Zip, the Adventures of a Frisky Fox Terrier Part 2

"Perhaps he is!" from the Judge.

"See, he is jumping upon the stone wall as if trying to get over it."

"That would appear as if the person whose track he is on had climbed the wall at that point."

Here Zip came back with head up.

"Well, what do you want, Zip?" asked the Judge, for Zip had caught his trouser leg in his teeth and was trying to pull him after him.

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"I think he is trying to tell us to follow him," said the constable.

At this Zip let go the Judge's trousers, jumped up and down on the constable as much as to say, "That is just what I mean!" and then darted off down the path again. Seeing the men did not follow him, he came back and jumped up and down on the Judge and then ran down the path once more.

"Surely that is what he wants," agreed the Judge, and so the two walked just behind, following the dog until he stopped and began to scratch the dirt away from the roots of a clump of trees. And as he dug spoons, knives, forks and sugar-bowl lids began to fly out from under his feet.

When a big tablespoon landed at the Judge's feet, he exclaimed, "By all that is wonderful, see this spoon! That dog has discovered where the burglar hid my silver. Pretty clever work for a little dog!"

"One would think he was a police dog and had been trained to hunt down thieves," said the constable.

"Well, Zip, you shall have a silver collar for this, made out of one of my solid silver spoons," promised the Judge, as the men went to the hole Zip was digging and helped push away the earth. Soon they counted the pieces, and found they had recovered all that had been missing.

"h.e.l.lo!" exclaimed the constable. "Whose cat are you? I never saw such a large cat in my life!"

"Where is any cat?" asked the Judge.

"Up there on the wall," replied the constable, pointing his finger at Tabby, who was quietly sitting on top of the wall enjoying the unearthing of the stolen property.

"Oh, that is Zip's playfellow! I have often seen them playing together when I have been at the doctor's," said the Judge.

"Just like a smart dog to select a cat as a chum instead of another dog.

And I tell you what, I should like to own that dog myself, but I suppose the doctor would not sell him at any price."

"I should say not!" replied the Judge. "That little dog has been his constant companion for three years when visiting his patients. Be the day ever so hot or cold, it is never too hot, never too cold for Zip to go along. In winter he sits up beside the doctor wrapped to the chin in a big, warm robe, and in summer in a light one to keep the flies from biting him.

"Here comes my wife down the garden path. She must have heard us drive in and our not coming to the house has aroused her curiosity and now she's coming to see what we are doing. Won't she be surprised and delighted when she sees we have found her silver?"

And she surely was, but even more surprised at the way they had found it than at the discovery. She looked around to pet Zip and take him to the house and give him some cake and milk, of which he was very fond, but he and Tabby had both disappeared.

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The next day it all came out in the Maplewood daily paper, telling how Zip, Dr. Elsworth's little fox terrier, had tracked the burglar to the spot where he had buried his booty, and that they had recovered it all, not losing so much as a spoon. It also recounted how the Judge had ordered the jeweler to make a solid silver collar for Zip with his name engraved on it and what he had done to deserve this honor.

When Zip and Tabby came trotting up the front path on their return from the Judge's, the doctor was sitting on his front porch, reading the afternoon paper. On seeing Zip, he put it down and exclaimed,

"Well, you rascal, where have you been all this time? And what do you mean by making me take all my rides alone? You look all draggled and dirty and as if you had been in mischief. Perhaps you have been getting Tabby into mischief too, for I see she is with you."

"So you think he has been in mischief, do you?" mewed Tabby in a cross voice, and she avoided his hand when he attempted to stroke her. She thought to herself, "The doctor will feel badly when he reads in tomorrow's paper that Zip, instead of being in mischief, has made himself the hero of the town."

But Zip did not mind. He knew his looks and behavior were against him, but that on the morrow all would be explained and the doctor would be as proud as Punch of him. So he quietly trotted around the corner of the house and went for a swim in the horse trough.

The next day when the doctor drove into town with Zip by his side, everyone wanted to pet him and talk about how clever a dog he had been.

And they gave him so much candy, cakes and sweets that he had a high fever the next day. However, he went with the doctor just the same, only instead of running around visiting all the dogs and cats he knew wherever the doctor stopped, he just lay still on the seat and slept.

At last the doctor noticed and said, "Zip, I believe you feel sick today, you are so quiet. Let me feel your nose!"

This is what a doctor does for a dog, just as he feels the pulse in a person. If the nose is hot, the dog is sick; if it is cold, he is all right.

Being a homeopathic physician, Dr. Elsworth opened his case and gave Zip three little sugar pills, or so Zip thought, but they had medicine inside of them, and he swallowed them just as if he had been a sick little boy.

Inside of two or three hours he felt better and before he went to bed that night the doctor gave him another dose, so when Zip awoke the next day, he was feeling as frisky as ever.

CHAPTER IV

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.

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On seeing a little head looking at her from the pan of dough, she threw up her hands in fright, turned and fled down the hall, calling, "Mis' Mason!

Mis' Mason! Come heah quick! Someone done gone and left a little n.i.g.g.ah baby in my bread dough!"

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 p.u.s.s.y 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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!"