He was thinking about old Bob's story of the Fairies]
BUDDY JIM AND THE WOOD-CHUCK PEOPLE
_The Mountain Ash was wearing Her beads of coral red, And the fuzzy caterpillars Were all looking for a bed; The Thistle birds were calling, And the air was crisp and clear, "Summer has gone," said Buddy Jim "And Winter'll soon be here."_
"That's so, Son," said Old Bob the gardener, "and that being so, you'dbetter make hay while the sun shines."
Buddy was used to Old Bob the gardener, and his funny sayings, and sohe knew that he didn't really mean that about making hay, because thehay had been made for months, but that he must do whatever there was to_be_ done and not waste time about it.
So he said, "What were you going to tell me to do, Bob?"
"Why," said Old Bob the gardener, with a twinkle in his eye, "I s'poseyou don't mean to make the squirrels a present of all the hazel-nuts upin the back pasture, do you?"
"Why, no," said Buddy.
"Well," said Old Bob, "they will be just right to gather today, onaccount of the frost last night, and if you will spread them out onthe flat roof of the garage for a few days the shucks will come offbeautifully."
"Thanks for telling me, Bob," said Buddy. "I'll go and get some today."
"They will come in handy evenings in the city," said Old Bob thegardener.
Buddy's smile faded out. He didn't _want_ to go back to the city. Butthe smile blossomed again right away. He didn't have to go for a fewmore weeks anyway. "I'll get a basket," said he, "and go right away forthe nuts."
"A sack will be much better," said Old Bob the gardener, "it will beeasier to carry. Ask Mary the cook for one."
Mary the cook _had_ a flour sack, which she was glad to give to Buddy.She also gave him some sandwiches for his lunch, so that he need nothurry back.
Buddy whistled to Old Dog Sandy, and the two started gaily for the backpasture. There was no hurry, so he thought he would go and see if therewere any thorn-apples left. There was a big old hawthorn tree, withlow branches, standing all by itself in the pasture. There was a funnysort of ring around it, like a tiny circus ring. Buddy had once askedOld Bob the gardener about it; what had caused it. And he had said thathe really didn't know; that it had always been there since he couldremember; but that his old grandmother, who came from Ireland, had toldhim when he was little that it was a fairy ring. Made by the feet ofthe fairies, when they danced in the moonlight. That they always dancedaround hawthorn trees.
As Buddy came near to the tree he was thinking about Old Bob's storyof the fairies, and wishing he could see them. He was sure he couldhear something that sounded like wings rustling, and little voiceswhispering; it came from the branches of the old hawthorn. For a minutehe thought perhaps the tree was full of fairies, resting after theirdance in the moonlight. And then Old Dog Sandy came running up, andbegan to bark, and a whole flock of Bob Whites arose from the tree,and flew away with a whirr into the woods. They had been lunching onthe thorn-apples.
"Now see what you've done, Sandy," said Buddy. "You must be morecareful; I don't want you to frighten the Little Neighbors. I am alwaystelling you so. Just once more now, and I shall send you home."
Old Dog Sandy hung his head; he just couldn't seem to remember that hemust not bark at things; anyway, wild things; they didn't belong toanyone, he thought.
Buddy Jim took only a handful of the crimson thorn-apples; they werenot so very good, anyway; and besides, he felt that they belonged tothe birds, and it was hazel-nuts that he had come for.
As he got to the hazel thicket he heard small voices chattering andlaughing, and caught a glimpse of Red Squirrel and his family, withtheir pockets just bulging with the hazel-nuts.
When they saw him they all whisked up in a big tree, and hid in thebranches. "Don't be afraid, Little Neighbors," called Buddy. "We won'thurt you; it is only when you steal eggs that we don't like you."
But Red Squirrel and his family would not come back. They thought thathe might be like other boys they had met, and that he would follow themto their nests, and take away their winter supply of nicely-shellednuts.
So Buddy started filling his sack with the crisp green and brownclusters of nuts, thinking what a treat they would be for the boys inthe city, winter evenings after school. The sack was soon filled, therewere so many nuts, and then Buddy sat down to eat his sandwiches andlisten to the sounds around him. There was Old Jim Crow's "Ha, Ha,"as he flew away from the corn field, and the clear whistle of the BobWhites as they went back to the hawthorn to finish their lunch, and the"Quick, quick," of Mr. Blue Jay, who is always in a hurry over nothingat all, when suddenly Old Dog Sandy began to bark. Mixed with hisbarking and growling was a scolding, chattering voice that Buddy hadnever heard before.
"I wonder," said he to himself, running toward the noises, "what thatmeddlesome old dog is up to now?"
Old Dog Sandy was dancing about as nimbly as a puppy, in front of atunnel in the side of a little hillock, barking at a funny little fatfigure, which was sitting straight up, with its fore paws hanging downin front of itself.
Old Dog Sandy saw his little master coming, and stopped his barking,for he remembered just too late that he was to be sent home. Just thenthe little fellow in the tunnel door saw Buddy. "I say," he called,"call off your dog. He makes me nervous; if he comes any nearer I shallbite him. And I can't go indoors until my mate comes back. How do Iknow he would not kill her, he's so savage? And she's so fat she can'trun."
"Go on home, Sandy," said Buddy. "I _told_ you, you know." "Oh don'tsend him off alone," said the small person, "I don't know which waymy mate is coming back; dogs can't be trusted. He might meet her andtear her all to pieces. They always kill all wild creatures," he said."That's part of their game; just their nature; they can't help it;we have to look out for them, that's all. But I do not want my matekilled, so will you please take him with you when you go?"
"Are you in a hurry for me to go?" asked Buddy, laughing. "Well," saidthe small person, trying politely not to yawn, "I really am a littlesleepy, you know. My mate said she just had to have one more dinnerbefore we go to sleep, so she went over to the turnip field to get it,and I wasn't hungry so I promised to wind the alarm clock. I had justcome out to get the correct time from Mr. Sun, when your old dog camealong."
"Do you really mean that you have a clock to get up by?" asked Buddy."Why not? Don't you?" asked the small person. "Though our clock isnot like yours; ours is a sort of calendar clock. We must wake up onCandlemas day, you know, else nobody would know what the weather wasgoing to be for the balance of the winter."
"Oh, now I know who you are," said Buddy. "You're Mr. Ground-Hog. Bobthe gardener told me about you."
"Some folks call me that, and some folks call me Wood-Chuck," said thesmall person. "I don't care either way, so long as they do not call mebefore February the second. But my mate is coming back, so if you willtake your dog away so that she can come in, I'll be much obliged toyou."
So Buddy and Old Dog Sandy stepped behind a big rock. Buddy peeped outand saw fat little Mrs. Wood-Chuck waddling along, blinking sleepilyin the sun. As she joined her mate, in the door of their house, Mr.Wood-Chuck turned and waved a friendly goodbye to Buddy, who slung hissack of nuts over his shoulder and started home.
"Old Dog Sandy found a wood-chuck's hole up in the pasture," said Buddyto Old Bob the gardener, while they were spreading the nuts on thegarage roof.
"Did you see them?" asked Old Bob the gardener. "Yes, I did," saidBuddy. "They were very fat and sleepy."
"They were just going to den up," said Old Bob the gardener; "they willsleep till Candlemas day now."
"Do they really come out to find their shadow on that day, Bob?" askedBuddy.
"Guess they must," said Old Bob the gardener, "every body says so,"
andhe went away humming to himself,
"Half the corn and half the hay And half the oats on Candlemas day."