Charlie and His Puppy Bingo

by Helen Hill; Violet Maxwell

So Topsy and Bingo were left all alone with nobody to look after them but Jane, and she was not much good, as she was feeling very sleepy and had gone up to the attic to sleep undisturbed.

Topsy and Bingo decided that they would have a glorious time with nobody to interfere with them, no matter what mischief they might be up to.

First they went into the dining room and they had a grand time playing with the rug. This, as you know, was one of Bingo’s favorite games and he showed Topsy ex-act-ly how to play it—how you pretend that the rug is a wild animal, and how you grab the end in your mouth and kick and scrabble with your paws and growl in a low and dreadful voice. Topsy thought that this was a grand game. He liked the growling part especially. You should have heard the ferocious growls that Topsy made. Bingo felt quite frightened, although he knew it was only in fun.

When they got tired of that game, they went into the kitchen to see what interesting things they could find to do there. And, of course, Topsy began to climb—yes, he climbed up on everything in the kitchen except on the kitchen stove. He was too wise a kitten to do that. He climbed up on to the window sill and on to the table and on to the sink. Then he jumped up on to the kitchen dresser and climbed to the very top shelf, where he walked in and out among the plates, and yet he did not knock a single one down! Every now and then Topsy looked down at Bingo and tossed his head, as if to say, “Don’t you wish you could do it, too?” Bingo was wild with excitement. He jumped up on his hind legs and barked, “Yap, yap, yap!” in his funny, hoarse little voice.

At last he determined that he would climb up on the kitchen dresser, too. Yes, he would climb up to the very top shelf and show Topsy that he could climb, too!

There was a chair close to the kitchen dresser and Bingo first managed to climb up on that, then he scrambled up on to the dresser. He felt very proud when he looked down to the floor and saw what a height he had climbed to. Topsy was still up on the top shelf looking down at him with his head on one side.

Bingo then stood up on his hind legs and he put his paws up on the next shelf—but, oh, dear! Bingo was unlucky again! He knocked against a big, round, white tin that had FLOUR written on it in gold letters. And it toppled right over!—yes, it toppled right over and banged Bingo on the head, and a lot of white, powdery stuff fell all over him and got in his eyes. It was awful!

Poor Bingo did not want to climb any more. He jumped straight off the kitchen dresser on to the floor, and he ran out of the kitchen with his little short tail hanging down. He went into the living room and hid under the sofa—poor Bingo was feeling very unhappy and he wanted to be alone.