Helen Hill

“ Poor Bingo did not want to climb any more. He jumped straight off the kitchen dresser on to the floor, and he ran out of the kitchen with his little short tail hanging down. He went into the living room and hid under the sofa—poor Bingo was feeling very unhappy and he wanted to be alone.
Soon he heard the front door open and he heard Charlie’s voice in the hall. Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie had come home.
Charlie said, “Oh, Mother, look at those funny white tracks all along the floor. What do you think they can be?” ”

“ Armstrong said, “Is that your puppy?” And Charlie said, “NO, that is my dog. His name is Bingo! He does not like to be called a puppy. May he come with us too?”
Mr. Armstrong looked doubtful. He said, “Bingo looks very much like a puppy to me, and puppies are apt to get into mischief; but if you are careful to keep him on his leash and hold on tightly to him, you may take him with us.”
[20] You may be sure that Charlie felt very much excited at the thought of driving in a real automobile and learning the traffic laws just like a grown-up person. ”

“ One reason was that Bingo could not jump as high as Topsy. A little dog never can jump as high as a kitten. They are not made that way. So when Bingo wanted to climb he had to scramble up with his paws and he always knocked against something or other which would come down with a crash and a bang and somebody would say, “Oh, you bad Bingo, you have broken something again!” ”

“ At last they reached the business section of the city, where there are so many automobiles and street cars and carts that a [22] policeman has always to stand in the middle of the road to direct the traffic; otherwise people would never be able to cross the street in safety at all.
Charlie thought that the policeman looked very grand standing all by himself in the middle of the road. And whenever he blew his whistle, either the crosstown traffic or the uptown and downtown traffic in turn was stopped, as if by magic, to let the other have the right of way. ”

“ There was a new suit for Charlie, and it was a sailor suit, just like those that big boys wear. It had a lanyard and a whistle, and it had a red stripe and an emblem on the sleeves. Then there were two new cars for his electric train, and a pair of scissors [5] with blunt edges, so that Charlie could cut things out himself and not always have to ask his Mother or his Auntie to do it for him. There was an express wagon that he could haul stones and grass in, and there was a new battery for his flashlight! ”

“ For the stage driver not only brings letters, and parcels for birthdays or Christmas, he brings everything that the people in the country need—clothes, and furniture, and medicine—every single thing that they use, except what they grow themselves.
Everything is sent from the city by the train in great big packages. And the stage driver puts the packages on to the stage, and carries some of them to the country store, where the people can come and buy the things they want—but some of the things go directly to the farmers who live too far from the country store. ”

“ But when at last they arrived at the farm [57] where they were going to stay for a whole month, Charlie opened the baskets and let Jane and Topsy out, and he unfastened Bingo’s leash, and they all went exploring together. Then Jane and Topsy and Bingo were delighted. They liked the country tre-men-dous-ly, and the longer they stayed the more they liked it.
There were so many delightful things for cats and dogs to do, which they could not do in the city. Instead of long straight roads with automobiles dashing past all the time, there were fields and meadows to run around in. ”

“ The fireman has to work very hard, but when he is not working he can talk if he wants to. This fireman was very kind, and, when he was not working, he explained everything to Charlie and his Daddy—but all the time he was ex-plain-ing he had to keep looking out of the window, too, in case he should see anything that the engineer did not see. There are a great many windows in the cab of an engine—it has windows all round, because it is so very important that the engineer and the fireman shall see all that there is to see. ”

“ He called Bingo, but Bingo did not come. Then he decided to go down to the big barn to look for him. As he passed near the chicken house he heard a tre-men-dous commotion—“Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, CLUCK,” “Ooka-ooka-ooka-oooooooooo, ooka-ooka-ooka-oooooooooo, ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo” [66] ... Bingo had been trying to get out again!
Then Charlie said, “Shoo, shoo, shoo!” and the hens and even the rooster all got out of the way, and Bingo was free again! Oh, how glad he was! He jumped, and pranced, and followed Charlie to the kitchen, where his dinner was waiting for him. ”

“ Charlie felt very proud, and he would not take his hat off. No, he kept his hat on all the time because he wanted everybody to see that he had a ticket in his hatband just like all the other men.
Then Charlie said to his Daddy, “Daddy, what ex-act-ly makes the train go?”
And his Daddy said, “It’s the steam that makes the engine work, and it is the engineer [46] and the fireman who look after the steam and the engine.” Then Charlie said, “What I want to know is ex-act-ly what the fireman and the engineer do when they are making the engine go.” ”

“ In the country there are no post boxes at every corner as there are in the city. Oh, no! When Charlie wanted to mail a letter he just had to go down to the gate and put it in the box that was fastened outside; then he had to take out an old red tobacco tin that was inside the mail box, tied to it by a string, and leave it hanging outside the box, so that the mailman would see it when he went past and know that there was a letter for the mail. If he did not see the tobacco tin hanging out, the stage driver would not stop at all—so it was very important not to forget to hang the tobacco tin out. ”

“ Then Charlie’s Daddy said, “Well, unless some rain comes to make the brook get deeper, I guess you’ll have to wait to sail your boat till you come back to town and can sail it in the bath tub. As long as you are in the country you will have to say that the boat is in ‘dry dock.’”
But what do you think? Charlie didn’t even know what a dry dock is. No, his Daddy had to explain to him all about it—how [90] the ship is put into “dry dock” when it has to be mended or painted below the water line. ”

“ Same thing with the wheat growing in the fields, and the vegetables, and everything the farmer raises. Everything that he doesn’t need for his own use the farmer sends to the city, first by the stage driver and then by the train.”
My goodness! This gave Charlie a lot to think about! He said, “I think that trains and mail stages are the most interesting things in the world. I will either be a stage driver or a fireman when I grow up, and I will take things to the country people that [85] they need and bring back things to the city people that they need.” ”

“ Charlie was still looking at all his beautiful presents, when there came a ring at the door and a loud whistle. It was the postman! Charlie ran to the front door and opened it. And he said to the postman, “I am five years old, and I’ve got an automobile and a whistle just like yours, and a lot of other things.”
And the postman said, “I thought that you had grown a lot taller since I saw you yesterday. It’s fine that you have got a whistle like mine. There is nothing to prevent you from being a postman yourself now, is there? Then you can carry your own mail. ”

“ The fireman told Charlie that it was very important how one shovels the coal into the fire box. It has to be shoveled very evenly, so that it is not all black with coal in one place and all red hot with embers in another place. Yes, the fireman told Charlie that it needs a lot of practice [53] before one can shovel the coal in just ex-act-ly right.
Then the fireman also had to watch the water gauge, which shows how much water there is in the boiler. ”

“ Armstrong said that they had better drive downtown as there was such a lot of traffic there and Charlie would be able to watch the policeman handle the traffic. On the way Mr. Armstrong told Charlie all about the traffic laws and the reason for every one. He told him how an automobile must never pass a street car when it has stopped to let off passengers, and how an automobile driver must always hold his arm out when he is going round a corner, so that [21] people crossing the street can see in which direction he is going. ”

“ For one reason Charlie was sorry that it was a legal holiday, and that was because the builders were having a holiday, too, and Charlie would have liked them to see him in his overalls that were all covered with mortar and pink with brick dust—so that he looked ex-act-ly like a real builder.
Well, they worked and they worked. And you never can guess how clever Charlie’s Daddy was. He was just as clever as a real builder. Yes, Charlie’s Daddy ac-tu-al-ly knew how to make a window in the house—and a door also! ”

“ But his Auntie said, “Cheer up, Charlie, I know exactly what is the matter with the boat so that it will not sail, and it can be fixed so that it will sail beautifully. The trouble is that the boat has not enough ballast. That means that the masts and the sails are too heavy for the keel. But if we nail a strip of lead along the bottom of the keel the boat will stay upright and will not lean to one side.”
Well, Charlie and his Auntie took the boat and went to the barn, where the farmer was mending his mowing machine. ”

“ How can we keep a dog when we live five flights up and have only three rooms? It is impossible. After you have had your dinner you must take him [126] back to where you found him, then he will be able to find his way home. He has a collar on so he must belong to somebody. ”

“ Then his Mother explained to Charlie all about it. She explained to him that the pool was a swimming pool, and that the stone wall built across the creek from side to side was a dam. The dam keeps the water in like [92] a basin until it gets as deep as the dam is high and then the water flows over the top. ”