BUDDY JIM GOES SWIMMING AND MEETS A QUEER LITTLE NEIGHBOR
The sun came climbing up the hills
As red as red could be,
And not a leaf was moving on
Any shrub or tree;
The little birds forgot to sing,
The winds forgot to roam;
"There's nothing to do," said Buddy Jim,
"But stay around at home."
JUST then Old Bob the gardener came along, mopping his brow with his old, red bandana handkerchief which he wore tied around his neck, like a cowboy in a wild west movie.
"O Bob," said Buddy Jim, "Isn't it hot? I don't feel as though I'd ever be cool again!"
"It is, so," said Old Bob the gardener, "for the last week in June, it is about as hot as I've ever seen it; you look a bit peaked, Son, seems to me," said he, sympathetically, "has the heat got hold of you?"
"Oh, I don't think so, Bob," said the little fellow. "But it just seems as though there were not a thing in the world to do!"
"Old Dog Sandy seems a bit tuckered out, too," said Old Bob the gardener. Old Dog Sandy, stretched out flat under a lilac bush, didn't bother to open his eyes. He just thumped the ground feebly with his tail. It was too hot to move, if one didn't have to, but one must always be polite!
"Now let's see," said Old Bob the gardener, "there should be something that a boy could do on a hot day, and get some fun out of it? Can you swim?"
"Some," said Buddy Jim. "I learned in the pool at the gymnasium, at home—I mean in the city."