  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 task 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 disconcert 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 hide 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 barked 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 hands "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! "So you are 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 the "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. |
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