CHAPTER VII
A HARD LESSON
“My, I’ll bet he’s mad!” said Bobby. Tim was standing in the mud, trying to scrape some of it off his clothes. His cap was gone and great patches of mud clung to his face and hair. He was a distressed looking object indeed. While they watched, he glanced up and saw them standing there. He shook a fist at Bobby, and began to limp slowly off down the road.
“Do you suppose he is hurt?” asked Meg anxiously. “Maybe he ought to go to see Doctor Maynard.”
“He isn’t hurt,” Bobby assured her confidently. “That mud is as soft as––as anything! Wasn’t Philip fine to think of scaring him like that?”
Indeed, Philip had an extra good supper that night, after Bobby and Meg had told Mother and Norah all about the help he had given them, and the twins, when they came in from their 65 drive, were filled with admiration for such an intelligent dog.
“My practicing’s all done,” announced Meg happily. “I don’t mind it so much now, ’cause I want to be ready to play assembly marches when I’m in the third grade.”
“If you want to see how rabbit pens ought to look,” Bobby told Twaddles confidentially, “just go out and see those I fixed this afternoon.”
“Huh,” sniffed Twaddles with withering indifference, “I guess the rabbits don’t know they’re any better off!”
The first week of school went very smoothly, and both Bobby and Meg began to look forward to their reports at the end of the month. These reports were immensely important, according to Bobby, who was, of course, experienced in such matters.