Zip's Disastrous Jump

As the doctor's buggy came to a standstill before Mrs. Mason's house, Zip smelt the delicious spicy odor of freshly baked gingersnaps wafted to his nostrils around the corner of the house from the kitchen.

Knowing Mrs. Mason's cook, Diana, to be considered the best cake and cookie maker in the whole village of Maplewood, he decided to run to the rear of the house and see if she would not give him one. Failing in this, he determined to steal one if he could get it in no other way. So he cautiously crept up the back kitchen steps so he could peek in the open door to see if Diana was alone, but just as he reached the top step he had a surprise, for the Mason's big, spotted cat was curled up asleep under the window. She smelt dog, opened her eyes and without a moment's hesitation bounded on his back. She hated dogs worse than rats, and being nearly the size of Zip, and having long, sharp claws, she was not an enemy to be sneezed at. Consequently it was either fight and arouse the household and so lose his chance of a gingersnap, or get out of her way. He decided on the latter. Seeing a kitchen window open, he gave one bound and jumped through. But, horrors, what had he landed on? Not the kitchen floor, as he thought he would, but on something soft and squashy. Not a pillow either, for it was all soft and gooey, and he was sinking into the soft, white stuff deeper and deeper every second! He tried to jump out, but could not. The stuff was spongy and sticky and clingy, and he had now sunk deep into it up to his stomach.

"What ever shall I do?" he thought to himself, when horrors! the kitchen door opened and Diana, a big, fat darky with a red and yellow spotted turban on her head appeared in the doorway.

As she ran through the hall, Zip made an extra effort to jump out, but instead of doing so, he upset the pan off the chair, and dog and dough rolled on the kitchen floor together. Shaking off as much of it as he could, Zip raced out the door, leaving a trail of dough behind him. He did not dare get in the doctor's buggy in that mess, so he crawled under the garden fence and ran down to the river, where he might wash himself off before going home.

When the Mason cat saw him disappear under the garden fence, she went into the kitchen to see what he had done to make all the noise he had just before he ran out all covered with the white stuff. As she stood by the pan smelling the dough to discover what it was, Diana and Mrs. Mason came hurrying into the room. Not seeing anyone there but their cat, who was standing right beside the dough, they of course thought it was she that had caused all this trouble. So Diana grabbed up a broom and would have pounded her to a jelly in her anger at spoiling all her nice bread dough, but pussy was too quick for her. She saw what was coming and flew out the door and hid under the currant bushes in the garden, from which place she could hear Diana scolding and talking to herself as she cleaned up the mess.

"I do declar' to goodness, I done goan to kill dat cat some of these days. Just wait till I ketch her, I'll tie a peppah box to her tail!"

"Hark!" said the cat. "I wonder who is giving that long, penetrating whistle. Oh, I know now whose dog that was! It was Zip, Doctor Elsworth's pet fox terrier that everyone thinks so smart and that everyone is talking about in the village these last few days because he found the silver the burglar had stolen from the Judge. If I had known it was he, I would not have pounced on him, but I was only half awake when I saw a dog trying to sneak into our kitchen. It is a law with me to jump on every dog I see before he has time to pounce on me. Now I am awfully sorry about this, for I have been wanting to meet Zip for ever so long, as I think I am the only cat in town who doesn't know him."

When Zip was nearly to the river he heard the voices of children playing on the bank. So he crept carefully forward under the bushes until he came to a place where he could peer through. There, sure enough, were five or six little boys and girls having a picnic. Some were in wading, skirts and trousers rolled up above the knees, while others were just spreading out a tablecloth on the mossy bank preparatory to setting their table for luncheon.

While Zip was looking, one little girl took out of her basket some delicious looking fried chicken, and as she piled the nicely browned pieces on a plate, she put the breasts on top to make it look more tempting. It made Zip's mouth water so for a taste that he decided to keep well hidden and see if they would not leave the table for a moment so he might jump out and steal a piece. As he waited another little girl lifted out of her basket some nut cookies and big, thick slices of angel cake, while a third arranged some stuffed eggs and big dill pickles.

Now all these things Zip adored with the exception of the pickles, so he lay down with nose stretched out in their direction as far as he could without being seen, that he might at least smell the goodies while he waited. But as he waited the bread dough on his back dried and hardened and made his coat stick up in all sorts of queer shapes, though he never once thought of it. He was too much occupied deciding just which piece of chicken he would take when he had the chance, and he was too delighted to move when one of the boys began chasing all the others with his cup full of water. And before he knew it, the boys trying to escape ran straight into the bushes where Zip lay concealed and nearly stepped on him.

One boy looked down, caught sight of a queer looking animal with bright eyes and funny hair that stuck up all over him. He gave one scream and jumped back just in time to get the full cup of water in his face. But he cared not. He just turned and fled, screaming, "A porcupine! A porcupine! Look out or he will fill you full of quills!"

This alarm made the girls jump up and run from their table of goodies in a panic.

The lad who had thrown the water thought the other boy was merely fooling when he peered into the bushes and said he saw a white porcupine and fled.

Now was Zip's chance. Not waiting for them to get out of sight, he boldly rushed out and helped himself to the biggest piece of chicken he saw and gulped it down in his haste to get another piece and to steal some cake before the children should recover from their fright and return.

As they ran, one little girl turned around to see if the porcupine was chasing them. What she saw was some animal eating up their goodies, and she began to cry, for she was terribly hungry and had been thinking of all the good things they had to eat when lo! it was snatched out of their mouths, one might say, for their fright had come so suddenly.

One of the larger boys stopped running and looked back, and as he had once seen a porcupine, he knew this animal now eating their luncheon had too long legs and his nose was too thin to be a porcupine. Having gotten over his first panic, and being very hungry, his courage began to come back, and he called,

"Here, let's stop running away and go back and kill that animal, whatever it is! It won't eat us. It is too small!"

So like frightened sheep, when their leader stopped, the children all halted. "Get long sticks," he commanded, "and we'll drive him away."

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 I can't ask 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.