[Illustration: _I pretended I wasn’t there._]
Presently he came upstairs, and I heard him asking, “Where is Muffins?”
“He’s in here, Master Tommy!” called Mary.
He came in the room. I could tell by the sound, though I didn’t lift my head or stir.
Tommy came over to the trunk and looked into it.
“The little beggar!” he cried. “How did he get in there?”
“He must have jumped in while I was out of the room,” said Mary.
“Did you ever know such a dog!” cried Tommy.
A moment after he took hold of me. “Come out of there, you little beggar,” he said.
I tried to get further down under the clothes, but Tommy lifted me out. He was laughing in a funny way, and he put his face against me.
“If you’re not the limit!” he said. “I believe he knows I’m going away, Mary, and he wants to go with me.”
Of _course_ that was what I wanted. I wouldn’t have hidden in the trunk if I hadn’t hoped to go along.
“I don’t see why I can’t take him,” said Tommy. “I’m going to ask mother whether I can’t.”
“You can ask her, but you know she won’t let you,” said Mary.
I suppose she wouldn’t let him, for I know I didn’t go.
The next day the automobile came to the door early and the trunks were carried out, and then Tommy and his father and mother came downstairs with their hats on, and when I jumped up on Tommy he said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t go, old fellow.”
James caught me by the collar and pulled me back. I almost snapped him, he bothered me so. I did snarl and try to wriggle away from him, but I couldn’t.
Then Mary opened the outside door and Tommy and his father and mother went down the steps, and when they were part way down Tommy looked back and called, “Good-bye, Muffins! I’ll be back soon. Take good care of him while I’m away, James. Good-bye!”
And then Mary shut the door, and they were gone.
Prince Coco yawned and stretched himself. “Well, now we’ll have some peace and quiet, with Tommy out of the house!” he said.
That made me so mad I growled and flew at him, but James turned back and said, “Here! Here! None of that! What’s the matter with you, Muffins, anyway?”
Coco didn’t say anything more about Tommy after that. He was afraid to.
He may have liked having the house so quiet, but I didn’t. I was so lonesome without Tommy that I hardly knew what to do with myself. But then he had said he would be back soon. And he had told James to take good care of me, so it was all nonsense about their sending me away and my not being there when Tommy came home again.