Rusty’s devilish plan is revealed … to nobody’s surprise. I hope they brought along a lot of water barrels, because they’ll need a lot if they want to muddy enough ground to discourage the Grungey Boys’ hijinks. Maybe that’s why they got Dirk to come along, to carry those heavy barrels. Being the Family Muscle seems to be Dirk’s major role in the strip.

How long do they think this mud will last? I mean, it just rained a day or two ago, right? But the ground is just fine, now. So this doesn’t seem like the killer plan Rusty imagines. I’d have expected one of the adults in the room to pull Rusty aside and say something like “Rusty, you know all that mud you saw the other night? That was from a big rain storm. You think we can do the same thing with just a few barrels of water? Nah! We’d probably get better results by stretching a muddy clothesline across the path, about chest-high. Better yet, we come back during the day, dig a big hole, fill it with mud, then cover it with sticks, leaves, and dirt. At night, they might not notice it until they are falling in.”