SKYROCKET IS GONE
Uncle Toby first looked around the table at the double row of faces of
the children. All showed as much surprise as had Aunt Sallie when she
had come in with the news about the pudding being gone. At first Uncle
Toby had an idea that one of the boys had taken the dessert for a joke,
hiding it away in some nook. But one look at the faces of Tom, Ted, and
Harry showed Uncle Toby that this had not happened.
"Where did you put the pudding, Aunt Sallie?" Uncle Toby wanted to know.
"Right inside the kitchen pantry, on the back shelf near the window."
"Was the window open, Aunt Sallie?"
"Just a little crack, yes, Uncle Toby. I opened it when I set the
pudding near it so it would cool a little before the children ate it."
"That accounts for it then!" exclaimed Mr. Bardeen. "Skyrocket reached
in through the open window and took the pudding!"
There was a gasp of surprise from the children at this, and Ted
exclaimed:
"Oh, it couldn't have been our dog, Uncle Toby! He's been right here in
the room all the while."
"Yes, that's so," added Aunt Sallie. "And, anyhow, the window wasn't
open wide enough for Skyrocket to get his head in. He couldn't take the
pudding out in his paw as your monkey could do."
"Maybe not," agreed Uncle Toby. "Anyhow, I'm glad to know it wasn't
Skyrocket, for I like that dog. But some one must have taken the
pudding, Aunt Sallie. Unless it slipped out of the window itself, and
went off on the toboggan!"
The children laughed at this idea, but Aunt Sallie took it seriously,
for she said:
"Oh, it couldn't do that, Uncle Toby. I mean it couldn't slip out of the
window," she added, as the Curlytops laughed again. "I had it covered
with a tin pan, and that's on the shelf, but the pudding is gone from
under it."
"This is getting mysterious," said Uncle Toby. "We must take a look and
see about it."
"I'm so sorry, for I wanted the children to have some of my plum
pudding," went on Aunt Sallie.
"Oh, don't worry about it," said Lola. "We had plenty to eat."
"Too much, I'm afraid," chuckled Uncle Toby. "Maybe it's just as well
the pudding is missing. The children will sleep better without it, Aunt
Sallie."
"Oh, 'tisn't so much the _pudding_ that I am worried about," went on the
kindly housekeeper, in a whisper. "It is that some one may be sneaking
around here taking things."
"Do you think that happened?" asked Uncle Toby. The children had run
into the kitchen to look at the window through which the pudding had so
mysteriously disappeared, and Uncle Toby and Aunt Sallie could speak
freely.
"Yes, Uncle Toby, I think that is what happened," said the old lady.
"Some tramp, or somebody, must have been sneaking around your cabin.
They looked in the window, saw my pudding, and took it while we were
all in the dining room. 'Tisn't so much that I mind the pudding; that
is, if it was taken by some one really hungry. For this is Thanksgiving,
and I wouldn't want any one to go hungry. But if they had knocked at the
door and asked for something to eat I'd have given it to them, and then
the pudding would be safe. What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," answered Uncle Toby, as he and Aunt Sallie followed the
children. "We never had any tramps in these woods. Maybe it's that queer
man we saw over in Newt Baker's old shack. He may be a hungry tramp."
"Well, something ought to be done about it," declared Aunt Sallie. "I
won't feel safe with such people roaming the woods."
"Maybe when I look in the snow under the window I'll see the paw marks
of a bear," suggested Uncle Toby.
"What would that mean?" asked Aunt Sallie, rather startled.
"It would mean that a bear came up, put his paws in through the window,
knocked the pan cover off and took the pudding," was the answer.
"Well, I'm not so much afraid of bears as I am of tramps," said Aunt
Sallie, with a smile. "I almost wish it was a bear!"
But it was not. In the light covering of newly fallen snow under the
pantry window, through which the pudding had been taken, were the marks
of a man's feet. Big feet they were, with heavy shoes, for the prints of
the hob nails could be seen in the snow.
Uncle Toby looked at the marks for several minutes. He and Aunt Sallie
and the children could see where the man, whoever he was, had come out
of the woods, walked up to the open window, and, after standing about
and tramping to and fro, had marched back to the woods again.
"It looks as if he came here, looked in, saw the pudding, and started
away without taking it," said Uncle Toby, as he looked closely at the
big footprints in the snow. "Then he turned back, because he was so
hungry he just couldn't leave that pudding there in plain sight, I
suppose. He took it and went back to the woods with it to eat it."
"Who was he?" asked Tom.
"That I don't know," Uncle Toby replied. "He must be a stranger around
here, for anybody else would ask for something to eat if he were
hungry. And most of the folks around here are well enough off to get
their own Thanksgiving dinner. They don't have to take other folks'
pudding."
"That's so," said Aunt Sallie. "I wish it hadn't happened, even though I
don't mind a poor hungry man having my nice pudding."
"Is your dog a bloodhound?" asked Harry of Ted, as the boys remained
looking at the footprints in the snow, after the girls had gone back
into the house with Aunt Sallie.
"Oh, no, Skyrocket isn't a bloodhound," answered Ted. "Why?"
"Well, I thought maybe if he was he could smell at these marks in the
snow and then track the man to where he was and we could get back the
pudding," Harry went on.
"Guess there wouldn't be much of the pudding left," said Tom, with a
laugh.
"No," agreed Ted. "Anyhow, Skyrocket isn't a bloodhound, and I don't
believe he'd know how to track a man down."
And evidently Skyrocket didn't take much interest in the strange
footprints in the snow, for, after sniffing them once or twice, he raced
away to chase a snowbird which flew down to get the crumbs Aunt Sallie
scattered from the dinner table. Of course Skyrocket couldn't catch or
harm the snowbird, and he knew it, but he loved to race about and bark.
"No use trying to get him to follow a trail," said Tom. "He's too crazy!
A good dog, but too crazy!"
"That's right!" assented Ted.
Uncle Toby, having listened to the talk of the boys, went back into the
cabin, and soon came out with his heavy overcoat and cap on.
"Where are you going?" asked Ted.
"Oh, just down to the village. You boys stay here and look after things
until I get back," was the answer.
The boys watched Uncle Toby strike into the path and then Tom exclaimed:
"I know where he's going!"
"Where?" asked Ted.
"He's either going to trail that man by his footprints--the man who took
the pudding," declared Tom, "or else he's going to get a constable, or
somebody like a policeman."
"Maybe he's gone to get a bloodhound if your dog isn't any good for
smelling out people," suggested Harry. All the boys were gleefully
excited over what might happen.
"I wish he'd let us go with him," sighed Ted. But he did not think it
wise to ask, and Uncle Toby went off by himself.
The remainder of Thanksgiving was passed by the Curlytops and their
playmates having holiday fun. They played out in the snow, spent some
time in the snow house, and coasted on the toboggan.
Uncle Toby came back before dusk, but where he had been and what he had
done or found out, he did not disclose to Aunt Sallie or the children.
"Will you lock up well to-night, Uncle Toby?" asked Aunt Sallie, when
the bedtime hour approached. She asked this out of the hearing of the
children.
"Of course I'll lock up well. I do every night," Uncle Toby replied,
with a laugh. "Are you afraid that bear who took the pudding will try to
get in?"
"Maybe," answered Aunt Sallie. "Anyhow, please lock all the doors and
windows."
"I will," said Uncle Toby. "But I guess Skyrocket will be a good
watchdog during the night. We don't need to worry."
The children did not worry, at all events. They did not seem to miss the
plum pudding, and after a light supper, on account of the heavy dinner
they had eaten, and having played some games in the cabin, they went to
sleep.
Uncle Toby locked up well, and left Skyrocket in the kitchen for the
night.
"If any bears come in or any tramps try to take any more of Aunt
Sallie's good things, you grab 'em and hold 'em, Sky!" commanded Uncle
Toby.
The dog barked once, as if to say he would.
The night appeared to pass quietly, though once Uncle Toby thought he
heard Skyrocket barking in the kitchen. Getting out of his bed, Uncle
Toby called:
"Who's in the kitchen? Is everything all right?"
There was no answer, not even a bark from the dog, and Uncle Toby
thought he had been mistaken about hearing a noise.
"And I guess Skyrocket is asleep," he added.
In the morning Tom and Ted came down earlier than any of the others, for
they had an idea that they could build a little house of pieces of
carpet on the toboggan and coast while inside it. They wanted to try
out this idea before Uncle Toby should say it was too risky.
"Here, Sky! Sky!" called Ted, as he walked toward the kitchen.
There was no joyous, answering bark, and when the door was pushed open
no dog ran to greet his young master.
Skyrocket was gone!