By ELIZABETH GORDON
Pictures by JOHN RAE
Out in the Park one day, children, I met a little boy not bigger than you are, who told me that he liked stories about a boy and a dog and the things they did together.
He said that it must be a real boy and a real dog, and there must be other animals in the story, not great, big, fierce ones, but just neighborly ones—animals a boy might, perhaps, meet when he went for walks in the woods—and take pictures of and get to know.
So this is the story of the way a real boy and a real dog spent their first summer in the real country; and the fun they had together.
Buddy Jim and old Dog Sandy are waiting for us over on the front page.
Your very own,
Elizabeth Gordon
T
hey were going to get an early start
"We're going to the Country,"
Said little Buddy Jim.
And all his little play-mates said,
"How dull 'twill be, for him."
"It's like a great, big, vacant lot,
Just land and air and sky!"
"No boys! No games! Oh dear!" said Jim,
"Don't want to say Goodbye!"
B
UT he had to say "Goodbye," because all the other boys' Mothers were calling them in to go to bed, and as Buddy Jim and his family were going to get an early start for their trip to the country in their automobile, there would be no time for saying farewells in the morning.
So all the boys ran home, shouting last messages to Buddy Jim as they went. "Bring us a tame bull-frog," said one, and "I'd like a grey squirrel to keep in a cage," said another.
As Buddy Jim heard the last door close behind the last small boy he felt very lonely indeed; so he sat down on the porch swing to think it over.
He could hear Daddy moving around in the house, getting everything ready for the early morning start, and he knew that it would not be very many minutes before he would be called in to go to bed; and he wanted to get his thinking done first, so he had to do it quickly.
There was one thing that he was very sure of; he did not want to go away and leave all his play-mates behind. "Course," he thought, "there would prob'ly be some fun in the country,"—but he knew that there was loads and loads of it in the city, base ball and three old cat, and swimming in the lake, and chasing butterflies, and working in the school gardens, helping Alex the crippled boy in the wheel chair to train his bull-pups, and "Oh, Goodness' Sakes! So many things! So many int'resting things to do."
"I don't want to go," he murmured aloud. "There'll be no one to play with; three whole months, and no one to play with! Not much fun to think about! I'll prob'ly just fade away and die!" he wailed.
Then somebody laughed, "Ha, ha, ha!" To be sure, it was a queer, squeaky little laugh, and Buddy Jim had never heard anything like it before, but it sounded very jolly.
"Now I wonder," said Buddy Jim, "what that was? It sounded just like somebody laughing! But there's no one here 'cept me."
"Hello, Buddy Jim," said the same squeaky little voice, "Hello! Can't you see me? Here I am, up above you, in the corner of the porch ceiling, hanging on a nail."
Buddy Jim peered up into the darkness above him, and sure enough he saw a funny, fussy little body, hanging head downward, so that a pair of little eyes, in a funny little fox-like face, were laughing down at him.
"Why!" said Buddy Jim in surprise, "Why! Who are you?"
"I? Oh! I'm just Reddy Bat, and when I heard you say that you were sad because you were going to the Country to live this summer, I just couldn't help laughing. I just laughed right out loud! Why, I'd almost give my right wing to go to the Country to live."
"Then why don't you?" asked Buddy Jim. It's "not very far." "Can't" said Reddy Bat, "Can't, I've got a family to support. Can't afford to leave these good hunting grounds just for the pleasure of living in the country."
"What do you hunt, here?" asked Buddy Jim, politely.
"Oh, flies and mosquitoes, and dragon flies, and bugs of all sorts," said Reddy Bat. "Don't you ever hear us swooping around after dark?"
"Now I come to think of it," said Buddy Jim, "I think I have. But I thought you were some night bird. Anyway, do you really think there will be any fun in the Country?"
"There will be if you make it," said Reddy Bat, "there never is any fun anywhere unless one makes it for himself. But I could have a good time there. I've some cousins who live there, and if you happen to meet them, just give them my best wishes, will you, like a good chap?"
"Why yes, I certainly will," said Buddy Jim, "if I see them," he added. "But maybe I won't see them! I've never seen you before in all my life until now, you know."
Reddy Bat laughed again. "I know it," he said, "and I live right here on your front lawn, in your own oak trees, and bring my family out for supper and exercise every evening."
"Where do you leave your children when you come out?"
"Leave the children!" said Reddy Bat in surprise. "Leave the precious children! Why, we wouldn't think of such a thing. Mrs. Reddy Bat always takes our children with her when we leave home. Why we would not have an easy moment all the time we were away if we left them at home!"
"I think you are very tender-hearted," said Buddy Jim. "Most folks say the Bats are ugly and not friendly." "Well," said Reddy Bat, "I know we are not very beautiful to look at, but I suppose we are very much like other people; we try to defend ourselves when we are molested. But if people treat us kindly, we treat them kindly."
"But, Reddy Bat," said Buddy Jim, "tell me what fun is there in the Country?"
"You'll see," laughed Reddy Bat, "living in the Country will make your eyes open wide so that you can see! And now Goodnight and Goodbye, Buddy Jim. It's time for me to go to work and for you to go to bed." And Reddy Bat unhooked the tip of his wing from the nail in the corner of the porch roof, and flew past Buddy with a laugh and a whizz and was gone!
Buddy Jim sat up and looked after him. He felt much happier! Just then Daddy called, "Bedtime, Son!"
"Dad," said the little boy, "I b'lieve I'm going to like living in the Country, after all!"
"Sure to, Son," said Daddy, and they gravely shook hands on it.
The summer shower had scurried by
And left the world all new;
And the fleecy clouds were floating
In a sky of clearest blue;
The plants were all so grateful
You could almost see them grow;
Said Buddy Jim, "The Country is
The nicest place I know!"
B
UDDY JIM was in the hammock on the porch with a book. But he had not been reading. It was much more fun to watch the zigzag streaks of lightning flash across the world, and to see the tall trees bend and sway in the wind, and to hear the big boom of the thunder-bird's wings. It was all so different from a shower in the city, when you had to rush and close all the windows, and stay indoors until it was over.
Buddy Jim laughed to himself when he thought about how much he had disliked to leave the city, and come to his Father's farm for the summer. His Father had bought it just so that they could have a summer home where the little boy could run and play and be interested. "I 'xpected to be lonesome," said he to himself, "but I'm not. I've never had so much fun before in my life!" And he settled back in the hammock to read his new book.
But he had hardly begun to read, when he sat up with a start. There was a great chattering and scolding from the branches of an old elm tree on the front lawn. And there was a cry that sounded to Buddy Jim like a call for help, so he threw his book aside and running out to the old elm tree peered up into its leafy branches.
Old Dog Sandy got up from the porch steps, shook the rain drops from his shaggy coat, and followed his master.
But the leaves of the old elm tree were very thick and they could see nothing, though the chattering and scolding and calls for help were still going on.
"Sounds as though old Red Squirrel was trying to help himself to Mrs. Robin Redbreast's eggs," said Old Bob the gardener, as he came by.
"Is that what it is?" said Buddy Jim. "Well, you watch me! I'm going up there and spoil that old fellow's game."
"I'll give you a boost, if you're going up," said Old Bob the gardener. "You'll get there quicker." And he swung Buddy Jim up to his shoulders. From there Buddy Jim could reach up and catch the lower branches of the old elm, and so clinging with his bare brown feet like a regular little monkey, he was soon in sight of Mrs. Robin Redbreast's nest.
It was just as Old Bob the gardener had suspected. There was old Red Squirrel chattering and scolding at poor Mrs. Robin, doing his best to chase her away from her nest; and she, poor brave little Mother bird, was sticking tight and refusing to leave her precious blue eggs.
When old Red Squirrel saw Buddy Jim he knew his game was up, and so he turned and ran, like the coward he was, past Buddy Jim, and down the trunk of the old elm tree.
O
ld Dog Sandy doesn't like Cats!
Of course he did not know that old Dog Sandy was waiting there for him, and he ran right into him! If old Dog Sandy had been young Dog Sandy it would have gone hard with old Red Squirrel. But even if old Dog Sandy could not catch him, he could chase him away and that is just what he did, barking so loudly it gave him a very good scare anyway, so that he made up his robber mind that he would keep away from that place in the future!
Up in the elm tree poor little Mother Robin was trembling all over. "I thought you never would come, Buddy Jim," she said. "And then I thought perhaps you were one of those boys who don't care much what becomes of birds."
"Indeed I am not," said Buddy Jim. "I care very much for birds, indeed I do, but you see I'm just out from the city, and I did not know what your call for help meant. I don't know much about Country life yet. Does old Red Squirrel bother you much?"
hisdreadful