William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

right now, each of you can pick out one toy to take with you, as long as it’s something that’s not too breakable.”
    Great joy and excitement, and a few minutes later they were all on their way downstairs, with Trixie clutching a Shirley Temple doll in a pink dress, and Buddy a tin clown that turned somersaults when you wound him up.
    On their way through the kitchen, Clarice got a bunch of stuff out of the refrigerator and bread box and told William and Jancy they should take it down to the basement and make some sandwiches when it was lunchtime. “The stove down there doesn’t work anymore,” she said. “But there are some dishes and knives and forks and like that in the cupboards. You’ll have to make your own lunch, because I’ll be gone for a while. Like maybe for two or three hours.”
    â€œIt will take you two or three hours,” Jancy asked, “to go shopping?”
    It wasn’t until then that Clarice explained that she really wasn’t supposed to be home alone all day. “I’m supposed to spend most of the day with my aunt, who lives just a couple of blocks away. My folks think I spend most of every day there,” she said. “But usually I don’t. My aunt doesn’t care. Actually, she’s my great-aunt and she’s pretty old, and most of the time she’s reading orsleeping. She doesn’t notice whether I’m there or not, except at lunchtime. So after I shop I’ll have lunch with my aunt like always. I usually help make it, because my aunt’s cook is giving me cooking lessons. But then I’ll come right back here. Just be sure all of you stay right here in the basement until I get back. Okay?”
    â€œWhat about Ursa?” Jancy asked. “Do you take him with you?”
    â€œNot when I ride my bike,” Clarice said. “He’s only supposed to go outside on a leash, because he runs away. He usually just stays in the house while I’m gone, but you can keep him down here with you in the basement if you want to, until I get back.”
    Jancy did want to. “But can I take him out so he won’t mess on the floor?” she asked.
    Clarice shook her head. “No. Don’t take him outside. You won’t need to. He’s used to waiting all day. The only time he has to go in a hurry is sometimes real early in the morning. That’s how come I happened to find you guys this morning. Ursa woke me up and absolutely insisted that he had to go out right then, even though it was still pretty dark outside.” She thought for a moment and then went on. “Maybe he heard you. Maybe that’s why he wanted to go so early.”
    So it turned out that it was only because the dog named Ursa wanted to go outside early in the morning that the runaway Baggetts wound up spending the nextday at the Ogdens’. Except for the fact that he was anxious to get the running-away ordeal over and done with, William wasn’t too upset about the delay. Not at that point, anyway.
    The trip to the bus stop would be a lot easier tomorrow. There was enough bread and cheese and apples to make a pretty good lunch, and the little kids had the doll and the tin clown to play with for the rest of the day. Nothing to worry about—you might think.
    You might also think that an expensive doll with eyes that opened and shut, and a tin clown that turned somersaults, would be enough to keep a six- and a four-year-old fairly happy for a few hours. They weren’t, though, and that was how it happened that William started doing The Tempest in the Ogdens’ basement.

CHAPTER 9
    I t didn’t happen right away. For the next hour or so, while the little kids played with their borrowed toys and Jancy played with Ursa, William got his Complete Works out of his knapsack. He started where he’d left off: act one, scene three of Twelfth Night , and it was pretty interesting. All about how Olivia’s uncle,