Somebody's gottoget'erdown! Somebody's gottoget'erdown!"

Making myself heard over the din, I hollered, "Who's got to get who
down? For Pete's sake, stop yelling so loud!"

Having been out-shouted, Johnny calmed down enough to catch his breath
and gasp, "Say, Dad, Duchess is in Jim's room and she's on the
ceiling, and yougottoget'erdown!"

Well, it dawned on me then what he was talking about. Duchess is our
nine-months-old Great Dane pup. Weighs about a hundred pounds. So,
pulling on bathrobe and slippers, I went down stairs, and hurried into
Jim's room. Sure enough, plastered on the ceiling and looking mighty
scared and sick and sheepish was Duchess. When I came in she wagged a
feeble tail at me and squirmed a bit. Mary, Johnny and Jim were all
standing looking at her.

"Dad, I don't know how it happened," Jim said. "Guess I forgot to pull the
plug last night. First I knew was when I heard a thump and a yelp ... woke
up and she was practically right over my bed."

Duchess was apparently unhurt, so I walked over and reached up to coax
her down. Just then Jim shouted, "Dad! Don't do...!" And my head hit
the ceiling! Like a fool I had walked right over the plastic plate!

* * * * *

As soon as I could get my eyes to focus properly, I shut them again
quickly. I was lying, (lying!) next to Duchess, on the ceiling, and
she was thrashing me in the face with her tail. As soon as I pushed
her around so my face was out of range I could see the dumbfounded
looks on the rest of the family.

"Ralph," said Mary, in a tone of exasperation, "You and that dog come
right down from there this minute!"

"Honey, I'd just be delighted to come down there, and if you and the
boys will shove that bed under us, we'll try. Soon as Jim turns this
damn thing off."

By this time, Johnny was lying on the floor about to bust a gusset
laughing at his father and long-legged Duchess sprawled on the
ceiling, and even Jim, who is always rather straight-faced, was
beginning to grin a little around the edges. Mary still seemed
convinced that Duchess and I had done it on purpose.

Jim finally gathered his wits enough to start pushing the bed under
us. Between the three of them they managed to bypass the wires to the
plastic plate and set the bed over it. I noticed that it bucked a
little as the edge went over the plate, but I didn't get time to see
much because no sooner had the bed been pushed over it than the who