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dog in her life, but she did feel a trifle startled. The Nannies had taken
refuge on top of the grand piano.
Mr. Dearly took one look through the door, then dashed into the back
drawing room and flung open the double doors. A sea of pups
surged in. And now that there was a little spare floor space, Pongo
barked a command.
All pups who can find space: Roll! Roll, Missis! And he himself rolled
with a will.
The Dearlys stared in utter bewilderment and then both of them
shouted, Look!
The white carpet was becoming blacker, the black dogs were
becoming whiter
It s Pongo! cried Mr. Dearly.
It s Missis! cried Mrs. Dearly.
It s Pongo, Missis, and all their puppies! cried the Nannies, from the
top of the piano.
It s considerably more than all their puppies, said Mr. Dearly just
before Pongo forcibly embraced him.
Missis was embracing Mrs. Dearly. And in a corner of the room there
was a great deal more embracing. Perdita was going absolutely wild
trying to embrace eight puppies at once. They were her own long-lost
family! It had never struck Pongo that they might be among the
The Hundred And One Dalmatians 125
rescued pups. He had not even noticed their brown spots, because he
had scarcely seen any of the pups by daylight before they all rolled in
the soot. It turned out that Perdita s family was the one that fitted the
Cadpig s little blue cart so well and had pulled it so faithfully.
Mr. Dearly had put cart down in the back drawing room and the
Nannies had now got off the piano and gone to look at it.
That s a child s toy, said Nanny Cook.
And it s got a name and address on it, said Nanny Butler. And she
read out, Master Tommy Tompkins, Farmer. Dympling, Suffolk.
Dympling? said Mrs. Dearly. That s where Cruella de Vil has a
country house. She told us about it when we had dinner with her and
asked if we d like to buy it.
And then Mr. Dearly Saw It All. He remembered Cruella s desire for a
Dalmatian fur coast, guessed that she had collected all these pups so
that Mr. de Vil could make many such coats.
You must have the law on her, cried both the Nannies together.
Mr. Dearly said he would think about that after Christmas, but now he
must think about feeding the pups when all the shops were closed.
He hurriedly telephoned the Ritz, the Savoy, Claridges, and other
rather good hotels and asked them to send page boys along with
steaks. The hotels were most anxious to help when they heard that
the Missing Dalmatians had come home. And at least six dozen more
than I ever hoped for, said Mr. Dearly not that he had had time to
count the pups.
Nanny Butler said, They must be bathed first.
Bathed? gasped Mrs. Dearly. All of them?
They can t sleep in their soot, said Nanny Cook firmly. Nanny Butler
and I will work in our bathroom, and you two can work in yours. And
how about asking that Splendid Vet and his wife to pop round and
bathe pups in the laundry?
So Mr. Dearly rang up the Splendid Vet, who was delighted to be
waked up and called out at nearly midnight on Christmas Eve. He and
his wife soon arrived.
Mrs. Dearly got out all her best bath salt and bath oils and all the
lovely coloured bathtowels given to her as wedding presents. The
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Nannies lit fires in every room. Then the three bathing teams got to
work. Soon the house was filled with steam and the scent of lilac,
roses, and jasmine, mixed with the delightful smell of wet dogs. It took
less time than you would believe, because five pups were put in a
bath at a time. They were then pups then wrapped in pink, blue,
yellow and green towels and carried to blazing fires to dry. Mr. Dearly
thoughtfully turned the drawing-room carpet over so that the soot on it
would not come off on the clean pups.
By the time the last pup was washed, the steaks were arriving. There
were enough for everyone, even the humans who were by this time
pretty hungry. (They had theirs cooked.)
At last the Splendid Vet and his wife went home, and the house
settled for the night. Pongo and Missis showed plainly that they
wanted to sleep in their own baskets, with their puppies round them on
the hearthrug and in armchairs. Perdita took her little lot into the
laundry, on a rather good satin eiderdown. The other pups slept all
over the house, on beds, sofas, and chairs. The Dearlys and the
Nannies managed to keep chairs for themselves rather hard ones,
but they did not mind because they didn t expect to sleep much. They
wanted to be on hand in case any pup needed anything in the night.
When all was quiet in the firelit kitchen and their fifteen pups were
asleep, Pongo said to Missis, Do you remember that night we
left how we looked back at this kitchen? Look, now, at your legal
collar on its peg, ready for you to wear tomorrow and your beautiful
blue coat.
Missis said, I am so hardy now that I shall not need the coat. But I
shall wear it from vanity.
At that moment they heard a little noise at the window, a little
scratching noise. Outside, in the midst of a white blur, were two green
eyes. It was Cruella s cat.
Swiftly Pongo let her in.
Such goings on at the de Vils ! she said.
Quickly Pongo turned to his wife. I haven t explained to you yet,
Missis. Our friend here told me that if we could get into that bolted
room we could destroy Mr.de Vil s whole stock of furs. Cruella made
him keep them all there, so that she could wear any she fancied. I
hoped we might put an end to his furrier s business. That was why I
The Hundred And One Dalmatians 127
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