WHEN DREAMS CAME TRUE
Steve seemed turned into a pillar of stone. He stood there, and just
stared as hard as he could at the girl in the buggy. His hand though
released its clutch upon the reins, and the girl, plying the whip on old
Bill, swept past, giving him one last scornful look as she went; for
indeed the usually elegant Steve must have impressed her as having taken
to the life of a tramp, he was so soiled and streaked.
Max and Toby and Bandy-legs had listened, and also stared. They grinned
of course when they realized how their brave companion's efforts were
wasted on the desert air; but did not say a single word as they walked
on, and overtook the dazed Steve, still standing there as though hardly
able as yet to figure it out.
He managed to grin a little himself, even while rubbing his elbow, where
it may have been knocked by the shaft of the vehicle at the time he made
that gallant upward jump.
"Huh! seemed like it wasn't a runaway after all!" he told them; "but how
was anybody to know about that, when it had all the earmarks of one? I
never waited to ask, but saw my duty and did it. Lots of thanks I got,
didn't I? It'll likely be some time before Steve Dowdy bothers himself
to stop horses again at the risk of his own life. Why, she looked like
she could _eat_ me when she drove off. A fellow's a fool to think a girl
could appreciate a job like that. Huh!"
"Never mind, Steve," said Max, throwing an arm over the shoulder of his
friend; "we know that if it had been a sure-enough runaway you'd have
covered yourself with glory, and saved her life in the bargain. Who'd
ever expect girls to be wagering candy pulls about an old nag making
time? And anybody to see old Bill tearing along would say he was running
away. It's all right, Steve; forget it now. You made a great stop,
there's no getting around that."
"I should say he did!" added Bandy-legs; "and when Bessie comes to think
of how you risked your precious life, just because you _thought_ she was
in danger, why, I don't see how she can help but feel sorry for being so
sharp with her tongue. But then all girls think of is candy-pulls,
dancin' and such things as dress. Nope, it don't pay for a feller to
play the hero any more. You wouldn't ketch me adoin' it, for a fact."
Toby started to say something that may have had to do with his opinion
concerning the impossibility of any one built like Bandy-legs being
agile enough to run alongside a racing horse; but he made such a mess of
it, or else on second thought felt it would be mean to say it, for he
stopped short, gulped several times, and relapsed into silence.
Sometimes that affliction of Toby's saved him from getting into trouble
and controversies, which proved that it was after all not an unmixed
evil.
After that they went on toward home, chattering like a lot of magpies
about the glorious times they expected having in the following week,
should the weather permit of their going off to the woods, on their
first outing of the season.
Before separating they divided the spoils of the frog hunt. After due
consideration Bandy-legs concluded that it would be best for him not to
bother his folks with any of the proceeds of the expedition to the big
pond.
"I'll drop over to your house to-morrow, Toby," he said, as he handed
the other his share of the trophies in the shape of five saddles, "and
p'raps you'd be kind enough to save me a couple of these, no matter if
they are cold. I don't dare upset our cook. She's the boss of the
kitchen in our house, and if you rub her the right way you c'n get
whatever you want; but she does everlastingly hate the looks of frogs'
legs, and vowed the last time I fetched some home she'd leave before she
cooked 'em again. Besides, mebbe next week we'll run across our fill of
the same when we're campin' out, and then I can have all I want."
Toby readily agreed to this, for he was a most accommodating fellow. He
even made Bandy-legs promise to eat dinner with him when the wonderful
dish of frogs' legs would be served.
"I'll have the s-s-same, even if I have to c-c-cook 'em m-m-myself!"
Toby promised, in parting.
"If you look over there," remarked Max, casually, "you'll notice that
bank of dark clouds has climbed up a little now. Seems like it might be
going to whoop things up some before morning comes along."
"Well, it's Sunday, and all we could do would be to hang around the
house, or walk down to see how the old circus was coming on," Steve
observed, with the calm philosophy of a boy.
"It's going to clear the air for next week, and give us the greatest
time ever," Max went on to say, in his optimistic way, for he was ever
ready to see the bright side of things, and no trouble could come along
but what Max quickly discovered that the gloomy cloud had a silver
lining.
In this spirit the boys separated, each one heading for his particular
home, for it was close on supper time; and Steve wanted to change his
clothes before he allowed his folks to see him.
Toby too knew that he would have certain chores to look after connected
with the feeding of his pets. He was too tender-hearted a boy to let
them go hungry when it could be helped; and besides, his mother always
insisted that if he must keep such a little menagerie in the back yard
he should always have the place tidied up, and under no circumstances
allow his captives to suffer from lack of attention on his part.
The 'coon was glad to see him, and even allowed Toby to pat his sleek
back, although the boy could remember many occasions in the past when he
had been nipped by those sharp teeth, or else felt the angry animal's
claws.
His red fox was also very tame, and would eat out of his hand, though
Toby did not dare let him loose, even with a chain like that holding the
'coon, for fear of losing him.
Even the wildcat seemed to be pretty friendly on this occasion, and
growled in a lower key than usual when Toby was pushing the meat scraps
through the openings between the bars of its cage.
Toby was mentally exulting in the possibility that his collection might
soon be added to by the coming of that partly grown black bear cub,
which Bandy-legs had half promised to let him have.
He even figured out just where he would keep Nicodemus fastened, and
what kind of a cage he would have to construct for him; because he had
never fully liked the one now being used as a place of shelter for the
cub, Bandy-legs not being much of a carpenter, to tell the truth.
It was with his mind filled with future triumphs in this line of
collecting wild animals that Toby sat him down to supper that evening.
He was unusually quiet, because he was thinking, and planning, and
seeing visions of great things to come to pass in the distant future.
When his father asked him how the frog hunt had come out he did manage
to arouse himself sufficiently to narrate some of the particulars,
especially Steve's getting such a monster hermit frog, his falling into
the pond, their making a fire to dry his clothes, and finally how he
stopped the runaway horse under a misunderstanding and never got even so
much as a word of thanks from the pretty inmate of the buggy.
Now at home, when he knew his folks were taking note of his manner of
speech, it was singular how free from stuttering Toby's language could
be. He just gripped himself, and was careful to speak slowly and
distinctly, pronouncing every word as though he were a foreigner trying
to pick up English.
And after all that is the only true way for a stammering boy to cure
himself; if Toby had been as careful when among his chums as he was at
home, he would have undoubtedly thrown the habit away long ago. But then
there were plenty of causes for excitement in a warm baseball game, or
when indulging in a swimming match, which he did not encounter at home;
and this excitement was the main cause for his failure to speak
distinctly.
He sat reading until it was bedtime, for he happened to have an
interesting book, taken from the public library, and all about the
different animals seen by a traveler in the heart of the African forest.
It was highly embellished with colored pictures, supposed to be
produced from photographs which this daring explorer had taken while
concealed near some waterhole, where the animals of the forest were in
the habit of coming to drink nights, and a flashlight camera helped
catch them true to nature.
All of this is told with an object in view. It would serve to explain
why Toby must have dreamed that he too was a bold traveler in this
foreign wilderness, and reveling in the wonderful sights to be met with
there.
Once during the night he was awakened by the rush of the wind, as the
storm that Max had told them would come along during the night, swooped
down upon Carson to blow a few trees over, and hit the tall steeple of
the Methodist church again, possibly wrecking it for the fourth time in
as many years.
As Toby crawled sleepily out of bed, to close the shutters belonging to
the two windows in his room that looked out on the back yard where his
pets were snugly housed, he wondered whether the circus had arrived
safely, and if the storm would keep them from erecting the big
round-top. Fortunately they had all of Sunday to prepare for the next
performance; and that would count for considerable, if repairs were
necessary.
Just then, during a temporary lull in the gale, he distinctly heard the
clock in the town hall tower strike three. This told him that the time
fixed for the coming of the circus train had long since passed, and
that they would undoubtedly be caught unprepared by the storm.
"But then they're used to roughing it," Toby thought, without stammering
either, "because circus canvas hands have to rub up against hard things
wherever they go. Haven't I had one boy tell me he never knew when he
was going to get his next meal, and how for a month he didn't have
regular sleep, and then it was on a hard board floor mebbe. Which makes
me feel thankful for such a nice soft bed, though I c'n stand it
sleepin' on the bare ground, when I have to in camp."
Yawning as he told himself this, Toby stood there by the open window for
a minute trying to ascertain whether he could hear a lion roar or an
elephant trumpet, for that would have made his ambitious blood leap
through his veins. But the noise of the storm prevented him from hearing
anything else, as the rain was beating down on a tin roof near by, while
the wind howled through the trees as though pursued by a legion of
demons.
So presently, when Toby found himself beginning to shiver, he crawled
back again between the sheets, and snuggled down, glad that he had such
a comfortable nook in which to lie while things were so unpleasant
without.
Once Toby managed to get to sleep and he minded nothing else that
occurred. Had that furious gale whipped the roof off the house he might
have aroused sufficiently to ask if the danger were very great, and
upon being reassured would have again dropped off on his voyage to
slumberland.
It was daylight when Toby sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes.
"Gee!" he was saying to himself, "that was a corker of a dream, all
right. Why, seemed like I could see everything the animals were adoing
at that same waterhole where that man took his flashlight pictures; and
it was so much like the real thing I could even hear 'em carryin' on
when the flash scared the bunch."
Just then he started, and sat upright, staring hard toward the nearer
window, through which it seemed a queer sound had come.
Toby could not ever remember having heard such a sound in all his life;
it was different from everything he had ever come across, and seemed
fraught with the most alarming potentialities.
Could one of his pets be choking to death, and was that cry meant for a
signal to summon him to the rescue? The thought flashed into his excited
mind, causing Toby to spring from his bed like a flash, and rush over to
where the closed shutters prevented a view of the back yard.
If Toby did have an impediment in his speech there was certainly nothing
of that kind connected with his movements. He was known to be one of the
smartest players on the high school nine; though tongue-tied, he could
equal the swiftest player on the football eleven, and had more than
once claimed a share in carrying victory to the colors of Carson High.
He reached the window, and with trembling fingers fumbled at the catch,
intending to throw the shutters wide open. As he was doing so he became
aware of the fact that a confused jumble of mysterious sounds seemed to
come floating up to him.
Toby gave his head a shake, as he again took himself to task.
"It's the old dream ahangin' on to me," he thought. "Chances are now
that's only a door aswingin' in the breeze, and groanin' to beat the
band; yet I'm so filled chuck full of things, because of that book, and
my dream, that I'm silly enough to think I'm ahearin' wild animals
asnortin' and agruntin'. Bah! get your eyes wide open, Toby Jucklin, and
let up with this nonsense."
He flung open the shutters as he came to this part of hauling himself
over the coals. Then he crouched there as though transfixed, hardly even
drawing in a single breath. All Toby could do was to remain as though
changed into a statue, and take it out in staring; though he did want to
rub his eyes the worst kind, and see if the magical vision would vanish.
Indeed, there was enough reason for him to stare as though his eyes
would pop out of his head. What he gazed upon might make the most
sensible person believe he had been taken with a very bad case of
nightmare, and was seeing things that could exist only in dreams.
There, right in the same back yard where he had his own private little
menagerie Toby was looking down upon the most remarkable collection of
wild animals any boy could imagine would drop down from the clouds of a
stormy night--two big elephants, and a cunning baby one in the bargain;
three dromedaries, with their double humps all in place; an ostrich; a
striped zebra, and last but far from least, a cowering tawny form with a
shaggy mane in which Toby could recognize the king of the African
forest, a male lion!
Who could blame Toby for believing that he was still dreaming as he
stared out of the window of his own little second story room, and saw
this wonderful array of wild beasts camped in the back yard, where up to
then the fiercest captive had been his snarling wildcat, and undersized
at that?