The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 12, 1906, Page 16

THE SAN - FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. storfes?” she asked of Mrs. Whita “It's because the frogs tell them to us when we put our heads under the water,” Mrs. White said. “When your head is under the water you are ready to believe anything, and when you lift 1t out you never can tell whether what you have heard is true or not. That's the way we get so mixed up. We don’t mean to keep telling fibs all t! time.” “Here comes a train of cars!” Green- head cried, and they all went squawk- ing away down the stream. It was only the cows coming down to the brook for a drink. They walked in a long line along their narrow path, but they dldn’t look at all like a train of cars. “I don't know the cows very well,” Snowdrift sald, “and they are so large that they make me feel nervous. Don’t you think we had better be going now?" “Very well,” Mildred sald, and they went down the ather side of the fence along the clover fleld. Before long they came to a woodchuck, which some peo- ple call a groundhog, sitting up on a little pile of earth and looking in every r her out toward the darn to rn’s _house, which was the Rainbow came, too, but | was in front and some- to find her at home,”| “because she can't ‘go bas so many children to| es behind. We're ut wh Leghorn with her | Mrs. @ it, | do » ‘ direction. At first he was going to dive ; Ye'uha e into his hole, but Smowdrift called to [ 1d them into out “You needn’t be afrald,” she sald. “This child understands.” “How do you do, child?™ sald the woodchuck, gqtting down on all his four feet. He 'was very fat indeed and his coat was gray. “How do you do?" Mildred said. “I hope Spot didn’'t come with yeu,” sald the woo uck. “He worries me with his barking.” Snowdrift told him that Spot was {ll, | and he sald he was very glad to hear it Then he showed them all about his farm, with little roads running about in the clover where he went to eat his meals. Mildred was very much Inte ested, because she had never noticed real woodchuck farm before. “Don’t you find it cold In the winter?” < she asked. r Clad TO Jdee “Perhaps T might” he satd, “if I v wasn't always asleep. I go Ints my house when the snow falls, and it makes me so drowsy that I can’t wake up until it goes away again.” Mildred thought this was a story, like those that the ducks told, so she looked | at Snowdrift to see what she would say. | * “It really is true,” Snowdrift told her. | "He just curls up and goes to sleep, and | he sleeps for weeks and weeks. He has | an easy time of it. I wish he had some of the mice to look after!” They stayed with the woodchuck un- til it was time for supper. He invited them to have some clover with him, but neither Snowdrift or Mildred liked the taste of it, so they decided to go home. You® He Said,Civin Hildred Disil ° “How do you do?" sald the ducks, swimming around near them. ‘“What makes the water so muddy? Mildred asked, forgetting that it had rained the night before. “It was a fish,” sald Yellowlegs. “The biggest fish you ever saw came past here a few minutes ago. He had long ears and legs lixe a rabbit. If you should run I shouldn't wonder if | you could see him. He was so long." and Yellowlegs stretched out his wings as far as he could. “Good-by,” sald the All the other ducks began swimming | “Come out and see me next had | around and talking about the wonder- | Day!" s fast woke e wa t - At i insulting remarks until T Just couldn't he'd better not come over here again!” “How do you do, Mrs. nd. it v longer. We had a fight,| Mildred sat down on the floor and|Greenhead and Yellowlegs and Diver u ko | took Spot in her lap, and lh;}"l “11% h‘zd B olwflrirt u.lg. R fes,-John told me about it,” Mildred | a nice little chat together while Rain- “I never knew 2 y! 4 3 et {L:‘V: l\-03 S 1::1—1?“ | bow huntea grasahogpperm After that|names,” sald Mildred. | ful fish. “Good-by,” sald Snowdrift. “Den’t He bit my paw,” Spot sald. “It|they went down to the brook at the| . “Oh, yes; they all have names, of| “Let's run after it, Mildred sald. |forget to wake up when you go to n't fair, because I had him down |edge of the pasture, where the ducks | cours Snowdrift replied, “but you| “No,” sald Snowdrift. “They are|sleep! and he had promised to ask pardon, so, | were swimming, They all came close| mustn't pay much attention to what | Just telling stories. There wasn't any And so they went huuio and found tea of course, I wasn't expecting anything. | up to the shore when they saw Snow- | they say because they are awful story- | fish here at all. I don't see why they all ready and walting “for them when I shall be all rignt in a few days, and | drift and Mildred. tellers.” !do it. Why do you tell so many|they got there. NED THE CRUISE OF THE— JOLLY ROGER Fatty all the way to town when wa aamEs R White and d to see you,” he salid, . “It is pretty woodchucl. Animal ducks * Snowdrift ¥ Spot replie > | We all kind of separated after this | and began walking around kind of | listless until after a time we heard Jimmy give a kind of a shout. He was standing still looking at some- thing just as if he was being charmed by a snake, and we run over to-hi r‘ kind of hopeful. I nearly doubled up when I got there, for thers lying on the edge of the. water was Fatty's straw hat. Tl bet we were mighty good imitations of graven images for an awful long time, until I heard a sniffle at one side of me. It was little Hennie Wefers, and he was pale and trembling and beginning to cry. I looked at Johnny; he was the same way, so was Jimmy and the other fellows. Tom had loosened his pirut belt and was | stanaing sort of crouched up—I don't | know how I looked, but I knew I felt bad. “He's triéd to swim ashore” says Tom, after a while, “and he's out there —out there,” pointing. “Oh, what will We do—we oughtn't to have left him here. Here, Rusty, you can be chief,” he sald, looking at me—but I shook my head. I knew what pirut chiefs get. None of the other fellows wanted It | either, and then Johnny says, shaking his head: “You oughtn’t to have done it, Tom.” I agreed with him, and Tom broke into tears: “That's right, you all turn on mé and blame me—you wers all in it, and if Jimmy, there, hadn't started to | rag him I never would haye thought of e ‘Can’t we find the body?" says Hen- nie Wefers. “It'll do Miss Bowers some good to have a funeral. His folks are great on funerals, and we can all turn out.” “Turn out,” says Tom. *“We'll all be turned out in jail tomorrow, but we had better look for the body.” That was the hardest two hours I | ever spent when we got into the boat again. We rowed until our arms near- wade out to us, but we knew he wouldn't come far because he was one of the crowd that couldn't swim. He said he was going to tell his folks the first thing he got home, he’d have us arrested and put In jall, and he would tell his big: brother on us, and I don't know what he wouldn't do. He sald the sun would give him a headache,’] besides which he - had a stonebruise coming on his heel, and the hot stones out there would only make it worse. | Just as the crowd salled away he said | he was going. to the shore, and he | didn’t care if he drowned doing it, but | there was our duty to be done, so we kept on going without looking back. Just as we went around the end of Gill's Island to the lair we sneaked a {look back, and Fatty was sitting in the shade of a big rock a-crying like mad. With the crew gone the chief had to take an oar, and after that we went on plundering expeditions. When we got to shore one of the fellows plun- dered an old broken kettle up along the canal, and another bold -member stole the water jug belonging to some (Itallans who were working on the { raflroad. We found three or four other § valuable treasures, and all these we ! took over to the lair, where,we burled ‘them in silence, each man making a mysterious mark and.most of us that knew. how ‘writing ‘descriptions of the rowed out a little bit. He started to < | 1 spots, but most all of the fellows can | This seemed kind of:a_foolish thing. to to | do, because.digging ‘when:you haven't and we| got anything but a couple, of sticks to ular danger. Tom |do it with is mighty tiresome :work; ief, of course, be-| but the chief sald we would get the I was his trusty | treasure and the captives all right, so lieutenant, Johnny Smethers was next|we kept on. When we had those places lieutenant, and it ran down the line|fitted, up.the Jolly Roger, with the untll it came to Fatty Bowers, who skull and crossbones flying at the peak It was on account of |or the maintruck, set sail again, and ‘we went over to the shore on a plun- dering expedition. On the way over | Jimmy Seitz had to begin grumbling |and got Fatty Bowers Into it. That's | the way with Fatty Bowers; anybody |can get him to do anything. He's the fattest boy in our crowd, and seems to me he'd get to understand something some time, but he don’t. All a fellow has to.say to Fatty is, “Fatty, do this,” | or “do that,” and he goes and does it egins to blubber the minute he sees his mistake, or feels lass from his belt,,only 1t was a.wooden cutlass and couldn'tihurt a3 “No,” says Tom, 'paus! “I will not cut down What say you, my men, a:trial?”’ - We all growled out assent,‘as pirut: always do, and we turned t around for the isldnd. “ It was a great trial, and right up to the rules laid down by Flint the’ time he tried the . mutineers off. St. Kitts. Fatty was’brought in bound, but he wouldn't allow us to gag him, 80 we Just had to pretend to’do that. Tom was the judge, of course, and-I was against Fatty and examined witnesses. Fatty didn't have any chante at all, and even Jimmy, who defended him, “ac- knowledged that he had an awfill weak Case.” He got mad at Fatty, too, be-| cause Fatty wouldn't defy the grew and say “Rather death than this tyranny.” He wouldn't .even make his peace and repent ‘at the last minute. although he Wwas told that he was 'about to-be swung from the yardarm. ‘He was 8o fat that knew we didn’t have any rope strong enough to hang him, so. he just gliggled and made fun of everything. ‘We all withdrew to confer and then Tom says suddenly, “We can't hang “swim across, Broabst was made ¢ e got the boat. er had a giz- pset if it tried, in truck or vas the crew. t that all the trouble arose. We began piruting around nine o'clock, and after saiiing around the island for a time made a landing to fix up thé lair. pretty hot work: because really sall and the oars were mighty The chief, at first didn’t wan to touch the oars, saying it wasn't,the right thing for;chiefs to do,"but Johnny showed _him ‘where it sald that once when his helmsman was shot even old Captain “Kidd ‘sprang to the helm . and steered his vessel, so Tom togk an oar |and I stood up in the stern and folded my arms and growled out hoarse orders to my minions. We landed and chose & spot near the spring for the lair. place for our captives and then we dug |all of, a sudden t was pretty deep around the island!a hole in the ground for our !reuurm! g where the flag flew. the key to this boat. ione to pirut right the boat up to Barr's apout two miles above town; we in a day, too, although' pretty swift, and then making our lair—piruts e lairs and strongholds. Just opposite the shore y is Gill's Island, which has a grove Well, Fatty begins to say it fair for him to be the crew all alone everybody ordering him he don't care, and he'll gs like that, when Tom & but sand and stones onm it. know what s used to be to sail in and out of | the islands. It seemed as if this place just been made for the business. First we built a|quit, and thin, ays: “Ha, mutiny!” and he snatches a cut- | place With pokeberry, which-is as good as blood, and these we buried, too. Then we had something ‘to eat, and after an hour or two they announced that it was time that we went after our marooned man: ly he was'not to be marooned any more, but a.captive, and ‘we were to.rescue him at the cannon's mouth: So the expedition got under way, and we rowed gayly around the foot of the island, and Tom sald that ‘We{were not to look or give any sign until we came upon the island, when ‘we were to dash out and recapture Fatty. Though none:of us looked, we knew it seemed mighty still for any place where Fatty was Vi % X “T'll bet'he's sulking,” says Jimmy to him; 1ft's maroon him One. or two |me. “Or leep,” says another one. of the fellows didn't know what that|'Don’t lool and we didnt until the meant until the chief explained that|bow of the boat struck' ‘the: island. ‘piruts. used to take members of the/| Then we all’ jumped up as the chief crew they didn‘t like and leave them |shouted, “Come on, my gallant men,” .on deserted. islands, a prey to beasts|and leaped to the land and Tushed for- ands hunger. *.'| ward, brandishing our cutlasses. After You-ought to have heard Fatty when |taking a few steps we sort of faltered the decision : was announced to him:|:and then we stopped, looking around He sald he wouldn't play.. We told him jbewildered like. - The reason of this it was too late for that; and then he|was that there\was no Fatty Bowers began to cry and said he would tell his | on that island to be rescued. folks. Johnny smiled grimly and told | ~Fatty was gone—gone just as if he him he would: never see his loved ones | had flew away or the ground had again, and thén we started out to obey |opened up or he had swum or—or—I the chief's commgnd. . began to feel a little pale around the Fattyfmade an awful fight just by |chin—or he had tried to swim away laying . still, and. it took all the band|and had been—I couldn't ‘say fit. -1 could do' to rall him down to. the boat |looked around. The other piruts were and. get him §n, where he:laid howl- | digging thelr toes in the rocks and ing as loud he could. It was hard |looking every which way. rowing, but we got him over to the| - “What do you think can have be- sand bar, and there we had another|come of him?" asks Tom. . struggle getting him loose from the| : “I don't know,” I. answered. boat and on shore, where we left him, | ' Then Johnny Smethers asKed, slowly: leaving with him a cutlass and a fowl- “It can't be he was fool enough to ing' piece. So, the Jolly Roger sailed |try and wade or swim ashore?” away, leaving Fatty Bowers marooned; I didnt’ know. Fatty was pretty ly fell off and we looked everywhere, but there was no sign. At last, just as it was getting toward evening. we gave up and rowed over to land and started home. I don’t believe we talked a dozen words on the whole way. When we got to town went to a back street and sald good-by and didn't say good- by. Tom and Johnny went and hid In | thelr ‘woodsheds. Hennle Weters sneaked Into the house and crawled In the garreét. Hi Traub loafdd around the garden, but Maw saw me just as I was making for the cow stable with— “Where are you going?” I sald I was going to see If the cow was all right, and this sounded suspi- cious to her. “What have you been up to? she asked, - Then I broke down ané told her Fatty Bowers was drowned and we drownded, him., : I thought she would fall backward, and then she says: “Well, If Ernest is drowned it's been within the last five minutes, for.I'just saw htm down buy- ing some things for his mother at the store.” It was my turn to stagger, and I bet I streaked it over to Bowers'. Fatty was there, and when he saw me I bet he started to laugh. “Yah, piruts,” he sald, “T bet I fooled you. I didn’t mind that. “How 414 vou 4o 1t?” I asked, wanting to hug him. “Jim Chambers came down the river in his boat and give me a ride home,” he says. We had never thought of that. “But your hat?” I says, sitting down, because I felt a lttle weak. “Ob, I left that there,” he sald, *T thought it would foel you. I knew you would bring it home for me.” And, by but he was a mighty poor excuse for a | foolish sometimes, although, come to pirut. think about it, he was one of the nicest Seems to me you could have heard | fellers I ever knew. gracious, I hadn’t noticed till then that I l;'u! the hat in my hand. ow, what do you think of thats from Fatty Bowers?