This was easily done, for there were lots of long, strong sticks about, and each child got one. Armed with these, they came running back as bravely as they had cowardly run away, all howling like Comanche Indians on the warpath.
Seeing this, Zip grabbed a leg of chicken in his mouth and, running to the river, jumped in and swam to the opposite shore, where he soon disappeared in the thick underbrush.
Once in his safe retreat, he lay down and devoured his bone, then got up and looked at himself. He was a sorry sight, for the quick swim across the creek had not washed the dough off, but had merely softened it and now he was a sticky mass from head to foot.
"Whatever shall I do to get this stuff off?" he said to himself. "I'll try rolling in the mud," which he did. But alas! it was not successful. It only turned the dough black and made it stick all the tighter.
"I see where I shall have to go stand in some water and let it soak off. Guess I'll go home and get Tabby to come and talk to me while I am in the trough, for it is stupid being all alone." So he trotted on home, taking good care not to let anyone see him. And when he reached home, he hid under the big leaves of the rhubarb plants in the garden just the other side of the fence from the watering trough. Here he stayed until the doctor had driven off on his afternoon round of visits to his patients, and everyone else on the place was taking a nap. Then he barked three quick, snappy barks for Tabby, but she did not come. He barked again. Still she did not appear, and he was standing with drooping ears and tail between his legs in a most dejected manner when he was aroused by Tabby saying,
"Why, Zip Elsworth! Where in the world have you been? You are as dirty as a pig, I do declare, and your hair is all sticking up like a porcupine's quills."
At the word porcupine, Zip braced up and said, "Never mind about my looks! If you will sit on the edge of the watering trough while I soak this stuff off, I'll tell you how I got in this mess."
So Tabby obediently jumped up on a board at one end and fixed herself comfortably to hear of Zip's adventure.
"But first I want to tell you that the doctor is very much displeased with you," said Tabby. "I heard him tell Martha,the housekeeper, that he did not know what had gotten into you lately, that you were never around to go with him any more, and if you were here, that you disappeared somewhere on the trip and he had to come back without you. He also said that unless you were around more, he was going to take me."
"He didn't say anything of the kind, I know."
"Indeed he did! Ask Martha!" retorted Tabby.
"You are safe in saying that, for you know Ican'task Martha."
"Well, he did, whether you believe me or not!"
"I shan't give him the chance, for from today I shall be on hand to go with him, and, what is more, I will stay with him and come back when he does. I shall cut my visits short until he forgets all about my neglecting him. Well, do you want to hear what I have been up to or not?"
"I certainly do! Go ahead. I'm all ears," so while Zip walked up and down in the trough to get clean, Tabby sat curled up on the board at the end, purring contentedly as she listened to Zip's account of his morning's doings.
Zip Is Stuck in the Stovepipe
The next day at noon, when Zip came home with the doctor from making his morning visits to his patients, he was surprised to see all the furniture moved out into the side yard. At first he thought there must have been a fire, but when he saw Martha with a towel wrapped around her head, and Mrs. Huggins, the scrub-woman of the village, trying to squeeze a wide table through a narrow door, while Noah, their half-witted chore-boy, was beating carpets on the lawn, he knew it was spring house-cleaning.
This the doctor vowed was worse than a fire and as bad as a moving, for Martha never would do one room at a time, but must upset the whole house at once and dump everything outdoors. And from the time the furniture was moved out until it went back, all one could smell or see in the house was soapsuds and bare, wet floors. If one wished to sit down, they had to retire to the yard, and repose on a pile of carpets. If they wished to eat, they had to do so off the kitchen table on the side porch. If they wanted to dress, their clothes were in the yard, under chairs, pictures and bedding, and the taskwas so trying that finally one did not want to change so much as a collar.
The doctor always groaned when he got the first glimpse of housecleaning, and gave a sigh of relief when it was over. This was one time when he made longer calls on his patients and idled his time away at the drug store.
As for Martha, she went around with a frown on her face, and with a nervous, jerky manner, all the while talking of the terrible amount of hard work there was to do, and grumbling that she had never seen such a dirty house in all her life. But down in her heart she enjoyed it, for she liked nothing better than to scrub and clean. As for the dirty house, a fly would have slipped and broken its neck, the rooms were so clean from cellar to garret, there being only the doctor to keep house for, and no children to clutter up things. But just the same, on the first of May and first of September the house had to be upset from top to bottom and cleaned thoroughly, for Martha was born in New England and lived up to the rules of house-keeping she had learned in her girlhood.
As for Zip, he loved it for it gave him such a chance to nose into everything. And you can rest assured he did it. There was not a bandbox of any kind that he did not push the lid off with his nose and look into it, or a bag of any kind that he did not smell and smell until he discovered what was in it. He got under everyone's feet and nearly tripped them when their arms were full of things and they could not see where they were stepping. He was kicked by Noah, hit with the mop by Martha and had the scrubbing brush thrown at him by the scrub-woman. But these things did not disconcerthim in the least. They only added to the excitement.
As for Tabby, she hated it as much as the doctor did, and generally took advantage of these times to go to visit her cousin who lived across the fields a mile and a half away.
Zip had just come from the watering trough where he had been trying to get the dirt and cobwebs off his coat which he had gotten on under the eaves in the attic, and was up on a table nosing around when he thought he smelt mice in a bandbox. He cocked his head to listen and, sure enough, he heard the mice moving around inside. So he cautiously tried to open the lid. It fitted loosely, so slipped off easily, and Zip peered in. What he saw made him smile at the horror it was going to give Martha when she discovered it. There in the crown of her best winter bonnet was a mouse nest, with three tiny little mice in it, and the father and mother scampering around.
At the sight of Zip, the old mice ran for the hole they had gnawed in the side of the box, and tried to escape, but Zip saw them and gave chase. They jumped from the table and tried to hide under a sofa. But Zip was on their track and under he crawled after them. Then they dodged in and out of some boxes and at last jumped into a cracker box, thinking to hidesafely under the crackers. But Zip soon scratched the layer of crackers off and again they had to run.
This time they saw a nice big, black hole and into it they scampered, thinking it too small a place for Zip to follow, but they did not know Zip. The hole was black enough inside and out to suit anyone, for it was nothing more or less than a long piece of stovepipe from the kitchen stove which had been put there for Noah to clean out the soot when he was through beating the carpets. It was a pretty tight squeeze for Zip, but he never thought of that until he had himself wedged into it. Neither did he think of his clean white coat. All he thought of was to catch the mice. So in he rushed, but he had to crouch down and literally squeeze himself through. And once or twice he thought he would suffocate from the amount of soot he shook down. He grew so tired creeping with his legs doubled up under him that when he was half way through he gave up and howled for help.
It was a long time before anyone heard him and when they did, they could not for the life of them tell where the sound came from, for the pipe made his howls sound so queer. When at last he heard Martha and Noah talking, he barkedand howled most dismally, as when a dog bays at the moon.
They looked everywhere, under boxes and barrels, thinking he might have turned one over on himself, and under piles of carpet and bedding. Still they could not find him.
"The sound seems to come from the earth, right down under my feet," said Martha.
The poor, simple-minded Noah with tears in his eyes, for he was very fond indeed of Zip, replied, "He's done and gone and buried hisself!"
Just then the doctor drove up the lane, and Martha ran to him to tell him that Zip was fast under something somewhere and that they could not find him. When the doctor reached the side yard, where all the household things were piled, he began to look puzzled and moved the things just as the others had done. Martha declared it was no use as they had already looked under all of that stuff.
"Do listen to him now! His cries are growing fainter! He surely is dying!" she wailed, and threw her apron over her head and began to cry.
At this moment the doctor stepped back and accidentally struck his foot against the side of the stovepipe, which brought another howl of agony from Zip. The doctor picked up the pipe and quickly disjointed it in the middle and out fell the dirtiest but most delighted little dog you ever saw, for he was free once more. And everyone was as pleased that he was found as he was that he was rescued, and their tears were turned to smiles at the comical picture he made, all covered with soot.
After trying to jump up on the doctor to lick his handsin thanks for his freedom, he started for his usual bath tub, the watering trough.
"Here, where are you going so fast, Zip? Better stay here until I get a bucket of hot soapsuds to wash you off," called his master, but Zip did not stop, and the doctor followed him. Imagine his surprise when he saw him jump in the trough where he always watered his horses!
"Soyouare the cause of my finding the water so often dirty and all stirred up, are you? I have been wondering and wondering what caused it. Well, you can just stop riling old Jim's drinking water."
But to Zip's dismay, the soot would not come off as the mud and dough had. It stuck and made him look greasy and black.
"Here, you little rascal, come with me, and I will get soap and towels and give you a good bath."
And that is how it happened that when Tabby came home from her visit to her cousin, the first thing she saw was the doctor sitting on the lower step of theside porch with scrubbing brush in one hand and a cake of soap in the other, scrubbing Zip for all he was worth.
"Well, whatever has happened to you, Zip?" asked Tabby.
"Oh, go lie down and I'll tell you after awhile," barked Zip in a cross voice, for he was not enjoying the scrubbing in the least, as every once in a while a lot of soapsuds would run into his eyes, making them smart dreadfully. But the doctor kept on rubbing, not knowing what was making Zip squirm so. He thought it was just because he hated to be washed in this way. At last Zip could stand it no longer, and he bounded from the doctor's hands and shot out of the yard into the road and deliberately lay down in the softest, dirtiest place he could find, and then rolled and rolled, trying to dry himself. And though the doctor called and called and whistled himself hoarse, Zip did not come back. He waited until it grew dark, and then he sneaked in and jumped into the watering trough again. This time he came out nice and clean, for the soft sand had acted as a scrubbing brush and his coat was all shiny and glossy and clean when he jumped out, and this time he managed to keep it so until the next day.
Zip and Peter-Kins
Several days after this Zip was asleep on the seat of the buggy in front of the house of one of the doctor's patients who was so very ill that he had been visiting there each day for a week. Consequently Zip, as usual, had called on every dog and cat in this neighborhood. To-day he thought he would sleep instead of running around to visit and making the doctor wait and whistle for him to come back. But presently he was awakened by hearing the doctor's whistle across the street. He was up in a moment looking in all directions, for though he heard him, he could not see his master. He leaped out of the buggy and ran across the street, from where the sound seemed to come. As he ran the whistle wasrepeated loud and shrill, but no doctor could Zip see.
"He must be hiding behind that thick bush in the yard," decided Zip. So he crawled under the fence and went nosing around the shrubbery, but the doctor was not there. He sniffed here and there, but could not get so much as a tiny whiff of the doctor's scent. He stood still at last, with ears standing up straight and one foot held off the ground, as he did when listening intently.
Again he heard the doctor whistle right over his head. He looked up to see if the doctor was in an aeroplane, but all he discovered was the clear, blue sky. Then a laugh sounded behind him and, turning quickly, he saw Miss Belinda Simpkin's pet Poll-parrot swinging on the limb of a tree, laughing at him.
This was too much for Zip's dignity. To have a Poll-parrot make a fool of him! So he ran to the tree where she sat and barked furiously up at her. But to make Zip still more angry, Polly kept on whistling andlaughing at him. She had heard the doctor whistle for Zip every day and had learned to imitate him perfectly. She really was a very smart bird, and everyone in the village knew of Miss Belinda's parrot and monkey, for they were always doing exceedingly smart, mischievous things, some of which I will tell you about, but now I must finish relating what happened to Zip.
He was still looking angrily at Polly when he heard a queer chattering and squeaking noise up in a tree behind him and, turning to look, he saw a gray object drop from one of the limbs. He looked down at the ground, expecting to see whatever it was drop under the tree, but nothing landed. Still he knew he had seen something start to fall. What could it be that could stop in mid-air, for there was no other branch under the one from which it had dropped on which it could catch. But when he glanced up, what should he discover but Miss Belinda's pet monkey swinging by its tail from the branch on which it had been sitting!
Now Zip hated monkeys as a cat does rats. How as nice a little old maiden lady as Miss Belinda could stand it to live all alone in a house with only a parrot and a monkey for companions was more than he could understand.
Zip ignored the monkey and began barking again at the parrot, telling her just to wait until another day, that he would come back and get even with her yet, and that the next time he left it would be with a mouthful of her tail feathers.
"Help! Help!" screeched Polly. And her voice was so nearly like that of a human that the doctor, hearing it, hurried across the street to see who was calling for aid. As he openedthe gate to go into the yard, something tore past him. Looking around to see what it was, he beheld Zip running for all he was worth, with a little gray monkey perched on his back, clinging to his silver collar which the Judge had given to him.
The doctor was about to go to his rescue when Zip dove under the fence, which knocked off the monkey, and he rolled over and over on the ground, dazed for several seconds. He had hit his head on the fence so hard that it had stunned him. The doctor took a step forward to pick him up when again he heard that piercing scream, "Help! Help! Help!" that seemed to come from the upper window of Miss Belinda's cottage.
"Gracious!" exclaimed the doctor. "Someone must be trying to kill Miss Belinda!" and he started for the cottage, intending to break down the door if it should be locked. Before he had gone two steps, the voice he heard before called once more, "Help! Help! Beat it! Beat it!" and then, looking up, he saw Polly.
"You rascal!" said the doctor, shaking his finger in a playful manner at her. "You surely did fool me! But I must go and see if Zip has killed your playfellow."
When he reached the gate, he found the monkey sitting up rubbing his head with his forefoot and running slowly toward home on three legs. Seeing he was all right, the doctor whistled for Zip to come, but no Zip appeared. So after calling him once or twice more, the doctor concluded he did not wish to come back for fear the monkey would get him again and try to take a free ride.
"He probably has trotted home across lots," thought the doctor, "or else he may be waiting for me part way home."
On hearing the doctor whistle, the monkey ran to the side of the road, jumped up on the fence and ran along its top until he reached Miss Belinda's yard. Once there, he ran up a tall tree to a place of safety, where no dogs could reach him, and there the doctor left him, rubbing his head.
As Zip trotted home across lots, he made up his mind that he would go to Miss Belinda's every day until he had a chance to get even not only with Polly, but with the monkey too. For I am sorry to say that Zip was a very revengeful dog, and he never forgot an injury, at least not until he had paid back in like coin anything he had suffered.
"You may rest assured," he said to himself, "that I shall take one at a time, however, and look around well before tackling either one, to see that the other is nowhere about."
Miss Belinda was out when all this happened, so was very much alarmed when she returned to see Peter-Kins hopping around on two legs, holding his head with his hands. And still more so when she took him in her arms and saw that there was a big bump on his forehead the size of a hen's egg, which was still swelling and by this time threatening to close one eye.
"You poor darling little pet! Did you fall out of the tree and bump your head? I issosorry," and talking such baby talk to him, she carried him off into the house to put witch hazel and a bandage on his head.
All this time Polly kept screaming, "Help! Help! Help!"
"Someone must have thrown a stone and hurt Peter-Kins," decided Miss Belinda, "or Polly would not be calling for help. The next time I go out, I will shut them in the house so nothing can happen to them."
Zip, Peter-Kins and the Turkey Gobbler
Promptly at nine-thirty the next morning the doctor's carriage appeared in front of his patient's house opposite Miss Belinda's cottage.
Zip lay quietly on the seat until the doctor had disappeared in the house, and then he quickly jumped out of the buggy, tiptoed across the street and quietly slipped under the fence. Once under, he stood stock-still and listened, eyes up and ears alert to catch any sound or see any movement of his old enemies, the monkey and the parrot. All was quiet in the front yard, and not even Polly's cage was to be seen swinging on its accustomed hook beside the front door. Still Zip listened and looked in every tree and bush, to make sure the monkey was not hiding under the leaves, ready to pounce on him. He had just come to the conclusion that they had been shut in the house when he heard a terrible commotion and cackling going on in the chicken yard, and above it all Polly's voice screaming, "Help! Help! Naughty Peter-Kinks! (This was Polly's name for Peter-Kins.) Spank! Spank! Help! Help!"
Polly had heard Miss Belinda say this so many times that she had learned to imitate her perfectly.
"That monkey is up to some mischief," thought Zip. "I'll run and see what he's up to, and maybe I'll have a chance to get even with him for running his claws into my back when he was taking that ride!"
Soon Zip was at the fence that divided the chicken yard from the lawn, and looking through the pales, this is what he saw:
Peter-Kins ran down the trunk of a big elm tree that shaded part of the chicken yard, then he grabbed up a tiny little fluffy yellow chicken right from under the old hen's very bill, and made off with it up the tree. This made the old hen so angry and frightened that she cackled and carried on just like people do when terrified. Then just when all the rest of the chickens had quieted down a little and the old hen had gathered the rest of her brood under her wings, Peter-Kins threw the little peep at mother hen's head, which killed the little chicken instantly and upset all the rest of the fowls in the barnyard once more.
"I'll just keep hidden, and wait until he comes down," planned Zip, "and then I will pounce out and grab him by the back of his neck and shake him as if he were a rat."
PETER-KINS LEAPED ONTO A TURKEY GOBBLER THAT WAS STRUTTING AROUND THE YARD ALL SWELLED OUT WITH PRIDEPETER-KINS LEAPED ONTO A TURKEY GOBBLER THAT WAS STRUTTING AROUND THE YARD ALL SWELLED OUT WITH PRIDE
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But instead of coming down the trunk as he had before, Peter-Kins ran out on one of the long, slender, drooping limbs that reached nearly to the ground, and when it bent within three feet of the earth, he dropped and lit on the back of a rooster.
Then the fun began, for the poor old rooster was beside himself with fright, and ran around and around the yard, trying to get between the palings of the fence, into holes no larger than his head, into chicken coops and out, in amongst the other fowls, squawking and gurgling as he went. Then all of a sudden he was relieved of his rider, for Peter-Kins leaped from his back onto a turkey gobbler that was strutting around the yard all swelled out with pride, every feather spread out to its fullest extent. Now another race began, the turkey gobbling and the monkey chattering as they made the rounds.
Now while Peter-Kins had been riding the rooster, this very gobbler called out, "You stupid fellow! Stop running round and round! Go under the fence and scratch that beast off your back!"
But alas, for him! He could give advice, but not live up to it himself, for while he was gobbling, Peter-Kins leaped from the rooster's back to his own, and with shrunken feathers, he began running around and around the yard, just as the rooster had done, too frightened to know what he was doing, or to pay attention to his own advice, while all the chickens were now cackling at him, "Run under the fence! Run under the fence and scratch him off!"
"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" quacked the ducks.
"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" hissed the geese.
"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" gobbled his wife, the old turkey hen.
But no; he was deaf to their cries, and with pride gone and feathers clinging to his sides, he was running and jumping around the yard madly and blindly, nearly knocking his head off as first he ran dizzily into this and then into that.
When Zip had watched the excitement as long as he cared to, he thought, "Now is my time to grab Peter-Kins by the tail and pull him off that turkey's back before it kills itself."
So with one bound he was through the fence and had Peter-Kins' tail in his mouth before he ever saw him coming. But the monkey did not drop from the turkey's back as Zip thought he would. He only clung the tighter, and with his arms around the turkey's neck and with his knees digging into the turkey's sides, Zip could not dislodge him.
Zip being too stubborn to let go the monkey's tail, the three queer looking objects went running around and aroundthe barnyard together, under wagons, between coops, across the watering trough. Sometimes running, sometimes jumping or half flying went the long-legged turkey with the bobbing monkey on its back, whose tail was in the little dog's mouth.
This was what Miss Belinda saw when she returned from market and looked into her barnyard to see what was causing all her fowls to make such a fuss.
"Well, I declare, if there isn't a little dog chasing my chickens and turkeys! But what is that on the big gobbler's back? Sure as I live, it is Peter-Kins! Here, you horrid little dog, let go my darling Peter-Kins' tail!" and Miss Belinda picked up a long-handled rake that was leaning against the fence and went after Zip.
All this time Polly had been screeching, "Help! Help! Naughty Peter-Kinks! Spank! Spank!"
Zip held on the monkey's tail until the rake appeared over his head, then he let go quickly, giving an extra bite to the tip, which came off in his mouth. He jumped back just in time to save himself from being hit on the head, for the rake came down with such force that it laid both the turkey and Peter-Kins out flat on their backs, where they lay kicking as if in the throes of death.
Miss Belinda thought she had killed her pets, and began to cry as she picked them up.
As for Zip, he slunk away and ran back to the doctor's buggy just in time to jump in as the doctor started for home. So by the time Miss Belinda had gathered up Peter-Kins and saw that the turkey was more frightened than hurt, Zip was blocks away, laughing to himself at the whack the monkey andturkey had gotten instead of him, and at the funny spectacle the three of them must have made as they ran around and around the yard.
"And won't Tabby laugh when I tell her about it?" he thought.
Zip at the Candy Pull
That evening the doctor had no calls to make, so Zip was left to amuse himself as best he could. He had finished telling Tabby about the monkey and the turkey and was wondering what to do with himself when he heard children laughing in the back yard of the house opposite. Looking up, he saw that the house was lighted more than was usual, and he knew right away that they must be having a little dance or a children's party of some kind. Just then he thought he got a whiff of boiling molasses. He stuck his nose up in the air and gave a long sniff. Yes, it was molasses he smelled!
"They are having a candy pull. That's what is going on! I'll just go over and stick around until they have refreshments, and then perhaps I can sneak into the kitchen and steal a piece of cake," thought Zip.
But alas! He was so busy gazing up at the lighted windows to see what was going on inside the house, that he neglected to look where he was stepping, and the first thing he knew, he was standing with all four feet in a pan of hotmolasses candy. And he found himself sticking fast in an entirely different way than he had meant when he left home. The candy was just in that state of cooling when the top is a little hard and the bottom is soft and sticky. So when he tried to lift his feet, the candy pulled up from the bottom of the pan and made long, stringy ends, but did not leave his feet. Instead it got between his toes and held him still faster. He tried to bite it off, but instead of coming off, it only stuck to his teeth and he found himself sticking to the pan with his mouth as well as his feet. Indeed, he was held securely by the sticky, stringy candy. Just then he thought he heard the children coming to see if their sweets were cool.
Yes, they were surely coming! He could not stand it to have these children he saw every day find him in such a fix. He would never hear the last of it. So he made a frantic effort to loosen himself. In doing this he pulled backwards so far that his feet slipped somehow, and he sat down in the candy. And now hewascaught! For his four feet, mouth, one ear and tail were all sticking to the pan of candy. As the children began to come down the back steps, he gave one yelp, doubled himself up and began to roll, so that what the children saw was a big ball of molasses candy rolling downthe sloping walk. All they could see in the semi-darkness was the candy, for Zip was too balled up to show a bit of dog sticking out of the soft mess.
The children ran after it, screaming with laughter, but when they caught up to the rolling ball and discovered their well-known, mischievous Zip rolled up so tight he was helpless, they clapped their hands with delight. He looked so crestfallen and funny that they forgave him on the spot for the loss of their candy. How they did shout with laughter as they were trying to get the candy off him!
"I know the best way to get the sticky stuff off," said Helen Hardway, the little girl who was giving the party. "Let's put him in the bath tub and soak it off."
"Just the very thing!" one of the boys replied. "Wait till I get something to wrap him in so I won't get all stuck up with the candy."
On hearing this, Zip began to struggle and squirm, for he had visions of hot water and soapsuds in his eyes, with each one of the children feeling it was their duty to give him an extra scrub.
"Here, you Zip, keep still, or you'll slip out of the apron you're wrapped in and get my best suit all sticky," called the little boy who held him in his arms and was carrying him up to the bathroom.
By squeezing him tightly, the boy managed to get him to the room and was just about to drop him in the tub from the apron when he discovered that the apron was sticking to the candy. One of the boys gave it a jerk to loosen it, but sad to relate, he gave too vigorous a pull and Zip droppedfrom the boy's arms, not into the tub, but at one side and by a mighty effort he gave himself two rolls which brought him to the head of the stairs. Another roll sent him tumbling bumpety-bump down the long flight that led to the kitchen. On the way he hit a hamper of clothes on the landing, and it joined him and went bumpety-bump, bangety-bang to the bottom and out into the kitchen, hitting the waitress who was carrying a tray of glasses filled with fruit lemonade to the little guests in the parlors who had not joined in the dog hunt.
The sudden appearance of a hamper apparently on legs coming toward her, surprised her, but nothing like the queer thing that was rolling about her feet, and which she could not see for the big tray in her hands. She could not seem to escape it, and finally she stumbled and fell, sending the glasses of delicious lemonade flying in all directions.
Hearing a noise on the back stairs, as if the house was falling, Mrs. Hardway went to see what the trouble was, and opened the kitchen door just in time to receive a full glass of lemonade squarely on the chest.
When the waitress stumbled, she fell on Zip, pinning him under her. In his roll down the stairs, he had lost some of the candy, so that now his mouth and nose were free, though he was minus a tooth and several of his long smeller whiskers. Now he began to howl as if being killed. This brought more of the guests to the spot, and you would have laughed could you have seen their faces when first they peered into the kitchen, which looked as if a cyclone had struck it.
A few feet from the door was the maid, sitting withlimbs outspread, too dazed to move, while from under the corner of her skirt rolled a big, sticky ball of some kind that howled as it rolled. Beyond him was an overturned hamper of soiled clothes, with stockings, collars, sheets and petticoats spilling out of it. At the other end of the room stood Mrs. Hardway, wiping the lemonade off her dress, while all over the place were slices of lemon and pieces of fruit and Maraschino cherries. When all the children came from upstairs, they told Mrs. Hardway how it had all come about from Zip getting in their candy and their trying to wash it off his coat.
As Zip was still in a ball and could not extricate himself, the same boy who had carried him to the bathroom before, put the apron around him again and took him back upstairs.
This time they got him in the tub safely and began to turn the water in. The tub was slippery, and so was the candy, and as the water crept up to where Zip was tied, not hand and foot, but worse still, head, nose, ears and all four legs as well as tail, he howled and howled until one could have heard him a block away. He was so afraid of being drowned before the water would soak off the candy and when the children tried to pull it off it nearly killed him with pain, for it took all the little fine hairs of his coat with it.
The window of the bathroom was open and the doctor, coming out on his front porch to look at the sky before retiring, heard Zip howling somewhere across the street. He was crying in such a pitiful, frightened manner that the doctor knew he must be fast somewhere or hurt so he could not get home. Consequently he hurried across the street to see where his pet was, with the worried Tabby close at his heels.
The doctor made the circuit of the house and stable yard but could find no Zip. The howls seemed to come from up in the air somewhere as from the top of the house, so finally the doctor rapped on the Hardway kitchen door to ask the maid if Zip had not slipped in the house and gotten up on the roof. He knocked repeatedly but no one answered. As he still heard Zip howling and several people were talking all at once, he made bold to open the door and step in. What he saw you already know. As by this time the children had started to bathe Zip, the doctor was told to go right upstairs. When he appeared in the door all the children stopped laughing and stepped back to give him a chance to see Zip.
And this is what he saw.
Just one of Zip's eyes stuck out of a hole where the candy had dropped off, and his poor little tail stuck out like a handle on the other side of the ball. That was all that could be seen of Zip at that moment, for in his numerous rolls, the candy had spread all over him until he was no longer a dog with legs but just one round ball of molasses candy.
Seeing the water was fast climbing up to where it would reach Zip's mouth, and knowing it would drown him, the doctor turned off the spigot. The children had never thought that the poor dog could not move his head to keep out of the water. Now the doctor hurriedly took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and in a jiffy had Zip and the molasses ball in his hands and was holding it so that the water could not get to Zip's head. Then with one hand he gently threw the water upon the candy until it began to loosen and fall off. First he released the little dog's head, which had been bentdown between his fore legs. As the candy began to loosen and drop off, first one black ear stood up and then the other, and last the little legs began to shoot out. All this made the children laugh to see what appeared to be a big ball of candy develop into a little dog. At last when Zip was entirely clean and had been wrapped in a big bath towel to dry, Doctor Elsworth apologized to Helen for his little dog spoiling her candy pull. But she declared that he had given them more fun than if he had not come over, and the molasses had cooled and they had had a regular candy pull.
But when it came to apologizing to Mrs. Hardway for the mess Zip had caused in the kitchen, the doctor did not know what to say, he felt so badly about it. But he could have saved himself all the worry, for Mrs. Hardway was a sensible woman and knew that accidents will happen, and she met with the doctor smilingly. Besides, the doctor had been her family physician for years, and they were all very, very fond of him as well as of Zip. It was hard to think of the doctor without Zip, as they were always together. So when the doctor began to apologize, Mrs. Hardway stopped him short, and told him to drink Zip's health in a glass of freshly made lemonade, and say no more about it. The doctor, thanking her from the bottom of his heart, drank not to Zip's health, but to hers, andthus the exciting evening ended peacefully and everyone was happy, including Zip, as the doctor gave him all the Maraschino cherries in his glass, something he dearly loved, though you may think it was a queer thing for a little dog to like.
Zip and Peter-Kins Have a Fight
For several days after the molasses candy episode, Zip stayed at home and did not go snooking into anybody's back yard. But on the fifth day he felt he needed a little excitement, so he decided to call at Miss Belinda's, and see what Peter-Kins and Polly were doing and incidentally get a snap at Peter-Kins. So about three o'clock in the afternoon when the doctor was taking a little snooze in the hammock under the big maple, Zip sneaked off across the gardens and down the side streets to Miss Belinda's.
When he arrived everything was quiet. Not even a leaf on the trees stirred, or a chicken crowed. The blinds were all down in the house, which showed that Miss Belinda was either taking a nap or gone calling. Polly's cage was nowhere in sight, so she must be indoors, thought Zip. And if Polly was in the house, Peter-Kins was sure to be also, he reasoned.
After making a tour of the garden and barnyard, he was about to return home, when, chancing to raise his eyes to the kitchen window, whom should he see but Peter-Kins perched on the back of a chair, looking out at him.
"So—so!" thought Zip. "Miss Belinda has gone out and for fear something would happen to her pets, she has shut them in the house. Oh, what a chance for some fun if I only could get in!"
As he stood gazing at the monkey, Peter-Kins began making faces at him. You have heard boys call out to one another, "Stop making monkey faces at me!" haven't you? Well, I guess they get the habit from seeing some monkey making faces. At any rate, the horrible faces Peter-Kins made at Zip were enough to drive a boy crazy, much less a little dog with Zip's snappy disposition, and he barked back, "Just you wait until I get hold of you again, and I'll not only snip a piece off your tail, but I'll bite the whole tail right off!"
At this Peter-Kins ran his tongue out at Zip. Then Zip flew at the door and barked and scratched as if he would tear the house down.
Peter-Kins pressed his face close to the window-pane and grinned at him. Right then the grocery boy came and seeing a little dog barking and scratching on the door, thought he belonged there and was trying to get in. So when he opened the door to put the groceries on the kitchen table, he let Zip in, deposited his parcels on the table and left, shutting the door after him, regardless of the fact that Polly was screeching, "Help! Murder! Thieves! Fire!" at the top of her voice, and Peter-Kins was jumping around wildly at the end of the string with which he was tied to a chair.
THE MONKEY WAS TRYING TO HIT HIM WITH THE EMPTY DIPPERTHE MONKEY WAS TRYING TO HIT HIM WITH THE EMPTY DIPPER
(PageSeventy-One)
Zip sat quietly in the middle of the kitchen floor, enjoying their fright until the sound of the grocery wagon had died out down the street. Then he barked, "Ha, ha! I've gotten you now just where I want you, and I am going to bite your tail clear off! I see you have it done up in a white rag with witch hazel on it, for I smell the stuff."
Zip really did not intend to bite his tail off, but only pretended to do so, giving it a good pinch between his teeth.