"Why," said Old Bob the gardener, with a twinkle in his eye, "I s'pose
you don't mean to make the squirrels a present of all the hazel-nuts up
in the back pasture, do you?"
"Why, no," said Buddy.
"Well," said Old Bob, "they will be just right to gather today, on
account of the frost last night, and if you will spread them out on
the flat roof of the garage for a few days the shucks will come off
beautifully."
"Thanks for telling me, Bob," said Buddy. "I'll go and get some today."
"They will come in handy evenings in the city," said Old Bob the
gardener.
Buddy's smile faded out. He didn't _want_ to go back to the city. But
the smile blossomed again right away. He didn't have to go for a few
more weeks anyway. "I'll get a basket," said he, "and go right away for
the nuts."
"A sack will be much better," said Old Bob the gardener, "it will be
easier to carry. Ask Mary the cook for one."
Mary the cook _had_ a flour sack, which she was glad to give to Buddy.
She also gave him some sandwiches for his lunch, so that he need not
hurry back.
Buddy whistled to Old Dog Sandy, and the two started gaily for the back
pasture. There was no hurry, so he thought he would go and see if there
were any thorn-apples left. There was a big old hawthorn tree, with
low branches, standing all by itself in the pasture. There was a funny
sort of ring around it, like a tiny circus ring. Buddy had once asked
Old Bob the gardener about it; what had caused it. And he had said that
he really didn't know; that it had always been there since he could
remember; but that his old grandmother, who came from Ireland, had told
him when he was little that it was a fairy ring. Made by the feet of
the fairies, when they danced in the moonlight. That they always danced
around hawthorn trees.
As Buddy came near to the tree he was thinking about Old Bob's story
of the fairies, and wishing he could see them. He was sure he could
hear something that sounded like wings rustling, and little voices
whispering; it came from the branches of the old hawthorn. For a minute
he thought perhaps the tree was full of fairies, resting after their
dance in the moonlight. And then Old Dog Sandy came running up, and
began to bark, and a whole flock of Bob Whites arose from the tree,
and flew away with a whirr into the woods. They had been lunching on
the thorn-apples.
"Now see what you've done, Sandy," said Buddy. "You must be more
careful; I don't want you to frighten the Little Neighbors. I am always
telling you so. Just once more now, and I shall send you home."
Old Dog Sandy hung his head; he just couldn't seem to remember that he
must not bark at things; anyway, wild things; they didn't belong to
anyone, he thought.
Buddy Jim took only a handful of the crimson thorn-apples; they were
not so very good, anyway; and besides, he felt that they belonged to
the birds, and it was hazel-nuts that he had come for.
As he got to the hazel thicket he heard small voices chattering and
laughing, and caught a glimpse of Red Squirrel and his family, with
their pockets just bulging with the hazel-nuts.
When they saw him they all whisked up in a big tree, and hid in the
branches. "Don't be afraid, Little Neighbors," called Buddy. "We won't
hurt you; it is only when you steal eggs that we don't like you."
But Red Squirrel and his family would not come back. They thought that
he might be like other boys they had met, and that he would follow them
to their nests, and take away their winter supply of nicely-shelled
nuts.
So Buddy started filling his sack with the crisp green and brown
clusters of nuts, thinking what a treat they would be for the boys in
the city, winter evenings after school. The sack was soon filled, there
were so many nuts, and then Buddy sat down to eat his sandwiches and
listen to the sounds around him. There was Old Jim Crow's "Ha, Ha,"
as he flew away from the corn field, and the clear whistle of the Bob
Whites as they went back to the hawthorn to finish their lunch, and the
"Quick, quick," of Mr. Blue Jay, who is always in a hurry over nothing
at all, when suddenly Old Dog Sandy began to bark. Mixed with his
barking and growling was a scolding, chattering voice that Buddy had
never heard before.
"I wonder," said he to himself, running toward the noises, "what that
meddlesome old dog is up to now?"
Old Dog Sandy was dancing about as nimbly as a puppy, in front of a
tunnel in the side of a little hillock, barking at a funny little fat
figure, which was sitting straight up, with its fore paws hanging down
in front of itself.
Old Dog Sandy saw his little master coming, and stopped his barking,
for he remembered just too late that he was to be sent home. Just then
the little fellow in the tunnel door saw Buddy. "I say," he called,
"call off your dog. He makes me nervous; if he comes any nearer I shall
bite him. And I can't go indoors until my mate comes back. How do I
know he would not kill her, he's so savage? And she's so fat she can't
run."
"Go on home, Sandy," said Buddy. "I _told_ you, you know." "Oh don't
send him off alone," said the small person, "I don't know which way
my mate is coming back; dogs can't be trusted. He might meet her and
tear her all to pieces. They always kill all wild creatures," he said.
"That's part of their game; just their nature; they can't help it;
we have to look out for them, that's all. But I do not want my mate
killed, so will you please take him with you when you go?"
"Are you in a hurry for me to go?" asked Buddy, laughing. "Well," said
the small person, trying politely not to yawn, "I really am a little
sleepy, you know. My mate said she just had to have one more dinner
before we go to sleep, so she went over to the turnip field to get it,
and I wasn't hungry so I promised to wind the alarm clock. I had just
come out to get the correct time from Mr. Sun, when your old dog came
along."
"Do you really mean that you have a clock to get up by?" asked Buddy.
"Why not? Don't you?" asked the small person. "Though our clock is
not like yours; ours is a sort of calendar clock. We must wake up on
Candlemas day, you know, else nobody would know what the weather was
going to be for the balance of the winter."
"Oh, now I know who you are," said Buddy. "You're Mr. Ground-Hog. Bob
the gardener told me about you."
"Some folks call me that, and some folks call me Wood-Chuck," said the
small person. "I don't care either way, so long as they do not call me
before February the second. But my mate is coming back, so if you will
take your dog away so that she can come in, I'll be much obliged to
you."
So Buddy and Old Dog Sandy stepped behind a big rock. Buddy peeped out
and saw fat little Mrs. Wood-Chuck waddling along, blinking sleepily
in the sun. As she joined her mate, in the door of their house, Mr.
Wood-Chuck turned and waved a friendly goodbye to Buddy, who slung his
sack of nuts over his shoulder and started home.
"Old Dog Sandy found a wood-chuck's hole up in the pasture," said Buddy
to Old Bob the gardener, while they were spreading the nuts on the
garage roof.
"Did you see them?" asked Old Bob the gardener. "Yes, I did," said
Buddy. "They were very fat and sleepy."
"They were just going to den up," said Old Bob the gardener; "they will
sleep till Candlemas day now."
"Do they really come out to find their shadow on that day, Bob?" asked
Buddy.
"Guess they must," said Old Bob the gardener, "every body says so," and
he went away humming to himself,
"Half the corn and half the hay
And half the oats on Candlemas day."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: There were bright-colored Thistle Birds]
[Illustration]