something to eat. He trotted over the tracks and into the streets, sniffing all the way, until at last he caught the smell of meat. But as he turned the corner toward it, he heard a boy's voice. Hey, look at that dog. Watch me make him run. Two boys stood on the corner. One of them stamped his foot and waved his arms, shouting, trying to scare Don off for the fun of it. But the other boy didn't laugh. Oh. Oh, leave him be, said the second boy. What's the good of scaring him? I like dogs. I wonder if I could take that one home with me. And he crouched down and held out his hand, slow and easy, so as not to startle Don. Don stood very still, looking from one boy to the other. The kind one had something about him that put Don in mind of Bob. And Don wanted more than anything to go to him. But just then the first boy gave a great shout and rushed forward, and Don lost his nerve. He spun around and bolted down the street. The good smell of meat and the kind boy's open hand both left behind. Now look what you did. You scared him clean off, he heard the kind boy said. So he did, thought Don, running on. And I'm sorry for it. That nice boy looked so like my Bob. The city felt very big then and very strange, and home felt very far away. But hunger won't wait. Don put his nose down and snuffed along until he caught the smell of meat once more. This time it led him to a can at the edge of a gutter. It was a trash can, but down inside was a scrap of meat. Don snatched it out quick and carried it around the corner before he ate it, for he hadn't forgotten how he'd been chased out of those yards. The meat wasn't clean and nice like the food he got at home, but he was far too hungry to mind, and he gobbled it down. My, that tasted good, he said to himself. And to think I wouldn't have looked twice at it at home. Running away is a strange life. I'll never do it again, and I'm going home the very first chance I get. That was easier said than done. Don was far, far from the farm, and he didn't even know which way to start. He finished the last scrap of meat and walked on, though he had no idea where he was going. Everyone in the city seemed to be hurrying somewhere all at once. So Don hurried, too, just to feel less alone. Nobody so much as glanced at him at home. Every face he met belonged to someone who loved him. Here there were more people than he had ever seen in his whole life, and not One of them knew his name. And my, what a noisy place the city was. Trolley cars and automobiles tore up and down the streets, and there were horses and wagons everywhere and crowds of people hurrying this way and that. Across one wide, busy street, Don spied a butcher shop with fine meat hanging in the window. If I could only get over there, he thought, I might get a real bone or a bit of clean meat. I'll try it. He waited for his chance because all the traffic frost frightened him. When he thought he saw a gap, he darted out, but Don didn't know city ways. He was only halfway across when it seemed as if a dozen cars came rushing down on him at once. A policeman blew his whistle and shouted, get out of the street, dog. Go on, get. Horns blared on every side. Don froze for half a second, then dashed the rest of the way and scrambled up onto the far sidewalk, panting hard, his legs shaking under him. That had been much too close. Well, well, that was a narrow escape, said a voice right beside him. Don looked up and saw another dog. He was a thin, dusty sort of dog, astray with no collar and no home of his own, but he had a kind face and he wagged his tail in a friendly way. You nearly got yourself run over, said the stray. I nearly did, agreed Don. What's your name? Where do you live? Asked the dog, wagging harder. My name's Don. I used to live on a farm, but I ran away to have some adventures and then take my advice and run straight back, said the stray. I lived on a farm myself once. It's a far better life for a dog than the city. You go on home. I would if I could, said Dan sadly, but I can't find my way. And he told all about being locked in the freight car. My, you have had some adventures, said the other dog. His name, he said, was Jack. Have you had anything to eat? A scrap of meat from a trash can. It wasn't very good. You were lucky to get even that, said Jack. I've had nothing all day and I'm half starved. If you stay in the city long, you'll soon learn to be glad of trash can scraps, let me tell you. Dawn looked over at the butcher shop where a well fed cat sat blinking in the window, not the least bit afraid of the two dogs. Just look at that, said Jack. That cat has all the meat she could want, and we're glad of leavings. Come along, though. Maybe my luck will turn now I've met you. Have you anywhere to sleep tonight? No, at home I had a kennel full of soft straw. You'll find nothing like that here. That's for rich dogs with homes, said Jack. But never mind. I've got a good dry spot under some boards in a lumberyard. Come with me and we'll bunk there together. That's very kind of you, said Don. And if I find anything to eat, you shall have half. The two dogs hunted together all that day. They found only a little. A crust here, a scrap there, and they shared every bit of it. Scratch square. And even when they were thirsty, they drank from a muddy puddle and were glad to get it. Jack showed Don which alleys were worth nosing into and which yards had dogs that would chase him off. And Don began to think that of all the things the city had thrown at him, meeting Jack was the one bit of good luck. Then, when night came, footsore and weary and dusty, Jack led Don to the lumber yard. Haven't you got any cushions or anything? Asked Don, looking at the bare boards. Nothing like that, laughed Jack. I'm glad enough just to have a roof of planks over my head. But Don was so tired that he was asleep almost before he'd turned around twice. And as he slept, he dreamed he was back in his own kennel at the farm, curled up in the warm straw with a big bowl of milk and a plate of juicy bones set down in front of him and Bob's hand resting easy on his head. And that is the end of this part. Good night. Sleep tight.