nine o'clock
Like the lamb , he could not go to school ; so while Dinnie was away , Satan began to make friends . He would bark , `` Howdy-do ? '' to every dog that passed his gate . Many stopped to rub noses with him through the fence -- even Hugo the mastiff , and nearly all , indeed , except one strange-looking dog that appeared every morning at precisely nine o'clock and took his stand on the corner . There he would lie patiently until a funeral came along , and then Satan would see him take his place at the head of the procession ; and then he would march out to the cemetery and back again . Nobody knew where he came from nor where he went , and Uncle Carey called him the `` funeral dog '' and said he was doubtless looking for his dead master . Satan even made friends with a scrawny little yellow dog that followed an old drunkard around -- a dog that , when his master fell in the gutter , would go and catch a policeman by the coat-tail , lead the officer to his helpless master , and spend the night with him in jail .