Buddy Jim Read online

  Buddy Jim loved to look at his Mother.]

 

  BUDDY JIM AND THE PIN-CUSHIONY PERSON

  _"The Strawberries are ripening," Old Bob the gardener said, "And I must thin the beets next week, They're crowded in their bed; So I shall go to town today, While there's not much to do;" "O dear, O dear," said Buddy Jim "I wish I might go too!"_

  For Buddy Jim _knew_ that he was going to have a _very_ lonely day!There was no doubt about it. He liked well enough being in the country,when he could tramp about after Old Bob the gardener, and plant things,and pull up other things, and learn the name of every thing and thereason for it.

  Old Bob the gardener said every day that he had never before seen a"city chap" who learned so easily to tell the weeds from the plants,and who knew just which things to take from the garden to feed to hispet rabbits.

  But Old Bob the gardener was going to town for a whole long day! Andthere was nothing to do; and even if there had been anything to do,there was nobody to do it _with_; and he was just plain lonesome; buthe s'posed he'd have to feed his rabbits; so he started to the gardenfor some weeds.

  Just then Mother called: "Buddy Jim! Are you there?" "Yes, Mother,"said Buddy Jim, running back to the porch where Mother was standing inher pretty, cool-looking pink dress, with her hair blowing in littlecurls around her face.

  Buddy Jim loved to look at his Mother. She was _so_ pretty!

  "Buddy," said his Mother, "do you think you could go down to the edgeof the Fir thicket and get me some more Fir tips for the Porch pillows?"

  "Why, yes, Mother, of course I can, and I will, too, just as soon as Ihave fed my rabbits," said Buddy Jim.

  "That's a good son," said Mother, "and you'd better go around to thekitchen and ask Mary the maid for a basket and some blunt-pointedscissors. And be careful about poison ivy, son; there's a bunch of itdown near the edge of the Fir thicket that Bob the gardener has not hadtime to destroy."

  "Don't worry, Mother," said Buddy Jim, "I know that stuff when I seeit, and I'll be sure to keep away from it." And the little boy whistledto Old Dog Sandy to come along, happy that he had found something to do.

  It was lots of fun running across the fields to the woods. Thegrass was long and wet with the dew of the morning, and it curledaround Buddy Jim's little bare legs just as though it loved to havelittle bare-legged boys wade through it. Old Dog Sandy thought itwas wonderful to chase the big gray Grasshoppers that flew up in alldirections, with a ch-r-r-r, that sounded just like a pin-wheel on theFourth of July.

  Pretty soon they came to the Fir thicket, where all the young Fir treeswere standing like tall young ladies in pale green dresses ready to goto church on a Sunday morning.

  Buddy began carefully to cut off the pale green tips of the boughs ashis Mother had shown him, while Old Dog Sandy roamed through the bushesamusing himself.

  Buddy Jim's basket was almost full of the fragrant Fir tips, and he wasjust going to whistle for Old Dog Sandy, to come home with him, whenthere was a _dreadful_ commotion from inside of the Fir thicket. Itwas Old Dog Sandy barking for all he was worth, in a way that Buddyknew meant, "Come here, _quickly_, and see what _I've_ found!"

  So Buddy Jim put his basket down and ran into the Fir thicket, where hefound Old Dog Sandy doing his best to climb an old dead Fir tree, whichwas much taller than the rest of the trees, at the same time barkinghis _very fiercest_ at something that was perched up on a limb of thetree. Something that was very much alive, and looked like a big roundpin-cushion stuck full of pins, points up.

  "Hello!" said Buddy Jim, "What's the matter here?" "Matter enough, _I_should say," chattered a very indignant little voice, "and you'd bettercall off that foolish old dog of yours if you want to save him trouble.He'll be a sorry dog if he bites me!"

  "Don't be afraid of Sandy," said Buddy Jim. "He _is_ an old dog. I'vehad him always, and his bark is worse than his bite; besides, he can'tclimb a tree anyway; he just thinks he can!"

  The round Pin-cushiony Person in the tree just laughed. "Bless yourheart," he said, "_I'm_ not _afraid_ of Old Dog Sandy; I'm just beingpolite to him because he's a _City_ dog and doesn't know any betterthan to try to bite me; any country dog would _know_ better."

  "You go outside and lie down, Sandy," said Buddy Jim, and when the olddog had gone, growling deep down in his throat because he did not wantto go, he turned to the Pin-cushiony Person and said, "Now tell me whatyour name is and _why_ Sandy would be a sorry dog if he should biteyou."

  "You must have read about me in books," said the Pin-cushiony Person,"and if you would think a bit you would know that my name is PricklyPorcupine. My pins are stuck in _very loosely_, so if a dog bites me hegets something to remember me by. He gets a mouthful of pins that donot come out very easily and I don't get hurt very much. Sometimes,just for fun, I let one start to bite me, and just as he thinks he hasme I hit him in the mouth with my tail, and he goes home in a hurry toask his master to pull my pins out!"

  "I don't call that being very friendly," said Buddy Jim. "It isn'tvery friendly for dogs to try to bite me, either, just because they'rebigger than I am," said the Pin-cushiony Person. "Mother Nature made methe way I am, so I'd have some way of defending myself. I'm so _fat_,and my legs are so _short_ that I do not run very well, and besides, Idon't feel like running away from my enemies."

  "Well, I don't blame you for that," said Buddy Jim. "Nobody likes torun, even if the other fellow _is_ the biggest. I don't! I know justhow you feel about that. But do tell me. What do you do all the time?Do you live all alone?"

  "Not all the time," answered the Pin-cushiony Person, "I have a family;but we are rather independent people and _like_ to be alone. Days Isleep mostly, unless I am disturbed, as I was by your Old Dog Sandyjust now, and nights I go out for food."

  "What do you eat?" asked Buddy Jim. "I'm almost afraid to tell you,"said the Pin-cushiony Person, "for fear that you'll tell old Bob thegardener, but I live in this Fir thicket because it is so near to thefarm of your Father."

  "Why should Bob the gardener care?" asked Buddy Jim. "Well you see,"said the Pin-cushiony Person, "I go out at night and I nibble a bithere, and a bit there, from old Bob's garden, and I know how veryparticular he is about his garden and so I know if he ever catches meat it I shall be driven away from the Fir thicket."

  "Do people hunt you much?" asked Buddy Jim. "Not very much nowadays"answered the Pin-cushiony Person, "but I've heard old GrandfatherPorcupine tell stories to the Young Ones. He said his Grandfather hadtold him about the times when the Red Men lived in the forests, andused to hunt our people with bows and arrows. And how the Red Womenused to cook us to feed their children, and to use our quills thatMother Nature had given us to defend ourselves with to trim theirdresses and moccasins." "But those dreadful days are all over," hewent on, "and now about all we have to fear are the eagles and thelarger animals." "Aren't they afraid of your sharp pins?" asked BuddyJim. "Some of them are, after they get one mouthful," answered thePin-cushiony Person, "but Old Man Fisher is always hungry and willingto take a chance of getting stuck full of pins. But if you don't mind,Buddy Jim, I'm a bit sleepy--it always makes me drowsy to talk--so I'llsay Goodbye and just turn over and have my nap out."

  "Goodbye, old Mr. Porcupine," said Buddy Jim, "and good luck to you."And he picked up his basket of Fir tips and whistled to Old Dog Sandy,who was still growling.

  "Old Dog Sandy and I ran on to Old Prickly Porcupine down in the Firthicket today," said Buddy Jim to Old Bob the gardener, that night."And Old Dog Sandy wanted to bite him."

  "He would have been a sorry old dog if he had," said Old Bob thegardener.

  But Old Dog Sandy just opened one eye, and tapped the ground with histail.

  He was thinking that some day when there was nobody looking, he wasgoing back to that Fir thicket alo
ne! And he was going to _show_ thatold Pin-cushiony Person!