ad and laughed and laughed and clapped his hands. He took Tiger Lily
by the collar and led him over to the table by the window. He climbed
up on the table and pulled Tiger Lily after him.

Tiger Lily was frightened, but not too much. He felt proud. His ears
looked fluffy. His back was shining silk. His tail hung down across the
edge of the table like a plume.

Far off in the city streets somewhere there was a noise that trolly cars
make when they're climbing up a hill and the switch is too hard for
them. It was a sour sound.

Tiger Lily started to make a little quiver in his back. The little boy
threw his arm around him. A mouse nibbled in the wall. Tiger Lily cocked
his head to listen but kissed the little boy's cheek instead. It was a
nice kiss. But wet. The little boy laughed right out loud. Way down on
the very tip end of Tiger Lily's plumey tail about two hairs wagged.
When the little boy saw it his face went all shining. He threw both arms
around Tiger Lily's neck. "T--Tiger Lily's--little boy!" he said.
"T--T--" Something funny happened to his mouth. It was a teeny-weeny
yawn that didn't seem to know just what to do about it. Nothing in all
the world felt lonely any more.

Except me.

The Lady put me to bed.

Carol put himself to bed all except the knots in his shoestrings.

We went to sleep.

Pretty soon it was morning. And we went home.

Our Uncle Peter changed a lot of our dog-money into nickles so it would
jingle. We sounded like cow-bells. It felt rich. Our Uncle Peter held us
very tight by the hands all the way. He said he was afraid we might step
into something wet and sink.

It had been Wednesday when we went away. It was only Thursday when we
got home. It seemed later than that.

Our Mother was very glad to see us. So was our Father.

The Tame Crow flew down out of the Maple Tree and sat on Carol's head.

Our Tame Coon came out of the hole under the piazza and sniffed at our
heels.

The posie bed in front of the house was blue with violets. The white
Spirea bush foamed like a wave against the wood-shed window.

In spite of our absence nothing seemed changed.

We gave our Father a dollar of our money to buy some Tulips. We gave our
Mother a dollar to spend any way she wanted to. We put the rest of it in
a book. It was a Savings Bank Book that we put it into.

"For your old age," our Father said.

Our Father's eyes had twinkles in them.

"I hope you've thanked your Uncle Peter prope