“Oh, Father, can’t we keep him?” Jill pleaded, stroking the color bear.
Randy patted the little round head, and the bear made a sort of purring, contented sound as the children fondled him.
Dr. Kenton threw up his hands helplessly. “I guess I know when I’m licked!” he burst out. “If Mother agrees, we’ll try and keep him. But you kids will have to attend to him yourselves, and mind you keep him out of the sand bog, or you won’t have him long.”
“We will!” Jill said. Now that she had made friends with the bear, he seemed ready to accept her and licked her suit as a sign of friendship.
Randy stayed outside with the bear while the other children went inside to talk persuasively with their mother. She objected at first, but finally yielded to their persistence.
“We’ll have to make out a requisition for plastic material for his outdoor house,” Dr. Kenton said. “Are you children willing to chip in part of your allowance to pay for it?”
They nodded.
“We’ll order it the same time as we do supplies for the garden,” the scientist said.
“We’re going to have a garden?” Jill burst out.
“I thought we’d try it,” her father said. “That’s the only way we can get fresh vegetables.”