Darin was away on a business trip for a few days. While he was gone, Sam agreed to baby-sit the son of a cousin of hers.

"He's a little bit frisky," she admitted, "but he's not REALLY a bad boy."

"Well, if he misbehaves, I'll put him in his place!"

"You do that, Sam!"

She and the boy-his name was Barney (short for Barnabus) were in the living room watching TV. Sam was sitting on the couch with her leg crossed.

Smiling to himself, Barney twitched his nose; Sam's shoe came off. Then he twitched again; a feather appeared. It sailed over to her bare foot and tickled it!

She giggled. "Stop that, Barney!"

She tried to put her shoe back on, but he twitched again. The shoe began running around the floor, like a mouse!

She crossed her arms. "Barney!"

He giggled.

She twitched her nose, and the shoe stopped running. Then she got up, walked over to it, and put it on.

But he had another surprise for her: Inside the shoe, he had twitched-up whipped cream!

"Barney!"

She took the shoe off and wiped the whipped cream off on the carpet. The kid laughed out loud.

"All right, you had your joke, now!"

"Here, I'll help you get it off."

He twitched. A pail of water materialized under Sam's foot. Not expecting this, she stepped back, causing the pail to up sop, spilling the water on the carpet! He giggled, again.

"All right. Two can play at that game!"

She twitched. Water poured down on him, getting him soaked!

He began bawling. She walked over and comforted him.

"There, there, Barney. I'm sorry."

But then, he twitched. Water poured over her, getting her soaked!

"Got'cha!"

She screamed. "All right, Barney, that's enough! How about this: If you promise me you won't do any more tricks, I'll let you stay up until 10:00."

"OK, I promise."

"Scout's honor?"

"Yeah."

She waved her arms. The two of them became clean and dry, and so did the room. Then she put her shoe back on. He kept his word and didn't do any more tricks.

His mom came home at 10:30. She woke him, and they started to leave.

"Was he a good boy?"

"He caused no problems at all."

"Glad to hear that!"

While they were leaving, he ran back in.

"Thanks for lying for me! I'm sorry about what I did to you."

"That's OK, Barney."