He stopped writing and held his pen in the air. Neither he nor Miss Muffet noticed that it spattered a round spot of ink on the back of her good dress.
When they reached the corner house, Tommy and Mary ran on home and left Muffs to face the dragons alone. She felt that Mr. and Mrs. Lippett had actually changed themselves into two huge dragons with fire in their eyes. Both of them were waiting on the porch. Both of them had deep scowl lines in the center of their foreheads. When they saw Muffs’ dirty face and torn dress with the big ink spot on the back the scowls grew bigger but they didn’t say a word until Bunny Bright Eyes poked his head out of the tall hat.
“Good land!” exclaimed Mrs. Lippett. “She’s got a rabbit.”
“Now where did that come from?” asked Mr. Lippett, looking like a thundercloud.
Muffs’ face was burning red but for a moment she couldn’t say a word. When she did speak it was only to stammer. “I—I met some children—the Tyler children—and we went on a—a exposition. They let me take their hat and this rabbit got into it. None of us know how.”
“Nonsense!” the thundercloud exploded. “A little girl doesn’t come home with a pet rabbit in her hat and not know where she got it.”
“I think it belongs to someone,” Mrs. Lippett declared. “You had better take it right back where you found it.”
“I found it in the hat,” Muffs insisted. “I thought maybe it was magic.”
“A magic trick, that’s what,” roared Mr. Lippett. “But you’ll see, young lady, that tricks don’t work in this house. You’ll either get rid of that rabbit or find another place to board. Now scoot!”
Muffs turned and ran as if the dragons were after her. There was only one place she could go and that was back to Tylers. She could see the light shining through their windows and that helped guide her along the dark little road, over the bridge and past the swamp that seemed to be filled with voices calling: