Part 15 (1/2)
”No,” replied Bawly, ”I certainly did not. But perhaps I can get the corn up for you. I'll reach down and try.”
So he stretched out on the bank of the pond, and reached his front leg down into the water as far as it would go, but he couldn't touch the corn, for it was scattered out of the basket, all over the floor, or bottom, of the pond.
”That will never do!” cried Bawly. ”I guess I'll have to dive down for that corn.”
”Dive down!” exclaimed Arabella. ”Oh, if you dive down under water you'll get all wet. Wait, and perhaps the water will all run out of the pond and we can then get the corn.”
”Oh I don't mind the wet,” replied the frog boy. ”My clothes are made purposely for that. I'm so sorry I spilled the corn.” So into the water Bawly popped, clothes and all, just as when you fall out of a boat, and down to the bottom he went. But when he tried to pick up the corn he had trouble. For the kernels were all wet and slippery and Bawly couldn't very well hold his paw full of corn, and swim at the same time. So he had to let go of the corn, and up he popped.
”Oh!” cried Arabella, when she saw he didn't have any corn. ”I'm so sorry! What shall we do? We need the corn for supper.”
”I'll try again,” promised Bawly, and he did, again and again, but still he couldn't get any of the corn up from under the water. And he felt badly, and so did Arabella, and even eating what they had left of the candy didn't make them feel any better.
”I tell you what it is!” cried Bawly, after he had tried forty-'leven times to dive down after the corn, ”what I need is something like an ash sieve. Then I could scoop up the corn and water, and the water would run out, and leave the corn there.”
”But you haven't any sieve,” said Arabella, ”and so you can never get the corn, and we won't have any supper, and-- Oh, dear! Boo-hoo!
Hoo-boo!”
”Oh, please don't cry,” begged Bawly, who felt badly enough himself.
”Here, wait, I'll see if I can't drink all the water out of the pond, and that will leave the ground dry so we can get the corn.”
Well, he tried, but, bless you, he couldn't begin to drink all the water in the pond. And he didn't know what to do, until, all of a sudden, he saw, coming along the road, Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat. And what do you think she had? Why, a coffee strainer, that she had bought at the five-and-ten-cent store. As soon as Bawly saw that strainer he asked Aunt Lettie if he could take it.
She said he could, and pretty soon down he dived under the water again, and with the coffee strainer it was very easy to scoop up the corn from the bottom of the pond, and soon Bawly got it all back again, and the water hadn't hurt it a bit, only making it more tender and juicy for cooking.
And just as Bawly got up the last of the corn in the coffee strainer, down swooped a big owl, and he tried to grab Bawly and Arabella and the corn and sieve and Aunt Lettie, all at the same time. But the old lady goat drove him away with her sharp horns, and then Bawly and Arabella thanked her very kindly and went home, the frog boy carrying the corn he had gotten up from the pond, and taking care not to spill it again. And so every one was happy but the owl.
Now in case the fish man doesn't paint the gla.s.s of the parlor windows sky-blue pink, so I can't see Uncle Wiggily Longears when he rings the door bell, I'll tell you next about Bully and Dottie Trot.
STORY XX
BAWLY AND ARABELLA CHICK.
One day Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, was hopping along through the woods, and he felt so very fine, and it was such a nice day, that, when he came to a place where some flowers grew up near an old stump, nodding their pretty heads in the wind, the frog boy sang a little song.
”I love to skip and jump and hop, I love to hear firecrackers pop, I love to play The whole long day, I love to spin my humming top.”
That's what Bully sang, and if there had been a second, or a third, or a forty-'leventh verse he would have sung that too, as he felt so good.
Well, after he had sung the one verse he hopped on some more, and pretty soon he came to the place where the mouse lady lived, whose basket of chips Bully had once picked up, when she hurt her foot on a thorn. I guess you remember about that story.
”Ah, how to you do, Bully?” asked the mouse lady, as the frog boy hopped along.
”Thank you, I am very well,” he answered politely. ”I hope you are feeling pretty good.”
”Well,” she made answer, ”I might feel better. I have a little touch of cat-and-mouse-trap fever, but I think if I stay in my hole and take plenty of toasted cheese, I'll be better. But here is a nice sugar cookie for you,” and with that the nice mouse lady went to the cupboard, got a cookie, and gave it to the frog boy.
Bully ate it without getting a single crumb on the floor, which was very good of him, and then, saving a piece of the cookie for his brother Bawly, he hopped on, after bidding the mouse lady good-by and hoping that she would soon be better.