isit to
her cousin, the first thing she saw was the doctor sitting on the lower
step of the side porch with scrubbing brush in one hand and a cake of
soap in the other, scrubbing Zip for all he was worth.

"Well, whatever has happened to you, Zip?" asked Tabby.

"Oh, go lie down and I'll tell you after awhile," barked Zip in a cross
voice, for he was not enjoying the scrubbing in the least, as every once
in a while a lot of soapsuds would run into his eyes, making them smart
dreadfully. But the doctor kept on rubbing, not knowing what was making
Zip squirm so. He thought it was just because he hated to be washed in
this way. At last Zip could stand it no longer, and he bounded from the
doctor's hands and shot out of the yard into the road and deliberately lay
down in the softest, dirtiest place he could find, and then rolled and
rolled, trying to dry himself. And though the doctor called and called and
whistled himself hoarse, Zip did not come back. He waited until it grew
dark, and then he sneaked in and jumped into the watering trough again.
This time he came out nice and clean, for the soft sand had acted as a
scrubbing brush and his coat was all shiny and glossy and clean when he
jumped out, and this time he managed to keep it so until the next day.

CHAPTER VI

ZIP AND PETER-KINS

[Illustration]

Several days after this Zip was asleep on the seat of the buggy in front
of the house of one of the doctor's patients who was so very ill that he
had been visiting there each day for a week. Consequently Zip, as usual,
had called on every dog and cat in this neighborhood. To-day he thought he
would sleep instead of running around to visit and making the doctor wait
and whistle for him to come back. But presently he was awakened by hearing
the doctor's whistle across the street. He was up in a moment looking in
all directions, for though he heard him, he could not see his master. He
leaped out of the buggy and ran across the street, from where the sound
seemed to come. As he ran the whistle was repeated loud and shrill, but
no doctor could Zip see.

[Illustration]

"He must be hiding behind that thick bush in the yard," decided Zip. So he
crawled under the fence and went nosing around the shrubbery, but the
doctor was not there. He sniffed here and there, but could not get so much
as a tiny whiff of the doctor's scent. He stood still at last, with ears
standing up straight and one foot held off the ground,