So I went off home to my father's house and put my squirrel to
bed in an old wooden box full of straw. And there I nursed him
myself and took care of him as best I could till the time should
come when the Doctor would return. And every day I went to the
little house with the big garden on the edge of the town and
tried the gate to see if it were locked. Sometimes the dog, Jip,
would come down to the gate to meet me. But though he always
wagged his tail and seemed glad to see me, he never let me come
inside the garden.



THE THIRD CHAPTER

THE DOCTOR'S HOME

ONE Monday afternoon towards the end of April my father asked me
to take some shoes which he had mended to a house on the other
side of the town. They were for a Colonel Bellowes who was very
particular.

I found the house and rang the bell at the front door. The
Colonel opened it, stuck out a very red face and said, "Go round
to the tradesmen's entrance--go to the back door." Then he
slammed the door shut.

I felt inclined to throw the shoes into the middle of his
flower-bed. But I thought my father might be angry, so I didn't.
I went round to the back door, and there the Colonel's wife met
me and took the shoes from me. She looked a timid little woman