“You cheat! You cheat! You cheat!”
“I am not a cheat!” Muffs called back to the frogs. “I didn’t take the rabbit on purpose. So there!”
THE FIRE THAT WASN’T
Muffs’ face was streaked with tears as well as dirt when she finally rapped on the door. Mr. Tyler came to answer it.
“Please, mister, will you keep my rabbit?” she said, handing him the hat, rabbit and all.
“Bless you!” he exclaimed. “Of course we’ll keep your rabbit but first you must come in and tell us what’s the trouble.”
Muffs came in. Mary and Tommy and their big brother, Donald, were seated around a table in the kitchen eating alphabet soup. Mrs. Tyler was serving them from a steaming yellow bowl and, when she had finished, she dished out another serving for Muffs. “Come here to the basin,” she said, “and wash away those tears. We can talk while your soup is cooling.”
That was all she said. She didn’t ask Muffs if she’d had supper. She just seemed to know that the little girl was tired and hungry and wanted nothing more than to sit down in someone’s clean kitchen over a steaming bowl of alphabet soup.
Tommy was telling the day’s adventures while Thomas Junior mewed about the table just as if he felt hurt that he had been left out. Mary added to the story and soon Muffs joined in and told about the rabbit.