"What does he mean?" asked Mrs. Johnson, crooning to "Ruff," as Trouble called the baby, and making the little one quiet. For William was using some of his "baby talk," which he often did when he was excited.
"He means that the alligator's feet got tired, I suppose," translated Janet. "He says 'hoots' for 'feet.' He must mean that Slider got tired of sliding down the board."
Mrs. Johnson looked from one Curlytop to the other, and then at Trouble. A puzzled look was on her face.
"Really, children dear," she said, "you may know what you are talking about, but I don't. What with hoots, Slider and a board I'm all mixed up!"
"I bringed him—I bringed Slider," explained Trouble.
"Yes, we know you did that," said Teddy. "But you shouldn't have, Trouble. It was wrong to take our pet out of the barn, and it was wrong to put Slider in the baby carriage."
"Yes, we didn't know Trouble was going to do anything like this," said Janet, apologizing for her little brother's misdeed. "But Ted and I were talking about what tricks we'd get Skyrocket and Top to do, now that Tip is gone. And we'd just got through watching Snuff do a new trick on top of a football, so we didn't watch Trouble very much."
"How many pets you have!" exclaimed Mrs. Johnson. "I suppose those are pets you have been talking about?" she asked.
"Ours and Uncle Toby's," answered Teddy. "We have more pets than we ever had before, and we're going to give a circus. Will you come, Mrs. Johnson?"
"An' bring Ruff!" invited Trouble.