For a few days after Grandpa Croaker, the old frog gentleman, had been
wound around the toadstool by the snake, as I told you in the story
before this one, he was so sore and stiff from the squeezing he had
received, that he had to sit in an easy chair, and eat hot mush with
sugar on. And, in order that he would not be lonesome, Bawly and Bully
No-Tail, the frog boys, sat near him, and read him funny things from
their school books, or the paper, and Grandpa Croaker was very thankful
to them.
The frog boys wanted very much to go away and play ball with their
friends, for, it being the Easter vacation, there was no school, but,
instead, they remained at home nearly all the while, so Grandpa wouldn't
feel lonesome.
But at last one day the old gentleman frog said:
"Now, boys, I'm sure you must be very tired of staying with me so much.
You need a little vacation. I am almost well now, so I'll hop over and
see Uncle Wiggily Longears. Then you may go and play ball, and here is a
penny for each of you."
Well, of course Bully and Bawly thanked their Grandpa, though they
really hadn't expected anything like that, and off they hopped to the
store to spend the money. For they had saved all the pennies for a long
time, and they were now allowed to buy something.
Bully bought a picture post card to send to Aunt Lettie, the nice old
lady goat, and Bawly bought a bean shooter. That is a long piece of tin,
with a hole through it like a pipe, and you put in a bean at one end,
blow on the other end, and out pops the bean like a cork out of a soda
water bottle.
"What are you going to do with that bean shooter?" asked Bully of his
brother.
"Oh, I'm going to carry it instead of a gun," said Bawly, "and if I see
that bad alligator, or snake, again I'll shoot 'em with beans."
"Beans, won't hurt 'em much," spoke Bully.
"No, but maybe the beans will tickle 'em so they'll laugh and run away,"
replied his brother. Then they hopped on through the woods, and pretty
soon they met Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs.
"Let's have a ball game," suggested Peetie, as he wiggled his left ear.
"Oh, yes!" cried Jackie, as he dug a hole in the ground to see if he
could find a juicy bone, but he couldn't I'm sorry to say.
Well, they started the ball game, and Bawly was so fond of his bean
shooter that he kept it with him all the while, and several times, when
the balls were high in the air, he tried to hit them by blowing beans at
them. But he couldn't, though the beans popped out very nicely.
But finally the other players didn't like Bawly to do that, for the
beans came down all around them, and tickled them so that they had to
laugh, and they couldn't play ball.
Then Bawly said he'd lay his shooter down in the grass, but before he
could do so his brother Bully knocked such a high flying ball that you
could hardly see it.
"Oh, grab it, Bawly! Grab it!" cried Peetie and Jackie, dancing about on
the ends of their tails, for Bawly was supposed to chase after the
balls. Away he went with his bean shooter, almost as fast as an
automobile.
Farther and farther went the ball, and Bawly was chasing after it. All
of a sudden he found himself in the back yard of a house where the ball
had bounced over the fence, and of course, being a good ball player,
Bawly kept right on after it. But he never expected to find himself in
the yard, and he certainly never expected to see what he did see.
For there was a great, big, ugly, cruel boy, and he had something in his
hand. At first Bawly couldn't tell what it was, and then, to his
surprise, he saw that the boy had caught Jollie Longtail, the nice
little mousie boy, about whom I once told you.
"Ah ha! Now I have you!" cried the boy to the mouse. "You went in the
feed box in my father's barn, and I have caught you."
"Oh, but I only took the least bit of corn," said Jollie Longtail. But
the boy didn't understand the mouse language, though Bawly did.
"I'm going to tie your tail in a knot, hang you over the clothes line
and then throw stones at you!" went on the cruel boy. "That will teach
you to keep away from our place. We don't like mice."
Well, poor Jollie Longtail shivered and shook, and tried to get away
from that boy, but he couldn't, and then the boy began tying a knot in
the mousie's tail, so he could fasten Jollie to the clothes line in the
yard.
"Oh, this is terrible!" cried Bawly, and he forgot all about the ball
that was lying in the grass close beside him. "How sorry I am for poor
Jollie," thought Bawly.
"There's one knot!" cried the boy as he made it. "Now for another!"
Poor Jollie squirmed and wiggled, but he couldn't get away.
"Now for the last knot, and then I'll tie you on the clothes line,"
spoke the boy, twisting Jollie's tail very hard.
"Oh, if he ever gets tied on the clothes line that will be the last of
him!" thought Bawly. "I wonder how I can save him?"
Bawly thought, and thought, and thought, and finally he thought of his
bean shooter, and the beans he still had with him.
"That's the very thing!" he whispered. Then he hid down in the grass,
where the boy couldn't see him, and just as that boy was about to tie
Jollie to the line, Bawly put a bean in the shooter, put the shooter in
his mouth, puffed out his cheeks and "bango!" a bean hit the boy on the
nose!
"Ha!" cried the boy. "Who did that?" He looked all around and he
thought, maybe, it was a hailstone, but there weren't any storm clouds
in the sky. Then the boy once more started to tie Jollie to the line.
"Bungo!" went a bean on his left ear, hitting him quite hard.
"Stop that!" the boy cried, winking his eyes very fast.
"Cracko!" went a bean on his right ear, for Bawly was blowing them very
fast now.
"Oh, wait until I get hold of you, whoever you are!" shouted the boy,
looking all around, but he could see no one, for Bawly was hiding in the
grass.
"Smacko!" went a bean on the boy's nose again, and then he danced up and
down, and was so excited that he dropped poor Jollie in the soft grass,
and away the mousie scampered to where he saw Bawly hiding.
Then Bawly kindly loosened the knots in the mousie's tail, picked up the
ball, and away they both scampered back to the game, and told their
friends what had happened. And maybe Jollie wasn't thankful to Bawly!
Well, I just guess he was! And that boy was so kerslastrated, about not
being able to find out who blew the beans at him, that he stood right up
on his head and wiggled his feet in the air, and then ran into the
house.
Now, if it should happen that our pussy cat doesn't go roller skating
and fall down and hurt its little nose so he can't lap up his milk, I'll
tell you next about Bully and the water bottle.