“Well, I declare to goodness if that old Billy isn’t the most curious animal I ever ran across! He tags me from morning until night, so I almost feel I had a tail tied to me!”
“Oh, Hiram!” called Mr. Watson, “come and help us put up the washing machine!”
After an hour of pulling, hauling and lifting, with everyone bossing everyone else and stepping on one another’s fingers and toes, to say nothing of Billy Whiskers adding to the confusion by being under their feet, the necessary electric wiring was completed and the washing machine was in place.
Button had climbed on top of a cupboard in the laundry, thinking this would be a fine place from which to see all that went on and still escape being kicked or put out. Stubby had run under the table and jumped into a clothes basket where he would be out of the way and still could watch every move made. As for Billy, he was here, there and everywhere, under everyone’s feet and running across their paths and getting in the way generally, being put out of the laundry one minute and returning the next when they were busy over the machine.
At last it was set up and ready to start, and the man who had brought it from town walked over to the wall and touched a black button. The water began to churn round and round a piece of clothing the man had put in the washer to show them how quickly it would be washed clean.
Billy was so interested that he walked straight up to it and stuck his nose against the glass case, for what puzzled him most was how the water got in the tub when he had seen no one pour it in, and he knew the water nearest at hand was away down in the pond at the foot of the hill.
As for Button, he stretched his neck so far over the top of the cupboard that he nearly toppled off, and Stubby barked in his surprise and kept jumping in and out of the basket. In fact, he was so nervous he did not know what he was doing.
Swish! Swish! Swish! went the water, becoming all foamy and white.
As Button gazed, the machine stopped and the water grew still. Then all of a sudden it began to swish around again, though no person was near it. The person nearest the machine was a man standing by the wall, his finger on a little black button in the wall, while next him stood Hilda, clapping her hands in delight. You see, she did the washing.