"Oh, will no one let me in? Toodle! Noodle!"
"Who—who are you?" asked Crackie, thinking maybe it was a bad fox, trying to play a trick on her, and pretending to be some one in trouble. "Who are you, and what is the matter?" went on Crackie.
"Oh, I am Joie Kat, the brother of Tommie and Kittie Kat," was the answer. "I was out walking in the woods, and a bad dog chased me. I ran up a tree and out on a limb that was high up in the air, right over your house. Then I slipped and fell, but the dog still kept after me. I fell on the roof of your house, where I am now, and if you don't let me in that dog will soon swim over here from shore and grab me. Oh, please, let me in, whoever you are!"
"I'm Crackie Flat-tail," said the little beaver girl. "I couldn't go to school today because I have the sniffle-snuffles, but my brothers went, and I'm home all alone, and—"
"Oh, if you please," meaouwed Joie, "you can tell me all that when I get in. The dog is coming—the dog is swimming to get me!"
And Crackie could hear the dog going: "Bow—wow—wow," like anything; really she could.
"Of course, I'll let you in," said the little beaver girl, so she opened a window near the roof, and Joie Kat, being a very good climbing kitten boy, easily got in it, and so he was safe from the dog for a while, anyhow.
"Oh, ho!" growled the dog, when he saw what Joie had done. "You needn't think you can get away from me. I'm going to stay here until you come out; that's what I'll do!"
"Will he?" asked Crackie.
"I—I'm afraid he will," said Joie, sadly like.