Then the two ladies sat down to talk while Ted, Janet and Trouble ran out to play.
“Jan, will you keep Trouble with you a little while, so he won’t bother me?” asked Teddy. “I’m going to do something.”
“What you going to do?” his sister wanted to know.
Leaning over toward Janet to whisper, so William would not hear, Ted answered:
“I’m going to play fireman. I’ll let you play when I get everything all fixed, but I don’t want Trouble to come until I’m ready. You play with him.”
“All right,” agreed his sister. She was pleased with Ted because he had taken the blame for the pie trouble in the kitchen. “Come on, Trouble,” she called to her little brother. “We’ll go feed the ducks,” for Mr. Martin kept a few ducks and some chickens.
Thus relieved, Ted began to plan his fun. As he had said, he wanted to play fireman. There was a short ladder in the garage, and it was Ted’s plan to put this up against a shed, where Patrick kept the lawn mower and other garden tools, and climb up, pretending he was a fireman with a hose putting out a blaze on the roof of a ten-story building.
Ted brought out the ladder and leaned it up against the shed. He climbed up part way, and was going higher when he heard the voices of Janet and Trouble shouting. Also he heard the barking of a dog and he thought:
“Oh, maybe a dog is after Trouble! I’d better get down and see!”
Before he could climb down the ladder, however, there came rushing around the corner of the garage not only a dog, but a cat. The dog was chasing the cat, and after them came Trouble and Janet.