Everyone settled down a little warily, after a few rounds of self-congratulation, and the Dog telling me off, using language that under ordinary circumstances would have certainly made us go round the triangulation route -- teeter-totter, playpen, elm at the back of the yard, and back down to the teeter-totter and so on -- until dinnertime. Bear came back, snuffling a bit, and extremely wet, with the news that there was a stream into which he had fallen during his mad race away from his namesake. Ralph, Roister, and Doister had completely forgotten the episode, and were scurrying around each other as usual, poking each other and laughing. You really wanted to mash them with a tennis racket. I might get around to it. The others crowded around a makeshift circle.

"Alright," I said, "Meeting to order."
"Fish'n'chips!" piped up Ralph. This dissolved the trio. There must be a tennis racket in a box somewhere.
"Dog and I think that the smartest thing to do, in spite of the grisly surroundings" - no response, wasted, really -- "is to stick around here for a day or two, until we can be sure that the humans aren't coming."
Skippy began howling.
"Not all that useful, Skippy, but do you have something else to contribute?"
Skippy howled: "Wherererere are they? Wherererere is my dinner?"
Dog said, cooly: "There is dry food in the bags in that box over there. We can slice them open, and we will have food. Your owners have just gone out for awhile."
Skippy quieted down, mollified, but bewildered.
Surprisingly, Monty Python edged into the circle.
"Ssssseems to me that that iss a good plan. It iss sssummer and not too cold, even for me at night. They will fly back here tomorrow, when the ssssun comes. "< br> Parrot, still up in the tree, whistled down, "Agree, agree. I can keep a first watch, bong, bong, bong. 3 Bells and alls well, pheeooooh."
"You didn't do too badly up to this point, Parrot."
"Aye, Aye, Mu-- Marlene. Aye, aye."
"O.K., Anyone object? Turtle? Where is the turtle? " The turtle was rummaging in one of the boxes. "Turtle???" He poked his wrinkled head out.
"Oh, just looking for shiny objects." He said slowly. "Don't mind me."
"Why are you looking for shiny objects?" I asked
"Humans move real fast, especially in airplanes. They slow down to look at shiny objects. If we find any, we should sprinkle them around the crash site in the morning, just in case they can't see the trees for the forest. At least that is what I think. "
Griffon perked up his shredeared head: "Well, I don't know if this is good or bad luck, but there is a busted halflength mirror over here. I was admiring myself in it earlier."
The meeting broke up for the moment, and some went for the food, and the rest of us went for the mirror, and dug around for some more shiny objects, and then it was nighttime.