Chapter 2

WHEN I first opened my eyes I hardly knew where I was. Then I remembered. I was in the laundry, and I hadn’t had any breakfast yet. It was lonesome there, all by myself. I began to whine and yelp. I yelped louder and louder. Presently I heard somebody coming. I cocked my head on one side and listened, and then I began to wag my tail for I felt sure it was the boy. And it was.

He opened the door and came in, and patted me and made a fuss over me. “Poor Muffins,” he said. “Poor boy! Poor little fellow! I know you were lonesome. Come on, boy! Come on!”

He led the way out and up the stairs, and I followed close at his heels.

We went along a hall and into a big bright room that smelled of food. Some people were sitting at the table eating—two of them. There was the man I had seen the night before and a lady. The boy called her mother.

“Look, mother!” he said. “Isn’t he a cunning little fellow? Mayn’t I keep him? Please say I may.”

“Oh, Tommy!” said the lady. And then I didn’t hear her say anything else, because two little dogs rushed out from under the table and began barking at me. They were the very same dogs that had chased me out of the basement the night before. There was another little dog, and she barked, too, but she stayed under the table.

The dogs came at me and I thought they were going to jump on me, so I barked and showed my teeth, but Tommy drove them away, and the lady called to them and hit at them with a white cloth she had in her lap.