STORY XI

BULLY AND THE WATER BOTTLE

Well, just as I expected, my little cat did go roller skating, and skated over a banana skin, and fell down and rubbed some of the fur off his ear. But anyhow I'll tell you a story just the same, and it's going to be about what happened to Bully No-Tail, the frog, when he had a water bottle.

Do you know what a water bottle is? Now don't be too sure. You might think it was a bottle made out of water, but instead it's a bottle that holds water. Any kind of a bottle will do, and you can even take a milk bottle and put water in it if the milkman lets you.

Well, one day, when Bully didn't know what to do to have some fun, and when Bawly, his brother, had gone off to play ball, Bully thought about making a water bottle, as Johnnie Bushytail had told him how to do it.

Bully took a bottle that once had held ink, and he cleaned it all out.

Then he got a cork, and, taking one of his mamma's long hatpins, he made, with the sharp point, a number of holes through the cork, just as if it were a sieve, or a coffee strainer. Then Bully filled the bottle with water, put in the cork, and there he had a sprinkling-water-bottle, just as nice as you could buy in a store.

"Now I'll have some fun!" exclaimed Bully, as he jiggled the bottle up and down quite fast, with the cork end held down. The water squirted out from it just like from the watering can, when your mamma waters the flowers.

"I guess I'll go water the garden first," thought Bully. So he hopped over to where there were some seeds planted and the little green sprouts were just peeping up from the ground. Bully sprinkled water on the dry earth and made it soft so the flowers could come through more easily.

"Oh, this is great!" cried the frog boy, as he held the water bottle high in the air and let some drops sprinkle down all around on his own head and clothes.

But please don't any of you try that part of the trick unless you have on your bathing suit, for your mamma might not like it. As for Bully, it didn't matter how wet he got, for frogs just like water, and they have on clothes that water doesn't harm.

So Bully watered all the flowers, and then he sprinkled the dust on the sidewalk and got a broom, and swept it nice and clean.

"Ha! That's a good boy!" said Grandpa Croaker, in his deepest voice, as he hopped out of the yard to go over and play checkers with Uncle Wiggily Longears. "A very good boy, indeed. Here is a penny for you,"

and he gave Bully a bright, new one.

"I'm going to buy some marbles, as I lost all mine," said Bully, as he thanked his Grandpa very kindly and hopped off to the store.

But before Bully had hopped very far he happened to think that his water bottle was empty, so he stopped at a nice cold spring that he knew of, beside the road, and filled it-that is, he filled his water bottle, you know, not the spring.

"For," said Bully to himself, "I might happen to meet a bad dog, and if he came at me to bite me I could squirt water in his eyes, almost as well as if I had a water pistol, and the dog would howl and run away."

Well, the frog boy hopped along, and pretty soon he came to a store where the marbles were. He bought a penny's worth of brown and blue ones, and then the monkey-doodle, who kept the store, gave him a piece of candy.

"Now I'll find some of the boys, and have a game of marbles," thought Bully, as he took three big hops and two little ones. Then he hopped into the woods to look for his friends.

Well, Bully hadn't gone on very far before, just as he was hopping past a big stump, he heard a voice calling:

"Now I have you!"

Well, you should have seen that frog boy jump, for he thought it was a savage wolf or fox about to grab him. But, instead he saw Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel, and right in front of Johnnie was a great big horned owl, with large and staring eyes.

"Now I have you!" cried the owl again, and this time Bully knew the bad bird was speaking to poor Johnnie Bushytail and not to him. And at that the owl put out one claw, and, before the squirrel could run away the savage creature had grabbed him. "Didn't I tell you I had you?" the bird asked, sarcastic like.

"Yes, I guess I did," answered Johnnie, trembling so that his tail looked like a dusting brush. "But please let me go, Mr. Owl. I never did anything to you."

"Didn't you climb up a tree just now?" asked the owl, real saucy like.

"Yes. I guess I did," answered Johnnie. "I'm always climbing trees, you know. But that doesn't hurt you; does it?"

"Yes, it does, for you knocked down a piece of bark, and it hit me on the beak. And for that I'm going to take you home and cook you for dinner," the owl hooted.

"Oh, please, please don't!" begged poor Johnnie, but the owl said he would, just the same, and he began to get ready to fly off to his nest with the squirrel.

"Ha, I must stop that, if it's possible," thought Bully, the frog, who was still hiding behind the stump. "I mustn't let the owl carry Johnnie away. But how can I stop him?" Bully peeked around the edge of the stump and saw the owl squeezing poor Johnnie tighter and tighter in his claws.

"Ah, I have it!" cried Bully. "My water bottle and my marbles!" And with that he hopped softly up on top of the stump, and leaning over the edge he saw below him the owl holding Johnnie. Then Bully took the water bottle, turned it upside down, and he sprinkled the water out as hard as he could on that savage owl's back. Down it fell in a regular shower.

"My goodness me!" cried the owl. "It's raining and I have no umbrella!

I'll get all wet!"

Then Bully squirted out more water, shaking it from the bottle as hard as he could, and he rattled his bag of marbles until they sounded like thunder and hailstones, and the owl looked up, but couldn't see Bully on the stump for the water was in his eyes. Then, being very much afraid of rain and thunder storms, that bad owl bird suddenly flew away, leaving Johnnie Bushytail on the ground, scared but safe.

"Ha! That's the time the water bottle did a good trick!" cried Bully, as he went to see if Johnnie was hurt. But the squirrel wasn't, very much, and he could soon scramble home, after thanking Bully very kindly.

And that owl was so wet that he caught cold and had the epizootic for a week, and it served him right. Now in case the baby's rattle box doesn't bounce into the pudding dish and scare the chocolate cake, I'll tell you next about Bawly going hunting.

STORY XII

BAWLY N

"Oh, Grandpa, will you please tell us a story?" begged Bully and Bawly No-Tail one evening after supper, when they sat beside the old gentleman frog, who was reading a newspaper. "Do tell us a story about a giant."

"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed Grandpa Croaker. "I'm afraid I don't know any giant stories, but I'll tell you one about how I once went hunting and was nearly caught myself."

"Oh, that will be fine!" cried the two frog boys, so their Grandpa took one of them up on each knee, and in his deepest, ba.s.s, rumbling, stumbling, b.u.mbling voice he told them the story.

It was a very good story, and some day perhaps I may tell it to you. It was about how, when Grandpa was a young frog, he started out to hunt blackberries, and got caught in a briar bush and couldn't get loose for ever so long, and the mosquitoes bit him very hard, all over.

"And after that I never went hunting blackberries without taking a mosquito netting along," said the old frog gentleman, as he finished his story.

"My but that _was_ an adventure!" cried Bully.

"That's what!" agreed his brother. "You were very brave, Grandpa, to go off hunting blackberries all alone."

"Yes, I was considered quite brave and handsome when I was young,"

admitted the old gentleman frog, in his ba.s.s voice. "But now, boys, run off to bed, and I'll finish reading the paper."

The next morning when Bully got up he saw Bawly at the side of the bed, putting some beans in a bag, and taking his bean shooter out from the bureau drawer where he kept it.

"What are you going to do, Bawly?" asked Bully.

"I'm going hunting, as Grandpa did," said his brother.