JIMMIE IN A TALL TREE
It had rained in the morning, and of course the grounds were too slippery and wet to play ball. That is, they were for Sammie Littletail and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, but naturally Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, and Bully, the boy frog, would not have minded the wet the least bit. But there wasn't any ball game, and so Jimmie was playing all alone in the woods back of his house, and wishing it hadn't rained.
"Oh! I wish some of the boys would come over," he said. "We could do something, even if it is wet. I'm lonesome."
Just then he heard a voice singing in the woods, and he heard the branches of the trees moving about, and bits of bark falling off. And this is the song he heard: you have to sing it quite slowly to get the full effect:
| "Oh! it is such fun if you see the sun |
| When the rain has gone away. |
| If you'll come with me you may climb a tree, |
| And in the top we'll play. |
| "Oh! the winds may blow and the cows may crow, |
| But what care we for that? |
| As you scamper high, near the bright, blue sky, |
| Look out, or you'll lose your hat." |
And with that who should come scampering out of a tree but Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel brothers. No, Sister Sallie wasn't with them this time, having stayed at home to wheel her corncob doll in the carriage her brothers had made for her.
"Hello!" cried Billie and Johnnie. "Hello, Jimmie!"
"Aw, why didn't you chaps come over to play ball?" asked the little boy duck.
"Oh! it was too wet," replied Johnnie. "But say, Jimmie, did you hear us singing?"
"Sure," answered Jimmie. "But say; cows don't crow!"