I GO TO THE COUNTRY 3 



I met a boy, and later we became real friends. 

 He was going up a tree when I saw him first, and 

 I shouted to him to know the name of his dog, 

 who didn't seem to like my being there. He 

 quickly slid down the tree, calling, " Here Peter, 

 here Pete." I asked him his own name, and he 

 said it was Tommy, that his father's name was 

 Tom, and their cat's Old Tom. This I thought 

 very strange, as the cat is younger than either he 

 or his father. 



Tommy said he had a notion a crow was begin- 

 ning to build in the tree he was just shinning up, 

 and that he wanted to mark it, so as to get one 

 of the young birds to tame. He said that he 

 could do this any day though. He seemed to 

 know that I was the little girl who had come to 

 live In the old house, for he told me his father 

 knew Grandmother, and that he lived in the next 

 place. It was Saturday, so he wasn't at school. 



Tommy told me that very morning that he 

 loved wild flowers, and that he knew most of the 

 places where they grew. These places he calls 

 " bunks," and those of very rare flowers he seldom 

 talks about to anybody. But he is not hunting 

 much for flowers now, it is too early ; he tries to see 

 little green things, like tiny spears of grass, or 

 bits of moss just the color of emeralds. Besides, 

 he is keeping his eyes open for the Skunk Cabbage. 



Just as soon as the days are really warm I shall 

 have little time for dreaming; there will be so 



