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

o. He had a levvy (as the old Spanish real used to be called in southern Ohio) in his pocket, and he was going to buy a pack of shooting-crackers for ten cents, and spend the

ix-pounder on the river-bank; and he was going to get his mother t

but she said "Not near," and just as Jake Milrace rode up the saw caught in a splinter of the tough oak log Frank wa

Jake said there was the greatest swimming-hole at Pawpaw Bottom you ever saw, and they had a log in the water there that you could have lots of fun with. Frank ran into the house to ask his mother if he might go, and he hardly knew what to do when she asked him if there was wood enough yet to get dinner and supper. B

and dart so far ahead that the pony would get discouraged and would lag back, and have to be whipped up again; and then the whole thing would have to be gone through with the same as at first. The boys did not have much chance to talk, but they had a splendid time riding along, and when they came to a cool, dark place in the woods they pretended there were Indians; and at the same time they kept a sharp eye out for squirrels. If they had seen any, and had a gun with them, they could have shot o

hey would be in sight of the house. It did not seem strange to Frank that they should be going to visit a boy without knowing where he lived, but afterwards he was not surprised when Dave Black's folks did not appear to expect them. They kept on, and did as the blacksmith told them, and soon enough they got to a t

h another when the boys came up. He had a two-horse wagon, and he was loading it with rails from a big pile; there were two dogs with him, and when they saw the boys they came towards them snarling and ruffling the hair on their backs. Jake said not to mind them-they would not bite; but they snuffed

began to go barefoot in the spring; but now it was better. He said there was a bully swimming-hole in the creek, and he would show them where it was

say anything, and he hated to ask him. Sometimes it appeared to Frank that sawing wood was nothing to it; but they kept on loading rails, and unloading them in piles about ten feet apart, where they were wanted; and then going back to the big pile for more. They worked away in the blazing sun till the sweat poured off their faces, and Frank kept thinking what a splendid time the fellows were having with pistols and shooting-crackers up in the Boy's Town; but still he did not say anything, and pretty soon he had his reward. When they got half down through the rail-pile they came to a bumblebees' nest, which the dogs t

d not say so, because Dave's father was British, till Dave said it himself, and then they all pretended the bees were Mexicans; it was just a little while after the Mexican War.

ehind the house, they went in and sat down with the family at dinner. It was a farmer's dinner, as it used to be in southern Ohio fifty years ago: a deep dish of fried salt pork swimming in its own fat, plenty of shortened biscuit and warm green-apple sauce, with good butter. The Boy's Town boys did not like the looks of t

s-pasture, and it was so full of berries and they were so ripe that the grass which the cattle had cropped short was fairly red under the tree. The boys got up into the tree and gorged themselves amon

happened: nobody could say afterwards whether it had or not. Frank was reaching out for a place in the tree where

ed. "That's mean! What are you th

ughed more when Dave shouted back, "I

iece of look-in'-glass, and y

" said Dave, so seriously t

n, Jake Mi

aughing: "Oh, I'll tell you! It's one of the pieces of tin we strung alon

on Frank, and Dave parted the branch

gone now!" he said to the other boys, craning their necks out to s

him to come along," said Jake

hen he heard me holler. If it's anybody I know, he'll come

on cramming themselves with berries; they all said they had got to stop, but they went on till Dave said: "I don't beli

n big drops. The boys saw a barn in the field they had reached, and they ran for it; and they had just got into it when the rain came down with all its might. Suddenly Jake said: "I'll tell you what! Let's take off our clothes and have a shower-bath!" And in less than a minute they had their clothes off, and were out in the full pour, dancing up and down, and yelling like Indians. That made them think of p

l. Dave's father cut his hair round the edges of a bowl, which he had put on Dave's head for a pattern; the other boys could get a pretty good grip of it, if they caught it on top, where the scalp-lock belongs; but Dave would duck and dodge so that they could

de of the barn. "You must be crazy. Hurry up, if you're ever goi

er and saw a white figure, naked like his own, flit round the left-hand corner of the barn. Then he had to stoop over, so that Dave could tomahawk him easily, and he did

oy, but there was only Dave Black, comin

Jake. There ain't nobody

retorted. "Or there wa

to be chased round it twice, so that he could fall breathless on his own threshold, and be scalped in full sight of his family. Then Dave pretended to be a war-party of Wyandots, and he

shouted Jake. "Who's crazy

" yelled both

second ago," said Jake, and they all dropped one another

er! Must 'a' got up into the mow, and jumped out of the window, and broke for t

they had got all over them in their search. The rain felt so good and cool that they stood still and took it without playing any more, and talked quietly. Dave decided that the fellow who had given them the slip was a n

ller's helpin' himself," said Dave, and they began to wonder how many dollars a crock of gold was worth, anyhow; they decided about a million. Then they wondered how much of a crock full of gold a boy could get into his pockets; and they all laughed when Jake said he reckoned it would depend upon the size of the crock. "I don't believe that fellow could carry much of it away if he hain't got more on than he had in front of the barn." That put Fra

you must be blind!" he shouted, and he kept pointing. "Don't you see him? There, there! Oh, now, the rainbow's going out

Fourth if you were going to the Sunday-school picnic. Dave wanted him to tell what he looked like, but Jake could not say anything except that he was very smiling-looking, and seemed as if he would li

miling-

nk you could see a boy smil

ou say a rainbow i

gh. He got to his feet, and began to pull at the other boys, to make

er pouring over the edge of a mill-dam that was there, till Dave happened to think of building a raft and going out on the dam. Jake said, "First rate!" and they all rushed up to a place where there were some boards on the bank; and they got pieces of old rope at the mill, and tied the boards together, till they had a good raft, big enough to hold them, and then

rth across the dam, and to and from the edge of the fall, till they got tired of it, and they were wanting something to happen, when Dave stuck his pole deep into the muddy botto

els first, and went down out of sight. He came up blowing water from his mouth, and holloing and laughing, and took after the raft, where the other fellows were jumping up and down, and bending back and forth, and screaming and yelling at the way he looked hurrying after his pole, and then dangling in the air, and now showing his black head in the water like a musk-rat swimming for its hole. They

ing there and fooling them, but they could not find him. "He's stuck in some snag at the bottom," said Dave; "we got to dive for him"; but just then Frank ca

u so?" Dave shout

I got loose," said Frank

s up long ago, and I was just go

said Frank. "I thought it didn't

ed. "How could you tel

ll light round him. Looked like he had a

fourth time that feller's fooled us to-day. Where d'you s'pose he came up? Oh, I know! He got out on t

half a second. Kind of smiling

the new boy, and the next time I se

e dam, and the boys all three plunged into the wat

and Jake wanted to send the raft over the edge of the dam; but Dave said it might get

ot after the rain, and their clothes were almost dry by the time they got to Dave's house. They went with him to the woods-pasture on the way, and helped him drive home the cows, and they wanted him to get his mother to make his father let him go up to the Boy's Town with them and see the fireworks; but he said it would be no use; and then they understood that if a man was British, of course he would not want his b

they had spent the afternoon, he did not seem to be so very bad. He asked them whether they had got caught in the storm, and if that wa

length of the loaf, and spread the slices with butter, and then apple-butter, and then brown sugar. The boys thought they were not hungry, but when they began to eat they found out that t

so many squirrels among the trees in the woods-pastures, and on the fences, that Frank could hardly get Jake along; and if it had not been for Jake's horse, that ran whenever Frank w

n the gravy; and she had kept some coffee hot for Frank, so that they made another good meal. They told her what a bully time they had had, and how they had fallen into the dam; but she did not seem to think it was funny; she said it was a good thing they were not all drowned, and she believed they had taken their deaths of cold, anyway. Frank was afraid she was going to make him go up st

n he was blowing the coal; some of his eye-winkers were singed off. Jim Leonard had a rag round his hand, and he said a whole pack of shooting-crackers had gone off in it before he could throw them away, and burned the skin off; the fellows dared him to let them see it, but he would not; and then they mocked him. They all said

ust happened to think of i

d took a shower-bath

d, "And eat

in again, "And

d Dave got pulled

"And Jake and I go

of course it was no Fourth at all, it was only just fun, till the fellows could not stand it any longer, and then Frank jumped up from where he was sitting on h

k and me looked when we got swept overboard," and he acted it out about the limb of t

d over, it made them laugh so. Jake and Frank showed how they ran out into the rain from the barn, and stood in it, and told how good and cool it felt; and they told about sitting up in the mulberry-tree, and how twenty boys could not have made the leas

an have that kind of a Fourth any day in the country. Who

Pony Baker's father came for him, and he said he guessed they could see the fireworks from Frank's front steps; and Jake stayed with Frank, and Frank's

e over from her house and joined them, till Mrs. Baker happened to see her, and called out: "Why, Mrs. Fo

I just come over a minute to see the fireworks

ught to have heard the boys, here, telling about the kind of Fourth

the laughing much. It seems pretty hard my Wilford couldn't been having a

he is, Mrs. Fogle," sa

o; I just know he has; I've felt him, all day long, teasing at me to let him go off with your Frank and Jake, here;

ing across the street again to her own house;

Baker, "I've got half a

said Pony Ba

're right, Henry,"

ast rocket had climbed the sky, Jake Milrace

the boy that had fooled them so, at Pawpaw Bottom; and he was surprise

't here, or-" She stopped, and her brother-in-law ros

an. Frank, you've had a remarkable Fourth. Good-night,

you'd kept that story to yourself till morning, Henry. I shall keep thinki

t for it," said

n't do! What

t saw the fourth boy it migh

told a lie in his

ut as they all three saw the bo

ha

nother

ay, Henry. Do you believe that the c

l that. But we can't find our way out, except by the sh

, though, if all three

think it happened, or m

igh. "Well, I know what I s