“I’m not friends with him, yet,” retorted Teddy, flushing, “but I’m not going to put him in the Zoo class again, unless he gets too smart. Say, Harry, let’s go to the Zoo some Sunday afternoon, before it gets too cold. How about next Sunday?”
“I’d like to go. I’ve never been there,” was the eager answer.
“You haven’t! Oh, I’ve been there slews of times. Once Miss Alton read us a story about a funny little animal named Rickey Tickey Tavi, that lived in a man’s house in India, and kept all the snakes away. There are barrels of snakes in India. They get into the houses and even into your bed and everything. This Rickey Tickey killed two big snakes named Nag and Nagaina. They were cobras and had hoods on their heads.”
“Yes, I know,” nodded Harry. “I’ve seen pictures of them.”
“They’ve got two real ones at the Zoo. I stayed around their case one whole afternoon, but the stingy old things hid in a log and wouldn’t come out. I’m going to see ’em some time, though. There are lots of other funny things. I like to tease the monkeys and there’s the seals and a great big animal called a gnu. I always make faces at him. He stares at me so funny.”
“Perhaps I can go next Sunday. I’ll let you know by Friday night.”
The walk to Harry’s home seemed very short to the chums. There was so much to talk about. Being a boy, it did not occur to Teddy to draw a comparison between the Harding’s tiny apartment and his mother’s large, comfortable brick house. He knew only that, next to his mother, he was sure Mrs. Harding was the nicest person in the world, and she certainly knew what boys liked to eat. Teddy was by no means a shy, retiring youngster, although he was not overbold. He was just a normal boy, with a boy’s joy of living, ready to talk to anyone who wished to talk to him on the subjects that lie nearest a boy’s heart.
After supper, Harry insisted that his mother go into the sitting-room and read the paper while he and Teddy washed and wiped the dishes. It was new work for Teddy, but he rather enjoyed it, and polished each dish as he dried it with an energy worthy of a better cause. Far from looking upon Harry with scorn because he was willing to perform a household task that usually falls to a woman, Teddy thoroughly enjoyed the novelty of his labor.
When the last knife and fork were put away, the boys repaired to the sitting-room, where Mrs. Harding sat sewing industriously on a gown for a customer. Harry brought out a combination checker and backgammon-board, and the boys played several games of checkers. Harry had begun to instruct Teddy in the mysteries of backgammon, when the mission clock on the sitting-room wall struck nine.
“I’ll have to go. I promised my mother I wouldn’t stay later’n nine,” said Teddy, with a little air of pride. “She’s at home to-night waiting for me.”