Rick and Ruddy: The Story of a Boy and His Dog

by Howard Roger Garis

The boys raced off across the yard, with the reddish-brown setter leaping and barking after them. Ruddy was the kind of a dog known as a "setter"; that is a sort of bird, or hunting, dog.

Rick found a stick, held it up so Ruddy could see it, and then threw it as far as he could, off in the grass.

"Hi! Fetch it back, Ruddy!" called the boy. Ruddy's legs seemed to work on springs as he raced across the yard. It took him only a moment to discover the stick. He located it by smelling, for he could not see it in the deep grass. The stick had a bark smell of its own, but it also had the smell of Rick's hands—the boy-smell that Ruddy had soon come to know so well. Once Ruddy had this smell of his young master well fixed in his wonderful dog's nose, Ruddy never forgot it. And anything that Rick touched, even the sticks and stones that he threw, had, for Ruddy, that wonderful individual smell by which he could tell his master even without seeing him.

And so, throwing sticks for Ruddy to run after and bring back to them, Rick, Ruddy and Chot had fun together.

Not far from Rick's house ran a little stream called Weed River. It really was almost too small for a river, but that is what it was called. There were so many weeds in it, at certain times of the year, that it had been given this name. And, because of the weeds, ducks liked to swim in the river, for ducks eat weeds, and also snails and other small creatures that live on, or among, the grasses under water.

Weed River ran into Silver Lake, on which there were swans, which were like big white geese. And farther off, back of Silver Lake, was a patch of woods. It was in these woods that Rick had let his pet rabbits run away when he grew tired of keeping them.

"We'll throw sticks in the water and Ruddy will bring 'em back to us," proposed Rick.

"Yes," agreed Chot, "and maybe, some day, we can build a raft, and go sailing down the river and into the lake and we can take your dog with us and make believe we're looking for a new land, like it tells about in our school history books."

"I guess there aren't any new lands," said Rick. "They all have been discovered."

"Well, we can make believe to find some, and anyhow it will be fun with your dog," went on Chot. "Come on!"