Ann Martin - Logan Likes Mary Anne !

Gabbie found the doll. She placed her in a baby carriage and wheeled her around the house, singing to her. By the time she got bored, Claudia was ready to meet Myriah.

"Let's go, Gabbers," she said. "It's almost four o'clock. Your sister will be getting off the bus soon."

Claudia and Gabbie left the house through the garage door. As they started down the driveway, Chewy barked at them from the backyard.

"Poor Chewy," said Claudia, turning around. "I bet you want to come with us, don't you?"

Chewy was standing on his hind legs, front paws resting on the fence. He whined pitifully.

"What do you think, Gabbie?" Claudia asked. "Should we bring him with us? He looks like he'd enjoy a walk."

"Mommy doesn't walk him to the bus stop," Gabbie replied.

"But we could. Do you know where his leash is?"

"Yes," said Gabbie. "It's in the mud room."

Sure enough, Claudia found a fancy red leash hanging from a hook in the "mud room." It said Chewy all over it in white letters.

"Okay, boy. Here you go," Claudia murmured as she clipped the leash on Chewy's collar.

Chewy began wriggling with joy — tail first, then hindquarters. The wriggle slowly worked its way along his body until he was yapping and wagging and grinning. If he could talk, he would have been saying, "Oh, boyo, boyo, boy! What a great day! Are you guys really taking me for a walk? Huh? Are you? Oh, boyo, boyo, boy!"

Claudia grinned. "I wish we had a dog," she told Gabbie.

"Daddy says having Chewy is like having three dogs," remarked Gabbie.

Now that should have told Claudia something, but both she and Chewy were too excited for Claudia to pay much attention.

"Okay, boy. Here we go." Claudia took Chewy's leash in one hand, and Gabbie's hand in the other. They set off with a jerk as Chewy bounded out of the yard.

"Whoa, Chewy, slow down!" cried Claudia. She held him back, but he strained and pulled on the leash, whuffling and sniffing at every-

thing he saw — rocks, patches of grass, cracks in the sidewalk.

Claudia and Gabbie passed a work crew repairing the road and reached the corner where they were to meet Myriah. A few moments later the yellow Community Center bus pulled to a stop.

"There's your sister!" Claudia told Gabbie.

"Where?" Gabbie stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck around.

"There. Look in the window."

Myriah was waving from a seat near the front, but Gabbie exclaimed, "I still can't see her."

So Claudia picked her up, dropping Chewy7 s leash as she did so. "Uh-oh," said Claudia.

As the bus door opened, Chewy bounded away. Claudia made a grab for the leash and missed. Myriah stepped off the bus then and Chewy ran to her with a joyous woof. But he didn't stop when he reached her. He snatched her schoolbag out of her hand and gallumphed away.

"Chewy!" Myriah screamed.

"Chewy!" Claudia and Gabbie screamed.

The bus drove off.

"Claudia!" cried Myriah. "He took my bag. Get him! There's a note from my teacher in

there! And a permission slip and my workbook pages with stars on them!"

Chewy was halfway down the block by then, his leash trailing behind him. He tore along, every now and then looking over his shoulder at Claudia and the girls with a doggie grin, as if the chase were a big game.

"My bag's going to be all slobbery!" said Myriah.

"Well, come on, you guys!" shouted Claudia. She took off after Chewy, with the girls behind her.

Chewy ran into the Newtons' yard.

"Look out, Mrs. Newton!" yelped Claudia.

Mrs. Newton was working in a flower bed, with Jamie and Lucy playing nearby. When she saw Chewy, she dashed to Lucy and picked her up, whisking her out of Chewy's path.

"Help us catch Chewy, Jamie!" called Myriah.

Jamie joined the chase.

Chewy ran into Claudia's yard. Mimi, Clau-dia's grandmother, was taking a teetery stroll down the front walk.

"Look out, Mimi!" cried Claudia.

Mimi stepped aside, but actually tried to grab Myriah's bag as Chewy flew by.

She missed.

"Thanks anyway, Mimi!" Myriah shouted.

Chewy gallumphed on, and Charlotte Jo-hanssen, Stacey's favorite baby-sitting charge, rounded a corner. She saw Chewy coming at her full speed.

"Aughh!" she screamed.

Chewy put on the brakes to avoid her.

"Get the bag!" yelled Claudia.

And Charlotte did just that — but then Chewy sped up and tore away again.

"Oh, thank you," Myriah said breathlessly to Charlotte. "This bag is full of important stuff."

Well, the bag was back but Chewy wasn't. Claudia didn't know what to do. She couldn't catch Chewy, so she simply returned to the Perkinses' with Myriah and Gabbie, and waited. Mrs. Perkins would be home around five. At 4:40, Claudia began to feel very worried. At 4:45, she was a bundle of nerves. At 4:50, the doorbell rang.

Claudia answered it. A workman wearing blue overalls was standing on the steps. "Hi," he said. "I'm fixing the road." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the repair crew that Claudia and Gabbie had passed earlier.

"Yes?" said Claudia curiously.

"Well," the man continued, "I really like

your dog. He's very nice and all, but he won't give me my cones back."

Claudia didn't have the faintest idea what the man was talking about.

"Go look in your backyard," the man said.

Claudia left him at the door and ran through the house. She looked out the kitchen window. There was Chewy dragging a big orange plastic roadmarker over to a pile that he had gathered by the swingset. Claudia snuck outside and trapped Chewy on his next trip to the road crew. The workman took his cones back. Mrs. Perkins came home. Claudia told her what had happened while she was gone. But she wasn't sure Mrs. Perkins believed her. Claudia couldn't blame her.

Chapter 8.

"Ahem, ahem. Please come to order," said Kristy.

Every now and then our president becomes zealous and tries to run our club meetings according to parliamentary procedure.

We couldn't come to order, though. The rest of us were still laughing over the story of Chewy and the orange cones.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to decide about Logan by myself," said Kristy.

That brought us to attention. I'd been sprawled on Claudia's bed. I sat up straight. Stacey and Dawn stopped giggling. Claudia even forgot to look around her room for hidden junk food.

"Okay," said Kristy more casually. "We've all talked to Logan. He's come to one meeting. And now, he's gone on a job. Mary Anne, what did you think?"

"Well, for awhile, I wasn't too impressed,"

I admitted. I told them about the shower rod incident. "But he was great with Mrs. Ro-dowsky, and getting along with the parents is always important. Plus, he's good in a crisis, really levelheaded, and he's good at distracting kids from things they shouldn't be doing." I added the stories about the grape juice, the stuck jar, and the cannonball off the couch.

"Jackie Rodowsky sounds like a real handful," said Stacey incredulously when I was finished.

"Well, he is, but he doesn't mean to be," I told her. "He's just sort of accident-prone. He's really a nice little kid. You could tell he loved Elizabeth. He was very gentle with him."

"Would you say Logan is a responsible babysitter?" asked Kristy. "Could we safely send him to our clients?"

"Definitely," I replied, and I wasn't just thinking of being in love when I said that.

"And we all like him, right?" Kristy went on.

"Yes," we agreed. It was unanimous.

Kristy paused. "But do we want to ask him to be a member of the club?"

Silence.

Even I couldn't say yes to that. I had visions of one uncomfortable meeting after another, each of us trying not to talk about boys, trying

not to mention things that were unmentionable, and of poor Lennie the rag doll spending the rest of her days under Claudia's bed.