"'Cause what?"

"'Cause the Toyman is as good as ole Noah any day," replied the little
boy. "He could build an ark as big as a house, as big as the Church,
an' the ducks'd get on an' the cows an' the horses an'--"

"Yes," interrupted his brother, "but don't you remember--there were
only two of each kind. Now Hal an' Teddy could get on, but White Boots
an' Ole Methusaleh'd have to stay off, an' Rover an' Brownie could go,
but Wienerwurst couldn't--see?"

Marmaduke looked frightened at this--at the very thought of
Wienerwurst, his little doggie, trying to swim around in a terrible
flood.

"I'd hide him under my coat," he declared.

"You couldn't get on yourself," Jehosophat insisted, "I tell you an
ark only takes two of each sort of people an' animals an' chickens and
things. Now Mother and Father could go--that's two grown-ups, an'
Hepzebiah an' me, but you an' Wienie would have to swim around in the
water just as long as you could, then go under--way under, too," he
added.

Perhaps he was only teasing, but Marmaduke didn't take it quite that
way. It seemed very serious. Then suddenly he had a bright idea.

"You forgot the _Toyman_," he shouted, "and that makes another
two, for the Toyman an' I are just alike. Didn't Mother say,--'He's
nothing but a boy.' So I'd sneak Wienie under my coat--if it was ol'