re torso in a
paroxysm of camaradarie, although everyone knew that he had no use for
Waldo Lizard.

"Tell us, Georgie," said Mother Nature, "how do you do your clever work
of rubber-dragging? We would like so much to know. Wouldn't we,
children?"

"No, Mother Nature!" came the instant response from the children.

So Georgie Dog began.

"Well, I'll tell you; it's this way," he said, snapping at a fly. "You
have to be very niftig about it. First of all, I lie by the door of the
hall closet until I see a nice pair of muddy rubbers kicked into it."

"How muddy ought they to be?" asked Edna Elephant, although little
enough use she would have for the information.

"I am glad that you asked that question," replied Georgie. "Personally;
I like to have mud on them about the consistency of gurry--that is, not
too wet--because then it will all drip off on the way upstairs, and not
so dry that it scrapes off on the carpet. For we must save it all for
the bedspread, you know.

"As soon as the rubbers are safely in the hall closet, I make a great
deal of todo about going into the other room, in order to give the
impression that there is nothing interesting enough in the hall to keep
me there. A good, loud yawn helps to disarm any suspicion of undue
excitement. I sometimes even chew a bit of fringe on the sofa and take a
scolding for it--anything to draw attention from the rubbers. Then, when
everyone is at dinner, I sneak out and drag them forth."

"And how do you manage to take them both at once?" piped up Lawrence
Walrus.

"I am glad that you asked that question," said Georgie, "because I was
trying to avoid it. You can never guess what the answer is. It is very
difficult to take two at a time, and so we usually have to take one and
then go back and get the other. I had a cousin once who knew a grip
which could be worked on the backs of overshoes, by means of which he
could drag two at a time, but he was an exceptionally fine dragger. He
once took a pair of rubber boots from the barn into the front room,
where a wedding was taking place, and put them on the bride's train. Of
course, not one dog in a million could hope to do that.

"Once upstairs, it is quite easy getting them into the guest room,
unless the door happens to be shut. Then what do you think I do? I go
around through the bath-room window onto the roof, and walk around to
the sleeping porch, and climb down into the guest room that way. It is
a lot of troubl