So he rocked and swayed to and fro, straining at his legs an

_Happy Home Series_

ADVENTURES OF THE

RUNAWAY ROCKING

CHAIR

BY

HOWARD R. GARIS

_Author of

"Adventures of the Galloping Gas Stove,"

"Adventures of the Traveling Table,"

"Adventures of the Sliding Foot Stool,"

"Adventures of the Sailing Sofa,"

"Uncle Wiggily Stories," Etc._

ILLUSTRATED BY

LANG CAMPBELL

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

HAPPY HOME SERIES

BY HOWARD R. GARIS

Adventures of the Galloping Gas Stove

Adventures of the Runaway Rocking Chair

Adventures of the Traveling Table

Adventures of the Sliding Foot Stool

Adventures of the Sailing Sofa

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Publishers New York

Copyright, 1926, by

GROSSET & DUNLAP

_Adventures of the Runaway Rocking Chair_

Made in the United States of America

WHAT THERE IS IN THIS BOOK

You will find

ADVENTURE ONE--GRANDMA BAKES A CAKE

All printed out on ... PAGE 5

Then comes the next

ADVENTURE TWO--RACKY RUNS AWAY

So chase him to ... PAGE 25

After that, if all goes well, there is

ADVENTURE THREE--EXCITEMENT IN THE HOUSE

To find it skip to ... PAGE 39

Now you are to read

ADVENTURE FOUR--SLIDING DOWN HILL

Which starts on ... PAGE 55

If you liked that, there is another,

ADVENTURE FIVE--THE SINGING GIRL

Whose songs are told about on ... PAGE 71

Perhaps you may care to read

ADVENTURE SIX--UP IN THE ATTIC

So climb over to ... PAGE 84

And, when you come down, you will find

ADVENTURE SEVEN--THE SNOW STORM

Which blows you to ... PAGE 96

Finishing that, waiting for you is

ADVENTURE EIGHT--A LITTLE OLD WOMAN

Tramping through the snow to ... PAGE 113

And now, Oh joy! comes

ADVENTURE NINE--SANTA CLAUS

Who surprises you on ... PAGE 131

Then everything comes to a happy end in

ADVENTURE TEN--THE RATTLE-BANG

To find out what that is turn to ... PAGE 143

ADVENTURES OF THE RUNAWAY ROCKING CHAIR

ADVENTURE I

GRANDMA BAKES A CAKE

"Come, children, it is time to go to school!"

Grandma Harden waddled out on the front porch of the Happy Home where

Nat and Weezie were playing with Rodney and Addie, the boy and girl

from next door. Nat, whose real name was Nathaniel, and Weezie,

whose real name was Louisa, called their house "Happy Home," because

they had so much fun and so many jolly adventures in it.

Thump, who was Rodney's dog, was sitting on the bottom step of the

porch, waiting for some one to throw a stone, so that he might run

after it to bring it back.

But Rodney and Nat were too busy, talking about going fishing, to

think of throwing stones for Thump. And Weezie and Addie were trying

a new dress on Addie's doll, so, of course, they couldn't play with a

dog.

Thump wagged his tail and whined softly. That was his way of saying:

"Oh, please, somebody, throw a stone! Let me show you how fast I can

run after it!"

But Grandma waddled farther out on the porch--she just had to waddle

like a duck because she was so jolly and fat--and Grandma said again:

"Come, my dears, it's time to go to school!"

"Oh, I wish there wasn't any school!" exclaimed Nat.

"So do I!" echoed his chum. "Then we could go fishing now, instead

of waiting until after school!"

"You'll have a lot more fun fishing, if you go to school first," said

Grandma. "Then you won't be worrying over the lessons you missed."

"I wouldn't worry over any lessons!" boasted Rodney.

"Nor I," said Nat. "School's no fun! But I guess we'll have to go."

"Yes," sighed his chum, and slowly they got to their feet. Thump

took this as a sign they were going to throw stones for him, or, at

least, play in some way, so he leaped joyfully about and barked.

But a moment later Thump's happy bark stopped, his wagging tail

drooped between his legs and he looked sad as Rodney cried:

"Go home, Thump! Go back home!"

"Poor dog!" murmured Grandma Harden. Thump looked up on hearing a

friendly voice, and wagged his tail again. "He would so love to come

with you!" said the dear, old lady.

"I'd like to have him," admitted Rodney, "but if I let Mm come part

way it's harder to make him go home."

"The other day he walked right into school after us!" said Addie with

a laugh. "And the teacher made Rod come out with Thump."

"Oh, say!" eagerly exclaimed Nat, "let's take him along now, and if

he comes in school I'll ask teacher if I can't help you lead him out,

and we could be a long while at it and not go back, maybe until

school was almost out! Hey! How about that?"

"Nothing at all about that!" laughed Grandma, until her body was

shaking like a big bowl of jelly--Oh, Grandma Harden was very

fat--there was no getting away from that! "Don't try any such

tricks!" she went on, playfully shaking her fingers at the boys. "It

wouldn't be right to use a dog like that!"

"No, I guess it wouldn't," agreed Rodney. "Go on home, Thump," he

said, more softly. "We'll play with you this afternoon."

"We'll take you fishing with us," added Nat. "We'll have to do all

our fishing pretty soon, now," he added as he and his chum walked

toward the front gate, while Thump, still sadly drooping his tail,

slunk off through the grass to his kennel next door.

"Why shall we have to do all our fishing soon?" asked Rod.

"Because it will soon be winter," explained Nat. "The water with the

fish in will freeze."

"It's nice and warm to-day," said Weezie, who walked on ahead, with

her playmate, Addie. The girls were rather more afraid, than were

the boys, of being late for school.

"Yes, it's warm to-day," admitted Nat, "but there was a frost last

night, I heard Daddy say, and to-night may be colder and freeze

water."

"Then it will soon be Christmas!" exclaimed Weezie joyfully.

"Ho! We haven't even had Thanksgiving yet!" objected her brother.

"Well, Thanksgiving is this month and Christmas is next month," said

Weezie, "so there!"

"Yes, I guess we'll soon have winter, anyhow," admitted Rod. "Well,

anyhow, we'll go fishing this afternoon."

"And take Thump" went on Nat. He liked the dog almost as much as did

his chum who owned the animal.

Fat Grandma on the porch waved her hand to the children as they

looked back before turning the corner of the street.

"I'll have a surprise for you when you come home from school," she

said.

"A surprise?" questioned Weezie.

"Yes, something you like!"

"I wish my Grandma would make a surprise," sighed Addie.

The fat, jolly old lady on the porch heard this and said:

"You may have some of this surprise, Addie--you and Rodney. Come

over with Nat and Weezie after school!"

"Oh, we will! Thank you!" exclaimed Weezie.

"Isn't that wonderful!" murmured Addie, clasping Weezie's arm. "What

do you suppose the surprise will be?"

"It will be a cake!" stated Weezie, calmly.

"Oh, if you _know_, then it isn't a _surprise_," said Rodney.

"Well, we know it will be a cake, for Grandma always bakes a cake on

Monday when Lizzie has to do the washing," explained Weezie. "So

that's why we know it's going to be a cake."

"But we don't know what kind," added Nat, "and that's where the

surprise comes in. We never know whether it will be a chocolate

cake, or a cocoanut cake or an orange short-cake or what kind of a

cake it will be."

"Any kind of a cake is good," declared Rodney, "but I like chocolate

best."

"So do I," agreed Nat. "Anyhow, when we come home from school we'll

know what kind it is."

"I'll save my piece to take with us when we go fishing," said Rodney.

"We'll play we're explorers in the woods, Nat, and that all we have

to eat is cake!"

"That'll be fun!" agreed his chum.

"Maybe Grandma will give you boys two pieces of cake," suggested

Weezie, as the children hurried on along the street, for they could

hear the ringing of the school bell. "You could eat one piece right

away and save the other to take fishing with you."

"That would be the best ever!" cried Rodney.

Having seen the children start for school, Grandma Harden waddled

back into the house.

"Helen," she called to the mother of Nat and Weezie, "I'm going into

the kitchen and bake a cake, as long as Lizzie is down in the

laundry."

"All right, Mother!" answered Mrs. Marden. She called the jolly, fat

old lady "Mother," though, really, she was only a mother-in-law.

However, that made no difference. "But don't tire yourself out,

Mother," she warned.

"I'll take Racky into the kitchen with me," said old Mrs. Marden.

"I'll sit on that, and mend some stockings while I'm waiting for the

cake to bake. I like to watch my cakes so they won't burn."

Now, lest you wonder who Racky was, that fat, Grandma Marden was

going to sit on in the kitchen, while she made a cake, I shall tell

you. It was an old rocking chair! And it was a very strange,

peculiar old rocking chair, as you shall, very soon, find out for

yourself.

Humming a little tune, Grandma Marden carried her favorite, old

rocking chair to the kitchen. She had owned this chair for many

years, since the time she kept house for herself, before she went to

live with her son and his family.

The chair was painted brown, and it had a deep, thick, soft cushion

on the seat and another cushion on the back. Some buttons on the

back cushion made it look like a face.

"Now I'll just mix up--let me see--I guess I'll make a chocolate cake

this time," murmured the old lady, "I'll just mix it up and pop it

into the oven. Then, while it's baking, I'll sit and rock and mend

stockings."

She set the chair in a corner, near the door leading down the cellar

steps into the laundry, where Lizzie, the maid, was splashing about

in the water with the Monday batch of clothes.

Into a brown bowl Grandma Marden put sugar, flour, milk, baking

powder and whatever else goes into a cake. She stirred the batter up

until it was frothy and foamy, and then she poured it into shallow

tins which she set into the oven of the new gas stove.

"Now I'll get the basket of stockings and rock while the cake is

baking," said the fat old lady. "I'm not going to have my cake

burned on the edges. If there's one thing worse than another, it's a

burned cake, I think!"

The old brown rocker, which Grandma had named "Racky," creaked and

groaned as the fat lady sat down in it with her basket of mending.

"Dear me!" murmured Mrs. Harden with a sighing sort of laugh, "you

are getting old like myself, Racky! You won't last much longer!"

"I won't if you sit down on me as hard as that every time!" said

Racky.

Now don't be surprised. The rocking chair did not speak out loud,

though, when it was needful, it could talk. But this time the chair

was speaking to itself.

"No, indeed, I won't last much longer if you drop into me that way!"

whispered the chair. "You're getting fatter than ever, old lady!"

This was true enough, but Grandma Marden didn't mind that. She would

have been surprised, though, to hear the chair speak, for she did not

know her old rocker had anything wonderful, or magical, about it, as,

indeed, it had.

To and fro rocked Grandma, humming a little song to herself as she

plied her needle in and out, mending holes that Nat and Weezie had

worn in their stockings. Many holes there were, for the children ran

about like little wild Indians as soon as they came from school.

Every now and then Grandma would get up out of the rocker and look in

the oven of the gas stove, to make sure the cake was not burning.

And each time she sat down again, the chair creaked and groaned and

squeaked, and seemed to shake as if it would fall apart.

"I say there! Easy, Grandma!" exclaimed the chair as the fat old

lady sat down particularly hard after about her third look in the

oven. "Be a bit careful, if you please! You'll break one of my

legs, or a rocker, if you sit down so heavily! Then I'll be put away

up in the attic with the other old furniture, and that will be the

end of me! Don't sit on me so hard!"

But Grandma only laughed as she heard the chair creaking and groaning

in its joints, and she said, again:

"You're getting old like myself, Racky!"

Back and forth she rocked, and then she laughed and exclaimed:

"Well, I declare! You're a regular traveler, Racky! Here you are

away over by the sink, though when I first sat in you it was near the

cellar door. You're a regular traveler!"

And so the rocking chair was. I dare say you have heard of traveling

rockers. If you sit in them on one side of the room, and sway to and

fro, in a little while you will find yourself on the other side of

the room.

Racky, the rocker, was this kind of a chair, though he had never

given it much thought. But now, all of a sudden, a daring plan came

into his mind. For, in a way, Racky could think, and act and talk.

Grandma picked up the traveling rocker and set it down again near the

cellar door. She swung herself backward and forward, finishing the

song she was humming, and also mending the last stocking.

Then she wanted to get up, but she had leaned so far back in the

chair that she had to try twice before she could rise. And, after

the first falling back, the rocker creaked and strained so under her

weight that the old lady exclaimed:

"Oh, are you going to break a leg?"

"I certainly hope not!" thought Racky, though, for a moment, he

feared something like this had happened. But it was only his old

joints creaking.

"Well, you seem to be all right," went on Grandma as, finally, sue

managed to get up. "We are growing old together, Racky--you and

I--growing old together! But you may last a few more years."

"I won't if you keep on sitting down on me as hard as you did just

then!" said the chair to himself. "You have no idea how you hurt me!

One leg is splintered, I'm sure!"

Grandma Harden took off her glasses and tucked them down in a snug

place between the seat and back cushions of the chair. She did not

have to wear her spectacles to see to take the layers of cake from

the oven, for they were now baked. Only when she sewed, mended or

read stories to the children did Grandma need her glasses. So now

she left them in the old, traveling rocking chair.

Setting the hot cakes on the table, the old lady went to the front

hall to ask her daughter-in-law where the chocolate was kept.

And while Grandma was out of the kitchen, Racky decided on something

very bold and strange.

The door leading down into the laundry was open. Out of the kitchen

window Racky could look and see Lizzie in the yard hanging out the

clothes. And there was no sign of a blackbird coming along to nip at

her nose.

So it happened that Racky was alone in the kitchen, and Gassy, the

stove, was alone down in the laundry.

As I have told you, in another of these "Happy Home" books, entitled

"The Adventures of the Galloping Gas Stove," Gassy had gone through

some wonderful experiences. Having heard, somehow, that a new stove

was to be put into the kitchen, in his place, Gassy decided to run

away! And, what is more, he did, and with him ran Thump, the dog,

who had been scolded because he came into the kitchen with muddy

paws! As if that mattered!

Gassy and Thump had many strange adventures together before they came

home with Rodney, Addie, Nat and Weezie, who had gone to search for

the runaways. They all came home on the back of an elephant, as you

may read in the book about Gassy's adventures.

Mr. Zink, the plumber, brought a new stove for the Harden kitchen,

but as Gassy still was useful, he was put down in the laundry, where

he made the best of it with the wringer and the tubs for company.

And now something else was going to happen. Racky, who was still

creaking from Grandma's weight, softly called down the cellar stairs:

"Gassy, are you there? Hello, Gassy!"

"Where else would I be?" asked the stove. "I can't get away since

the gas pipes hold me fast. What did you want, Racky?"

"I wanted to ask how you ran away that time," went on Racky.

The rocking chair could still see Lizzie out in the garden hanging up

the clothes, and Grandma was still talking to Mrs. Marden about the

chocolate, which seemed to have been mislaid.

"Oh, you want to know how I ran away; is that it?" asked the stove in

the laundry.

"Yes. How did you do it?"

"Why, having four legs, I just galloped away like a horse," was the

answer. "That's all there was to it. I galloped away. But why do

you ask, Racky?"

"Because," replied the chair in a hoarse and creaking whisper,

"because that's what I'm going to do!"

"What!" cried Gassy. "You are going to run away?"

"I have fully made up my mind to run away!" declared the rocker.

"What for?" asked the stove. "What in the world for? Don't you like

it in this jolly house?"

"I like it well enough," went on the chair, "but--"

And just then there was a sound in the hall as if Grandma was coming

back to mix the chocolate to put on the cake.

"Wait a minute--I'll tell you later!" whispered Racky.

ADVENTURE II

RACKY RUNS AWAY

While Gassy, the old stove down in the laundry, was waiting for Racky

to give his reasons for wanting to run away, the rocker was listening

up in the kitchen. The noise he had heard when he was in the middle

of his story, he thought was made by Grandma coming back.

But it must have been a false alarm, for the old lady was still out

in the hall, talking to the mother of Nat and Weezie. She had found

out that the chocolate was on a shelf in the pantry, instead of being

in the white, kitchen cabinet, where it was usually kept. But now

Grandma was talking to Mrs. Trent, the mother of Rodney and Addie.

Mrs. Trent had run over to bring a letter which the postman, by

mistake, had left at her house instead of at the Harden home. And,

so, knowing that Grandma would not come back to the kitchen for a few

moments yet, Racky went on:

"I'm going to run away, Gassy, so I won't be broken to pieces!"

"Broken to pieces! What do you mean?" asked the gas stove.

"Well, it's like this," explained Backy as he rocked to and fro on

the kitchen linoleum. "Old Grandma is getting fatter and heavier day

by day. Every time she sits down in me I'm afraid she'll go through

the seat, or at least crack one of my legs."

"That's a terrible thing to have happen!" spoke Gassy. "That's one

reason why they got a new stove in my place and put me down in the

laundry--because I had a broken leg."

"I can't stand it to think of such a thing!" cried Backy. "So before

the old lady gets any heavier, I've decided to do just what you

did--run away. But I don't know anything about how it is done.

Please tell me!"

"Why, you just watch your chance, as I did, and, when no one is

around to stop you, trot off," advised the gas stove. "You aren't

like I was--fastened to the wall by gas pipes. It ought to be easy

for you to run away. You can move about; can't you?"

"Oh, yes," answered the rocker. "Only a little while ago I moved

half way across the kitchen. Grandma said I was quite a traveler!"

"Then what more do you want?" asked the stove. "Watch your chance

and start out. I wish you joy and luck! You'll have many

adventures!"

"Do you think so?" asked the chair eagerly.

"I am sure of it," replied the laundry stove. "And when you come

back, tell me all about what happened."

"I am not coming back!" declared the rocker. "I have been sat on

long enough! I am never coming back!"

"That's what I said when I galloped away," sighed the old stove.

"But, after all, I was glad to come back. Perhaps you will be the

same."

"No! Never!" said the brown rocker proudly. "When I run away, I go

for good!"

"Well, watch your chance," went on the stove, "and when no one is

looking, slip out the back door and run away. Or, since you have

rockers on your legs, I suppose you will have to rock away."

"Yes," agreed the chair, "I am a traveling rocker and I am going off

to have adventures."

He looked out in the yard. Lizzie, the maid, was no longer there

hanging out the clothes. Racky could hear her moving about down in

the laundry.

At the same time, the chair could hear Grandma talking in the front

hall to Mrs. Trent. The mother of Nat and Weezie had also come down

stairs to get the letter which her neighbor brought over.

"I believe I'll never get a better chance than this!" suddenly

thought Racky. "There is no one in the kitchen to stop me, and I can

rock right out the back door, across the yard, now that Lizzie isn't

there, and through the hole in the fence. Then I'll start traveling

over the vacant lots to have adventures. I'm going now!"

Racky wished he might call good-bye to Gassy down in the laundry,

but, with Lizzie now there, this was out of the question. The stove

and chair did not want to let the people of the house know that they

could talk among themselves.

So Racky could only softly whisper:

"Good-bye, Gassy! I'm going to run away! I'll never see you again,

nor hear your voice, for I am never coming back! I am not going to

stay here to be sat on by a fat old lady whose weight makes me creak

and groan. I am going off by myself to have jolly adventures and

lots of fun. Good-bye, Gassy!"

The stove could not hear this whisper, and so did not answer. But

over his head Gassy could hear Racky rocking away on the kitchen

linoleum.

"I believe that rocker is really getting ready to run away!" thought

Gassy as he watched Lizzie wring more clothes out of the blue water

so she could hang them in the yard. "I hope he doesn't get caught,"

mused the gas stove.

And run away was just what the chair intended to do. He had chosen a

good time, too, with Grandma out in the hall and Lizzie down in the

laundry. The back kitchen door was open, because the room was so hot

from the cake-baking. Grandma had opened the door herself.

"Here's where I go!" whispered Racky, and he began to rock very hard,

for it was by swaying to and fro that he traveled along sideways, as

well as ahead.

Over the kitchen floor he rocked his way, and the cushions were so

well tied in the chair that they did not fall out. And Grandma's

glasses were tucked down so deeply among the cushions that they did

not bounce out.

Racky reached the door, rocked out on the small, back porch and

hesitated a moment at the top step.

"Well, I've got to get down them some way," he said to himself. "I

may tumble and break a leg, but I'll have all four legs broken, and

my rockers, too, if I stay here to be sat on by fat Grandma. She is

jolly enough, and means well, but she is too heavy for me!"

So, all of a sudden, giving himself another swaying rock, Racky went

sliding down the back steps, making quite a noise.

"There he goes!" whispered the gas stove down in the cellar. "Racky

is going adventuring! I wish him luck!"

Lizzie, wringing out the clothes, also heard the sliding, thumping,

bumping noise up at the back door.

"Is that you, Baker!" called the maid, "We want one loaf of bread

to-day!"

But there was no answer.

"It wasn't the baker," said Lizzie as she went on wringing out the

clothes from the blue water. "I guess it was the children. But

no--it couldn't have been them, either," she said, musingly, "they

are at school. It must have been that dog Thump. Yes, that's who it

was--that dog Thump."

But it wasn't Thump, as we know. It was Racky the rocker, running

away.

And, having safely reached the ground at the foot of the kitchen

steps, without breaking any of its legs, the chair began to sway to

and fro so as to travel across the yard, toward the back fence, where

there was a large hole.

Rodney and Nat had made this hole by taking off some of the boards.

The boys found it quicker to get into the back lots through the hole

in the fence than by going around the corner of the street.

"And I'm glad they left the boards off," said Racky. "I can get out

that way. Once in the open lots, I'll go so fast they shall never

catch me to bring me back.

"I hope no one in the houses next door, on either side, sees me,"

thought Racky. "If they do, they may call to Grandma and she will

come out and bring me in."

But the only person who saw Racky in the yard was Dabby, the cook in

the Trent house, next door, where Rodney and Addie lived. And Dabby

caught a glimpse of the rocker between the sheets on the line. She

knew the old chair belonged to Grandma Harden.

"I guess they've been cleaning the chair cushions with gasoline,"

thought Dabby, "and they put them out in the yard to air."

Dabby only had a fleeting glimpse of the rocking chair between the

flapping clothes. If she had thought it was running away of course

she would have given an alarm, and perhaps have hurried out to stop

it. But she did not give it much thought because, a moment later,

the telephone bell rang, and Dabby hastened out of the kitchen to

answer it.

So it happened that no one really saw the rocking chair get through

the hole in the fence, which trick Racky did a few minutes later. It

was hard work for the chair to escape from the yard. If it had been

a kitchen chair, with legs that had no curved rockers fast to them,

it would have been easier.

"But one can never succeed unless he tries," said Racky to himself.

"And I am going to try very hard!"

So he rocked and swayed to and fro, straining at his legs and

reaching out with his arms--oh, yes! the rocking chair had arms, of

course--and at last he was through the hole in the fence.

"I am free at last! Free!" exclaimed Racky in his own kind of a

voice--a sort of squeak, peculiar to some rocking chairs. "I am

free! No more shall I be sat on by fat, old ladies, though I really

love Grandma Marden. But I cannot stand it to be cracked apart and

then stuck up in the attic with the junk. I am running away at last!"

The chair was now in the open lots back of the two houses in which

the four children lived. All about were dried weeds growing, for

summer had passed, it was now late fall, and, as Weezie had said, it

would soon be Christmas, or at least Thanksgiving, and we all know

Christmas comes after the turkey holiday.

"How wonderful it is to be free--to do as one pleases!" cried Racky,

with a happy little laugh. "I wonder what adventure I shall have

first?"

As he rocked along, something rattled beneath his seat cushion.

"Ha!" cried the chair in surprise, stopping short, "is one of my legs

coming loose?"

He felt about with his arms and was glad to find that all four legs

were still firmly in place, as were the two rockers. Then Racky felt

beneath the cushion and found Grandma's glasses.

"She left them with me when she went to ask about the chocolate,"

murmured Racky. "Well, I can't take them back, for if I did I might

not get another chance to run away. I don't want to leave them here

in the lots, either, for it will snow, soon, and they will be covered

up. I guess I shall have to take Grandma's glasses with me!"

Starting to rock again, Racky moved on and on over the lots, through

patch after patch of dried weeds which tickled his legs and made him

laugh in glee. For he was very happy because he was running away.

"Ho, for the jolly adventures!" sang Racky to himself.

All of a sudden, from a patch of weeds at his right arm, there came a

strange sound. The weeds shivered and shook, though there was no

wind to cause them to do this.

"Something is coming!" whispered Racky to himself, stopping short.

"I wonder if it is Grandma chasing after me, to make me go back, or

if it is an adventure I am about to have? I wonder?"

The noise grew louder and the weeds shook harder.

ADVENTURE III

EXCITEMENT IN THE HOUSE

Racky stood still in the middle of the lot, his four legs held

stiffly under him and his arms rigid at his sides.

What was going to happen?

Suddenly, out of the tangle of frost-killed weeds rushed--Thump, the

shaggy dog belonging to Rodney Trent--belonging, also, to his sister

Addie; and to Nat and Weezie next door. The dog belonged to all four

children, equally, though, in the beginning, Mr. Trent had bought the

puppy for Rodney.

"Oh, it's you; is it, Thump?" asked Racky in a low voice, for the

chair, the stove and the dog could talk to, and understand, each

other.

"Yes, it is I," barked Thump, who, at times, was very careful about

grammar, for once he had been to school, as I have told you. "But

what in the world are you doing out here, Racky?" asked the dog.

Racky looked carefully around, before answering, to make sure neither

Grandma nor Lizzie was coming after him. Then, rocking a bit closer

to Thump, who stood in the patch of weeds, with his head thrust out,

the chair whispered:

"I am running away!"

"Running away!" barked Thump.

"Yes! I can't stand Grandma's treatment any longer."

"Did she scratch you, or stick pins in you, or pull your tail?"

whined Thump. "No, she couldn't pull your tail," he made haste to

add, "for you haven't any. But what did she do to you to make you

want to run away?"

"She sits on me too hard!" answered the chair. "Poor Grandma--it

isn't all her fault," added Racky with a sigh, "it's just because she

is getting too heavy and fat! It's too bad, for otherwise, she is

such a jolly old lady. And I'm sorry about her glasses, too! But I

am going to run away! I have already started."

"So I see," barked the dog, coming out of the weeds and walking

around the chair. "You are on your way. But what do you mean about

Grandma's glasses?"

"She left them in between my cushions," answered the chair. "I

didn't dare go back with them, and I don't want to leave them in the

lot for it may snow. Will you take them back to her?"

Thump thought this over for a moment. He was very fond of Grandma

Harden, for she had given him many a juicy bone. He would have been

glad to do her the favor of returning her glasses, but, all of a

sudden, Thump stiffened his tail and barked:

"No! I am going to run away myself!"

"You are?" cried Racky. "When, where and with whom?"

"I am going to run away now--with you!" barked the dog.

"Oh, good!" exclaimed the rocking chair. "I thought I would have to

go alone, by myself. It will be much more jolly to have company. We

can have many adventures, and talk about them. First," he went on

with a little laugh, "when I heard that noise, and saw the weeds

moving, I thought an adventure was coming out. But it was only you,

Thump."

"Yes, I have been roaming around in these weeds looking for a bone I

buried last week," said Thump. "But I can't seem to remember where I

hid it. Yes, I guess I'll run away myself! Rod wouldn't let me come

with him this morning. I'll show him I don't have to stay home

unless I want to! I'm going to run away!"

"You know all about it; don't you?" asked the chair, who felt a bit

envious of the dog. "You have run away before."

"Oh, yes," answered Thump, as though running away was an old story

with him. "I went off with Gassy when he ran away. We had good

times together!"

"And now you're coming with me!" murmured the rocking chair. "How

fine that will be! What jolly adventures we shall have!" And he

laughed until he nearly tumbled over backward.

"Come on then," barked Thump. "We had better get as far off as we

can before they start to chase us, as they may. Did anyone see you

come away?"

"No," answered Racky. "Grandma was out in the hall, and Lizzie went

into the laundry from the yard, just as I slid out the back door. No

one saw me leave."

"Good!" barked Thump. "It will be all the mysteriouser."

"What's mysteriouser?" asked Racky.

"It means strange," explained Thump, who was a bit proud that he had

once been in school, though he didn't stay long.

"Then why don't you say strange?" asked Racky.

"Because mysteriouser is a much more stylisher word," answered the

dog. "But let's start running away some more. It's a good thing

none of them saw you leave!"

"Yes, indeed!" agreed Racky, and he began to sway again, following

Thump across the lots, for the dog, having no rockers on his legs,

could go a bit faster than the chair.

But if no one saw Racky leave the house, his absence was soon found

out, or discovered, as Thump might have said. For Grandma came back

in from the hall to mix the chocolate to put on the cake, and when

she did not see the rocking chair where she had left it, with her

basket of mended stockings on the floor beside it, the old lady cried

out:

"Why, my goodness!"

"Is the cake burned?" asked Nat's mother, who was on her way back up

stairs.

"No, the cake isn't burned," answered Grandma. "I took it out of the

oven before I went to ask you where the chocolate was. But my

rocking chair is gone!"

"Your what?" asked Mother Harden.

"Racky--my traveling rocker," went on Grandma. "I brought it out to

the kitchen to sit in, while I darned the stockings and watched to

see that the cake didn't burn, but now it is gone!"

"Oh, is that all?" laughed her daughter-in-law. "I thought something

had happened." And there really had, as was soon found out. "I

suppose," went on Nat's mother, "that Lizzie thought you were through

with your rocker and has carried it into the living room, where you

nearly always sit in it. Lizzie must have taken it."

"What did I take?" asked Lizzie, coming up, just then, from the

laundry, in time to hear this last talk. "What did I take, Mrs.

Marden?"

"Grandma's rocker," was the answer.

"I had it here in the kitchen, to sit in while I watched the cake

baking, and mended the children's stockings," added the dear, fat,

old lady. "Did you carry it out, Lizzie!"

"Why, no ma'am, Mrs. Marden, I didn't touch your chair," was the

quick answer. "I've been down in the laundry, almost all the time,

excepting when I was in the yard hanging out the clothes. I didn't

even know you had brought your chair to the kitchen."

"It's very queer," said Grandma, looking about. "And my glasses are

gone, too!" she added, as she put her hands to the top of her head

where, sometimes, she pushed back her "other eyes," as Weezie used to

call them.

"Where did you leave your glasses'?" asked Mother Marden.

"In the cushions of the chair. I slipped them off to go ask you

about the chocolate. And now the chair is gone and my glasses are

with it. Dear me! It is very strange!"

"Why, nothing could have happened," declared the mother of Nat and

Weezie. "If Lizzie didn't take the chair, some one else did."

"I didn't, and I don't believe you did," said Grandma, looking at her

daughter-in-law. "And Racky certainly couldn't have rocked off by

himself, I'm sure!"

"What about the gas stove?" asked Lizzie quietly.

"Eh?" exclaimed old Mrs. Marden.

"I say what about the gas stove?" repeated Lizzie.

"Whatever does the girl mean?" asked Grandma in surprise.

"It was before you came to live with us," went on the maid. "Mr.

Marden ordered a new gas stove. Mr. Zink, the plumber, loosened the

pipes on the old stove. And when he went away to get the new one,

the old stove ran away, all by itself, it really did!"

"Oh, what utter nonsense! A fairy story!" laughed Grandma. "I

suppose a junk man came and carried off the old gas stove, and the

children pretended that it had gone off by itself to have adventures;

wasn't that it, Helen?" she asked the mother of Weezie.

"Well," was the slow answer, "the gas stove certainly disappeared.

The children declared they found it in the woods, several miles from

here. But their father insisted the junk man must have taken it away

by mistake, and that it fell out of his wagon in the woods."

"No, it didn't!" declared Lizzie, firmly but with the respect due to

her mistress. "That gas stove ran away by itself. And it came home

on the back of an elephant, with Thump and the children; didn't it?"

she asked. "You can't deny that, Mrs. Marden. The stove came back

on an elephant!"

"Did it, really!" asked Grandma. "I have heard the children talk

about such a happening, but I supposed they were making it up."

"Well," said Mother Marden, as if she did not like to admit it but

was obliged to, "the old gas stove certainly came home on an

elephant's back."

"But how in the world--?" began Grandma.

"It was a trained elephant, that had escaped from the circus," said

the children's mother. "And it picked up our boy and girl, and

Rodney and Addie, as well as Thump the dog and the gas stove."

"Really!" exclaimed Grandma. "That is quite strange, of course, but

it's very natural. I can understand how that happened. But this is

something different. My glasses have vanished, and my rocking chair

has gone away, but I'm sure it didn't run off by itself."

"Yes it did!" declared Lizzie, but in a low voice, so neither of the

ladies would hear her. "That rocker ran off by itself, you'll find!

Something happened to hurt its feelings, just as happened to the old

gas stove. This is a very queer house," she went on, shaking her

head as she went down into the laundry again. "A very queer house!

Strange things happen here! I wouldn't be surprised to see the piano

go flying out of the window some day, or the old couch walk off the

front porch! No, indeed!"

But Grandma was sure Lizzie had carried the rocker out of the

kitchen, and had forgotten about it, or else that Mother Marden had

done so.

"But I tell you I wasn't in the kitchen this morning until just now,

Mother!" said young Mrs. Marden. "You must have taken the chair and

carried it out yourself!"

"No!" said the old lady. "But we'll look around and find it!"

However this was more easily said than done, and, though soon an

excited search was being made, the old rocker could not be found. It

was neither down cellar, up stairs nor in the attic.

"Dear me! What could have become of it, and my glasses?" exclaimed

Grandma.

"It walked away, I tell you!" insisted Lizzie.

"Nonsense!" cried Grandma, and the children's mother said the same.

"There must have been some one in the house," went on the old lady.

"Perhaps a tramp came in and carried the rocker away."

Just then there was a noise on the rear porch, and Lizzie cried:

"Maybe that's a tramp now!"

But when, still more excited, the three of them hurried to the back

door, they only saw Nat and Weezie coming home from school for their

noon lunch.

"Where's the surprise, Grandma?" asked the little girl.

"Is it a chocolate cake?" shouted Nat. Then, all at once, the

children knew that something very strange had happened. They could

tell this by the looks on the faces of their mother, their grandma

and Lizzie.

"Nat, run down to the corner, and bring back Policeman Paddock!" said

Grandma, suddenly.

"A policeman--what for?" gasped Weezie.

"A tramp has taken my rocking chair and my glasses!" said Grandma,

sternly. "I want the policeman to chase after him and get them back!

Hurry, or it may be too late!"

But before Nat could hasten down to the corner, up the front steps

came big Policeman Paddock himself, swinging his club.

"There's something the matter in the lot back of your house, Mrs.

Marden," said the officer to the children's mother. "There's a great

commotion in the weeds, and I hear a dog barking! Don't be

frightened but I'll just go through your kitchen and over your back

fence and see what it's all about!"

The policeman started to run through the house, while Weezie and Nat

looked at each other with wonder in their eyes.

ADVENTURE IV

SLIDING DOWN HILL

Not for long, though, did Nat and Weezie stand there. It was all so

exciting--so thrilling! The idea of having a policeman come in your

house, to rush out toward the back lots where something was

happening! Nat and Weezie had never known anything like this.

"Come on!" called the little boy to his sister. "Let's go see what

it is!"

"Do you think it will hurt us?" asked Weezie, holding back a little.

"No!" answered her brother. "Anyhow, isn't Policeman Paddock here

with his club? And Mother and Grandma have gone out to see about it!"

This gave Weezie courage, so she followed the officer out into the

yard, close after Nat. The children saw the policeman crawling

through the hole in the back fence--the same hole through which Racky

the rocker had gone but a little while before. Only they did not

know this.

"What's the matter, Nat?" asked Rodney, looking over the side fence.

"Is somebody going to be arrested?" asked Addie.

She and her brother had come home from school to eat their lunch,

just as had Nat and Weezie. They had heard the loud talk in the

house next door, and had seen the blue-coated officer run out of the

back door with his swinging club.

"Is somebody going to be arrested!" Addie again inquired.

"Oh, I don't guess so," answered Weezie. "Anyhow, it's only a tramp."

"A tramp came in while we were at school," explained Nat, "and took

Grandma's rocking chair and her glasses. She sent me after a

policeman, but he came in, anyhow, before I could run after him!"

"He said the tramp was in the lots back of our house," added Weezie,

"and I guess he's going to arrest him."

"No, he didn't say there was a _tramp_ there," corrected Nat, "but he

said there was a lot of scrabbling around in the tall weeds, and he

heard a dog bark."

"Maybe it's Thump," suggested Rodney as he and his sister jumped down

off the boxes upon which they had climbed, to look over the side

fence, and ran toward the back. Their fence also had a hole in it

through which they could crawl to the vacant lots.

"Yes, it is Thump!" went on Rodney as the children hurried to the

clump of tall, dried weeds, around which now stood the policeman and

the mother and grandmother of Nat and Weezie. "It is Thump! There

he comes!"

And, surely enough, out of the weeds ran the dog, barking and wagging

his tail. He seemed much excited over something.

"Is the tramp there?" called Nat.

"Did you arrest him!" Rodney wanted to know.

"Are Grandma's chair and glasses there?" was the question Weezie

asked, while Addie called to Thump:

"Be still! Stop barking!"

"No, children," said Mother Harden, "there isn't any tramp here, nor

anything else. And the rocking chair isn't here--how could it be?"

"It could be if it ran away like our gas stove did," said Nat.

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Policeman Paddock. "Who ever heard of a gas stove

running away?"

"Ours did," said Weezie, but the policeman did not hear her, or, if

he did, he paid no attention, for he was playing with Thump, letting

the dog catch hold of the leather thong on the club.

"I guess it was a false alarm," went on the officer as he started

back toward the fence. "I was walking along," he explained, "and I

looked through, between the houses, and saw something moving in the

tall weeds. Then I heard a dog barking and I thought something had

happened. But it hadn't."

"Yes, something happened," said Grandma Harden. "A tramp got in our

house, while I was baking a cake, and stole my rocking chair and my

glasses!"

"Stole a rocking chair!" cried the officer. "That's a queer thing

for a tramp to take! And glasses, too--that's stranger still!"

"My glasses were in the chair cushions," explained Grandma. "And

what I am going to do without them I don't know! I can't see to

read, sew or bake. You'll have to finish chocolate-frosting that

cake, Helen," she told Nat's mother.

"Yes, I'll do that," young Mrs. Harden promised. "But it is very

strange about that chair. We were just sending for you, Mr. Paddock,

to ask if you had seen any tramps about, when you came running in."

"No, I haven't seen any tramps," said the policeman, "but I'll be on

the lookout for any of the ragged chaps who have your chair and

glasses," he told Grandma. "I'll be watching for them!"

"I hope you catch them," exclaimed the old Mrs. Marden.

By this time the two ladies, and the policeman, had made their way

back through the hole in the Marden fence, the officer to go out on

the streets, up and down which he marched all day, keeping order.

And Mrs. Marden wanted to get the children's lunch.

As for the two boys and the two girls, they lingered about the clump

of weeds, near which Thump also stood, his head cocked on one side

and his ears held up.

Oh, Thump could tell a strange story had he wished!

"I wonder what Thump saw here that made him bark so hard?" asked Nat.

"Maybe a strange cat," answered Rod. "Or maybe a big rat."

"Oh--a rat! I'm going in!" cried Weezie, making a dash for the fence.

"So am I!" echoed Addie, so the two boys were left there with Thump.

"Ho! Ho!" laughed Nat. "Rats won't hurt you!"

"Not with Thump around," declared Rod. "Look!" he called to his

chum, "see how the weeds are all trampled down, as if there had been

a fight here."

"Maybe Thump was fighting another dog," suggested Nat.

"Maybe," agreed Rod. "And look at these two funny marks in the soft

ground, as if somebody had dragged a sled along."

"Nobody would drag a sled now," objected Nat. "There's no snow on

the ground, but maybe it will snow soon, for it's getting colder."

"Those are funny marks," went on Rod. "I wonder what made them?"

But Nat could not tell, though, soon after that, he remembered and

then something very strange happened.

Thump sniffed about in the weeds, he sniffed at the queer marks in

the soft ground. Then the boys' mothers called them to lunch.

"I could tell what those marks are if I wanted to," laughed Thump to

himself as he followed his little master into the yard. For the dog

could understand boy and girl talk, though he could not speak that

language. Thump talked by barks, whines and by wags of his tail.

True it was that Thump could have told about the queer marks had he

wished, for they were made by the runaway rocking chair. After Racky

had told the dog he was going away, and after Thump said he, too,

would go, all of a sudden Thump remembered something, and turned back.

"I can't go with you, Racky," barked the dog, as the old, brown chair

started to sway away.

"Why not?" asked Racky. "I thought you said Rodney didn't treat you

kindly--that he wouldn't let you come with him to-day--and that you

would be glad to run away again, as you did with my friend the gas

stove."

"Yes, I said that," softly barked Thump, "but I just happened to

remember that Rod and Nat are going fishing to-morrow, or maybe this

afternoon, and they are going to take me with them. I love to go

fishing with the boys, so I guess I won't run away this time."

"All right," spoke the rocking chair, "then I'll have to run away

alone. But don't tell anybody which way I went, Thump."

"No, I won't tell," promised the dog and then, all of a sudden, he

grew much excited and whispered: "Quick, Racky, rock away as fast as

you can! I see a policeman passing along the street between my house

and your house. Maybe he is coming after you! Rock away! I'll

chase my tail here in the weeds and bark loud, and the policeman will

look at me and he won't see you. That will give you a chance to rock

away and hide! Quick! Go on!"

[Illustration: "QUICK, RACKY, ROCK AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"]

"Thanks! I will!" said the chair. So away he rocked through the

stiff weeds and bushes, off toward the forest and the lake.

Now Policeman Paddock, though he had been seen by Thump passing along

the street, had no notion of coming after the rocking chair. He did

not even know Racky was running away. But Thump thought he did, and

the dog began making a great fuss so the officer would look at him

and not try to stop Racky.

And, surely enough, hearing the noise in the weeds, Policeman Paddock

came rushing in, as I have told you, but all he saw was a dog. By

this time Racky had rocked far enough away to be out of sight.

"I'm glad they didn't catch me!" murmured the chair to himself as he

traveled on over the vacant lots. "If it hadn't been for Thump,

though, my adventures would be at an end before they had fairly begun.

"But now I am off to see the world! No more fat old ladies, however

nice they are, can sit on me, making me creak and groan. I am going

to do as I please!"

So, holding his arms stiffly against his sides, and settling his

cushions down in his seat and against his back, away rocked Racky.

It was getting colder, though the sun was shining brightly, and at

first the chair, who had lived, all his life, in a warm house, felt a

bit chilly.

"But if I rock faster, perhaps I will get warm," he told himself, so

he swayed to and fro as hard as he could. And the more he rocked the

farther on he traveled, for that is the way of some rocking chairs.

Soon he felt a warm glow all through his legs and arms.

"Yes, I ought to begin my adventures very soon," thought Racky as he

rocked over the fields toward the woods. "I wonder what will be the

first one?"

And, almost before he knew it, an adventure happened to him.

He was swaying along, not thinking of any danger when, all of a

sudden, he found himself on top of a rather steep little hill, which

led down to the edge of a wide brook. The hill was covered with

grass, which was now dried because Jack Frost had touched it with his

cold fingers; and this grass was slippery.

All at once, Racky rocked himself up to the top of this hill, and,

before he could stop himself, he began sliding swiftly down. Faster

and faster his smooth, polished rockers slipped along the crisp grass

as a boy coasts down a snow-covered hill on his sled. Faster and

faster slid Racky.

"Oh, I wonder what will happen to me?" thought the chair. "This is

certainly an adventure. But it will not be a very jolly one if I

splash into that brook at the foot of the hill! Oh, dear! I can't

stop myself!"

And straight on toward the brook slid Racky!

ADVENTURE V

THE SINGING GIRL

Amid a clearing in the forest, and not far from the edge of the

brook, stood a little cottage where lived the Singing Girl. She was

the daughter of a wood-chopper who, every morning, tramped off

through the lanes of tall trees to cut fire-sticks which he sold in

the town. The Singing Girl, as she was called, remained at home in

the cottage, after her father had gone to cut wood. She washed the

dishes, she swept the floors and she dusted the furniture until her

father came home at night, when she would have his supper ready.