Zip, the Adventures of a Frisky Fox Terrier

by Frances Trego Montgomery

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 him in the least. They only added to the excitement.

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 safely under the crackers. But Zip soon scratched the layer of crackers off and again they had to run.

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 and howled most dismally, as when a dog bays at the moon.

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.