_The lovely Blackeyed Susans
Were nodding drowsily,
And the Katy-dids were singing
In the old red cherry tree,
The dusky, ripe blueberries called
An invitation sweet
"Come Buddy Jim, come up and see
How good we are to eat."_
Buddy Jim ran around the house to the back porch where Mary the cook
was busy shelling green peas for dinner.
"I wonder what kind of pie I can have for dessert tonight," she said.
"The red raspberries are all gone, so Old Bob the gardener says, and
I'm tired of pie-plant, aren't you, Buddy?"
"I was just thinking I would go and get some blueberries," said Buddy
Jim, "and I'll get some so you can make a pie, if you want me to, Mary."
"Bless the lad," said Mary the cook, "that will be fine. Wait till I
make you some sandwiches, and find a pail for the berries."
So with one pocket full of doughnuts and one full of sandwiches and one
full of cookies--(you never can tell _how_ hungry a boy is going to get
when he is working hard picking berries, so Mary the cook said)--Buddy
Jim called to Old Dog Sandy and started for the blueberry bushes.
Old Bob the gardener was very proud of those bushes. He had found them
many years before, bravely growing in the open pasture, just little
wild bushes that had strayed up there from the low places, and he had
treated them well, and had given them what they liked best to eat,
and had taken such good care of them they had grown into a wonderful
blueberry orchard, and the sweet dusky berries were twice as large as
any blueberries had ever been before.
So, Buddy Jim had lots of fun filling his pail with them, and long
before it was filled he simply could not have eaten a single berry
more, and his face looked just like a little black boy's face.
Blueberries do stain so! But Buddy could not see his face, and he would
not have cared if he _could_ have seen it, he was having so much fun.
All at once, Old Dog Sandy barked at something. Buddy knew what _that_
meant. Sandy had found some Little Neighbor. So he ran quickly. He
was always afraid that the silly old dog would at some time hurt some
little helpless creature.
He found him in a thicket of brakes at the edge of the woods, dancing
around an old stump, barking like mad at Molly Cotton-tail and her two
babies, who were trying to squeeze themselves into a little hollow at
the foot of the stump.
Molly Cotton-tail was trying to shelter the two little ones with her
body, but she wasn't quite big enough.
"Sandy," said Buddy, "stop that barking and go and lie down until I
come!"
Old Dog Sandy trotted off, looking foolish and disgusted, and talking
to himself. He could not understand Buddy! Here he took all this
trouble to hunt up game for him, and every time he got blamed for it.
It was no way to _treat_ a dog. He was going to stay at the house after
this.
[Illustration: Mary was shelling Peas for Dinner]
"My!" said Molly Cotton-tail, drawing a long breath, "I'm glad you
called off that old dog. I thought we were surely done for just before
you came. I thank you ever so much, not only for me, but for my poor
babies who are only four weeks old."
"I am sorry my old dog was so rude," said Buddy. "Somehow he won't stop
barking at the little neighbors. He thinks it's fun!"
"It may be--for him," said Molly Cotton-tail, "but not for us. You
see we cannot climb trees, as some animals can, and we do not swim to
speak of, and we have no holes in the ground to dodge into, unless we
use some other person's house, and then we may be running into danger,
because the snakes use the old houses of the wood-chucks and gophers,
and of course mothers _cannot_ run away and leave their babies--so you
can see it's not very easy being a rabbit."
"I guess not," said Buddy. "Do you live near here?"
"My home is right around the corner, under an old log," said Molly
Cotton-tail. "I have a very nice home, all lined with my last year's
coat, and as comfy as can be. But I brought the children out here to
sleep today, it was so pleasant and cool and dim in here. We were
having such a _good_ nap when your old dog found us."
"It is so early in the day," said Buddy, "that I don't see how you
could have _needed_ a nap."
"Oh, but you see," said Molly Cotton-tail, "we work nights and sleep
days!"
"Why do you do that?" asked Buddy Jim. "Well," said Molly Cotton-tail,
"it is so light in the day, and we can see so many things to frighten
us--we're not very brave you know--and it's so much fun to come out
when it's cool and dark to play our games and find our food."
"It's a funny way to live," said Buddy. "I couldn't find my way about
in the dark."
"I suppose we are made differently," said Molly Cotton-tail, "so that
we can all use the same world; it would be too crowded if we all had
to be out in it at the same time. But if you will excuse me now I will
get my children to sleep again, so Goodbye," and she started for the
comfy fur-lined nest under the old log.
"Goodbye," said Buddy Jim. "I'm glad I met you."
"Get many blueberries, Buddy?" asked Old Bob the gardener.
"Lots," answered Buddy. "And Old Dog Sandy scared up Molly Cotton-tail
and her two little baby Cotton-tails, in the edge of the woods."
"That so?" said Old Bob the gardener, "did you see them?"
"Yes, I did," answered Buddy, "the babies were cute little things.
Say, Bob," he went on, "why do people always say that rabbits have no
brains?"
"I don't know," said Old Bob the gardener, "I've always thought myself
that Molly Cotton-tail was a pretty bright Little Neighbor."
"I think so too," said Buddy.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "They must think it's Candy"]
[Illustration]