_The downy purple Gentians
Were lately come to town,
And the maple trees wore crimson
While the oaks were dressed in brown;
There came a gentle splashing from
The merry-hearted brook
Said Buddy Jim, "It's hard to stay
Indoors and read a book."_
"Do you find it so, son?" laughed Mother. "Then why don't you take your
books out of doors?"
"O may I, Mother?" eagerly asked the little boy. "Of course you may,"
said his mother, "but you are on your honor, mind! Your lessons must
be ready for Father this evening; but if it will be easier to study
outside, why not?"
Buddy was delighted. He loved nothing so well as being out of doors, so
he wasted no time about getting there. Old Dog Sandy was asleep on the
porch. "I guess I won't take him," said Buddy. "He is sure to find some
Little Neighbor to bark at, and I've got to study."
Daddy had given Buddy his choice. He could go back to town to school,
or he could study and keep up with his grade in the country for two
months. And Buddy had voted for the country, so Daddy was his teacher,
and he was a very strict one. _Very_ strict!
[Illustration: A splendid place to lie and study]
"I'll go down to the brook," said Buddy. "I know the very place."
It was a lovely afternoon. The big yellow pumpkins looked like gold
polka-dots in the sun among the shocks of corn. "What a fine place for
Cinderella to get a new coach," said Buddy.
At the brook Buddy came to the place where he had once tried to catch
Spotty the trout. The same turtle sentinels were asleep on the log,
sunning themselves, before they went into their mud beds for the
winter. As Buddy came along, splash! went the tiniest turtle into the
water. Buddy laughed, "Never mind, Little Neighbor," he said, "I'm not
fishing today. I'm going farther down stream."
The place Buddy had in mind for a place to study in was where the brook
widened out, getting ready to join the river. A big old tree had fallen
there. It reached away out into the swampy land on the farther side.
It made a perfectly splendid place for a little boy to lie and study.
Buddy noticed some queer, humpy places across the brook in the swampy
land. He wondered what could have made them. But the lessons were
hard, so he forgot about everything else until he could say them
all backwards. By that time the shadows were getting longer. Buddy
was just going to start home, when Splash! something went into the
brook. "My!" said Buddy. "That must have been a bear!" Then there was
a second splash, and surely there was something swimming across the
brook. And then all at once it sank right out of sight. He lay very
still, wondering about it. Where could it have gone to? He watched and
watched, but he was very sure that it did not come to the surface of
the water again. And then all at once there came the patter of little
feet along the old log where he lay, and a Little Neighbor almost ran
over him, but, seeing him, stopped short and tried to look as though he
were not there.
"Don't be afraid, Little Neighbor," said Buddy. "Who's afraid?" asked
the Little Neighbor, "I'm not! But what are you doing on our bridge?"
"Is it your bridge?" asked Buddy. "Well, we call it that," said the
Little Neighbor. "It is such a splendid place to dive from, when one is
carrying something. It's a short-cut home, you see. I've got some corn
for supper, and I must hurry. My father and mother just went in. Didn't
you see them?"
"Where _is_ your house?" asked Buddy. "Why, that's our house, across
there," said the Little Neighbor, pointing to the queer humpy looking
thing in the swampy land.
"How do you get into it?" asked Buddy. "And what's your name,--if you
don't mind telling me."
"We swim, of course," said the Little Neighbor, "and I am one of the
Musquash children. Some folks call us Muskrats, but we don't like that
name. We like the Indian name better."
"I saw your father and mother going home," said Buddy, "but they just
sank down in the water, and didn't come up. I'd be worried about them
if I were in your place."
The Musquash child just laughed. "You don't suppose we go away and
leave our front door open so any one can go in, do you?" he said.
"We make a tunnel that leads up to our house, under the water of the
brook, and nobody can find it except ourselves. Much better than
locking the door."
"What makes you so afraid of people?" asked Buddy. "I guess you would
be afraid," said the Musquash child, "if people wanted your skin to
make coats of. Traps all about, and spies and enemies, until we never
know what is going to happen. But there is Mother calling me. We
haven't had supper yet. Goodbye," he called and with a wonderfully big
splash for so small a child he swam away.
Buddy watched him out of sight. Then he too went home to supper.
After his lessons were over for the night, Buddy asked, "Daddy, what is
a Musquash's skin good for? And why do people hunt them?"
"It's good for a beautiful coat," said Cousin Betty who was visiting
there, "if you have money enough. I haven't!"
"Glad you haven't, Cousin Betty," said Buddy, "and I hope that no one
_ever_ catches _my_ Little Neighbor, the Musquash child, to make a coat
from his skin."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: He was thinking about old Bob's story of the Fairies]
[Illustration]