As for Zip, he slunk away and ran back to the doctor's buggy just in time to jump in as the doctor started for home. So by the time Miss Belinda had gathered up Peter-Kins and saw that the turkey was more frightened than hurt, Zip was blocks away, laughing to himself at the whack the monkey and turkey had gotten instead of him, and at the funny spectacle the three of them must have made as they ran around and around the yard.
"And won't Tabby laugh when I tell her about it?" he thought.
CHAPTER VIII
Zip at the Candy Pull
That evening the doctor had no calls to make, so Zip was left to amuse himself as best he could. He had finished telling Tabby about the monkey and the turkey and was wondering what to do with himself when he heard children laughing in the back yard of the house opposite. Looking up, he saw that the house was lighted more than was usual, and he knew right away that they must be having a little dance or a children's party of some kind. Just then he thought he got a whiff of boiling molasses. He stuck his nose up in the air and gave a long sniff. Yes, it was molasses he smelled!
"They are having a candy pull. That's what is going on! I'll just go over and stick around until they have refreshments, and then perhaps I can sneak into the kitchen and steal a piece of cake," thought Zip.
But alas! He was so busy gazing up at the lighted windows to see what was going on inside the house, that he neglected to look where he was stepping, and the first thing he knew, he was standing with all four feet in a pan of hot molasses candy. And he found himself sticking fast in an entirely different way than he had meant when he left home. The candy was just in that state of cooling when the top is a little hard and the bottom is soft and sticky. So when he tried to lift his feet, the candy pulled up from the bottom of the pan and made long, stringy ends, but did not leave his feet. Instead it got between his toes and held him still faster. He tried to bite it off, but instead of coming off, it only stuck to his teeth and he found himself sticking to the pan with his mouth as well as his feet. Indeed, he was held securely by the sticky, stringy candy. Just then he thought he heard the children coming to see if their sweets were cool.
Yes, they were surely coming! He could not stand it to have these children he saw every day find him in such a fix. He would never hear the last of it. So he made a frantic effort to loosen himself. In doing this he pulled backwards so far that his feet slipped somehow, and he sat down in the candy. And now he was caught! For his four feet, mouth, one ear and tail were all sticking to the pan of candy. As the children began to come down the back steps, he gave one yelp, doubled himself up and began to roll, so that what the children saw was a big ball of molasses candy rolling down the sloping walk. All they could see in the semi-darkness was the candy, for Zip was too balled up to show a bit of dog sticking out of the soft mess.