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you-know-what?" Sam asked.
    "I don't want to say it because of the dog," his mom explained.
    "He's asleep in the kitchen," Sam pointed out. "He can't hear you."
    "Well, I meant sandwich. I'll make us each a sandwich."
    They heard a crash downstairs. Sam's mom
groaned. "Here he comes," she said. "And he knocked over the wastebasket on his way. What on earth are we going to do about this dog?"

    Sure enough, Sleuth came bounding up the stairs. From a deep sleep in a corner of the kitchen, half a house away, Sleuth had heard the word
sandwich.
    Sam scratched the dog behind one ear. Sleuth wiggled his behind happily.
    "We have to talk in code," Sam suggested to his mother. "No food words."
    "Well, I was about to ask if you would like a you-know-what."
    Sam knew what. "What kind of you-know-what?" he asked. "Not the kind I hate, that comes in a can with a picture of a mermaid on it."
    "No, not that kind," his mom replied. She knew he meant tuna fish. She also knew that Sam hated tuna fish. "I was thinking of the kind that..." She thought for a minute, figuring out how to say it in code. Sleuth watched her. So did Sam.
    "The kind that comes chunky or smooth?" Sam suggested.
    "Yes, that's it."
    "Yes, I'd like a chunky you-know-what," Sam
said, "with, ah..." Now
he
was trying to come up with a code word.

    "Begins with J?" his mom asked.
    "Right. Begins with J. That's what I want for lunch." Sam followed his mom as she carried the laundry basket down the hall. Sleuth ambled along behind, listening to their conversation.
    "Mom?" Sam asked.
    "What?" his mother asked. She turned into Sam's bedroom.
    "Tell me how to spell
Gators,
" Sam said.
    Mrs. Krupnik opened the top drawer of Sam's bureau and stacked his socks and underwear inside. "G," she said. "It makes the sound of 'guh.'"
    "Then A, of course," his mother said. Sam followed her down the hall toward his parents' bedroom. "You can hear the A."
    "Gaaaators," Sam said to himself. "Yes," he said. "I can hear the A."
    He watched as his mother put his dad's undies away. "Your father is a messy guy," she said. "Look at this. His socks are all in a big jumble." She shook her head the way she sometimes shook it when she looked at Sam's room with toys all over the floor.
    "
Jumble
has a J," Sam announced. "I always know J because of Jell-O. Oh, no!" He clapped his hand in front of his mouth. "I said a food word!"

    They both looked at Sleuth warily. But he hadn't reacted. Sleuth didn't like Jello-O.
    "That's true. Jumble has a J. Let me see, now. Look: he has a green sock matched up with a brown." Mrs. Krupnik sighed and began to rearrange Sam's dad's socks.
    "T comes next," Sam said suddenly.
    "Tea comes next? You don't even like tea, Sam. I was going to give you chocolate milk with your sandwich. Oh,
no!
Now
I
did it!
Down,
Sleuth!"
    Gradually they calmed the dog, who had begun to leap around the room at the sound of "sandwich."
    "No," Sam said, when Sleuth had finally relaxed, "I meant T comes next in
Gator!
After the A! I can hear it! Listen: GaaaaTTTTTor!"
    His mom began to laugh. "You sound like a cheerleader, Sam. Gaaaatttor! Gaaaatttor!"
    Sam hurried down the stairs and back into the kitchen. The big green plastic bag was still on the floor beside the back door, where he had set it down when he got home from school.
    Sleuth followed him, turned around in a circle, and lay down on his folded rug in the corner. Sleuth knew that Sam often slipped him a few treats during lunch. Bread crusts, usually. Sam didn't like the crust. But Sleuth did.

    "Right now I'm looking for my hat," Sam explained to the dog.
    When Mrs. Krupnik returned to the kitchen with the empty laundry basket, she found Sam waiting in his special chair at the table. His head was tilted back so that he could see from below the bill of the huge Gators cap. Only the tip of his nose and his mouth showed. His mouth had a huge smile.
    "I found it all by myself," Sam said, "because I knew the letters."

    "Would you like to