Selby Snowbound Read Online Free PDF Page B

going.’
    ‘The door is open. You just go in.’
    ‘No way, Willy! I’m glad we’re friends now but this is asking too much.’
    ‘You were mean to me, too,’ Willy reminded him. ‘You did lots of mean things.’
    ‘Only because you deserved it. I never ever started it.’
    ‘Okay,’ Willy sniffed. ‘Goodnight, Selby.’
    Selby watched as Willy went back into the house.
    ‘I do feel sorry for the kid,’ Selby admitted. ‘He really has grown up — and he wants to be my friend. It must have taken a lot of guts to come right out and say it.’
    Selby lay there as a light rain began to fall.
    ‘This is awful,’ he thought. ‘Now I feel guilty about being nasty to Willy. It’s true that I did get him into heaps of trouble. Maybe I should go and get his teddy bear for him. If I don’t the poor kid will probably lie awake all night.’
    It began to rain harder and, just as Selby was about to go indoors, he made the decision.
    ‘Okay, so I’ll pop over to his house and get the teddy bear. It’ll only take a few minutes. I’ll take some shortcuts through people’s yards so Mrs Trifle won’t see me on the road if she’s driving home.’
    Selby climbed over the back fence and dashed from yard to yard and down two back lanes towards Aunt Jetty’s house, splashing his way through mud puddles along the way.
    ‘Yuck,’ he muttered. ‘I’m going to be filthy by the time I get there.’
    Minutes later Selby found himself in front of Aunt Jetty’s house. He walked quietly down the path, wiped the mud off his feet on the doormat and got ready to go in.
    ‘Good. Mrs Trifle hasn’t brought her home yet,’ he thought as he looked at the darkened house. ‘Well, here goes. I only hope I can find that teddy bear in the dark because I’m not going to risk turning on lights.’
    Selby reached up, turned the handle slowly with two paws and opened the door very quietly before slipping inside.
    ‘I’ll just stand here a minute till my eyes get used to the dark,’ he said out loud. ‘Hmmm, I wonder where that bedroom is.’
    Suddenly Selby sensed something strange. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he saw shapes around him moving slightly. Then suddenly the lights went on and Selby was surrounded by people wearing paper party hats and throwing streamers.
    ‘Surprise! Surprise! Happy birthday!’ they all cheered and then they suddenly went silent at the sight of Selby.
    Selby froze.
    ‘Oh, no!’ he screamed in his brain. ‘I’ve walked into a surprise birthday party for Aunt Jetty! That was the “part two” that Mrs Trifle was talking about and the reason for all those phone calls! Mrs Trifle took her to a restaurant and then she must be going to bring her back here to be surprised! That little brat Willy knew this! He set me up! Now everyone’s seen me opening a door and they even heard me talk! Now they know I’m not just an ordinary non-talking non-door-opening dog! What am I going to do? Oh well, when in doubt
run for it
!’
    Selby was about to turn and run when suddenly he saw Mrs Trifle and Aunt Jetty coming down the path behind him.
    ‘Out of my way!’ he screamed into the room full of shocked faces and ran into the house and into a back bedroom. There his foot hit something and he fell flat on his face.
    ‘Willy’s teddy bear! Just my luck I’d trip over the flamin’ thing! Okay, if that brat wants it back, he’s going to get it back. But I don’t think he’s going to be very happy.’
    In a second he was up and struggling to open the back window.
    ‘What’s going on here?!’ he heard Mrs Trifle ask from the other room. ‘You weren’t supposed to turn the lights on till we got here. Now it’s not a surprise.’
    ‘B-B-But there was this dog!’ someone said. ‘And he talked!’
    ‘Talked? What do you mean,
talked
?’
    ‘Like
talk
talked. He opened his mouth and words came out! Honest!’ another voice said.
    ‘What did this talking dog look like?’ Mrs Trifle asked as Selby