And now something else was going to happen. Racky, who was still creaking from Grandma's weight, softly called down the cellar stairs:
"Gassy, are you there? Hello, Gassy!"
"Where else would I be?" asked the stove. "I can't get away since the gas pipes hold me fast. What did you want, Racky?"
"I wanted to ask how you ran away that time," went on Racky.
The rocking chair could still see Lizzie out in the garden hanging up the clothes, and Grandma was still talking to Mrs. Marden about the chocolate, which seemed to have been mislaid.
"Oh, you want to know how I ran away; is that it?" asked the stove in the laundry.
"Yes. How did you do it?"
"Why, having four legs, I just galloped away like a horse," was the answer. "That's all there was to it. I galloped away. But why do you ask, Racky?"
"Because," replied the chair in a hoarse and creaking whisper, "because that's what I'm going to do!"
"What!" cried Gassy. "You are going to run away?"