The Flight of Pony Baker / A Boy's Town Story

t was late in the summer of that very same year that he got Pony Baker and all the res

where it was. He wagged his head, and said that he knew, and then they dared him to tell whose patch it was; and all at once he said it was Bunty Williams's, and dared the

stones and scaring cats. They had nearly as many dogs as there were boys, and there were pretty nearly all the boys in the neighborhood. There seemed to be thirty or forty of them, they

mother saw them, and because it was such a warm morning and she thought they might be going down to the river and called out to him, "You mustn't go in swimming, Pony, dear; you'll get t

nd danced and whooped till he broke through and started home. Then they ran after him and coaxed him not to

he water and made the fellows laugh. But they acted first-rate with him when they got across; they helped him to take off his trousers and wring them out, and they wrung them so hard that they tore them a little, but they were a l

h. He now said that Bunty Williams had two patches, one that he was going to sell the melons out of, and th

e to a piece of woods which they had to go through, he dropped behind. He said it was just the place for Indian, a

ttle boys believed him and tried to get in front. It was not long before he stopped and asked, What if he could not find

is watermelon tooth was beginning to trouble him, and he had no time for squirrels. That made all the big boys laugh,

fellows where the patch was. Pony lent him his handkerchief, and Jim said that he had the toothache, anyway. He showed Pony the tooth, and the fellows

up with him, the rest of the boys could see him pointing, and then the big boys that were with him gave a whoop and waved

of pretty near an acre, sloping to the south from the edge of the woods, and a

ay and green, and some were those big, round sugar melons, nearly black. They were all sizes, but most of them were large, and you need not "punk" them to see

seeds; and the fellows all agreed to save the seeds for Bunty, and put them where he could find them. They began to praise Jim Leonard up, but he did not say

th sharp-edged rocks, or anything, to get them open quick. They did not eat close to the rind, as you do when you have a melon on the table, but they tore out t

racked them open on the top rail of the fence, and then sat down in the fence corner and plunged their fists in and tore t

r Piccolo. He was pretty mad at first, but then he saw the fun of it, and he took one end of the melon and scooped it all out, and put it on in place of his hat and wore it like a helmet. Archie did the same thing with the ot

Williams had given up the patch, because Jim Leonard said so, and he knew that the boys had a right to the melons if Bunty had got done with them; but still the sight of them there, smashing and gorging, made Po

pe of the hill about half a mile off, and once he heard Jim saying, as if to himself: "No, there isn't any smok

s at home or not, if Bunty had given up the patch, but he did not say any

a ground-squirrel and began to dig for it, and in about half a minute all the dogs seemed to be fighting, and the fellows were yelling round them and sicking them on; and they were all making such a

e din of the dogs and the other boys, "Bunty's coming, and he's got his

ng among the vines and over the watermelon cores and shells and breaking for the woods; and as soon as the dogs found the bo

ght their feet in the roots and dead branches and kept falling down, and some of the big fellows that w

ty if he had done with his melon patch, but they all ran as if he had caught t

eached the river they had to run a long way up the shore before they got to the ripple where they could wade it, and by that time they were in such a hurry that they did not stop to turn up their trousers' legs; they just

im, but they were not very anxious. In fact they were all talking at the tops o

e to keep sneezing. None of them seemed to have seen either Bunty's shotgun or his bulldog, but they all believed that he had them because Jim Leonar

to think that maybe Bunty Williams had caught him, but Hen Billar

id: "I'd show you! I'd make him go back and find out whether

believed so, either, and that they would bet

gues hanging out, panting. But it made the boys think that something ought to be done to Jim Leonard, if they could ever find him,

hey were just going to build a drift-wood fire and dry their clothes at it, and they told him that if he went off in his wet trousers he would be sure to get the ague. But n

r he got to the top, and maybe he might have done so if he had not found Jim Leonard hiding in a hole up there and peeping over at the boys. Jim was crying,

ld not do it. He had three cents in his pocket-the big old kind that were as large as half-dollars and seemed

would never come. He had stopped to get some apples off one of the trees at his mother's house, and he had to watch his chance so that she should not see him, and then he h

to let the smoke out; but they would have to go a good way off so that the other fellows could not see them, and they could not

awfully to ask her for some salt, but they did not dare to do it for fear she would make them tell what they wanted it for. So they

eonard had in his pocket, so that if he ever got lost in the woods at night he could make a fire and keep from freezing. His tooth had stopped aching now, and he kept telling such exciting stories abou

s he could to Jim Leonard's stories. Jim kept taking the potatoes out to see if they were done enough, and he began to eat them while they were still very hard and greenish under the skin. Pony ate them, too, although he wa

ter on the hot stones, they could give him a steam bath the way the Indians did, and it would cure him in a minute; they could

he could walk on account of the pain that seemed to curl him right up. He asked Jim if he believed he was beginning to have the ague

er should not see who had brought him. He said that when he had got off far enough he would hollo, and then Pony could go in. He was first-rate to Po

own, and then all of a sudden he would do something mean. He acted the perfect coward at times, and at other times he was not afraid of anything. Almost any of t

g-barn, and get a witch-doctor to come and tend him; but Pony said that he thought they had better keep on, and then Jim trotted

the barn, and Jim put him over the fence. Jim started to run, and Pony waited till he got out of

heard his mother calling back: "Pony! Po

d the barn!"

father go for the doctor. While his father was gone, his mother got the whole story out of Pony-what he had been doing all day,

m something to make him feel better. As soon as he said he felt better she began to talk very seriously to him, and to tell him

e truth when he said the man had left his

Pony, tho

e shouldn't know the right pa

d to get out of going. Ought they let him turn back

"Do you believe that a boy has a right

ertain

's what I t

, "is there anybody who thin

t if you can knock a thing off a tree, or get it through a fence, when it's on the ground alread

nd of stealing. I hope my

ully. "When there's a lot of fellows toge

said his mothe

up, "I didn't take any of the watermelons to-day

u must promise, won't you, never to touc

drop over the fence onto the si

back over the fence aga

but he was glad she did not ask him to throw it back over the

old him all that Pony had told her, and it seemed to Pony that his fat

uld give up his watermelon patch, and how coul

," said Pony's father, "an

d fired his gun at them," said Pony's mother; and he could s

ot anybody with a hoe-handle, and there is noth

n so sick from it all, and Jim L

ughing. "When it came to the worst, Jim didn't take the melons any more than Pon

ou think that

all liars. Sooner or later their lies outwit them and overmaster them, for whenever people believe a liar he is f

ot answer, and then she said, "Well, all I know is, I w