Henry and the Clubhouse Read Online Free Page B

think you are? Ribsy’s growl seemed to say.
    I have just as much right here as you have, Ranger’s growl answered.
    No, you don’t, said Ribsy. I was here first.
    I’m bigger, growled Ranger.
    You’re a bully, growled Ribsy.
    Get off my property, Ranger told Ribsy.
    You make me, Ribsy told Ranger.
    “Cut it out, both of you,” ordered Henry.
    Planning to grab Ribsy’s collar and drag him away, Henry jumped down from the steps to the lawn just as the growls erupted into snarls and the dogs went for each other’s throat.
    “Ranger!” shrieked the woman.
    “Ribsy!” shouted Henry. The dogs were on each other in a twisting, tumbling tangle that seemed to be made up of feet, fangs, and tails.
    Henry ran over to the snarling, yelping pair and just as he was about to grab Ribsy’s collar, he found the other dog’s mouth in front of his hand. Quickly he drew back. He saw that he could not stop the fight and since he could not, he wanted Ribsy to win.  If it had not been so important for him to sell a Journal subscription he would have yelled, “Go get ’im, Ribsy.”
    “Look out!” shouted the woman. “Don’t let him bite you!”
    Neighbors began to gather on the sidewalk to watch the excitement. 
    “Dogfight! Dogfight!” a boy yelled.
    “The hose!” shouted someone.“Turn the hose on them!”
    “I can’t,” cried the new neighbor.“I don’t know where it is!”
    “Hey, look at old Ribsy,” said Scooter, who had ridden over on his bicycle to see what all the noise was about. “Go get him, Ribsy!”
    “You keep quiet!” ordered Henry, even though he wanted to cheer his own dog on.
    “Aw, your old mutt couldn’t lick a Chihuahua,” scoffed Scooter.
    “He could, too,” said Henry hotly. He wasn’t at all sure Ribsy could lick a Dalmatian, but he could lick a Chihuahua. Henry was positive of that.
    “Who’s winning?” asked Robert, who had just arrived, along with Beezus and her little sister Ramona.
    “The new dog,” answered Scooter, and rode on down the street as if the fight was already over.
    Half afraid that Scooter might be right, because the new dog was both bigger and younger than Ribsy, Henry tried once more to reach into the snarling, rolling mass of dog to grab Ribsy’s collar. He did not have a chance.
    A man grabbed Henry by the arm and pulled him away. 

    "Don't you know that's a foolish thing to do?” he demanded. “Those dogs might bite you.”
    “Yes, but he’s my dog,” Henry tried to explain. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”
    The next-door neighbor was screwing the garden hose to the faucet.

    He turned on the water and advanced toward the dogs with the gushing nozzle in hand. “Stand back, everybody!” he yelled and turned the full force of the hose on the dogs.  Water sprayed in all directions. Still the dogs snarled and snapped. The man with the hose moved closer, so that the force of the hose was stronger.The stream of water caught Ribsy right in the face and blinded him for the moment. This gave Ranger the advantage. He seized Ribsy by the scruff of the neck, and though Ribsy was a medium-sized dog, Ranger began to shake him. The man turned the hose in Ranger’s face.
    Ribsy wrenched free and ran dripping down the street with his tail between his legs, ki-yi-ing all the way. The Dalmatian was after him in a flash of black and white.
    Henry did not know what to do—whether to run after Ribsy and try to rescue him, or to stay and tell the woman he was sorry his dog got into a fight with her dog, even though it was her dog that started it all.
    He also wondered what Mr. Capper would think of all this.A fine job of marching right up and ringing that doorbell this had turned out to be.
    Before Henry had a chance to decide what to do, Ranger came trotting back down the street looking much pleased with himself. In the next block Ribsy could be heard ki-yi-ing toward home.
    “Bad dog!” said Ranger’s owner, shaking her finger at her pet.
    Ranger