Free Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream by Tom Watson

in the middle of the back compartment. He could see the driver’s hand on the edge of the door.

    Then the policeman called, “Hey, you know what?”
    And the driver’s hand disappeared as he turned to walk back around the corner of the truck to answer, “What’s that?”
    It was Stick Dog’s one and only chance.
    And he took it.
    Stick Dog quickly and quietly jumped from the back and ran down the street toward his friends. He heard the policeman’s voice as he ran safely away.
    â€œI changed my mind,” he said. “Can you make that vanilla?”

    Stick Dog didn’t look back. He didn’t know if the ice cream man saw him run down the street or not. He suspected that he probably had not. It was a good ten seconds before the driver got back inside the truck. And in those ten seconds, Stick Dog had covered an awful lot of ground.
    Stick Dog did not stop running. He wanted to get as far away from that truck—and that policeman—as he could.He only slowed and stopped when he heard this:
    â€œStick Dog! Over here!”
    It was Karen. She ran out from a group of honeysuckle bushes in a yard close to the street. She sprinted at him and lunged at him and knocked him sideways. “I knew you could do it! I knew you could!”

    Poo-Poo, Mutt, and Stripes all stuck their heads out from that huge clump ofhoneysuckle bushes. They waved and smiled. They had ice cream all over their mouths and faces.
    â€œCome on! This way!” Karen exclaimed.
    When Stick Dog pushed through the honeysuckle leaves and flowers, he found that they were in another of those super-secure areas. There was a circle of bushes, a big green metal box, and plenty of room for them all.
    And there were eleven cartons of cold, cold ice cream.

    The End

COPYRIGHT
    STICK DOG DREAMS OF ICE CREAM . Copyright © 2015 by Tom Watson. Illustrations by Ethan Long based on original sketches by Tom Watson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Watson, Tom.
    Â Â  Stick Dog dreams of ice cream / by Tom Watson ; illustrations by Ethan Long. — First edition.
    Â Â Â Â  pages cm. — (Stick dog)
    Â Â  “Illustrations by Ethan Long based on original sketches by Tom Watson.”
    Â Â  Summary: Stick Dog and his feral friends are looking for relief on a very hot day—and this time they have their eyes on a ice cream truck.
    Â Â  ISBN 978-0-06-227807-4 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-06-238092-0 (int.)
    Â Â  EPub Edition © April 2015 ISBN 9780062278081
    Â Â  1. Feral dogs—Juvenile fiction. 2. Dogs—Juvenile fiction. 3. Ice cream, ices, etc.—Juvenile fiction. 4. Friendship—Juvenile fiction. 5. Humorous stories. [1. Dogs—Fiction. 2. Ice cream, ices, etc.—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Humorous stories.] I. Long, Ethan, illustrator. II. Title.
PZ7.W3298Su