[Ill.u.s.tration]
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 gla.s.s 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, and thus the exciting evening ended peacefully and everyone was happy, including Zip, as the doctor gave him all the Maraschino cherries in his gla.s.s, something he dearly loved, though you may think it was a queer thing for a little dog to like.
CHAPTER IX
ZIP AND PETER-KINS HAVE A FIGHT
For several days after the mola.s.ses 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MONKEY WAS TRYING TO HIT HIM WITH THE EMPTY DIPPER
(_Page Seventy-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.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
With a shrill scream of fright, the monkey jumped onto the kitchen table that stood beside his chair, and he pulled so hard that the string broke.
Its giving way so suddenly sent him flying off the table onto the floor, but he was up in a minute and leaped to the stove. The fire was out, but the stove was still warm, so he jumped upon the tea kettle. There he perched, hanging to the handle until Zip, seeing there was no fire in the stove, jumped on the hearth and from the hearth up on the stove. As Zip landed there, Peter-Kins ran up the stove pipe, but he kept slipping back, it was so smooth. From there he leaped to the top of the roller towel, but horrors! it began to roll up and when he stuck his claws into the towel, it unwound and took him nearly to the floor. He was afraid to let go and drop to the floor. Still if he held on, Zip could reach him too. He was wondering just where he could go to escape the dog when Zip jumped off the stove and grabbed the end of his long tail. Peter-Kins gave a jerk and tried to run up the towel, leaving his bandage in Zip"s mouth. While Zip was trying to get the cloth out of his mouth, Peter-Kins dropped to the floor and climbed up on the kitchen table. Seeing a basket of eggs the grocery boy had left, he began throwing them at Zip, who was having a hard time getting rid of the bandage, for the more he pulled, the tighter it wedged itself between his sharp teeth.
Now Zip was in a pretty fix, for he could not bite with the wad of cotton in his mouth, neither could he run and jump for in trying to get the bandage from between his teeth, he had gotten it twisted around his legs and fast between two of his toes, which made it only possible for him to walk slowly.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
And all this time Peter-Kins kept pelting him with the eggs, which broke and ran all over his back and down into his eyes, while Polly shrieked and cried out all the names she had ever been taught without the least knowing what they meant. Every time an egg would hit Zip, she would laugh and call out, "Soak him, Jimmy!"
Then Zip would glare at her and make as if going for her, which would cause her to cry out, "Help! Fire! Murder! Thieves! b.u.t.tons! Polly want cup coffee! Naughty boy, spank, spank! Tee-dull, dee-tee-dull-dum!
Catchum! Catchum! Crackers, crackers, pretty Polly!" all in a jumble.
At last Zip managed to get his leg loose and he was working on the plug in his mouth and not watching Peter-Kins when he had the surprise of his life by getting a full dipper of water thrown all over him, for the monkey had dipped it from the pail of water on the table.
The sudden twist Zip gave his head when the water hit him full force, loosened the cotton in his mouth, and out it flew. With a bound Zip was now on the chair, then on the table, snapping and barking, while the monkey was trying to hit him with the empty dipper, when the kitchen door unexpectedly opened and in the doorway stood Miss Belinda. Without a second"s thought Zip jumped past her and ran for dear life toward home, never stopping to look back even once until he was safe in his own barnyard, standing beside the watering trough preparatory to jumping in and washing the eggs off his coat.
Again his encounter with the monkey had been unsatisfactory, and as for what poor Miss Belinda thought when she saw the mess in her nice clean kitchen it is beyond words to tell.
CHAPTER X
ZIP"S CURIOSITY IS HIS UNDOING
About a week after Zip"s last visit to Miss Belinda"s, he was out on one of his midnight prowls, about which the doctor had scolded him time and time again. In fact, he had forbidden him to leave the yard at night, warning him that some day he would be shot while poking around in other people"s back yards, or that he would be poisoned by eating some meat that had been prepared purposely for stray cats or dogs. But Zip thought he was smart enough not to get caught, and he did not believe that anyone could put poison on meat and he not be able to smell it.
So this night he went with a rat terrier, a friend of his, down into a poor quarter of the town, where they often went to kill rats, just for the fun of it and to see who could kill the most.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
To-night there seemed to be no rats in sight, and while nosing around to get on the track of some, Zip smelt meat and soon came upon a small piece of fresh, juicy beefsteak, which he gobbled down without a thought. As he swallowed the last bit, he thought he detected a queer taste to it, and the thought flashed through his mind, "I have been poisoned! I might have known no one would throw away so good a piece of meat as that without a purpose. That meat was prepared for some cat, dog or rat to eat and die.
Oh, my! I am beginning to have fearful pains in my stomach now and I feel myself beginning to swell already! Rats," he called, for that was his friend"s nickname, "I"ve eaten a piece of meat with rat poison on it, and I must get home before I swell up so I can"t walk at all. If I am able to get to the doctor, he will help me, I know."
"I thought you had more sense than to eat a piece of meat, cheese or anything else you saw lying around in places where they have lots of rats.
You might have known it had rat poison on it!" replied his friend.
"I know, but I did not think. For mercy"s sake, don"t scold me when I am in such awful pain, but help me get home," wailed Zip.
They made as good headway as they could, though Zip had to roll on the gra.s.s every once in a while to relieve his pain, but he did not dare stop often for his stomach was swelling so rapidly that he felt it would burst before he reached his home. At last they reached the doctor"s house, but too late to find the doctor still up. He had gone to bed, so Zip told his friend to howl as if he was being killed, and the doctor would hear him and think it was his own dog, and come down to see what was the matter.
The rat terrier howled l.u.s.tily, while Zip dropped down on the door mat and groaned as loudly as he could. Rats barked, howled, and threw himself against the front door, making a terrible noise generally.
Presently the doctor stuck his head out of an upper window and called:
"Zip, for mercy"s sake, shut up! What is the matter with you?"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
But when in the bright moonlight he saw it was not Zip, but a strange dog instead, with Zip lying at his feet, and when he heard Zip groan, he hurriedly stepped into his bathrobe and slippers and came downstairs. Then he opened the front door, and saw Zip on the mat, all swollen up the size of two pups. He knew at a glance, of course, that his pet had been poisoned, so he picked him up tenderly in his arms and carried him up straight to the bathroom and began pumping out the contents of his stomach. This done, he heated some milk and made Zip drink a lot of it, as milk is a very good thing to take when one has been poisoned. Besides, it was warm and soothing to his poor stomach. Then he rolled him up in a big blanket shawl and carried him to his own room, where he put him on the cushion of a big, cozy rocking-chair, and pulled it up close beside his bed, where he could watch him the rest of the night and give him medicine every once in a while.
"You poor little fellow," said the doctor, "I am awfully sorry you are in such pain, but I hope it will teach you a lesson to stay at home nights and not disobey my orders and go gallivanting off into other people"s yards. Why, you are shaking as if you had a chill! Just a second now, and I will get a hot-water bag and put it on your stomach!"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Oh, my! Oh, my! I believe I am going to die," wailed Zip to himself. "If ever I get well I never will disobey the doctor again! He is so good to me, and I am ashamed to think what a naughty dog I have been. But I do so love to go snooking around and not stay at home nights like Tabby does. I never saw such a good cat as Tabby is. She never goes prowling around, though most cats do. And it isn"t because she is not coaxed to go, either, for nearly every night the neighbors" cats come and try to persuade her to go with them to somebody"s house or barn."
Just then the doctor came back with a nice warm hot-water bag, which he put close against Zip"s stomach, and then he wrapped him up snugly in the shawl once again.
"There, little fellow, you will be all right in the morning. Go to sleep now and forget all your trouble. But if you hadn"t gotten to me when you did, you would have been a little angel dog by this time. The poison was working so fast that I could not have saved you had you come twenty minutes later. By the way, that is a smart friend you have, and he has good lungs, I think, by the noise he was making. He must have awakened all our neighbors. If he is around in the morning, I will give him a good hot breakfast. I never would have known you were home and sick if he had not kicked up such a racket, for you were far too ill to make noise enough to awaken me," and patting Zip on the head, the doctor crawled into his bed and was soon fast asleep.