"I aren't teasing him," declared Twaddles indignantly. "I'm going to teach him to carry bundles."
Twaddles' method of teaching the patient Spotty was to sit down on him with feet spread wide apart and wait for the dog to shake him off.
Dot sat down quietly in the grass and began to make a bouquet of wild-flowers. It was Dot who always helped Aunt Polly weed and water her flower garden, and Dot who liked to see fresh flowers on the dining-room table.
When Meg had her apron full of apples she sat down near Dot, and the four ate as many sweet summer apples as four small people could who had eaten breakfast less than an hour before.
"There's Poots," said Meg suddenly, glancing up and seeing the black cat picking her way through the grass. "Do you suppose she is hunting birds?"
Poots blinked her green eyes innocently. If she were after birds, she had no intention of catching any before an audience. She sat down and began to wash her face.
Now rats sounds pretty much like "cats," and the excited and startled Spotty did not stop to question which word Twaddles had used. He jumped up, his ears pointing forward.
"Rats, sic 'em!" said bad little Twaddles. "Rats, Spotty!"
Spotty barked twice sharply. Poots arose, her fur bristling. Spotty leaped at her, barking playfully. Away ran Poots, her black tail sticking straight up in the air. And after them raced the four little Blossoms, shouting and calling frantically.
Poots ran straight for the front wall and scrambled up it, leaving Spotty to bark wildly on the ground and make futile rushes at the solid wall he couldn't hope to climb. Some of the masonry was loose, and Poots, digging with her sharp claws, sent down a shower of dust into the dog's eyes. He whined, and dug at his eyes with both forepaws. Then he sneezed several times.
"You will chase me, will you?" Poots seemed to say, gazing down at him from her safe position. "The idea!"
"Well, we might as well pick up some of this stuff," said Twaddles, knowing that the fun was over.
"It's cooler--just feel that breeze!" exclaimed Meg. "Let's ask Aunt Polly if we can't go berrying after dinner."
Aunt Polly obligingly said they could, and after dinner the four little Blossoms scrambled into overalls Aunt Polly had bought and shortened to fit them.