Final answer:
Miss Thomas compares Bud with a 'stray dog' to warn people not to get too close to him, as he is perceived as dangerous and intimidating. The chained dog's reputation overshadows his true nature, and there are opinions about whether he is a threat or not.
Step-by-step explanation:
Miss Thomas compares Bud with a "stray dog" to emphasize not to go too near to him, and the children listened and believed greedily, with a fascinated appetite for terror, and ran by Louisa's house stealthily, with many sidelong and backward glances at the terrible dog. If perchance he sounded a hoarse bark, there was a panic. Wayfarers chancing into Louisa's yard eyed him with respect and inquired if the chain were stout. Caesar at large might have seemed a very ordinary dog, and excited no comment whatever - chained, his reputation overshadowed him, so that he lost his proper outlines and looked darkly vague and enormous. Joe Dagget, however, with his good-humored sense and shrewdness, saw him as he was. He strode valiantly up to him and patted him on the bead, despite Louisa's soft clamor of warning, and even attempted to set him loose. Louisa grew so alarmed that he desisted, but kept announcing his opinion on the matter quite forcibly at intervals. "There ain't a better-natured dog in town," be would say, " and it's downright cruel to keep him tied up there. Some day I'm going to take him out."