Did you ever make a willow whistle--that is, out of a piece of wood off a
willow tree?
No? Well, it's lots of fun, and when I was a boy I used to make lots of
them. Big ones and little ones, and the kind that would almost make as
much noise as some factory whistles. If you can't make one yourself, ask
your big brother, or your papa, or some man, to make you one.
Maybe your big sister can, for some girls, like Lulu Wibblewobble, the
duck, can use a knife almost as good as a boy.
Well, if I'm going to tell you about Bawly No-Tail, the frog, and his
whistles I guess I'd better start, hadn't I? and not talk so much about
big brothers and sisters.
One afternoon Bawly was hopping along in the woods. It was a nice, warm
day, and the wind was blowing in the treetops, and the flowers were
blooming down in the moss, and Bawly was very happy.
He came to a willow tree, and he said to himself:
"I guess I'll make a whistle." So he cut off a little branch, about
eight inches long, and with his knife he cut one end slanting, just like
the part of a whistle that goes in your mouth. Then he made a hole for
the wind to come out of.
Then he pounded the bark on the stick gently with his knife handle, and
pretty soon the bark slipped off, just as mamma takes off her gloves
after she's been down to the five-and-ten-cent store. Then Bully cut
away some of the white wood, slipped on the bark again, and he had a
whistle.
"My! That's fine!" he cried, as he blew a loud blast on it. "I think
I'll make another."
So he made a second one, and then he went on through the woods, blowing
first one whistle and then the other, like the steam piano in the circus
parade.
"Hello!" suddenly cried a voice in the woods, "who is making all that
noise?"
"I am," answered Bawly. "Who are you?"
"I am Sammie Littletail," was the reply, and out popped the rabbit boy
from under a bush. "Oh, what fine whistles!" he cried when he saw those
Bawly had made. "I wish I had one."
"You may have, Sammie," answered Bawly kindly, and he gave his little
rabbit friend the biggest and loudest whistle. Then the two boy animals
went on through the woods, and pretty soon they came to a place where
there was a pond of water.
"Excuse me for a minute," said Bawly. "I think I'll have a little swim.
Will you join me, Sammie?" he asked, politely.
"No," answered the rabbit, "I'm not a good swimmer, but I'll wait here
on the bank for you."
"Then you may hold my whistle as well as your own," said Bawly, "for I
might lose it under water." Then into the pond Bawly hopped, and was
soon swimming about like a fish.
But something is going to happen, just as I expected it would, and I'll
tell you all about it, as I promised.
All of a sudden, as Bawly was swimming about, that bad old skillery,
scalery alligator, who had escaped from a circus, reared his ugly head
up from the pond, where he had been sleeping, and grabbed poor Bawly in
his claws.
"Oh, let me go!" cried the boy frog. "Please let me go!"
"No, I'll not!" answered the alligator savagely. "I had you and your
brother once before, and you got away, but you shan't get loose this
time. I'm going to take you to my deep, dark, dismal den, and then we'll
have supper together."
Well, Bawly begged and pleaded, but it was of no use. That alligator
simply would not let him go, but held him tightly in his claws, and made
ugly faces at him, just like the masks on Hallowe'en night.
All this while Sammie Littletail sat on the bank of the pond, too
frightened, at the sight of the alligator, to hop away. He was afraid
the savage creature might, at any moment, spring out and grab him also,
and the rabbit boy just sat there, not knowing what to do.
"I wish I could save Bawly," thought Sammie, "but how can I? I can't
fight a big alligator, and if I throw stones at him it will only make
him more angry. Oh, if only there was a fireman or a policeman in the
woods, I'd tell him, and he'd hit the alligator, and make him go away.
But there isn't a policeman or a fireman here!"
Then the alligator started to swim away with poor Bawly, to take him off
to his deep, dark, dismal den, when, all of a sudden, Sammie happened to
think of the two willow whistles he had--his own and Bawly's.
"I wonder if I could scare the alligator with them, and make him let
Bawly go?" Sammie thought. Then he made up a plan. He crept softly to
one side, and he hid behind a stump. Then he took the two whistles and
he put them into his mouth.
Next, the rabbit boy gathered up a whole lot of little stones in a pile.
And the next thing he did was to build a little fire out of dry sticks.
Then he hunted up an old tin can that had once held baked beans, but
which now didn't have anything in it.
"Oh, I'll make that alligator wish he'd never caught Bawly!" exclaimed
Sammie, working very quickly, for the savage reptile was fast swimming
away with the frog boy.
Sammie put the stones in the tin can, together with some water, and he
set the can on the fire to boil, and he knew the stones would get hot,
too, as well as the water. And, surely enough, soon the water in the can
was bubbling and the stones were very hot.
Then Sammie took a long breath and he blew on those whistles, both at
the same time as hard as ever he could. Then he took some wet moss and
wrapped it around the hot can, so it wouldn't burn his paws, and he
tossed everything--hot water, hot stones, hot can and all--over into the
pond, close to where the alligator was. Then Sammie blew on the whistles
some more. "Toot! Toot! Toot! Toot!"
"Splash!" Into the water went the hot stones, hissing like snakes.
"Buzz! Bubble! Fizz!" went the hot water all over the alligator.
"Toot! Toot!" went the whistles which Sammie was blowing.
"Skizz! Skizz!" went the hot fire-ashes that also fell into the pond.
"Oh, it's a fire engine after me! It's a terrible fire engine after me!
It's spouting hot water and sparks on me!" cried the alligator, real
frightened like, and then he was so scared that he let go of Bawly, and
sank away down to the bottom of the pond to get out of the way of the
hot stones and the hot water and the hot sparks, and where he couldn't
hear the screechy whistles which he thought came from fire engines. And
Bawly swam safely to shore, and he thanked Sammie Littletail very kindly
for saving his life, and they went on a little farther and had a nice
game of tag together until supper time.
So that's how the whistles that Bawly made did him a good service, and
next, if it stops raining long enough so the moon can come out without
getting wet, and go to the moving pictures, I'll tell you about Grandpa
Croaker and Uncle Wiggily Longears.