Chapter Six (part d)

Mrs. Jones finally took a break and she and Jennifer sat down on the livingroom couch together. Jennifer noticed that the groundhog was still sleeping there so she was careful not to sit on him. Her mother didn't sit on him either, but it was more by luck than design. Actually, she mistook him for a pillow and even tried to plump him up a bit. This woke the groundhog up briefly. He opened his eyes and squinted at her. Then he realized who she was and possibly even why, so he closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Luckily he didn't snore this time.

"I'm not sure we should be doing this," said Jennifer.

"Doing what?" asked her mother.

"Cleaning up the house," said Jennifer.

"But it's a mess!"

"I think maybe it's a little bit that way on purpose."

"On purpose?" said her mother.

"Well, the house says..."

"Jenny, for goodness sakes, houses don't speak!"

'Well, you have to admit it creaks a lot!"

"Old houses do that, it's nothing unusual."

"Well, this one creaks at me personally," explained Jennifer. "It's creaking at you too
if you'd only just notice. You should try and notice, really you should. My great-grandfather says... "

"Of course he does," said her mother as she plumped up the groundhog again. "It's always good to notice things. But really Jenny, you'll just have to take what your great- grandfather says with a grain of salt. Look around you, pay attention to what you see, but don't take someone else's word for it. Decide for yourself what's true."

"Okay," said Jennifer and it sounded like good advice on the whole, but she wished her mother would stop plumping up the groundhog while she was giving it.

A few moments later Mrs. Jones and Jennifer went back to work and began to clean up the livingroom.

"Let's try and get it done as soon as we can," Mrs. Jones told Jennifer. "I want to really surprise your great-grandfather when he comes downstairs."

As it turned out it was definitely a surprise for Moffat, but not in the way that Mrs. Jones thought. He came down from the attic at half past two and into the livingroom to see what was what. Jennifer and her mother didn't hear him as he came in the door, but they certainly did a few moments later. Moffat discovered the squirrel's new horde of nuts the hard way. When he stepped on the rug it went sliding out sideways off towards the window. Moffat's feet went flying that way too, but his head went backwards towards the door. That left his body in the middle going nowhere at all except straight down. He made a great crash as he hit the floor.

"Great-grandmother Moffat!" he cried in dismay. "What in the name of my nom de plume is going on around here!"