ay in Poetry's nice new
basement.

It was while we were at Poetry's house that we saw the ladder, and
you'd never guess in the world where it was, and most certainly you'd
never guess in the world all the excitement we were going to get mixed
up in before the afternoon was over.

9

We'd been having a wonderful time, playing pingpong and checkers, and
Little Jim was playing the organ in Poetry's basement while Poetry and
I made a lot of boy noise playing a tie-off game of pingpong, when we
heard a door open at the head of the stairway leading down into the
basement, and somebody sneezed, and we knew it was Dragonfly who had
come over to play with Poetry. Poetry's parents had gone visiting
somewhere, calling on some sick people in the Sugar Creek hospital, so
we could make more noise and it wouldn't disturb any grown-up people's
nerves, and would also be good for ours, it being almost as hard on a
boy's nerves to be quiet, as it is on a grown-up person's nerves when
a boy is noisy.

Poetry and I stopped our game and yelled up to Dragonfly to come on
down and "play the winner," which meant either Poetry or me.

Dragonfly sneezed twice on his way down, he maybe being allergic to
something he'd smelled when he came in, or else it was the change from
the cold outside air to the warm inside air.

Poetry won that last game, and it meant he was the champion, so he
and Dragonfly started in like a house-afire batting that pingpong
ball back and forth, back and forth, bang, sock, whizz, sizzle,
ping-ping-ping-ping, pong-pong-pong-pong, sock, sock, sock.... Say,
that little spindle-legged Dragonfly was _good_. He won the first game
right off the bat. He really was a good athlete for such a thin little
guy. "Hey, you guys!" he said, pretending to be very proud of himself,
"Isn't there a window somewhere we can open? I want to throw out my
chest," which was an old joke, but sounded funny for Dragonfly to say
it, his chest being very flat.

"Sure," Poetry said, "but we can get air quicker by opening the door
at the top of the stairs," and with that he shuffled up the stairs and
opened the door, and just as he did so, I heard a horse sneeze and a
man's voice saying, "Whoa, there, Prince! Stand still!" and I knew it
was our new teacher, Mr. Black. Just that second, Dragonfly sneezed
again, and said to Poetry, "I'm allergic to horses. Shut that door!"

"Hello!" a voice called. "Anybody at home?"

Well, I can't tell yo