[Illustration]

  A SECOND BOOK OF CHARLIE STORIES

  Charlie and His Puppy Bingo




[Illustration]

  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
  NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
  ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

  MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
  LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
  MELBOURNE

  THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
  TORONTO


[Illustration: _Charlie_]




  CHARLIE AND HIS
  PUPPY BINGO

  BY
  HELEN HILL
  AND
  VIOLET MAXWELL
  AUTHORS OF “CHARLIE AND HIS KITTEN TOPSY”

  ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHORS

  New York
  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
  1923

  _All rights reserved_




  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  COPYRIGHT, 1923,
  BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

  Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1923.




  DEDICATED TO
  A. T. M. M.




FOREWORD


The authors have made every effort to write these little stories in
language that will be intelligible to very little children.

They have observed that it is much easier to hold a small child’s
attention when _telling stories_, rather than when reading them aloud.
So they have tried to put these stories in informal English, using
frequent repetitions, with here and there an _interesting_ long word,
and italicizing words on which emphasis is to be laid, their object
being to write the stories as they would be told.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                             PAGE

     I BINGO COMES TO LIVE WITH CHARLIE                  1

    II CHARLIE LEARNS THE TRAFFIC LAWS                  13

   III HOW BINGO LOST HIS SPOTS                         28

    IV CHARLIE RIDES ON THE ENGINE OF A REAL TRAIN      41

     V BINGO AND THE ANGRY ROOSTER                      56

    VI CHARLIE DELIVERS MAIL FOR THE STAGE DRIVER       67

   VII CHARLIE MAKES A POOL AND SAILS HIS BOAT          87

  VIII CHARLIE BUILDS A REAL HOUSE OUT OF BRICK        104

    IX BINGO LEARNS TO COME WHEN HE IS CALLED          120

     X WHAT CHARLIE DID ON A RAINY DAY                 135




ILLUSTRATIONS


  Charlie                                         _Frontispiece_

                                                            PAGE

  The puppy drank all the milk                _Opposite_      10

  Bingo had to travel in the baggage car       _Facing_       43

  The rooster kept Bingo a prisoner               “           63

  Charlie blew a tremendous blast                 “           77

  Charlie and the stage driver talk together      “           81

  The boat sailed beautifully                     “           99

  Charlie watched the builders                _Opposite_     107

  One of the strange boys held Bingo           _Facing_      129

  Charlie made three villages                 _Opposite_     143




[Illustration]

Charlie and His Puppy Bingo




TO READ FIRST


Charlie was a little boy who lived with his Mother and his Daddy and
his Auntie in a house in the city. The house had a big yard all around
it, where Charlie liked to play.

A cat called Jane and her kitten Topsy also lived in the house. Topsy
and Charlie were great friends and they played together all day long.
Jane sometimes played with them too, but Jane was a cat who loved
little babies, both baby cats and baby humans, and she was sad because
Charlie was growing to be a big little boy, and Topsy was a big little
kitten--so big that he could wash himself and it would have been
_ab-surd_ for Jane to go on washing him when he was such a big little
kitten!




[Illustration]

BINGO COMES TO LIVE WITH CHARLIE


One morning Charlie woke up suddenly because his kitten Topsy had
jumped on his bed and was tickling him under the chin!

Charlie woke up, and somehow he felt different--he felt most _awfully
old_--and then he remembered why!

“I’m five years old!” he shouted and jumped out of bed. With Topsy on
his shoulder, he ran downstairs to the kitchen where his Mother and
his Auntie were getting breakfast ready.

“I’m five years old!” he shouted again, and jumped into his Mother’s
arms. “I’m a great big boy now.”

His Mother said, “Yes, indeed, you are a great big boy now, think of
it! It takes _all_ the fingers of one hand to tell how old you are!”
And his Mother hugged him hard and his Auntie hugged him hard too and
they both wished him “Many happy returns of the day.”

Then Charlie ran upstairs again and started to dress himself. He could
dress himself quite easily, but sometimes when he was lazy he would
pretend that he could not and call out for his Auntie to button him up.

But as he was five years old to-day Charlie was going to show everybody
what a big boy he was. So he brushed his hair and cleaned his teeth
and buttoned _all_ the buttons and came out of his room at the same
time as his Daddy came out of _his_.

“_Oh, what_ a big boy you are!” said his Daddy. “I can hardly lift
you.” But he did lift him all the same and carried him down the stairs
and into the dining room on top of his shoulder!

And when they got into the dining room Charlie scrambled all down
his Daddy without waiting to be put down--for there were the most
ex-cit-ing looking parcels on the table beside his plate, and one of
them was so e-nor-mous that it took up half the room on the table!

Charlie could not wait _one_ minute, he started right away to take the
wrapping paper off the great, e-nor-mous parcel.

It was tied with blue ribbons just like the other parcels, for all that
it was so e-nor-mous. Charlie pulled and he tugged and at last the
wrapping paper was all off. And what do you think it was? You never
can guess! _No one_ could ever guess that such a thing could be on the
breakfast table beside a little boy’s plate, even though it was the
little boy’s birthday and he was five years old. It was an automobile!
Yes, it was an automobile that Charlie could sit in and pedal with his
feet, and it would go just like a real automobile. Charlie’s Daddy
lifted it to the floor and Charlie ex-am-ined it all over. It had real
lights and a wind shield and a steering gear. It was the most beautiful
automobile that any little boy ever had!

There were a lot of other parcels beside his plate, and they were
_all_ interesting. There was a new suit for Charlie, and it was a
sailor suit, just like those that big boys wear. It had a lanyard and
a whistle, and it had a red stripe and an emblem on the sleeves. Then
there were two new cars for his electric train, and a pair of scissors
with blunt edges, so that Charlie could cut things out himself and not
always have to ask his Mother or his Auntie to do it for him. There was
an express wagon that he could haul stones and grass in, and there was
a new battery for his flashlight!

Charlie was still looking at all his beautiful presents, when there
came a ring at the door and a loud whistle. It was the postman! Charlie
ran to the front door and opened it. And he said to the postman, “I
am five years old, and I’ve got an automobile and a whistle just like
yours, and a lot of other things.”

And the postman said, “I _thought_ that you had grown a lot taller
since I saw you yesterday. It’s fine that you have got a whistle like
mine. There is nothing to prevent you from being a postman yourself
now, is there? Then you can carry your own mail. Look what a lot of
letters I have brought this morning--and they are all for you!”

Yes, indeed, the postman was right, _all_ the letters were for Charlie,
and every letter had a beautiful card in it wishing him “Many happy
returns of the day.” And there was a letter from Uncle Jim; it had a
whole dollar bill in it, and the dollar bill was for Charlie! Yes, the
dollar bill was all for Charlie, and his Mother said that she would
take him down to the stores and he might buy whatever he liked with it.

Then his Daddy said, “What are you going to buy with the dollar?”

And Charlie said, “I am going to buy a present for Mother and a present
for Auntie and a present for _you_, then we will all have presents on
my birthday!”

Well, it took such a long time opening all his presents and looking at
all his birthday cards that it seemed as if Charlie would not get any
breakfast at all that day. But at last he had all his presents spread
out on the table in front of him, so that he could look at them while
he was eating his breakfast; that is, all except the automobile, and
that was on the floor beside his chair.

At last he finished his breakfast and he went into the kitchen to give
Jane and Topsy _their_ breakfast, when--what do you think? Jane wasn’t
there! No, Jane was not in the kitchen at all, or in the dining room,
or upstairs in any of the bedrooms, nor was she in the yard. Jane had
ab-so-lute-ly disappeared!

Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie called, “Jane, Jane, Kitty,
Kitty, Kitty!” all over the house and all over the yard, but no Jane
came.

Never before had Jane been late for breakfast, but now that she did not
come Topsy had to have breakfast all by himself.

Charlie felt very sad that Jane had disappeared on his birthday. He
loved Jane very much, nearly as much as he loved Topsy. He sat down on
the floor and began to play with his new toys, but every few minutes
he got up and went to the window to see if Jane was coming back. Yes,
Charlie went to the window three, four, _five_ times, and there was no
Jane. The _sixth_ time that Charlie looked out of the window, what do
you think he saw? He saw Jane coming down the garden path, and she was
carrying something in her mouth. It was something big and heavy, four
times as big as a mouse! It was so big and heavy that Jane had to drag
it along the ground.

Charlie rushed to the door and called out, “Mother! Auntie! Come quick!
Jane has come back and she has something e-nor-mous in her mouth AND
IT’S ALIVE!”

Then he opened the front door just as Jane reached it, and Jane dropped
the thing that she was carrying in her mouth. What do you think it was?

You never can guess. IT WAS A LITTLE, TINY PUPPY! Yes, a little baby
puppy, so little that it could hardly walk!

Jane had been so sad at not having any baby kitten to play with any
more, now that Topsy had grown to be such a big kitten, that she had
found a baby puppy instead, and she had brought it home on Charlie’s
birthday so that it could be Charlie’s puppy too.

Oh, but Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie were excited! They picked
up the baby puppy and they stroked Jane and told her what a good cat
she was.

Then Charlie’s Auntie took the puppy into the kitchen and tried to feed
him with some warm milk, but he was _so_ little that he had not learned
how to drink yet!

So Charlie’s Mother said, “I will go to the toy shop, and I will buy
a doll’s baby bottle. Perhaps the puppy will be able to drink out of
that.”

And she did. Yes, Charlie’s Mother put on her hat and coat and she went
to the toy shop. She was not gone five minutes. She hurried so fast,
because she was afraid that the puppy might be hungry.

When Charlie’s mother came back with the doll’s baby bottle his Auntie
heated some nice warm milk and put it in the bottle, and the puppy
sucked and sucked just like a baby. Yes, he sucked and sucked until he
had drunk all the milk that was in the bottle!

Then Charlie’s Mother put the puppy into Jane’s basket and Jane got in
also and the puppy snuggled up close to her and went to sleep.

Topsy was so interested in the baby puppy that he tried to get into
the basket also, but there was no room for him. So he sat outside the
basket and every now and then he patted the puppy with his paw, but
very gently so as not to wake him.

[Illustration: _The Puppy Drank All the Milk_]

When Charlie’s Daddy came home in the evening, he was most interested
and most excited to hear that Jane had brought a puppy home to live
with them.

He said to Charlie, “What are you going to call the puppy? Of course,
he is really Jane’s puppy, but I think Jane means him to be partly
yours, as she brought him home to you on your birthday. Anyway, Jane
cannot choose a name for him that _we_ would understand.”

So Charlie thought for a minute. Then he said, “I think I will call the
puppy Bingo. The iceman has a dog and _his_ name is Bingo. I think he
is such a nice man, and Bingo is a _beautiful_ name.”

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie and his Daddy thought it a beautiful
name too, so the puppy was called Bingo. He slept in a basket with Jane
and Topsy, for Charlie’s Auntie got another basket that was big enough
for the three of them. And he took his meals out of the doll’s baby
bottle. Jane washed him all day long and she was as happy, as happy
could be, now that she had a darling little baby of her own again. In
fact she was as happy as if it was _her_ birthday instead of Charlie’s.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

CHARLIE LEARNS THE TRAFFIC LAWS


Now that Charlie had an automobile, you may be sure that he drove in it
every single day--that is every day that the sun was shining, for, of
course, he could not drive in the automobile when it was raining!

In the mornings, when his Mother and his Auntie were busy in the
house, Charlie used to drive up and down the garden path; but in the
afternoons, when his Mother and his Auntie went for a walk, he drove
beside them in his automobile, and Bingo always came too.

Bingo was growing to be a big little puppy--he no longer drank his milk
out of a bottle. Oh, dear, no! Bingo could lap up his milk as well as
any grown-up dog. He had a saucer to himself just like Topsy and Jane,
and Charlie gave him his breakfast every morning and his dinner and his
supper at the same time that he gave Jane and Topsy theirs.

You may be sure that Charlie enjoyed driving in his automobile with
Bingo prancing beside him. But though Charlie drove his automobile
every morning and every afternoon, he did not really know how to
drive it at all! No indeed! Charlie always wanted to pedal so fast
that he paid no attention to his steering, and the automobile went
_wiggly, wiggly_ all over the place. When he was driving in the garden
Charlie never could keep to the path, he would pedal so fast that the
automobile would run up on the grass and into the flower beds. And
when he was out on the sidewalk with his Mother and his Auntie, the
automobile would zigzag from left to right and from right to left in a
most _pe-cul-iar_ way.

His Mother and his Auntie said to him again and again, “Don’t pedal so
fast, Charlie. Go slower and try to steer properly, some day you will
crash into a lamppost and maybe break your automobile all to pieces.”
But Charlie did not listen. He just went on pedaling as fast as ever he
could and paid no attention to his steering at all.

One day his Mother and his Auntie were walking along the sidewalk and
Charlie was driving in front in his automobile, while Bingo pranced
along, sometimes beside Charlie, and sometimes running back to see what
Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie were doing. Charlie was pedaling away
as fast as ever he could and his automobile was going _wiggly, wiggly_
all over the sidewalk.

[Illustration]

Quite a little way in front, an old gentleman was walking, and he
was on the outer edge of the sidewalk, as was right and proper for
him to be. He was looking at his newspaper and he did not know that
Charlie was driving toward him, paying no attention to his steering
and zigzagging from left to right and from right to left again--when
suddenly, Charlie’s automobile went crash! Bang! straight into the old
gentleman! That was dreadful!

The old gentleman stopped short, and, when he had got his breath, he
said, “Don’t you know that automobiles should keep to the right? Or
is it possible that you are driving an automobile and don’t know the
traffic laws?”

Of course Charlie apologized very politely to the old gentleman for
bumping into him, and then he had to say that he knew nothing about the
traffic laws at all. This made Charlie feel very much ashamed.

“Dear me!” said the old gentleman. “That is the most extraordinary
thing I ever heard! To own an automobile, and not to know the traffic
laws!”

By this time Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie had come up and it was
very surprising--the old gentleman seemed to know them both very well.
He shook hands with them both and said, “This young man has just been
telling me that he does not know the traffic laws, though I have often
watched him out of my window driving his automobile, and the way he
zigzags up and down the pavement would be enough for him to have his
license taken away if a policeman were to see him!”

Charlie felt very sad when he heard this. He had a beautiful license
number on the back of his automobile and he thought it would be a
dreadful thing if a policeman were to take it away because he did not
know the traffic laws.

Then the old gentleman said, “I have an automobile of my own, and it
is a big one that runs with gasoline. I would be very glad to take you
for a drive this afternoon and teach you every traffic law there is, if
your Mother will let you come with me. I live quite near here, so we
could start right away.”

Of course Charlie’s Mother said at once that she would be delighted if
the old gentleman, whose name was Mr. Armstrong, would take Charlie for
a drive in his automobile.

Suddenly Bingo, who had been jumping around as usual, went straight up
to Mr. Armstrong and stood up on his hind legs as if begging to go too.

Then Mr. Armstrong said, “Is that your puppy?” And Charlie said, “NO,
that is my _dog_. His name is Bingo! He does not like to be called a
puppy. May he come with us too?”

Mr. Armstrong looked doubtful. He said, “Bingo looks very much like a
puppy to me, and puppies are apt to get into mischief; but if you are
careful to keep him on his leash and hold on tightly to him, you may
take him with us.”

You may be sure that Charlie felt very much excited at the thought of
driving in a real automobile and learning the traffic laws just like a
grown-up person.

He and his Mother and his Auntie went home and put Charlie’s automobile
in the back hall while Mr. Armstrong went round to his garage to get
his automobile. Soon he drove up in it and Charlie climbed in, holding
Bingo firmly by the leash so that he should not get into mischief.

Mr. Armstrong said that they had better drive downtown as there was
such a lot of traffic there and Charlie would be able to watch the
policeman handle the traffic. On the way Mr. Armstrong told Charlie all
about the traffic laws and the reason for every one. He told him how an
automobile must _never_ pass a street car when it has stopped to let
off passengers, and how an automobile driver must _always_ hold his
arm out when he is going round a corner, so that people crossing the
street can see in which direction he is going.

[Illustration]

It was all very interesting and Charlie kept a strict lookout to see if
all the automobiles they passed were observing the traffic laws.

At last they reached the business section of the city, where there
are so many automobiles and street cars and carts that a policeman
has always to stand in the middle of the road to direct the traffic;
otherwise people would never be able to cross the street in safety at
all.

Charlie thought that the policeman looked very grand standing all by
himself in the middle of the road. And whenever he blew his whistle,
either the crosstown traffic or the uptown and downtown traffic in turn
was stopped, as if by magic, to let the other have the right of way.
Then the people on the sidewalk all crossed together in a crowd, for
they knew that the automobiles and street cars would not go on again
until the policeman blew his whistle.

When Mr. Armstrong wanted to stop outside a shop and it was on the
left side of the street, he drove all the way to the next corner and
he waited there until the policeman could let him turn his car around
and drive back so that the shop was on his right and he could stop
his car close to the sidewalk just in front of the shop. It was a
confectioner’s shop and they both went in and Mr. Armstrong ordered
chocolate and sponge cake for them both. It was delicious! While they
were in the confectioner’s Bingo was left tied up in the automobile. He
did not like it at all and he called out “Yap, yap, yap!” at the top of
his lungs until Charlie and Mr. Armstrong came back.

At last it was time to go home. When they had driven into the main
street again and Charlie was turning his head this way and that, so
as not to miss a single thing that was going on, he was so interested
that he forgot all about Bingo. Indeed, he almost let go of his leash,
he was holding it so loosely--when, suddenly, what do you think? Bingo
gave one yank at the leash and jumped right out of the automobile! Yes,
he did!

All the automobiles were slowing up for the crossing, and the
policeman was standing quite close, but at any moment he might signal
for them to go on again.

It was _dreadfully_ dangerous for Bingo to be all by himself in the
middle of that crowded street with automobiles and street cars, and
carts and trucks all moving along. Charlie was so frightened that he
called out, “Mr. Policeman, Mr. Policeman!” and the policeman looked at
him, and he saw Bingo at the same moment and guessed what had happened.

He blew his whistle three times, and all the automobiles stopped, those
going uptown and downtown, and those going crosstown, they all stopped
_immediately_. Then the policeman tried to catch Bingo, but he was so
frightened that he crawled right under an automobile, and he would not
come out when the policeman called him.

So the policeman came up to Charlie and said, “You had better come
along with me. If you call your dog, he will know your voice and come
out when you call him.”

Charlie took the policeman’s hand and they went in and out among the
automobiles and carts and trucks and busses, which were all standing
perfectly still, till they came to the automobile under which Bingo was
hiding. When Bingo saw Charlie and heard him call “Bingo, Bingo!” he
came crawling out and he was so glad to see Charlie that he jumped high
in the air, wagging his tail and barking, “Yap, yap, yap!”

As soon as Charlie and Bingo were safe in Mr. Armstrong’s automobile,
the policeman blew his whistle and all the traffic, which had been
held up to rescue Bingo, started again. And Charlie held Bingo as
tight as ever he could, so that he should not jump out again. But I
don’t think that Bingo would have done so, even if he could have, he
had been so frightened when he was hiding under the automobile, with
so many trucks and carts and cars around him. And he was right to be
frightened, for he would have been in great danger if the policeman had
not blown his whistle just at the right moment.

And now Charlie knew for himself how _very_ important the traffic laws
are, for if one single automobile had disobeyed the policeman when he
blew three blasts on his whistle and had not stopped _immediately_,
Bingo might have been run over!

So, ever after that, when Charlie was in his automobile he was _always_
careful to follow every one of the traffic laws that he had learned.

He _never_ pedaled faster than he could steer, and he _always_ kept
on the right side of the pavement so as not to run into people by
accident. When he came to a corner, he _always_ stretched out his arm
to show the direction he was going in. And, when a street car stopped
in the middle of the road to let off passengers, Charlie always
stopped too, until it had gone on again.

Yes, Charlie followed the traffic laws so carefully that the policeman,
who always stood at the Park gate, noticed it; and he said to him one
day, “As soon as you are sixteen years old, you can come to me, and
I will see that you get a license to drive a _real_ automobile. If
everybody obeyed the traffic laws as well as you do, there would never
be any accidents at all.”




[Illustration]

HOW BINGO LOST HIS SPOTS


Bingo was a nice little puppy and a dear little puppy. He played with
Charlie and Topsy all day long. He frisked around and barked “Yap,
yap,” for though he was getting to be a big little puppy, he could not
yet say “Bow-wow,” though you may be sure he tried to over and over
again.

Charlie and Topsy and Bingo had lots of fun playing together and, when
Charlie was playing with them, Topsy and Bingo were always good; but
sometimes, when Topsy and Bingo played alone together, they were as bad
as bad could be and got into all kinds of mischief--especially Bingo.

Yes, Bingo could think up the _naughtiest_ things to do! He liked to
dig in the flower beds and bury bits of sticks that he pretended were
bones. That was lots of fun for Bingo but very bad for the flowers! And
he liked to go into people’s bedrooms and hide their bedroom slippers
so that they could not find them anywhere.

But most of all he liked to eat up the carpet in the dining room. Oh,
my goodness! What fun Bingo did have with that carpet! He would hold
one corner in his mouth and he would waggle his tail and scrabble with
his paws and he would growl and growl and he would chew at that carpet
till the wonder was he did not chew it all up.

Yes, Bingo thought up all these naughty things to do when he was
playing by himself and he also tried to imitate the things that Topsy
did.

Topsy was very fond of climbing, and he could climb beautifully. He
hardly ever knocked anything down. No indeed! Topsy could jump straight
on to the mantelpiece and walk among the ornaments and not knock a
single one down!

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did not like Topsy to do this. They
were afraid that some day he might throw something down--but he never
did. Bingo thought that he would love to be able to climb like that.
He looked at Topsy with admiring eyes and this made Topsy all the more
anxious to show off.

Sometimes Topsy would climb up the dining room curtains all the way
to the top, and that made Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie very angry,
because his little sharp claws made scratches on the curtains. Then
they would shake them hard so that Topsy would have to climb down. He
_would not_ learn that he must not do it again.

For Topsy loved to show off. He knew that he could climb better than
anybody in the house and so he wanted to do it all the time, and the
more he did it the more Bingo wanted to show Topsy that he could climb
as well. But of course he could not.

One reason was that Bingo could not _jump_ as high as Topsy. A little
dog never _can_ jump as high as a kitten. They are not made that way.
So when Bingo wanted to climb he had to scramble up with his paws and
he always knocked against something or other which would come down with
a crash and a bang and somebody would say, “Oh, you bad Bingo, you have
broken something again!” It was very discouraging.

One day Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie had gone out. They had
gone downtown to do some shopping so they had decided to leave Bingo at
home, as one cannot very well take a little dog into a department store.

[Illustration]

So Topsy and Bingo were left all alone with nobody to look after them
but Jane, and she was not much good, as she was feeling very sleepy and
had gone up to the attic to sleep undisturbed.

Topsy and Bingo decided that they would have a glorious time with
nobody to interfere with them, no matter what mischief they might be up
to.

First they went into the dining room and they had a grand time playing
with the rug. This, as you know, was one of Bingo’s favorite games and
he showed Topsy ex-act-ly how to play it--how you pretend that the
rug is a wild animal, and how you grab the end in your mouth and kick
and scrabble with your paws and growl in a low and dreadful voice.
Topsy thought that this was a grand game. He liked the growling part
especially. You should have heard the ferocious growls that Topsy made.
Bingo felt quite frightened, although he knew it was only in fun.

When they got tired of that game, they went into the kitchen to see
what interesting things they could find to do there. And, of course,
Topsy began to climb--yes, he climbed up on everything in the kitchen
except on the kitchen stove. He was too wise a kitten to do that. He
climbed up on to the window sill and on to the table and on to the
sink. Then he jumped up on to the kitchen dresser and climbed to the
very top shelf, where he walked in and out among the plates, and yet he
did not knock a single one down! Every now and then Topsy looked down
at Bingo and tossed his head, as if to say, “Don’t you wish _you_ could
do it, too?” Bingo was wild with excitement. He jumped up on his hind
legs and barked, “Yap, yap, yap!” in his funny, hoarse little voice.

At last he _determined_ that he would climb up on the kitchen dresser,
too. Yes, he would climb up to the very top shelf and show Topsy that
he could climb, too!

There was a chair close to the kitchen dresser and Bingo first managed
to climb up on that, then he scrambled up on to the dresser. He felt
very proud when he looked down to the floor and saw what a height he
had climbed to. Topsy was still up on the top shelf looking down at
him with his head on one side.

[Illustration]

Bingo then stood up on his hind legs and he put his paws up on the next
shelf--but, oh, dear! Bingo was unlucky again! He knocked against a
big, round, white tin that had FLOUR written on it in gold letters. And
it toppled right over!--yes, it toppled right over and banged Bingo on
the head, and a lot of white, powdery stuff fell all over him and got
in his eyes. It was awful!

Poor Bingo did not want to climb any more. He jumped straight off the
kitchen dresser on to the floor, and he ran out of the kitchen with his
little short tail hanging down. He went into the living room and hid
under the sofa--poor Bingo was feeling very unhappy and he wanted to be
alone.

Soon he heard the front door open and he heard Charlie’s voice in the
hall. Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie had come home.

Charlie said, “Oh, Mother, look at those funny white tracks all along
the floor. What do you think they can be?”

His Mother and his Auntie looked, and they said, “How extraordinary!
They look like Bingo’s footprints. I wonder what he can have been up
to.”

Then Bingo himself came running out into the hall to meet Charlie. He
had forgotten his troubles and he jumped up in the air and barked,
“Yap, yap, yap,” he was so glad that Charlie had come home again. But
when Charlie saw Bingo, he called out in amazement, “Mother, Auntie,
_look_! What has happened to Bingo! He has lost his spots!”

And it was true. Bingo had lost all his spots! He had lost the black
spot on his head, and the ones on his ears, and the big black spot on
his back, and the little black spot on the end of his stumpy tail! Yes,
Bingo was now white all over without a particle of black anywhere.

“What have you done to yourself?” said Charlie as he picked him up.
Bingo tried to tell him all about it, as he wriggled and barked and
tried to lick Charlie’s face. And--lo and behold! the black spots began
to show again, first the one on Bingo’s head, then the ones on his
ears, then the big one on his back, and last of all the little one on
his tail. But now it was Charlie who was white--yes, he was white all
down the front of his coat!

Then Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie followed Bingo’s little
white tracks to where they came from. They wanted to discover what in
the world Bingo had been doing to get himself white all over. Yes, they
followed the tracks all the way to the kitchen, and there they found
the tin of flour lying on the floor near the dresser--and _then_ they
knew what Bingo had been doing while they were out.

Oh, how Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie did laugh at the idea of
poor, fat, little Bingo trying to climb up on the kitchen dresser, and
knocking the tin of flour all over himself! But they were sorry for
Bingo, too, because they knew how it must have frightened him.

So Charlie’s Auntie found Bingo’s brush, and she took him out into
the back yard and brushed all the rest of the flour off him--all that
wasn’t on the carpet or the kitchen floor or on Charlie’s coat! And
Charlie’s Mother swept up the flour in the kitchen, and swept the
tracks on the living-room carpet, and she gave Charlie a whisk broom to
brush off the front of his coat. And then she went to the ice box and
got a little bone, and she gave it to Bingo to comfort him.

So Bingo was happy again after all his troubles--but never again did he
try to climb up on high pieces of furniture, no matter how perky Topsy
looked at him and tried to egg him on. No, Bingo was a wise little
dog now, and when Topsy climbed up on the mantelpiece and looked down
at him, tossing his head as much as to say, “Don’t you wish you could
climb like me?” Bingo would jump in the air and bark, “Yap, yap!” Then
he would stand up on his hind legs and beg--and that was _one_ thing
that Topsy did not know how to do!

[Illustration]




CHARLIE RIDES IN THE ENGINE OF A REAL TRAIN


One day Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie and Topsy and Bingo and
Jane went to stay in the country.

It was a very interesting place where they were going to stay in the
country. What do you think? It was the place where Charlie’s Daddy had
lived when he was a little boy!

Yes, that is where they were going, and, as it was a Saturday,
Charlie’s Daddy was going with them, too. He was not going to live with
them in the country, because on weekdays he had to go to the office
every day. But he said that he would come down _every_ Saturday and
stay in the country till Sunday night.

So they all went to the railway station in a taxicab. Jane traveled in
a cat basket and Charlie’s Auntie carried her. Topsy also traveled in
a cat basket and Charlie’s Mother carried him, but Bingo had to travel
in the baggage car and he had a ticket all to himself because he was a
dog. Charlie thought that he ought to feel very proud.

When they got to the station they all went straight through the gate
to the platform, and there the train was waiting for them. It was a
great e-nor-mous train with ever so many coaches. First, Charlie and
his Daddy took Bingo to the baggage car, and the baggage man fastened
Bingo’s leash to the end of a trunk and promised Charlie to be good to
Bingo.

Then they all got into the day car, and the train gave a loud whistle
and steamed out of the station. My goodness! how fast it went!
Everything just seemed to go flying past.

[Illustration: _Bingo had to travel in the baggage car_]

Soon the conductor came walking down the aisle and he took everybody’s
ticket. He was a very grand-looking man; he was tall, and stout, and
he had a beautiful blue uniform on. He soon came to the seat where
Charlie and his Daddy were sitting, and he took the tickets. Yes, the
conductor took all the tickets and he stuck Charlie’s Daddy’s ticket in
his hatband, but as his Mother and his Auntie had no hatbands, he stuck
_their_ tickets into the top of the seat in front of them. Then he took
Charlie’s ticket, and he stuck it in Charlie’s hatband. Charlie felt
very proud, and he would not take his hat off. No, he kept his hat on
all the time because he wanted everybody to see that _he_ had a ticket
in his hatband just like all the other men.

Then Charlie said to his Daddy, “Daddy, what _ex-act-ly_ makes the
train go?”

And his Daddy said, “It’s the steam that makes the engine work, and
it is the engineer and the fireman who look after the steam and the
engine.” Then Charlie said, “What I want to know is _ex-act-ly_ what
the fireman and the engineer do when they are making the engine go.”

But what do you think? His Daddy did not know _ex-act-ly_ what they
did--he said that he had never ridden on an engine in his life, so how
could he know what they did? And Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did
not know either. That was very surprising.

Well, after they had been in the big train for about a whole hour, they
came to a station where there were a lot of tracks. This station was
called a junction, because there were so many tracks.

Some of the tracks went to the North and some to the South and some to
the East and some to the West. The train that Charlie and his Daddy and
his Auntie and his Mother were on was going toward the West; but now
they wanted to go to the North, so they had to change trains and go on
a train that was going toward the _North_.

The train was already waiting on its own track. It was a very little
train, it had only two coaches!

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie and Jane and Topsy got into the train,
and they took Bingo with them, because, as it was such a little
unimportant train, the conductor said that Bingo could travel in the
day coach instead of being tied up in the baggage car, and Bingo was
very glad. But Charlie and his Daddy waited on the platform till it was
time for the train to start, and they looked at all the interesting
things about them.

Then a man came up. He wore overalls and a peaked cap. And--you
_never_ can guess who it was? It was the _fireman_ who helped work
the engine of the train they were going to take. And what _do_ you
think? The fireman knew Charlie’s Daddy! Yes, the fireman came up to
them, and said to his Daddy, “Hello, Bob!” Bob was his Daddy’s name
that his Mother and his Auntie always called him! And his Daddy said,
“Why--Hello, Bill,” and they shook hands.

Charlie was _very_ much surprised that the fireman and his Daddy knew
each other, but it was not so very surprising after all. The fireman
lived in the village where Charlie’s Daddy had lived when he was a
little boy, and where Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie were going
to live for a whole month, and his Daddy and the fireman had gone to
the same school when they were little boys!

Well, the fireman then looked at Charlie, and he said, “And is this
your boy?”

Then Charlie’s Daddy said, “Yes, this is Charlie, and you are the
very man he wants to meet. Charlie wants to know _ex-act-ly_ what the
fireman and the engineer do to make the train go--and he can’t find
anybody who knows. So go ahead and tell him all about it.”

But the fireman said, “I can do better than that. Suppose you and
Charlie take a ride on the engine with me; then he can see everything
with his own eyes, and learn all there is to know in case he wants to
be a fireman himself.”

Yes, the fireman _ac-tu-al-ly_ said those words! And Charlie’s Daddy
said, “That will be fine. I’ll just go and tell Charlie’s Mother and
his Auntie what has become of us, so that they won’t worry.”

And he did so. Then the fireman, and Charlie and his Daddy all got
into the cab, which is back of the engine, where the engineer and the
fireman sit.

The engineer was already sitting in his place, which is on the right of
the cab. He was very pleased to meet Charlie and his Daddy, but he said
that after the train had started he would not be able to speak a word
to anybody, and nobody must speak to him. Yes, nobody must _ever_ speak
to the engineer when he is driving the engine, because if anybody spoke
to the engineer it might distract his attention and then the train
might be wrecked!

All the time that the train is going the engineer has to sit on his
seat with his hand on the throttle, which is the thing that makes the
train stop in a hurry, and all the time he has to look out of the
window to see what the signals say, and to see that there is nothing on
the track ahead of him.

If he sees a green signal on the signal post that means that the
engine can go straight ahead, but if the signal is red, then it means
“Stop”--and the engineer presses on the throttle, and the train stops.

The engineer told all this to Charlie while they were waiting for the
train to start. Then the engineer got the signal from the man on the
platform; he blew the whistle, and the train started, and he could not
say another word.

Well, the fireman’s place is on the left side of the cab, and Charlie’s
Daddy sat between him and the window, and Charlie sat on his Daddy’s
knee.

The fireman has to work very hard, but when he is not working he can
talk if he wants to. This fireman was very kind, and, when he was not
working, he explained everything to Charlie and his Daddy--but all the
time he was ex-plain-ing he had to keep looking out of the window, too,
in case he should see anything that the engineer did not see. There are
a great many windows in the cab of an engine--it has windows all round,
because it is so _very important_ that the engineer and the fireman
shall see all that there is to see.

Well, I will now tell you what the fireman was doing all the time that
Charlie and his Daddy were riding on the engine with him.

In front of the fireman was the steam gauge, which is a round thing
like a clock, and it has a hand like a clock hand, too, and the steam
makes the hand move--so that you can see how much steam is coming out
of the boiler. When the steam is getting low the hand drops, and when
the hand of the gauge drops to 150 the fireman knows it is time to put
more coal in the fire box.

Every time that the hand of the gauge dropped to 150 the fireman got
up and opened a little door in the back of the cab, which opened right
into the fire box, so that you could see the fire all red and glowing,
and the fireman scooped a great shovel full of coal into it. The
fireman told Charlie that it was _very_ important how one shovels the
coal into the fire box. It has to be shoveled very evenly, so that it
is not all black with coal in one place and all red hot with embers in
another place. Yes, the fireman told Charlie that it needs a lot of
practice before one can shovel the coal in just _ex-act-ly_ right.

Then the fireman also had to watch the water gauge, which shows how
much water there is in the boiler.

When he saw by the water gauge that the water was getting low in the
boiler, then the fireman had to turn a valve, which is a sort of handle
that starts a pump working, and the pump pumps water into the boiler.

Charlie very much wanted to turn the valve himself, but the fireman
said, “No,” that it needed a whole lot of practice before one could
pump water into the tank--as it was _very_ important just how much
water to pump. If too much cold water is pumped into the boiler it
might cool the water already in the boiler so that no more steam would
come out--and then the train would stop!

Do you think that the fireman on an engine is a busy man? Indeed he is!

But that is not all that the fireman has to do. Oh, dear, no! The
fireman has a lot more work to do.

When the train is coming to a steep place--and there were a lot of
steep places on the railroad that Charlie was traveling on--the fireman
has to make the fire _red hot_, so that lots and lots of steam can come
out of the boiler. He makes the fire get hotter and hotter until the
steam gets so strong that the “safety valve” pops off--and this shows
the engineer that there is enough steam to push the train up the steep
place. Yes, you can see that it would need a lot of extra steam to push
a train up a steep, high hill.

The fireman also has to blow a whistle, whenever the train comes to a
crossing or to the station. And when they got to the last stop--which
was the village where Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie and Bingo
and Topsy and Jane were going to live for a whole month--the fireman
let Charlie blow the whistle himself! Yes, he did, and you should have
heard what a loud whistle Charlie blew.

Well, at last they had come to the end of their journey, and Charlie
certainly had learned a whole lot about engines. Yes, Charlie had
learned a whole lot more than most people know. Of course he told his
Mother and his Auntie about everything, so that they, too, should know
all about what the fireman and the engineer do to make the train go.

And Charlie said, “Now, when I get home to the city I will be able to
play with my train in _just_ the right way. I will be able to play that
I am the fireman and the engineer, and I will know _ex-act-ly_ what
they do, and I will practice and practice being a fireman so that I can
be one when I grow up!”




[Illustration]

BINGO AND THE ANGRY ROOSTER


I told you in the last story how Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie
and his Daddy and Topsy and Bingo and Jane all went to the country
together. And how Charlie rode on the engine, which he liked very much,
but Topsy and Jane had to travel in baskets, which they did not like at
all, and Bingo had to travel all by himself in the baggage car, and he
did not like that either.

But when at last they arrived at the farm where they were going to
stay for a whole month, Charlie opened the baskets and let Jane and
Topsy out, and he unfastened Bingo’s leash, and they all went exploring
together. _Then_ Jane and Topsy and Bingo were delighted. They liked
the country _tre-men-dous-ly_, and the longer they stayed the more they
liked it.

There were so many delightful things for cats and dogs to do, which
they could not do in the city. Instead of long straight roads with
automobiles dashing past all the time, there were fields and meadows to
run around in. There were tall trees for Topsy to climb and nice muddy
puddles for Bingo to roll in, and Jane could go out for long walks by
herself without ever meeting anything dangerous.

Charlie always got up very early when he was in the country because he
liked to see the cows milked, and Topsy and Bingo and Jane liked to
see the cows milked also. Charlie always carried three little bowls
down to the barn, and the farmer filled them with milk straight from
the cow, so that Topsy and Bingo and Jane could have their breakfast
without waiting. This interested them all three very much, because they
knew that at home their milk always came out of a milk bottle which had
been left at the front door by the milkman.

All the time that Charlie was in the country he was allowed to run
around in the fields and meadows all by himself, and of course Topsy
and Bingo followed him wherever he went. It would take a whole book by
itself to tell you _all_ the delightful things that they did together.

Now, wouldn’t you think that Bingo, with all the big countryside to
play in, and ever so many interesting things to do all day long, would
have been able to keep out of mischief at least as long as he was in
the country? But no, he could not. You see, puppies nearly always
_are_ in mischief--they are made that way. So Bingo often went off by
himself and thought of nice, mischievous things to do.

One of the things that Bingo liked to do more than anything else was to
go and bark at the chickens. That was very naughty of him, and Charlie
always stopped him when he found him doing it. But often Bingo would
slip away from Charlie and dash down to the chicken house and bark,
“Yap, yap, yap!” He loved to see the hens running this way and that,
clucking loudly and calling all the little chickens who came running
to hide themselves under their Mother’s wings. Bingo enjoyed this
tremendously and never tired of the naughty game. Of course he never
hurt any of the chickens or the hens. Bingo was a dear, nice, little
puppy and he would never do a thing like that, but he _did_ like to
watch them running around and saying, “Cluck, cluck, cluck, CLUCK!”
Yes, it amused Bingo very much.

One day Charlie was busy helping the lady at the farm to make the
butter. This is a very interesting thing to do. Bingo watched Charlie
for a while thumping away with the dasher, but soon he got tired of
watching and not doing anything himself, so he decided that he would go
and play with the chickens.

He began to bark before he got there, and the hens began to cluck,
cluck, cluck, and the chickens ran this way and that way and scrambled
under their Mother’s wings.

Bingo was so busy with his barking that he did not notice that there
was a newcomer among the hens. This was a big white rooster that the
farmer had brought home from the fair the night before.

He was an ENORMOUS rooster. He had won a prize at the fair because
he was so big. When Bingo jumped in among the hens, they were all
so scared that they ran around and said, “Cluck, cluck, cluck,
CLUCK.” But the rooster was not a bit scared--no, indeed, he was
most _indignant_. He opened his beak, and Bingo heard a TREMENDOUS
sound--“Ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo! ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo!
ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo!” And the rooster sprang up in the air, and
flapped his wings, and rushed at Bingo!

Bingo was so startled that he jumped backwards toward the chicken
house, and the rooster dashed after him. All the hens came hurrying
up and the chickens, too, saying, “Cluck, cluck, cluck, CLUCK.” They
seemed to be on every side! Poor Bingo was terribly frightened, as well
he might be--because the rooster was really very much annoyed, and he
would have pecked Bingo if he had caught him.

But he did not catch him. Just in the nick of time, Bingo saw the
chicken house, and he just managed to scramble in at the door before
the rooster caught him--he was safe.

Yes, he was safe, but he had to stay there! The rooster did not
quite like to go in after Bingo (you see Bingo was really very
nearly as big as the rooster), but he determined to keep Bingo
a prisoner. He strutted solemnly up and down in front of the
chicken-house door, and every time that Bingo would try to come out
he would crow, “Ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo! ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo!
ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo!” and scare Bingo so that he decided to stay
where he was.

Poor Bingo! it seemed to him that he had been hours and hours in the
chicken house. He wondered if he would ever get out again. He was sure
that it was long past his dinner hour, he felt so _dreadfully_ hungry.
Poor Bingo was a very unhappy little dog.

[Illustration: _The rooster kept Bingo a prisoner_]

At last Charlie had finished helping the farm lady make the butter.
They had taken it out of the churn, and the farm lady had put it in a
big wooden bowl and beaten it with wooden butter paddles so that all
the butter milk was squeezed out. She had given Charlie some butter in
a smaller bowl so that he could finish making some of the butter all by
himself. The farm lady had promised him that they should have it on the
dinner table and surprise his Mother and his Auntie.

But it wasn’t dinner time yet, so Charlie ran into the garden to
play with Bingo--and there was no Bingo to be seen! He called
Bingo, but Bingo did not come. Then he decided to go down to the
big barn to look for him. As he passed near the chicken house he
heard a _tre-men-dous_ commotion--“Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck,
CLUCK,” “Ooka-ooka-ooka-oooooooooo, ooka-ooka-ooka-oooooooooo,
ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo” ... Bingo had been trying to get out again!

Then Charlie said, “Shoo, shoo, shoo!” and the hens and even the
rooster all got out of the way, and Bingo was free again! Oh, how glad
he was! He jumped, and pranced, and followed Charlie to the kitchen,
where his dinner was waiting for him.

But never again did Bingo bark at the chickens and chase them. He no
longer thought it an amusing game. In fact Bingo never went near that
chicken house again, he was so afraid of that terrible rooster.

[Illustration]




CHARLIE DELIVERS MAIL FOR THE STAGE DRIVER


Well, I can tell you that Charlie and Topsy and Bingo liked living in
the country very much. There were so many interesting things to do, and
so many interesting people to talk to, and every single thing in the
country was different from what it was in the city.

Charlie had different things to eat, and he wore different clothes. You
never can guess what kind of clothes Charlie wore when he was in the
country! Charlie wore blue denim overalls, just like the farm workers,
and his Mother bought them for him at the country store, which is
_ex-act-ly_ where the farm workers bought theirs!

One day Charlie ran out to the gate before breakfast to mail a letter
for his Auntie. In the country there are no post boxes at every corner
as there are in the city. Oh, no! When Charlie wanted to mail a letter
he just had to go down to the gate and put it in the box that was
fastened outside; then he had to take out an old red tobacco tin that
was inside the mail box, tied to it by a string, and leave it hanging
outside the box, so that the mailman would see it when he went past
and know that there was a letter for the mail. If he did not see the
tobacco tin hanging out, the stage driver would not stop at all--so it
was very important not to forget to hang the tobacco tin out.

Well, Charlie got to the gate just as the stage driver was driving up.
When he saw Charlie standing there, he said, “Hello, good morning.” And
Charlie said, “Hello, good morning,” too. Then he said, “Are you the
postman?” The stage driver laughed. “We-e-ll, I reckon that you can
say that’s what I am, though folks here about call me the stage driver.”

“That is very interesting,” said Charlie. “Do you know, in the city the
postman wears a gray cap and coat and trousers and he does not drive a
cart, he has to walk?”

The stage driver was most surprised. “Is that so?” he said. “Well, I
reckon there’s lots of things they do differently in the city, and you,
being a city boy, must surely know all about it. I certainly would like
to hear about city ways. Supposing you ask your Mother if she would let
you drive with me this afternoon when I take the afternoon mail up;
then you can show me how they deliver mail in the city.”

Oh, my goodness, but Charlie was excited! He ran to the house so fast
that he puffed and he blowed, and, as he ran, he called out, “Mother,
Auntie! The stage driver says that I can go with him and give out the
letters just like a real postman in the city! He says that I can go
this afternoon, if you say yes. Oh, Mother, oh, Auntie, I _can_ go,
can’t I?”

Of course his Mother and his Auntie were _de-light-ed_ when they heard
that Charlie was to go and help deliver the mail just like a real
postman, and of course they both said “Yes,” that Charlie might go.

Well, the very minute that Charlie had finished his dinner, he said
very politely, “Please excuse me, I don’t want to keep the stage driver
waiting.” Then the lady where they were boarding and his Mother and his
Auntie said, “Yes,” he might be excused.

So Charlie got his hat and his whistle, which belonged to his sailor
suit, because he knew he would need it as he was going to be a
postman--and he ran down to the gate as fast as ever he could. No,
Charlie did not keep the stage driver waiting. It was Charlie who had
to wait for the stage driver!

But at last he came driving down the road and, when he saw Charlie
waiting at the gate, he said, “Hello, young man, so you are coming with
me. That’s fine! Hop in.”

So Charlie hopped in and he showed the stage driver his whistle and how
he was going to blow it just like a real city postman.

The stage driver said, “First we are going to the station to get the
mail;” and he clicked with his whip and said, “Gid ap, gid ap!” to
the horses, and they _did_ “gid ap,” and their bells jingled as they
trotted along the road.

The station was a long way off from the farm where Charlie and his
Mother and his Auntie were staying, but the horses trotted so quickly,
so quickly, that they got there before the train did.

Charlie and the stage driver got down, and the stage driver hitched the
horses to the post, and then they both went on to the platform to wait
for the train.

Everybody in the station talked to Charlie--even the station master and
the man in the ticket office--and they said, “Is this the new stage
driver?” The stage driver said, “No; this boy is the new postman and he
is going to deliver the mail for me.”

You can believe that Charlie felt proud and important when he heard
them talk like that.

At last the train came in, and it was the same train that had carried
Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie and his Daddy and Topsy and Bingo
and Jane to the country. Yes, it was the very same train and the very
same engine that Charlie had ridden on, and the fireman was there, and
he looked out of the cab and called out, “Hello, Charlie!”

Well, the stage driver went to the baggage car and a lot of men were
unloading packages, and there was one great big sack.

Charlie asked what was in that great big sack--and the stage driver
told him that was the mail. Yes, all the letters that Charlie was going
to deliver were stuffed into that great big sack!

So the stage driver got the mail bag and the packages on to the stage.
The stage driver carried all the big packages and Charlie carried all
the little ones.

Then the stage driver said, “Gid ap!” and off they went again. First
they went to the post office and waited there a long time. They had to
wait till the postmaster had taken out of the mail sack all the mail
for the people who lived near the post office and who had to come and
get their mail for themselves. But at last the postmaster had finished
_his_ job, and it was time for Charlie and the stage driver to begin
theirs.

This, of course, was the interesting part of the drive. The stage
rattled along the road, the horses went so fast; and at last they came
to a house and the horses stopped of their own accord.

The stage driver gave Charlie some letters and told him to go and
deliver them.

So Charlie climbed down from the stage and he blew his whistle, one,
two, three times--but nobody came to the gate to get the letters from
the postman. No, even though Charlie blew again and again, nobody came
at all.

Then the stage driver said, “I reckon the folks at this farm are not
used to city postmen. I reckon they don’t even _know_ that that whistle
means that there is mail for them. You had better just slip the letters
in the box, the way we do in these parts, and we’ll drive on to the
next farm.”

So Charlie did as the stage driver said. He had to stand on tiptoe
because the box was so high. He felt a little sad that nobody had come
to get the letters from him--but it was fun putting the letters in the
box.

Then they drove on to the next farm. This time there were a whole lot
of letters and a parcel, too. Charlie carried the parcel himself, as it
was a little one. He said to the stage driver, “Perhaps I had better
not blow my whistle this time.” But the stage driver said, “Oh, go
ahead and blow your whistle, you know you are a city postman and you
must do as they do.”

So Charlie blew on his whistle--he blew a TREMENDOUS blast, and he blew
again and again. And--what do you think?

The farmer who was in the field, hoeing potatoes, threw down his hoe
and he came running, as fast as he could run, to see what Charlie’s
whistle meant.

And the farmer’s wife, who was in the kitchen frying doughnuts, the
minute she heard Charlie’s whistle, threw down her cooking spoon and
ran out of the kitchen door to see what Charlie’s whistle meant.

And the cat, who was sleeping on a rocking chair on the porch, sprang
straight up in the air when she heard the whistle; and _she_ came
tearing down to the gate to see _what in the world_ all that whistling
meant.

And the watch dog, who was tied up outside his kennel--he jumped and
pranced and tried to get loose because _he_ wanted to find out what all
that whistling meant!

And they all came rushing down to the gate, except the dog, and when
they saw Charlie with the parcel and the letters--my goodness, they
were surprised!

The farmer said, “Well, well, to think that we have a postman just the
same as they have in the city--well! well!” and he shook hands with
Charlie.

Then the farmer’s wife said, “Mr. Stage Driver, couldn’t you wait a
minute while I run into the house and get a doughnut apiece for you and
the postman?” The stage driver thought that would be very nice--so
the farmer’s wife brought the doughnuts and they were _delicious_.

[Illustration: _Charlie blew a tremendous blast_]

Then they said, “Good-by” to the nice farmer and his wife and thanked
her for the delicious doughnuts, and off they went to the next farm.
Charlie blew his whistle, and he blew his whistle every single time
they came to a farm, but nobody else came to the gate to see what was
the matter; so Charlie put the letters in the box every time.

Soon they came to a long stretch of road where there were no houses at
all, and Charlie and the stage driver could talk together without being
interrupted every minute by Charlie having to deliver letters.

Charlie told the stage driver all about the city and about his Mother
and his Auntie and his Daddy, and about Jane and Topsy and Bingo, and
about the iceman and the postman, and the letter boxes that are at the
corner of the streets where you mail your letters.

Then the stage driver told Charlie all about the country and what an
important person the stage driver is when he lives in the country--even
more important than the postman. For the stage driver not only brings
letters, and parcels for birthdays or Christmas, he brings _everything_
that the people in the country need--clothes, and furniture, and
medicine--every single thing that they use, except what they grow
themselves.

Everything is sent from the city by the train in great big packages.
And the stage driver puts the packages on to the stage, and carries
some of them to the country store, where the people can come and buy
the things they want--but some of the things go directly to the farmers
who live too far from the country store.

Charlie thought this very interesting. There were a whole lot of
questions that he wanted to ask. But now they had come to another
farm and there was a great big package all ready at the gate!

[Illustration: _Charlie and the stage driver talked together_]

The stage driver got down and put it on to the stage. Charlie was much
surprised. He said, “I thought you brought packages _to_ people, I did
not know that you took any away.”

Then the stage driver said, “I reckon you can’t guess what is inside
_this_ package and where it is going to be sent. Why, this package is
full of maple sugar, and it is going to be sent to the city because
people could not get maple sugar in the city unless the people in the
country sent it to them. This package is going to a big store in the
city, and when you go back home, maybe you and your Mother will go into
the store and buy a pound of this very same maple sugar that is in this
package!”

Yes, that is what the stage driver said, and Charlie was so interested
and surprised that the stage driver started to surprise him some more.

“See all those pretty blossoms on the apple trees. Well, by Fall they
will all have turned into apples. Then the farmer will gather them off
the trees, and he will put them in sacks, and I will take them to the
station on my stage and load them on to the train, and they will be
taken to the city, where you city folks will buy them. Same thing with
the wheat growing in the fields, and the vegetables, and everything
the farmer raises. Everything that he doesn’t need for his own use the
farmer sends to the city, first by the stage driver and then by the
train.”

My goodness! This gave Charlie a lot to think about! He said, “I think
that trains and mail stages are the most interesting things in the
world. I will either be a stage driver or a fireman when I grow up, and
I will take things to the country people that _they_ need and bring
back things to the city people that _they_ need.”

By this time _all_ the letters and _all_ the packages had been
delivered. And the stage driver was driving back the way they came.

At last they came to the farm where Charlie was staying. And the stage
driver said, “Here is one more letter for you to deliver, and then your
job will be finished. You have been a great help to me to-day. I think
you are a fine postman and I hope you will come with me another day and
deliver the mail for me. This letter is for your Mother.”

So Charlie thanked the stage driver and climbed down from the stage.
He ran all the way to the house; then he rang the bell and blew his
whistle just as the postman did at home. And who do you think opened
the door? It was his Mother.

She said, “Good afternoon, Postman, have you a letter for me?” And
Charlie said, “Yes, ma’am,” just like the postman. Then he couldn’t
help laughing, and he forgot that he was the postman, and he hugged his
Mother and said, “Is it a letter from Daddy?”

And it _was_. Yes, it was a letter from Daddy, and what do you think?
The letter said that Daddy found that after all he would be able to get
away from the city--and that he would arrive on Friday afternoon, and
Charlie was to be sure to come and meet him.

Then Charlie’s Mother hugged him again for bringing her such a nice
letter and his Auntie came downstairs, Topsy and Bingo prancing after
her. Bingo jumped up and down and Topsy climbed on to Charlie’s
shoulder, and they all listened to the adventures he had had that
afternoon when he was a postman.




[Illustration]

CHARLIE MAKES A POOL AND SAILS HIS BOAT


All the time that Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie were living in
the country Charlie’s Daddy came down every single Saturday to visit
them, and he stayed in the country with them until Sunday night, when
he had to go back to the city. And every Saturday, when Charlie’s Daddy
came to visit them in the country, he _always_ brought a present for
everybody!

One Saturday Charlie’s Daddy came and he brought Charlie’s Mother a
basket of peaches, and he brought his Auntie a box of candy, and he
brought Bingo a ball, and he brought Jane and Topsy a catnip mouse--and
what do you think he brought for Charlie? I will tell you. Charlie’s
Daddy brought Charlie a sailboat! It was a beautiful boat, painted
white with a green water line. It had a mast and two sails. His Daddy
told Charlie that the big sail at the back is called the _mainsail_ and
that the stick that holds it out at the bottom is called the _boom_;
and that the little three-cornered sail in front is called the _jib_
and the stick to which it is fastened is called the _bowsprit_.

Of course Charlie’s Daddy did not say “the front and back” of the ship
either. Oh, dear, no! Charlie’s Daddy called the front part of the ship
the _bow_, and he called the back part the _stern_, and the bottom of
the ship he called the _keel_--and, I can tell you, _nobody ought to
own a ship who does not know these things_.

Well, of course, the very first thing that Charlie wanted to do was to
go and sail his boat--but what do you think? The brook was so shallow
and full of stones that there was no place deep enough to sail the boat
at all! That was very sad.

Charlie and his Daddy walked a long way beside the brook looking for a
pool where the water was deeper, but they could not find one.

Then Charlie’s Daddy said, “Well, unless some rain comes to make the
brook get deeper, I guess you’ll have to wait to sail your boat till
you come back to town and can sail it in the bath tub. As long as you
are in the country you will have to say that the boat is in ‘dry dock.’”

But what do you think? Charlie didn’t even know what a dry dock _is_.
No, his Daddy had to explain to him all about it--how the ship is put
into “dry dock” when it has to be mended or painted below the water
line. First the ship sails into the dock, and then the dock is closed
up behind the ship and all the water is pumped out and the ship is
propped up straight with props from each side of the dock.

So Charlie and his Daddy made a dry dock for his ship on the bureau in
his room. They made the dock of books, and propped the ship up straight
with blocks on each side of the keel. The ship looked very beautiful on
the bureau, but Charlie _did_ wish that he could sail it and that he
did not have to keep it in “dry dock” all the time.

One day, when his Daddy had gone back to town, Charlie and his Mother
and his Auntie went for a walk.

They went for a new walk. Instead of just going along the road, they
thought it would be interesting to follow the creek. So they climbed a
wall and followed the creek through the fields and into a wood which
was “private property”; but there was a sign which said people could
walk there if they did not do any damage.

Then they came to a place where there was a stone wall built right
across the creek from side to side and above the stone wall was a great
_e-nor-mous_ pool! And the water pounded over the stone wall like a
waterfall. The pool was very deep and wide, but above the pool the
creek was all stony and shallow again.

Charlie was very much interested. He said, “Why is that stone wall
built across the creek, and what makes that pool so deep and broad when
the rest of the creek is shallow and narrow?”

Then his Mother explained to Charlie all about it. She explained to
him that the pool was a swimming pool, and that the stone wall built
across the creek from side to side was a _dam_. The dam keeps the water
in like a basin until it gets as deep as the dam is high and then the
water flows over the top.

Charlie was _very much interested_ when he heard this. He said to his
Mother, “Can anybody build a dam?”

And of course his Mother said that anybody could. She said that you
only had to heap a lot of mud and stones together just below where you
wanted the pool to be, and just as high as you wanted the pool to be
deep.

Oh, my goodness! Charlie _was_ excited then. I wonder if you can guess
what he said?

I will tell you. Charlie said, “Mother, Auntie, I want to go home
_im-me-di-ate-ly_, I AM GOING TO BUILD A DAM! Yes, I am going to
build a dam across the brook and make a great ENORMOUS pool to sail
my boat in.” Of course his Mother and his Auntie said they would go
home immediately when they heard that Charlie was going to do such an
important thing.

So they did go home, and Charlie put on his overalls and he ran down to
the brook and began to work at his dam.

First he found a place where the brook was a little wider and where the
banks were quite steep. Then he started scooping out the stones at the
bottom of the brook, so that there would be no rocks for his boat to
get wrecked on.

You may be sure that Bingo and Topsy were very much interested in what
Charlie was doing. Yes, they both came and watched him awhile. Then
Topsy began to dig a hole in the grass--he wanted to show that _he_
could dig a hole just as well as Charlie could. Bingo tried to dig a
hole, too, but he soon got tired of it and ran around and barked, “Yap,
yap!” He wanted Charlie and Topsy to come and play with him.

But Charlie was much too busy to pay any attention to Bingo. He just
went on bending over the brook, digging out the stones until he had the
bottom of the brook, where his pool was going to be, nicely cleaned
out. Then he started to work on the dam.

First Charlie hunted around until he had got together a nice lot of
flat stones, and he began to pile them up one on top of the other, and
he went on piling them up until the dam went right across the brook
from bank to bank.

At first the water paid no attention to Charlie’s dam at all. It just
went on flowing through the chinks between the stones, just as if
there were not any dam there at all! But Charlie piled up great banks
of mud, and put in more big stones and then little stones to fill the
chinks--and at last the water began to rise!

Yes, the water rose, and it rose until it was a nice big pool and came
up to the top of the banks on both sides, and then it began to dribble
over the top of the dam. So Charlie knew that the dam was finished! Of
course the water in the pool was _dreadfully_ muddy, but Charlie did
not mind a bit. Why should he, when the pool was so nice and wide and
deep? Yes, it was so deep that it came all the way up to his knees!

Then Charlie saw his Mother and his Auntie walking across the field
from the house. They had come to see how Charlie was getting along with
his dam.

And, my goodness, how astonished they were when they saw that Charlie
had _ac-tu-al-ly_ finished the dam and what a huge big pool he had made!

But both his Mother and his Auntie could not help laughing when they
saw how Charlie was all covered with mud. He had mud all over the front
of his overalls, and on his hands, and there was a big splash of mud
on the end of his nose!

Then his Mother said, “Now, Charlie, dinner will soon be ready, so you
must hurry home and wash your face and hands, and put on a clean suit.
Then after dinner you may sail your boat in your beautiful big pool.”

So Charlie ran to the house, and he washed his face, and he scrubbed
his hands, and he put on a clean blue sailor suit, and he ate his
dinner.

Then he gave Topsy and Bingo and Jane their dinner. And then--he and
his Mother and his Auntie went down to the pool to sail the boat. And,
what do you think? The mud had all settled at the bottom of the pool
while Charlie was eating his dinner, and the pool was as clear as glass
so that you could see to the very bottom and you could see the dam that
Charlie had built.

Then Charlie launched his boat. The pool was deep enough--but the boat
did not sail quite well even yet. No, the boat leaned a little to one
side and, when a gust of wind came, it would have turned right over if
Charlie had not caught hold of the mast just in time.

Charlie felt very sad that his boat would not sail properly when he had
built such a beautiful pool for it.

But his Auntie said, “Cheer up, Charlie, I know exactly what is the
matter with the boat so that it will not sail, and it can be fixed so
that it will sail _beautifully_. The trouble is that the boat has not
enough _ballast_. That means that the masts and the sails are too heavy
for the keel. But if we nail a strip of lead along the bottom of the
keel the boat will stay upright and will not lean to one side.”

Well, Charlie and his Auntie took the boat and went to the barn, where
the farmer was mending his mowing machine.

And his Auntie asked the farmer if he knew where they could get a strip
of lead to nail to the keel of Charlie’s boat.

The farmer said, “Right here I have all the lead that you can use.” And
he cut off a strip of lead just the size of the keel. Then the farmer
also gave Charlie some interesting-looking nails that he said could be
just the thing to nail the lead to the keel. They were crooked nails
that folded over and looked just like tiny croquet hoops.

Then Charlie’s Auntie took the mast and sails off, and she hammered the
nails over the lead so that it was fastened to the keel of the boat.
Then she put the masts and sails back. Don’t you think that she was a
clever Auntie? Yes, indeed, she was.

So they went back to the pool again, where Charlie’s Mother was waiting
to see if the boat would sail right _this_ time.

[Illustration: _The boat sailed beautifully_]

And what do you think? _It did!_ Yes, the boat sailed beautifully, it
sailed right away to the other side of the brook, and when Charlie
turned the rudder to the right the boat turned in the opposite
direction and sailed right back again!

Yes, that boat could do everything that a real boat does, and when the
wind blew hard it keeled over to one side but it did not capsize. No,
nothing could make that boat capsize. Even when Bingo stood upon his
hind legs and tried to catch it when it went sailing past, he fell
splash into the pool and made a great ENORMOUS wave, just like the
waves in the middle of the ocean--_still_ that boat did not capsize.

Well, every day after that Charlie sailed his boat in the pool. He made
a dock for it, with stones, and he put grass and pebbles on the deck
for the cargo, which he loaded and unloaded at the dock, and the boat
sailed from side to side of the pool. When the boat got to the other
side Charlie would jump across the brook where it was narrow and turn
the rudder so that the boat would turn right round and sail back again
to the dock.

Yes, Charlie had more fun than I can tell you playing with his boat.
And Topsy and Bingo played, too; they jumped across the brook backwards
and forwards and they tried to catch the boat as it sailed past. And,
Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie liked to help Charlie sail his boat;
yes, they enjoyed watching it sail so beautifully before the wind.

And--on Saturday, when Charlie’s Daddy came down to visit them all--my
goodness! he was surprised and _de-light-ed_ to see the dam and the
pool that Charlie had made all by himself, and to see how beautifully
the boat sailed, with its sails blown out by the wind, and with its
cargo of grass and pebbles piled up on deck.

Yes, Charlie’s Daddy thought that Charlie was a very clever boy to have
made that dam and that pool all by himself--and I think so, too.




[Illustration]

CHARLIE BUILDS A REAL HOUSE


Well, the days passed and passed--and at last it was time for Charlie
to go back to the city. He said “Good-by” to the stage driver and to
the postmaster and to the man at the country store and to the lady at
the farm, where he and his Mother and his Auntie lived while they were
in the country. And he said “Good-by” to the cows and to the chickens
and to the baby pigs.

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie packed the suitcase and the trunk and
put Topsy into his basket, and he did not like it at all and said
“Miaouw, miaouw!” And Jane was put into _her_ basket and _she_ did not
like it either, but she was a good cat and she did not say a word.
Then Charlie put the leash on Bingo’s collar and they all climbed into
the surrey, which is a two-seated carriage, and they all drove to the
station. Then they all got on to the train and off they went to the
city.

This time there was another fireman, as Charlie’s friend was having a
day off, so Charlie did not ride on the engine _this_ time; no, _this_
time he rode in the day coach with his Mother and his Auntie and Topsy
and Bingo and Jane.

Charlie was feeling rather sad that he had to leave the country and
all his new friends, but as the train steamed farther and farther away,
he began to think that it was rather nice to be going back to the city
after all.

It would be nice to see his Daddy again and the iceman--and he wanted
to tell the postman all about the stage driver and how letters
are delivered in the country. And Charlie wanted to see his house
again, where he lived, and the garden and his electric train and his
automobile and his great _e-nor-mous_ flashlight. Yes, Charlie began to
feel very glad that he was going home again.

And--when Charlie _did_ get home, what do you think he found? Why,
Charlie found that something _most_ interesting and ex-cit-ing had been
happening while he was away in the country. Some builders had started
to build a house on the other side of the road, and he could sit on his
own front gate and watch them build.

[Illustration: _Charlie Watched the Builders_]

The builders had already built quite a lot of the house, and in front
of what they had built was a big pile of bricks and also a pile of sand
and quicklime to make mortar of.

It was late in the afternoon, so the builders had stopped working,
but Charlie wanted to stay right there and look at everything. But
his Mother and his Auntie said, “No.” They said that it was getting
late and Charlie must come right in and have his supper and go to bed.
To-morrow he could watch the builders build as much as ever he wanted
to.

So the next day Charlie ran out _immediately_ after breakfast. The
builders were already at work--they were working hard, putting the
bricks on top of each other. Charlie saw how they put each brick on
top of two others, he saw how they did it _very carefully_ so that the
brick was _ex-act-ly_ in the middle of the two below it. Then he saw
how carefully the builders put the mortar on with a flat, wide knife,
so that none of the mortar dripped over the edge of the bricks but made
a nice straight line up and across. And, because the bricks were laid,
one in the middle of the two below, the white line of the mortar made a
most interesting design.

Charlie was _ab-so-lute-ly_ fascinated, he thought that he would
_never_ get tired of watching those builders build.

Then Topsy and Bingo came out to see what Charlie was doing and to
get him to play with them, but Charlie was _much_ too interested in
watching the house being built, so he paid no attention at all. No, he
paid no attention to Topsy and Bingo, but went on watching the builders
build the house.

After a while one of the builders looked up, and he said, “Hello, you
seem to like watching us build this house; I guess you would like to
be over here helping us.” And Charlie said, “Oh, yes, I _would_ like
to come over and help you, I mean to be a house builder when I grow
up.” Then the builder said, “Is that so? Have you had any practice in
building houses?” Charlie said, “No, I have never built a _real_ house,
but I can build _beautiful_ houses with my wooden blocks.”

But the builder said, “Well, I guess you need more practice than
_that_--you have to know how to put the mortar on, and that is not as
easy as it looks. How would you like me to give you some bricks and
mortar and then you can build yourself a house in the corner of your
yard?” Yes, the builder _ac-tu-al-ly_ said that to Charlie! And he also
asked him, “Have you an express wagon that you can haul the bricks in?”

Of course Charlie said, “Yes,” and he ran off to the house to tell his
Mother and his Auntie all about the house builder, and to ask if he
might go across the road by himself to get the bricks. And his Mother
and his Auntie both said, “Yes.” They said that it would be perfectly
safe for Charlie to go across the road all by himself, because no
automobiles were allowed on the road and there was a sign which said,
“Closed to Traffic.”

Then Charlie got his express wagon and he went across the road to get
the bricks. He loaded the bricks into his express wagon and he dragged
them across the road and in at the garden gate to the corner of the
garden where there were no flowers and no vegetables. Charlie did this
over and over again; he did it so often that his legs ached,--and every
time that Charlie went across the road Topsy and Bingo followed him.
When Charlie had been across the road four, five, _six_ times getting
his express cart full of bricks every time, the builder said, “Now
you have enough bricks to start with. Suppose you go now and ask your
Mother for a pail and I will give you some mortar, already mixed.”

Charlie ran and got the pail, and the builder filled it with mortar and
carried it over to Charlie’s yard himself because it was too heavy for
Charlie to carry. The builder certainly _was_ a nice man.

Of course Charlie wanted _immediately_ to start in building the house.
But his Mother and his Auntie said, “No.” They said that Charlie had
worked enough for one day, and that he had better play a little. And
his Mother said, “You had better wait till your Daddy comes home before
starting to build your house; I think you ought to ask his advice as to
exactly where would be the best place to build it.”

Charlie thought that his Mother was right and he determined to wait
till his Daddy came home before building the house. So he went off and
had a lovely game with Topsy and Bingo.

At last Charlie’s Daddy came home. Charlie was watching for him out
of the dining-room window. As soon as he saw his Daddy come in at the
gate, Charlie ran out to meet him and to tell him all about the bricks
that the builder had given him and about the house he was going to
build.

Charlie’s Daddy was very interested; he was so interested that he said
he would like to help Charlie to build the house. Then Charlie’s Daddy
went upstairs and changed into his old suit, the one he always wore
when he was digging in the garden, and he found a spade, and he said,
“Come on, Charlie, let us start building the house.”

So they went into the garden and started to build the house. First
Charlie’s Daddy dug a trench, the size that the house was to be; this
was to be the foundation so that the house should not blow over in a
wind-storm. Charlie helped dig the trench also. It was very hard work
digging the trench--it was such hard work that both Charlie and his
Daddy were puffing and blowing before they had finished digging. But at
last the trench was finished, and while they were both standing still
to admire it Charlie’s Auntie came and called them in to supper.

So they both had to go in and change their clothes and eat their supper
and, by the time that supper was over, it was too dark to work at the
house any longer. Charlie did not like this at all, he said, “I do not
want to stop for a single minute until the house is built.”

But his Daddy said, “Cheer up, Charlie, to-morrow is a legal holiday,
and I shall be home all day. So I shall be able to help you build your
house until it is finished.” Then Charlie was satisfied and he went to
sleep the minute he got into bed--and all night long he dreamed about
the beautiful house he was going to build.

The next morning both Charlie and his Daddy got up early; they got up
at six o’clock! They each had a glass of milk and a cookie, then they
went into the garden and began to work.

First they started piling bricks into the trench, one on top of two
others, _ex-act-ly_ the way Charlie had seen the builders doing it; and
his Daddy showed him how to put the mortar on each brick with a flat
trowel that he had found in the woodshed and that looked _ex-act-ly_
like the one the builders used. It is very important to put the mortar
on right, as that is what makes the bricks stick together.

Before breakfast Charlie and his Daddy had _ac-tu-al-ly_ finished
the foundation! Charlie was very glad that he had his Daddy to help
him--why, if it had not been for his Daddy I don’t think that Charlie
would have thought of building _any_ foundation for his house, and
then it would have blown down!

Well, you may be sure that the moment they had finished breakfast, and
when Charlie’s Daddy had smoked just one cigarette, they both of them
were hard at work on the house again.

For one reason Charlie was sorry that it was a legal holiday, and
that was because the builders were having a holiday, too, and Charlie
_would_ have liked them to see him in his overalls that were all
covered with mortar and pink with brick dust--so that he looked
_ex-act-ly_ like a real builder.

Well, they worked and they worked. And you never can guess how
clever Charlie’s Daddy was. He was just as clever as a real builder.
Yes, Charlie’s Daddy _ac-tu-al-ly_ knew how to make a window in the
house--and a door also! The window went all the way to the top of the
roof and so did the door, for Charlie’s Daddy said that there was
_one_ thing he did not know how to do that a real builder knows, and
that is how to make an arch, with a keystone! Soon the house was tall
enough for Charlie to go in at the door, and then his Daddy said that
the front of the house was tall enough. But the sides had to be built
sloping higher toward the back so that the roof should slope--it is
very important that a house should have a sloping roof so that the
water may drain off it when it rains.

At last his Daddy said, “There, the house is finished, all but the
roof!”

Charlie _was_ excited! He jumped and he shouted, “My house is nearly
finished, my house is nearly finished!”

Then his Daddy went off to the woodshed and he brought back a whole lot
of boards and a roll of tar paper. He put the boards all across the
roof and covered them with tar paper--and THE HOUSE WAS FINISHED!

Yes, it was _ac-tu-al-ly_ finished. It had a beautiful doorway, and a
window and a roof--anybody could see that it was a real house.

Topsy and Bingo were nearly as much excited as Charlie. Bingo ran in
and out of the door and barked and barked. But Topsy climbed up the
wall and in at the window and he did this again and again.

Then Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie came to look at the beautiful
house. And, my goodness! they _were_ surprised that Charlie and his
Daddy had built a house that looked exactly like a real house.

And Charlie’s Mother said, “Now, we will go back to the house and we
will bring Charlie’s little chairs and his table, and I will get a rag
rug that is in the attic; then the house will be furnished and Charlie
can live in it with Topsy and Bingo and Jane.”

So that is what they did! And Charlie’s Auntie hung some curtains
across the window and tied them with blue ribbon, and his mother put
the rag rug on the floor, and placed the furniture around the room so
that it looked _most_ cozy and _most_ comfortable.

Well, just when everybody was standing and admiring the house, Jane the
cat came up, and she looked at the house for a minute. Then she walked
straight in at the door and lay down on the rug, and she purred and
purred as loud as she could purr, because she liked Charlie’s house so
tremendously. But Topsy jumped in at the window and _he_ walked around
the house and sat down on every one of the little chairs and even on
the table, but when he jumped into the express cart, which was in the
corner of the house, he liked it so much that he curled up and went
to sleep. But Bingo was the most excited of all--he dashed around and
around the house, and he jumped up in the air and barked and barked and
BARKED!

The next day, when the builders were at work again, Charlie climbed up
on the gate and called out to the builder who had given him the bricks,
“Good morning, Mr. Builder! I have finished my house!”

The builder was most interested and he came over to look at the house
that Charlie had built.

He said, “Did you build that house _all_ by yourself?”

And Charlie said, “Yes, I built that house _all_ by myself, and my
Daddy helped me.”

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

BINGO LEARNS TO COME WHEN HE IS CALLED


Bingo was a very clever little dog--he learned very quickly all the
tricks that Charlie taught. He could sit up and beg, and he could bark
three times for the flag, and when Charlie put a piece of cake on his
nose Bingo could toss it in the air and catch it in his mouth, and,
if Charlie threw a stick, Bingo would always run and bring it back.
Yes, Bingo could do all these things and he liked to do them again
and again. He was such a clever little dog that all the boys in the
neighborhood knew him well, and they used to watch him over the fence
doing all the tricks that he had learned.

But there was _one_ thing that Bingo never _would_ learn and that was
to come _immediately_ when he was called. If Bingo thought that Charlie
was going for a walk or that his dinner was ready, he would come the
very minute that Charlie called him; but if he was doing something
interesting or something that he should not be doing, Charlie could
call “Bingo, Bingo, Bingo,” till he was hoarse, Bingo would not come!
He would wag his tail and perk up his ears to show that he had heard,
but he would not come.

One day Charlie was playing in the garden with Bingo and Topsy when
Bingo suddenly saw something that interested him in the road and he
scrambled under the gate and went scampering along down the road.

[Illustration]

Charlie did not approve of this at all. He called and he called,
“Bingo, Bingo, Bingo”--but Bingo would not come, he went on racing
along the road. He had decided that he would like to go out and see the
world!

Then Charlie ran into the house to tell his Mother and his Auntie. He
could not run after Bingo, because of course he was not allowed to go
outside the garden gate by himself. His Auntie did not even wait to put
on her sweater though it was very cold; she ran straight out of the
gate to bring Bingo back--but Bingo had _ab-so-lute-ly_ disappeared!

Charlie and his Auntie put on their coats and went a long distance
down the road, calling Bingo all the time, but they could not find him
anywhere. They asked everybody that they met if they had seen a little
white dog with black spots but nobody had seen him. Then they went home
again, hoping that Bingo would have arrived there before them. But no,
Bingo was not there!

Now I will tell you what happened to Bingo. When he had run along the
road for quite a distance he came to a turning where the road ran very
steeply downhill. There was a boy with a bob sled, and just as Bingo
reached the corner the boy lay down flat on his sled, and biff! off he
flew down the hill! Bingo was much excited. He barked, “Yap, yap, yap,”
and ran after the bob sled as fast as ever he could. He was determined
to catch that bob sled! But of course he could not. The boy and the
sled reached the bottom of the hill before Bingo, but not long before.

The boy had decided to go home, as it was near his dinner time, and he
was dragging his sled after him when Bingo arrived at the bottom of the
hill, all out of breath and with his little red tongue hanging out. But
he was not too out of breath to jump up at the boy and bark “Yap, yap,
yap!” He was trying to tell him how glad he was that he had caught up
with him at last.

The boy patted Bingo on the head and talked to him, but of course he
did not know his name as he lived quite a distance away and had never
seen Bingo before.

Bingo liked the boy very much and decided that he would go for a walk
with him. So he followed after him. It was a long, long walk, but at
last they arrived at the boy’s house.

It was a tall brick house very much larger than the house in which
Bingo lived with Charlie; and it had to be larger too, because a great
many people lived in it--two families lived on every floor!

The boy climbed up five flights of stairs; he lived on the top floor of
all--and Bingo followed after him.

The boy’s Mother was cooking dinner in the kitchen and she was very
much surprised when she saw Bingo. She said, “Who is that dog?” The boy
said, “I found him and I am going to keep him for my dog. I have always
wanted one.”

But his Mother said, “How can we keep a dog when we live five flights
up and have only three rooms? It is impossible. After you have had your
dinner you must take him back to where you found him, then he will
be able to find his way home. He has a collar on so he must belong to
somebody. In the meantime, take him downstairs and tie him up in the
yard. I have just washed the kitchen floor and I am afraid he will make
it dirty again.”

The boy felt very sad because he could not keep Bingo, but he took him
down to the yard as his Mother had told him to, and he tied him up to
the fence with a piece of rope.

Bingo did not like this at all. He pulled and he pulled and he pulled,
but he could not get loose. He pulled and he pulled and--he PULLED,
and--suddenly the fastening of his collar snapped (it snapped because
Charlie had not fastened it properly that morning), and Bingo was a
free dog.

Then he scampered gayly out of the yard and into the street again.
He thought that it was time to go home to Charlie and his dinner.
But--what do you think? Bingo could not find his way home! He ran
through street after street but he could not find the house where he
lived with Charlie and Topsy and Jane. The boy’s Mother must have
thought that Bingo was older than he really was when she said that he
could find his way home by himself.

Bingo was beginning to be worried--there were a great many children
playing in the streets through which he passed and every now and again
he thought that he saw Charlie, but it always turned out that he was
mistaken. Sometimes some of the children would try to stop him but
Bingo always ran away from them. He wanted to go home.

At last he passed four little boys who were walking along together.
Bingo was very tired now and he was not running any more; no, he was
walking very slowly and limping a little because he had hurt his foot.

One of the boys looked at him limping along in front and he said,
“Look at that puppy. He looks exactly like Charlie’s Bingo, who does
such wonderful tricks!”

The other boy said, “He does look like him. Let’s call him and see if
he answers to the name Bingo.” So they called, “Bingo, Bingo, Bingo!”

You may be sure that when Bingo heard his name called _this time_ he
did come running as fast as ever he could.

Bingo did not know the boys but they knew him. They had often watched
him over the fence doing the tricks that Charlie had taught him, so
they knew where he lived. Now that they were sure it _was_ Bingo, as
he had come at once when they called him, they decided that they would
take him back to his home; for they knew how unhappy Charlie must be
because he had lost his dog.

[Illustration: _One of the strange boys held Bingo_]

But they were afraid that Bingo might run away again, so one of the
boys held on to him while the others made a harness for him out of
some string that one of them had in his pocket. Then they put it on
Bingo and they tied a long piece of string to the middle of the harness
for a leash.

So they started on their way--but you can think how funny Bingo did
look in his rope harness! The boys could not help laughing at him, and
Bingo did not like that at all. He had a feeling that he looked very
ragged and untidy, as indeed he did; and all the dogs that he met and
who wore beautiful collars, sniffed at him, as though to say, “What an
extraordinary thing to wear, instead of a collar!”

Bingo wished very much that he had not lost his own collar, which was a
very beautiful one. He wanted to stop and tell the other dogs all about
it. But the four boys were in a hurry, and they pulled at his rope so
that he had to follow them.

At last they reached the bottom of the hill that the boy had coasted
down. It was ever so much harder to climb _up_ that hill than it had
been running down it that morning. But at last they got to the top and
Bingo began to feel very excited because he recognized the street that
they were now walking along. Every single day he walked along that
street with Charlie and Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie on their way to
the park.

And--then at last they reached the garden gate and Bingo was home! He
was so excited that he barked “Yap, yap, yap!”

Charlie was eating his supper in the dining room and when he heard it
he said, “That’s Bingo’s bark!” and he and his Mother and his Auntie
and his Daddy all jumped up from the table and ran to the front door.
And--there were the four little boys holding Bingo by the rope!

Well, you may be sure that everybody was glad to see Bingo. Charlie
grabbed him in his arms and hugged him while he thanked the boys for
bringing him home, and Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie thanked them
also. Then Charlie’s Daddy put his hand in his pocket and he brought
out four beautiful new quarters and he gave one to each of the boys, so
they were very happy, too. But the happiest of all was Bingo, he barked
till he could bark no more because he was hoarse. He barked so loudly
that he wakened Jane and Topsy from their nap and they came out to see
what it all meant.

When Jane saw Bingo, what do you think she did? Why, she started to
wash him! Yes, she did; she washed him all over and he needed it, I can
tell you.

Then, when Bingo was nice and clean, Charlie gave him his dinner, and
when he had eaten it he was so tired that he curled up beside Jane on
the kitchen rug, just as if he was a baby puppy again, and went fast
asleep. But always after that, Bingo would come when he was called.
He came so quickly when Charlie called, “Bingo, Bingo, Bingo,” that
everybody noticed it, and said to Charlie, “What a well-trained dog you
have. Did you train him yourself?” And Charlie would say, “Yes, I did.
He _is_ a clever dog; there isn’t _anything_ that Bingo can’t do!” And
I don’t believe there was!

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

WHAT CHARLIE DID ON A RAINY DAY


One day it was a rainy day. The rain poured and it poured, and the wind
blew. It was a very disagreeable day. It poured so hard that Charlie
could not go out in the yard and play in his little house. His Mother
and his Auntie both said that it was the kind of day when it is best
to stay indoors.

Then Charlie’s Mother said, “As it is such a rainy day that I cannot
go out, I shall make preserves all the morning. I shall make plum
preserves and orange marmalade, and we will have some for supper
to-night.”

And his Auntie said, “I shall sew all the morning; yes, I will make
myself a nice new dress.”

Topsy and Bingo and Jane did not say anything. But they all three lay
down on hearth rug and went to sleep. They had decided that, as it was
such a disagreeable, rainy day that they could not go out and play,
they would sleep all the morning, and, maybe, dream a nice dream about
playing in the fields in the country.

As for Charlie--_he_ did not know _what_ to do. He stood at the window
and he looked out at the rain pattering on the ledge and against the
window pane--and he said, “I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what
to do!” And he said it again and again.

His Auntie said to him, “The very idea, Charlie, you have _heaps_ of
things to do! Why don’t you play with your toys--with your train and
with your blocks?”

But Charlie shook his head. “It’s no fun playing with my train--it just
goes round and round, and I have built everything with my blocks that
I know how to build. I want something _new_ to play! Something I have
never played before.”

His Auntie thought hard for two whole minutes. Then she said, “Look
here, Charlie, I have a splendid idea! You run up to my room and bring
me a pile of typewriting paper that you will find on my desk. Also
bring a paper of pins out of my top bureau drawer, and I will show you
something new to play with.”

So Charlie ran upstairs and brought down these things. Then his Auntie
told him to get his own scissors with the rounded tops and his box of
colored chalks.

Charlie began to feel very interested and excited. He wondered _what in
the world_ his Auntie was going to do.

Well, when he had brought his scissors and his crayons, his Auntie sat
down at the table and she took a piece of typewriting paper and folded
it this way and that way. Then she colored one part of it red with
the red chalk, and she made three little green strokes with the green
chalk, and with the scissors she cut along the creases, and folded it
some more; _then_ she pinched it here and pinched it there, and she
stuck a pin in at the back, and--there was a beautiful little white
house with a red roof and green shutters, and a door that opened and
shut!

Charlie was delighted. He said, “Oh, oh! _How beautiful!_ Show me how
to make it. _Please_, Auntie, show _me_ how to make a little house.”

[Illustration]

So his Auntie showed him _ex-act-ly_ how to make the little house--and
you will see in the picture on this page _ex-act-ly_ how Charlie’s
Auntie cut the paper, and where she painted it red for the roof, and
where she put the windows with the green shutters, and where she cut
the door so that it could open and shut, and where she put the pin
in at the back to keep it together. Yes, Charlie’s Auntie used a pin
instead of paste, because paste does not always stick very well and it
often makes things look messy unless you are very skillful.

Well, after Charlie had tried several times and his Auntie had showed
him every time where he had gone wrong, he _ac-tu-al-ly_ succeeded in
making a paper house all by himself! And it was a beautiful house.

When his Auntie saw that Charlie could make paper houses just as well
as she could, she said, “Now I must go upstairs and sew my dress, and
_you_, Charlie, can make a whole, big village of little houses, and I
am sure that you will think of some nice game to play with them.”

Well, Charlie did go on making his houses until he had made a whole lot
of them--yes, he had made a _tre-men-dous_ number of houses; maybe he
had made _fifteen_ houses out of paper, with red roofs and green doors
and shutters. Then he thought that he had made enough and that he would
like to play with them--and so he did.

I will tell you how Charlie played with the houses. First he went over
to a corner of the room where there was no furniture to get in the way
and there he set up some of his houses and made a village of them. Then
he had a _grand_ idea--and the idea was that he would like to have some
trees in his village, and he knew _ex-act-ly_ how to make them!

He ran into the kitchen where his Mother was making delicious preserves
and he said, “Oh, Mother, I want some branches off the bush near the
back door--and it is _very important_. Can I go out just for a minute
and pick some?”

And his Mother said, “Yes. If you put on your rubber boots and your
slicker and your sou’wester, you can go out for just a minute, even
though it is raining, and pick the branches you want, but you must not
be long.”

So Charlie did so--he put on his rubber boots and his sou’wester and
his slicker and he picked all the branches that he wanted. When he
brought them into the house he had to shake them over the sink because
they were so wet.

Now I suppose you will wonder how Charlie made those branches stand
upright on the floor to make them look like trees?

I will tell you. Charlie went to his box, where he kept the old toys
that he used to play with when he was a very little boy, and there he
found a whole lot of spools. When he was a baby he used to like to
string spools together and his Mother and his Auntie always gave him
their spools of thread when they were bare, so Charlie had _dozens_ of
spools and he sometimes let Bingo and Topsy play with them.

Well, Charlie got these spools and he stuck a small branch in the end
of one of them and stood it upright. It made a beautiful tree! So he
made a dozen trees and set them all along the streets of the village.

[Illustration: _Charlie Made Three Villages_]

But there were no people in the village. Charlie thought hard for two
whole minutes--then he went and found his old Noah’s ark and his box
of lead soldiers. Of course, Noah and his wife and his family were the
people who lived in the village, and so were some of the soldiers. The
animals of the ark he stood up in the fields behind the houses and he
pretended that they were all cows--yes, he pretended that the elephants
and the giraffes and the lions and the tigers were all cows.

When Charlie had finished making one village, he started right away and
made two more, so that he had _three_ villages, and each village had a
railway station. Then he arranged his railroad track so that it went
between the different villages, and he made his train run up and down
between them. He put some of the lead soldiers in the coaches. And
every time that his train came to a station Charlie blew his whistle
and called out, “All out for Stony Hollow! All out for Pine Hill! All
out for Ford’s Crossing!” and some of the soldiers got out at every
station and others got in.

My goodness! but Charlie did have a good time playing with his train
and with his villages. He had such a good time that the morning only
seemed five minutes long!

When his Mother and his Auntie came in to see what he had been doing
with himself all the morning, and to tell him that it was time to get
ready for dinner, they _were_ surprised and de-light-ed when they saw
the beautiful villages that Charlie had made.

Well, the very minute that Charlie had finished his dinner he went back
to his villages, because he had thought of several new ideas while he
was eating his dinner.

Yes, he remembered a little tiny horse and wagon that his Mother had
given him. When his Mother had given it to him there was some candy
tied to the wagon, and of course Charlie had eaten the candy long ago;
but he had kept the horse and wagon because it was so cunning and
little, though he thought that it was too little to play with. But now
Charlie was going to use it for his village.

I wonder if you can guess what he was going to use it for? I will tell
you. Charlie decided that the little wagon should be the stage, and he
put a lead soldier in it and pretended that he was the stage driver.
Then he loaded the stage with little parcels made out of paper which he
pretended were sacks of apples that the farmers of the villages were
sending to the city; and he loaded them on to the train, and blew his
whistle--and off it started!

Charlie played all the afternoon with his train and his stage and
his villages; he played with them for hours and hours. The rain had
stopped and the sun was shining but Charlie did not notice that--until
he heard a little hoarse “Wow-wow!” outside the door.

It was Bingo. Yes, Bingo had wakened and wanted Charlie to come and
play with him. So he opened the door and Bingo came jumping into the
room, and the very first thing he did was to knock over three houses in
Charlie’s village. And Topsy came chasing after Bingo and _he_ knocked
over four more with his tail. They would have knocked all the houses
over if Charlie had not stopped them. But Charlie took Bingo and Topsy
out of the room and he shut the door behind him so that they should not
spoil his village.

Then Charlie’s Mother called to him and she said, “Why don’t you and
Topsy and Bingo run out and play in the yard? The sun is shining, but
you must put on your rubber boots, as the grass is still wet.”

Charlie thought that it would be fun to run around a little as he had
been so busy all day. He called Topsy and Bingo, and they had a grand
time chasing each other around the garden and in and out of Charlie’s
little house that he had built of the bricks that the builders had
given him. Sometimes Charlie would catch Bingo, and, when Bingo was
caught, _always_ he rolled over on his back and stuck his four legs in
the air--so that he looked ridiculous!

But Charlie never _could_ catch Topsy. Whenever he nearly caught him,
Topsy would just climb up a tree, and he’d climb _way_ up and peek down
at Charlie through the branches.

So Charlie and Topsy and Bingo played together in the garden till
Charlie’s Daddy came home. Then, of course, Charlie had to show his
Daddy the beautiful villages he had made, and the way each one had a
railway station, and how his train ran up and down the line between
the stations, just like a real train, and carried packages and mail and
passengers.

His Daddy was _most_ interested and de-light-ed. He was _so_ interested
and _de-light-ed_ that he sat straight down on the floor, and began to
play with the villages himself. But Bingo and Topsy had to be left in
the garden while Charlie and his Daddy were playing with the villages,
because they wanted to play also, and _their_ idea of playing with the
villages was to knock down _all_ the houses and _all_ the trees!

Well, Charlie and his Daddy played together till supper was ready.
Then Charlie’s Mother said, “I have been making preserves all day,
and now we will eat some for supper. I have made plum jam and orange
marmalade.” Charlie and his Daddy tasted the plum jam and the orange
marmalade--and they both were _delicious_.

And what do you think? Charlie’s Auntie had finished her new dress and
she wore it down to supper--and it _did_ look beautiful.

So Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie all had a nice day after all,
even though it was such a rainy, disagreeable kind of a day. And Topsy
and Bingo and Jane had enjoyed the day too!

[Illustration]




TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:


  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.