Penny and Peter (6 page)

Patsy sat on a little stool and Tootsie sat in the corner watching Mr. Sawyer take off the bedcovers, lift up the mattress and then the bedspring. Finally, they were all in place again and her mother and daddy put the covers back.

Once more, Patsy was tucked into bed and Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer left her. Tootsie lay on the floor.

All was quiet and peaceful and Patsy was almost asleep when,
Ker-bang!,
the bed shook and there was Tootsie again, right on top of the bed. Fortunately, this time, the bed didn't crash but Patsy had grabbed the covers, thinking it surely would.

"Oh, Tootsie!" she said, as Tootsie settled down. She took up so much room that Patsy was right on the edge of the bed, but soon they were both asleep.

After a while, Tootsie began to shove and she shoved and she shoved until she shoved Patsy right out of bed. Patsy picked herself up. She looked at Tootsie. She filled the center of the bed and she was sound asleep and snoring.

Patsy took her pillow and threw it on the floor. Then she pulled the blanket off the bed and wrapped herself in it. She lay down on the floor, put her head on the pillow, and went off to sleep again.

About an hour later, Tootsie woke up. She jumped to the floor and without waking Patsy, padded over to Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer's room. She sniffed Mr. Sawyer's bed and then Mrs. Sawyer's bed. Then she went back to Mr. Sawyer and
Ker-plunk
again! She landed on Mr. Sawyer's bed.

Mr. Sawyer was dreaming that he was at the circus and when Tootsie landed on his bed, he thought an elephant had jumped on him. When he saw that it was Tootsie, he said things that should have made Tootsie realize that she wasn't welcome, but Tootsie didn't seem to mind. She wouldn't budge an inch. Mr. Sawyer was very uncomfortable but he didn't want to make any noise that would waken Patsy's mother. The bed was certainly not big enough for both Mr. Sawyer and Tootsie.

Tootsie had evidently come to stay, so Mr. Sawyer got up with a groan, pulled off a blanket, and put his pillow under his arm. He went downstairs and made his bed on the sofa in the living room. Before he fell asleep he muttered, "That dog's house is going to be built today."

Just before daybreak, Tootsie woke up again. Evidently she was a very light sleeper or else she was fussy about beds. Once more she decided to make a change.

She jumped to the floor, yawned, and stretched. Then she gave a leap and landed with a thud on Mrs. Sawyer's bed. She woke with a start. "Oh, Tootsie!" she moaned. "Get down." But instead of getting down, Tootsie shoved herself right into the center of the bed.

"This is awful!" groaned Mrs. Sawyer. And then she rolled over and saw that Mr. Sawyer's bed was empty. She was too sleepy to wonder why it was empty. She crawled out, leaving Tootsie to enjoy her rest. She climbed into the empty bed, pulled up the comforter, and was soon asleep.

At seven o'clock, when Mrs. Sawyer went into Patsy's room to call her, she found Patsy asleep on the floor. Tootsie was asleep on the floor, too, lying close beside Patsy.

That day, a carpenter worked all day building a house for Tootsie. It was right beside the garage.

Tootsie slept that night in her own house and Patsy slept in her own bed and her daddy slept in his own bed and her mother slept in her bed. And they slept the whole night through.

It was October now. The leaves on the trees had turned to gold and orange and bright red. One by one they fell to the ground, covering the lawns, the streets, and the sidewalks with a brilliant carpet. Peter and Penny scuffed through the leaves on their way to school. Sometimes, Penny stopped to pick up a very special leaf. He would carry it to school and put it on his teacher's desk. Penny liked to make believe that the pure gold leaves were money. "Pirates' gold pieces," he called them.

After school, the boys raked the leaves on the lawn. They swept them up into piles and when Daddy came home, he burned them. Peter and Penny loved to smell the burning leaves.

One afternoon, the boys were raking the lawn, when suddenly, the air was filled with such chirping and chattering that both of the boys looked up at the same time. The telephone and telegraph wires were filled with birds.

"Just look at the birds!" cried Penny. "Look at them! There must be a million birds."

"Yes," said Peter. "They are flying south for the winter. You wouldn't think that birds could make that much noise, would you?"

Penny laughed. He thought the birds' racket was very funny. "What do you suppose they are talking about?" he said.

Just then, Daddy appeared. "Hello, Daddy!" exclaimed Penny. "Look at all the birds."

"I have been looking at them," replied Daddy. "Sounds like a convention, doesn't it?"

"What is a 'convention,' Daddy?" asked Penny.

"A convention is a meeting of people who are all interested in the same thing. They get together to talk about it," replied Daddy.

"What do you think the birds are talking about?" asked Penny.

"Oh, they are talking about flying south. Some of them, I guess, want to go one way and some want to go another. They can't agree because they all want to stop off to see their cousins and their aunts."

Peter and Penny laughed. "I wonder who will win," said Peter.

"By the way, boys!" said Daddy. "We should have one last picnic before it gets too cold, don't you think so?"

"Oh, yes, Daddy!" cried Penny.

"A doggie roast!" cried Peter.

"Oh no! Hamburgers!" cried Penny. "Don't you want hamburgers, Daddy?"

"I'll take both," said Daddy.

"What is all this chattering about?" asked Mother, as Daddy and the boys came into the house.

"Birds," said Penny.

"Birds?" said Mother. "I thought I heard 'hamburgers.'"

Daddy and the boys laughed. "You can't hear hamburgers, Mummy," said Penny. "It's birds."

"Sillies!" laughed Mother. "I certainly heard you chattering about hamburgers."

"Oh!" cried Peter. "We thought you meant the chattering of the birds. They are all over the telephone and telegraph wires."

"Why, so they are!" exclaimed Mother, going to the window. "The fall will soon be over." Then she turned round. "Why, see here!" she cried. "We should have another picnic."

Daddy and the boys laughed. "That's just what we were saying when we came in," said Daddy.

"Hamburgers!" exclaimed Mother. "I was sure I heard you chattering about hamburgers."

"Now, you've caught up with us," laughed Daddy, putting his arm around Mother.

"Well, I'm glad of that," said Mother. "A few more minutes and you would have been off on a picnic without me."

Daddy and the boys laughed, for they knew that a picnic without Mother is only half a picnic.

"When shall we go?" asked Peter.

"How about next Saturday?" asked Daddy.

"Swell!" said Peter and Penny in the same breath.

"Fine!" said Mother.

The next evening, when Daddy returned from the office, he said, "Mr. Ferguson, in the office, has offered us the use of his cabin up in the mountains for the weekend." And Daddy said it as though it wasn't at all important.

Peter and Penny sat up with their eyes popping. "He has!" exclaimed Peter.

"Wilikers!" cried Penny. "A cabin in the woods?"

"That's right," said Daddy. "But I don't suppose you boys want to go?"

"Want to go?" shouted Penny. "It's just what we want. A cabin in the woods."

"It sure will be a super-duper picnic," said Peter.

"We will have to take blankets," said Mother. "It will probably be very cold. But it will be wonderful."

On Friday, Daddy came home from the office early. He arrived soon after the boys came in from school.

Penny helped pile the blankets on the chair near the front door. Minnie packed a big wicker picnic basket with food for the three days. There were bread and rolls and cinnamon buns. There were bacon and eggs and frankfurters and ground meat packed in dry ice. There was a roasted chicken and a half of a baked ham. There were bottles of tomato juice, of ginger ale, and of milk. There were cans of baked beans, peas, and tomatoes. There were apples, oranges, and bananas, a pound of butter and one of Minnie's big chocolate cakes.

When Daddy looked in the basket, he shouted, "We're going to starve! Why didn't you put something in this basket, Minnie? Is this all we are going to have to live on for three days?"

"Oh, I know what cabins in the woods do to appetites," said Minnie, chuckling. "You eat three times as much. You just start cooking over a campfire and you eat and you eat till you're likely to bust."

Finally, everything was packed in the car. The two boys climbed into the back and Mother and