cause she had a
headache. I know, for I met Mr. Kinkytail as he was on his way to work,
and he told me. So I asked my mamma if I couldn't come over to help Mrs.
Kinkytail do the work. Shame on you for making fun of Jacko. Some day
you may have to wash the dishes yourself."

Say, I just wish you could have seen Mugsie Smugsie when Susie got
through talking to him. His fuzzy face flushed all red and he dug his
paw down in the dirt bashful like and then he felt very much ashamed for
having made fun of Jacko when his mamma was sick.

"I--I didn't know all that," stammered Mugsie Smugsie. "I'd like to help
you wash those dishes myself, Jacko, if you'll let me."

So this shows that Mugsie wasn't bad all the way through, you see.
Nobody is, I guess; there are good spots in everybody, only some folks
have more spots than others.

"Sure I'll let you help me wash the dishes," said Jacko. "It's lots of
fun, and it makes your hands real clean. Come on up." So he let down the
basket on a rope and pulled Mugsie Smugsie up to the house on top of the
pole.

"Can't I come up, too?" asked Susie.

"Sure!" cried Jacko, and then he and Mugsie pulled up the rabbit girl.

"Now we all three can help wash the dishes," said Susie. And, surely
enough, those three animal children began to wash the dishes. But Jacko
and Mugsie Smugsie splashed the sudsy water about so that Susie said:

"Oh, you had better let me finish, boys, and you can set the house to
rights and dust and sweep." Now, of course, girls can wash dishes better
than can boys, I know that very well, and Susie had them all washed and
dried while Jacko and Mugsie were sweeping and dusting the dining-room.
And very nicely they did it, too.

And then, all of a sudden, there was a noise out in the kitchen. Susie
screamed and cried:

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! He'll get me! He'll get me!"

"Run quick!" cried Jacko to Mugsie Smugsie. So they ran out, and there
was the burglar fox getting ready to jump at Susie. Somehow or other
the fox had managed to pull himself up the tree in the basket, the rope
of which Jacko had forgotten to take in after Susie was raised up by it.

"Now I'm going to have a good dinner!" cried the fox, smacking his lips.

"No, you're not, either!" yelled Jacko, and then and there he caught up
the big dishpan full of water and threw it at the fox--threw the water,
not the dishpan, you understand. And that fox in an instant was as wet
as if he'd fallen into a mil