Two dogs alone have more fun than two dogs and a bone.

From Alfred’s journal

The brown dog and the spotted one met at the fence this morning and spent a good twenty minutes doing nothing but running the length of it, one on each side, turning at the post and running back. Then the woman threw a stick over and the whole thing went quiet and mean, teeth and a low noise in the throat, and after that they would not look at each other. I used to think play was practice, that the running was a rehearsal for the stick. Two dogs alone have more fun than two dogs and a bone, and I watched the proof of it from the maple with my feet going cold. The spotted one carried the stick off and lay with it under the porch and did not chew it, only held it. I am still turning over whether the stick made them rivals or only showed me they already were.