44 ROUND ABOUT CHICAGO 



and come running down to the gate to sniff and 

 bristle and bark until our suspicious company is 

 safely past, and then with a comfortable air of 

 having performed their whole duty, trot leisurely 

 back to their napping, giving over their responsi- 

 bility to their canine neighbors farther on. 



The towns-people are still at their morning 

 duties, and invisible, but you know there are 

 people about, for you hear cheery out-door calls 

 and gentle in-door murmurs, and with the human 

 voices are mingled the chirp of robins and various 

 drowsy barnyard noises. As you pass down the 

 road to Thorn creek, the rippling cadence of its 

 running water adds itself to the village sounds. 



We cross the bridge and turn into the creek 

 bottom. Our feet are on the soft, cool earth, 

 and our country day is begun ! 



It is a banner day for boys and we always have 

 plenty of them along when we go to Thornton. 

 We turn them loose upon the hapless denizens 

 of the creek edges, and for a whole day, at inter- 

 vals, as the spirit moves, they may dig crawfishes 

 and catch polliwogs and poke mud-turtles and 

 pocket garter snakes and hunt horrors to their 

 hearts' content. I call them horrors, because in 

 a book I must be very feminine. Really and 

 truly I find them all wonderfully likeable and 



