muffs’ face was streaked with tears as well as dirt when she finally rapped on the door. mr. tyler came to answer it.
“please, mister, will you keep my rabbit?” she said, handing him the hat, rabbit and all.
“bless you!” he exclaimed. “of course we’ll keep your rabbit but first you must come in and tell us what’s the trouble.”
muffs came in. mary and tommy and their big brother, donald, were seated around a table in the kitchen eating alphabet soup. mrs. tyler was serving them from a steaming yellow bowl and, when she had finished, she dished out another serving for muffs. “come here to the basin,” she said, “and wash away those tears. we can talk while your soup is cooling.”
that was all she said. she didn’t ask muffs if she’d had supper. she just seemed to know that the little girl was tired and hungry and wanted nothing more than to sit down in someone’s clean kitchen over a steaming bowl of alphabet soup.
tommy was telling the day’s adventures while thomas junior mewed about the table just as if he felt hurt that he had been left out. mary added to the story and soon muffs joined in and told about the rabbit.
33 great aunt charlotte, who had finished supper long before, sat in her chair rocking and holding baby ellen. the baby was asleep and would have been in bed if mrs. tyler hadn’t been so interested in the story the children were telling. once she did say something about it being made up but donald defended them.
“one thing’s sure,” he said. “they didn’t make up the rabbit.”
“i made up a name for him,” said muffs. “it’s bunny bright eyes.”
“and a bright little rabbit he is too,” agreed donald, “to get inside the hat without your knowing it.”
“mr. lippett says i played a trick,” muffs told him sorrowfully. “but i wasn’t playing any trick. it was bunny bright eyes played a trick on me.”
mrs. tyler had to laugh at this, but great aunt charlotte kept looking at muffins as if she were not telling the truth. mary and tommy didn’t say anything because they were busy eating the alphabet soup. muffs ate her soup too and a little while after that mr. tyler came in again.
“the rabbit’s all fixed up for the night,” he said. “i put him in an a-coop until someone comes for him.”
muffs wanted to ask what an a-coop was but just then it was decided that donald should go for her things and, if mr. and mrs. lippett were willing, make arrangements for her to sleep all night with mary.
“she’s far too tired to walk back there herself,” mrs. tyler said. then she showed muffs the high bed where she and mary were to sleep and told her mary would be up as soon as she had finished drying the dishes.
34 muffs undressed herself quickly and slid between the blankets. she lay there listening to the clatter of dishes downstairs and thinking. at first she thought it was strange that she had been sent to bed ahead of mary. then she thought how tired she was and how warm the alphabet soup made her feel. maybe the letters spelled w-a-r-m down in her stomach. they ought to spell s-l-e-e-p. the rabbit was probably asleep now in his a-coop. what a funny name! muffs made up a little song about it and sung it to herself. the song went like this:
a-coop, b-coop, could there be a c-coop?
could a rabbit in a c-coop
see a little girl eating alphabet soup
in an a-coop, b-coop, c-coop, d-coop ...
and so on clear through the alphabet.
it wasn’t a very sensible song but people don’t often think sensible things when they’re almost asleep. all night long muffs dreamed about her mother. they went shopping together on the subway the way they often did at home. how she loved that! she would scramble for the front train so that she could look out of the window and play she was flying. there were all the colored lights along the tracks. they flashed green, telling the train to go; then big and red, telling the train to stop.
muffs sat up in bed. that big red light wasn’t a stop light at all. it was shining right in her eyes. opening her mouth, she screamed, “fire!” and was going to scream it again but tommy clapped his hand over her lips and she could only whisper, “what’s the matter?” through his fingers.
35tommy clapped his hand over her lips
“the public notice. it’s got to have our names on it or the bramble bush man won’t know where to come for his glasses. don’t you see?”
muffs didn’t see very well because she was too sleepy. besides, the lantern tommy was holding blinded her and she couldn’t quite get over the feeling that it was really a fire. mary, who had somehow managed to creep into bed without disturbing muffs, was now asleep herself and even tommy’s shaking wouldn’t rouse her.
“wake up, mary! come on, muffs!” tommy was calling in an excited voice. “we could fix it up now and get back before anyone missed us in the morning.”
mary turned over in the bed and didn’t answer.
“take that light out of my eyes,” said muffs. “i was36 having such a nice dream about the cars when you woke me up. my mother sold some of her pictures and we were spending the money for hats and dresses and dolls—and—carriages——”
“but muffs! we’ve got to fix up the public notice,” cried tommy. “we’ve got to put in about the rabbit too or it wouldn’t be fair.”
“he’s asleep—in an a-coop. what’s an a-coop, tommy?”
but muffs went back to sleep while he was telling her and didn’t know the answer until morning. mrs. tyler’s voice calling tommy sounded dimly through her dreams but at first she thought it was only her mother talking to someone in the studio. she reached out to touch the green and gold screen but her hand found only empty air.
“someone must have taken the screen away,” she thought sleepily. the room looked big and empty without it. her heart felt empty too when she heard the voice again and knew it was not her mother at all. it was mrs. tyler and she kept calling:
“tom-mee! tom-mee!”
an echo came back from the big barn door and soon muffs and mary were both wide awake. mary’s clothes were ready and she dressed herself quickly but muffs had to hunt for hers in the suitcase donald must have brought in while she was sleeping. she found a pair of green socks and a blue linen dress that was a little wrinkled from being packed so long. her clothes weren’t like that at home. they were kept on hangers in neat little rows and her mother always told her what to put on. mrs. tyler didn’t tell her. she just kept on calling tommy.
“he’s a bad boy not to answer,” said mary impatiently.
37 muffs had a feeling that something had happened to him in the night but she couldn’t remember what it was. together, she and mary went over to the window and looked out. there was mrs. tyler walking toward the barn still looking for tommy. right beside the barn was what muffs knew must be the a-coop because a dear little white rabbit was jumping about inside of it.
“they call it an a-coop because it’s in the shape of an a,” mary explained, “only there are too many bars across it.”
“i think so too,” muffs agreed. “bunny bright eyes must feel as if he’s in prison. let’s go down and talk to him.”
when they were halfway there they met mrs. tyler and her eyes were red as if she had been crying.
“have you seen tommy?” she asked.
muffs tried harder than ever to remember what had happened in the night. he had come into her room and whispered something. it must have been something about a fire.
“i think,” the little girl said in a voice that didn’t sound sure, “i think that he went to see a fire.”
mrs. tyler put her hand to her heart. “don’t tell me, child! whatever makes you think that?”
so miss muffet told what she remembered of tommy’s visit to their room in the night.
“were you asleep, mary?” her mother asked.
mary said she was. “but i woke up early,” she went on, “before it was time to get up and i did see tommy through my front bedroom window. i’m sure it was tommy. i could just see him through the trees and he was running along the big road so fast i thought he must be going to see a fire.”
“but he would have told us—” his mother started to say.
“not if he thought you wouldn’t let him go.”
38 “he’s a good boy, mary,” said mrs. tyler and all at once she was crying again and saying between sobs, “suppose he’s been hurt! oh, my poor little boy!”
mary went over and put her arm around her mother and pressed her own cheek against that other cheek where the tears were.
“don’t cry, mom,” she said. “we’ll go and get him. maybe he’s still watching the fire.”
“you are a comfort,” said mrs. tyler. “maybe you know what you’re talking about after all. tommy’s gone and he must have gone somewhere. it wouldn’t do any harm to walk down the road a bit and ask about fires.”
