Penny and Peter (3 page)

Penny was delighted to finally dip his brush in the paint. He liked spreading the blue paint over the floorboards. He watched Peter and tried to do it just the way he did.

Peter was so much interested in what he was doing that he didn't notice that when he began with the spilled paint, it was right in front of the only door in the room. He just painted and painted and painted. And Penny painted and painted and painted. Every once in a while they moved the bucket of paint and they got farther and farther away from the door. Before very long there was a strip of blue paint from one wall to the other. It was so wide that no one could have stepped over it—not even Daddy, with his long legs. But they never noticed that the only way out was getting farther and farther away from them. They were too busy painting. Occasionally, they would sit back and admire their work.

Once Peter said, "It looks swell, doesn't it?"

"Yes," replied Penny. "Won't Daddy be surprised?"

And then, in the doorway, Truly, Penny's black cat with white paws, appeared.

"Don't come in, Truly," shouted Penny. "Don't come in!"

Truly put his white nose down and wiped up some paint. He looked so funny when he lifted his face. He was wearing blue lipstick. Peter and Penny screamed with laughter.

Then Truly lifted one white paw. He was just about to put it down on the blue paint when Peter cried, "Scat!"

Truly was so surprised, he turned tail and fled down the stairs, taking his little blue nose with him.

The boys set to work again. By this time, there was a good deal of paint on their hands, and their overalls were pretty well spotted. They went on painting.

Then Really, Penny's yellow cat, appeared in the doorway. "Scat!" cried Penny. "Go away," he cried, as Really showed signs of walking right over the blue paint.

Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of paper. He threw it as hard as he could at Really. Really was so frightened that he turned suddenly and he swept the blue paint with his long yellow tail. The last the boys saw of Really was his tail, waving like a paintbrush dipped in blue.

The boys sighed in relief. "I thought he was surely going to spoil the floor," said Peter.

"We don't want anything to spoil it," said Penny, as they set to work again.

The room wasn't very large, so by the time the church clock struck five, they were just about half finished.

"Pretty soon, we'll have to get washed and dressed to go meet Mother and Daddy," said Peter.

"Yes," said Penny. "I guess we won't get it all finished, will we?"

"I guess not," replied Peter.

"Won't Daddy be surprised?" said Penny.

"He'll be surprised good," said Peter, finishing another board. Then he sat back on his heels. He looked at the open door as though for the first time. Then he looked behind him at the wall with the windows. Then he said, "S-a-a-a-ay, Penny!"

Penny looked up with his eyes big and round. "What is it?" he asked.

"Look!" said Peter.

"Where?" said Penny.

"At the door," said Peter.

Penny looked. "What's the matter with it?" he asked.

"Look where it is," said Peter. "How are we going to get out?"

Penny's eyes grew larger and larger as he looked at the lake of blue paint that lay between them and the door. Finally he said, "Well, what will we do?"

"We don't want to walk on it," said Peter.

Peter went to the window and looked out.
The ground looked very far away. The church clock struck half past five. "It's half past five," he said. "Mother said to leave at half past five."

"We could take off our shoes and stockings," said Penny, "and tiptoe to the door."

"We would mess it up, 'cause it's awfully slippery," said Peter, gloomily.

"Well, what shall we do?" asked Penny.

Just then, a voice called from downstairs, "Yoo-hoo! Penny!"

"Hi! Patsy!" Penny called back. "Come on up."

Footsteps came stamping up the stairs and in a moment, Patsy, the little girl who lived next door, appeared.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"We've been painting the floor," said Penny. "And now we can't get out of the room without walking on the paint."

"Oh!" said Patsy.

"And we have to meet Mother and Daddy at six o'clock," said Peter.

"Oh!" cried Patsy. "You will have to climb out of the window. Isn't it exciting? I wish I were over there and had to climb out of the window. I like to climb out of windows, but Mummy doesn't like me to do it."

"We can't climb out of the window," said Peter, impatiently. "How could we, when it's so high?"

"Oh!" said Patsy. "I thought the porch roof was there. Wouldn't it be nice if the porch roof was there? I like to sit on the porch roof. One day I sat on the porch roof all afternoon and nobody knew where I was. But Mummy didn't like it. I got my dress awfully dirty."

"Oh, Patsy!" interrupted Peter. "Don't just stand there talking. Do something."

"What shall I do?" Patsy asked.

"Oh, I guess we will just have to walk on it," said Peter.

"If you had a bridge, you could walk across the bridge," said Patsy.

"Is that so?" said Peter. "And where are we going to get a bridge?"

"Well, it's an awfully good idea," said Patsy.

"Oh, come on, Peter," said Penny. "We'll have to walk on it."

"Do you have a ladder?" asked Patsy.

"Yes," replied Peter, "but it isn't long enough to reach to the window."

"Maybe you could make a bridge out of it," said Patsy.

Peter looked at Patsy and his eyes opened very wide. "Maybe we could," he said. "You go down to the garage and bring it up, Patsy."

Patsy ran down to the garage. After some time she returned, dragging the ladder. She had quite a time bringing it upstairs, but she finally landed it outside of the bedroom door.

"Now," said Peter, "there are two little stools in Mother's room. Get them and throw one of them in here to me."

Patsy went off for the stools and reappeared with one in each hand.

"Now, throw it far enough so that it won't land in the paint," said Peter.

Patsy flung the stool with all of her might. Peter, being an expert catcher, caught it. He placed it on the unpainted part of the floor.

"Now, stand the ladder up straight," said Peter. "And let it come down gently. Don't drop it."

Patsy held the ladder up straight. Then she tipped it toward the inside of the room. Suddenly it dropped, but Peter was quick and caught the end of the ladder. He just saved it from landing on the paint.

"Now, put your stool under your end," said Peter.

Patsy slipped her stool under the end of the ladder and Peter placed the other stool under his end. "That's great!" he said. "Now, go ahead, Penny. You go across, first."

Penny stepped on the first rung of the ladder, then to the second and then to the next, until he reached the end. Peter followed.

"Didn't I tell you a bridge was a good idea?" said Patsy.

"It was great," replied Peter, as he dashed off to wash his hands.

"We won't have time to change our clothes," he called to Penny. "We're late now."

Patsy ran home to her dinner and Penny washed his hands. Then the two boys set out on a run to meet Daddy and Mother. They ran all the way. When they reached the restaurant, Daddy was standing out on the pavement looking for them.

"What made you so late?" he said, when the boys arrived.

"We were doing something," said Penny. "It's a surprise for you, Daddy."

"And we got sorta stuck," said Penny. "We didn't have time to change our clothes."

"So I see," said Daddy.

When Mother saw the boys in their overalls, she, too, was surprised. "Why, boys!" she said. "Why didn't you get dressed?"

"We couldn't," said Peter. "We were so late. We thought you would be worried."

"We were making a surprise for Daddy," said Penny. "And we got sort of stuck."

When they were all seated at the table, Daddy looked at the boys' overalls and at the blue stains on their hands. Then he looked across the table at Mother. "You know, Mother, I have been thinking. I think perhaps it would be nicer to paint the floor of Peter's room red."

Penny and Peter sat bolt upright and stared at each other, their eyes popping.

"Red!" cried Mother.

"Yes," said Daddy. "A nice bright red."

"Oh no, Daddy!" cried Penny. "Not red!"

"Oh no! Not red," said Peter. "You wouldn't like it red, Daddy."

"Well, maybe not," said Daddy. "I guess I had better use that nice blue paint that I bought."

Peter and Penny looked across the table at each other and grinned. Penny wriggled, he was so pleased. Then he said, "I think you will like it, Daddy."

For a long time, Patsy had wanted a dog. "A nice little dog," Patsy would say. "I want a nice little dog. Not one like that wirehaired terrier that lives down the street. I want a nice quiet doggie."

When Patsy said this to her daddy, he would say, "Well, perhaps someday." And when she chattered about the dog to her mother, she would say, "Well, we'll see."

Patsy was beginning to feel that Daddy's "someday" would never come and that Mummy would never "see" when a letter arrived from her uncle Frank. Uncle Frank lived out west. He wrote that he was going into the army and he didn't know what to do with his dog "Tootsie." Would they like to have her, and if they wanted her, send a telegram.

Patsy was so excited, she hopped up and down on one foot, saying over and over, "Sure we'll take her. Sure we'll take her. Won't we, Daddy? Won't we?"

So her daddy sent the telegram to Uncle Frank. He said that they would be glad to take Tootsie.

"What kind of dog do you suppose Tootsie is?" said Patsy.

"I don't know," said her daddy. "As long as it isn't one of those Pekingese that expect to lie on a pillow all day, I don't care. Tootsie sounds very much like a Pekingese. They yap, too."

"Maybe it's a little cocker spaniel," said Patsy. "I just love cocker spaniels."

"I don't care what kind it is," said Patsy's mother, "just as long as it is little. And the littler the better."

"You're not hoping for a Mexican hairless!" cried her daddy. "They look like some kind of bug."

"No," laughed Mrs. Sawyer. "It doesn't have to be that little."

When Patsy saw Penny, she said, "Oh, Penny! What do you think! I'm going to get a dog. My uncle Frank is sending it. Its name is Tootsie."

"That's fine," said Penny. "What kind is it?"

"I don't know yet," said Patsy. "Some kind of a little dog. Maybe a cocker spaniel or maybe a Scottie or maybe one of those little white ones with hair hanging over its eyes. I don't know what you call them."

"You mean a poodle," said Peter, who had joined the children. "They look like floor mops."

"Yes," said Patsy. "That's it. A poodle."

"Are you going to build a doghouse for it?" Penny asked.

"Oh no!" replied Patsy. "Tootsie is going to sleep in my room. Daddy and I are going to buy a little bed for her and it's going to be right beside my bed."

Patsy talked of nothing but Tootsie. For days, it was, "Daddy, when are we going to buy Tootsie's bed? Mummy, when do you think Tootsie will come?" Then, after a while, it was, "Daddy, do you think Tootsie will come today?"