40 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



in milk, to home, and the blood-brothers whose 

 acquaintance we are to make — the Four-Footed 

 Americans." 



" Is Rap going to stay here all night ? " asked Nat, 

 as they put down their glasses. 



" No ; his mother would worry. Your father and I 

 will walk home with him; we have some things to talk 

 over." 



" Is it anything to do with tlie surprise ? " asked 

 Dodo. 



" Miss Inquisitive, if you poke your precious nose 

 so far into things, some day it may be shut in the crack 

 of a door," laughed her father. 



" Ah ! the wind has fallen and the frost has come. 

 I'm glad Rod covered those pumpkins," said the 

 Doctor, who Avas already out on the porch. 



" Then Ave can go nutting to-morrow," said Nat, 

 capering. "Come up early. Rap." 



" We shall go nutting to-morrow, but Rap need not 

 come up ; we will call for him," said the Doctor. 



"But the chestnuts are all up this way," persisted 

 Dodo. 



" I did not say we were going chestnutting," replied 

 the Doctor, closing the door so suddenly, that if Dodo's 

 nose had been anything longer than a pug it might 

 really have been squeezed in the crack. 



"iM — mammals; m — milk," she half sang, half 

 whispered, as she stumbled sleepily up to bed, hanging 

 on her mother's arm. 



