Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: Roentgen Rays and Phenomena of the Anode and Cathode. by Thompson Edward P Edward Pruden Anthony William A William Arnold Contributor
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 82 lines and 1970 words, and 2 pages
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS AT MERRYVALE
TOAD'S WISH
"Hurrah!" shouted "Reddy." "School is out and no more lessons for two weeks!" and he threw his cap into the air.
"Let's go home by the way of the village, so we can look into Daddy Williams' toy shop," suggested his friend Thomas Brown, better known as "Toad," who ran up to join him.
"All right," agreed Reddy, "and I'll show you what I want for Christmas," and they started down the street.
"Looks as though it might snow by night," said Toad, "don't you wish there would be a big one? Then we could get all the boys together and have a battle."
"It's the best fun I know of, next to swimming in the creek," was the answer.
"Here we are," he cried a few minutes later and both boys stopped in front of a small shop window that looked very gay with a wonderful display of Christmas toys.
"See those skates hanging up by that sled. That's the kind I want," pointed out Reddy. "You screw them right into the heels of your shoes and you bet they can't ever come off."
"They're fine," agreed Toad, "but look at that engine and train. It goes right through the tunnel and up over the bridge. I wonder how fast it can run."
"That's a dandy mitt there," said the other, pointing to a baseball outfit. "I wouldn't be afraid to stop any kind of a ball with that on."
"Wish my dad would get me a new sled like that flyer," sighed Toad. "I finished mine last winter when I ran into that tree with you and Herbie on board."
"You surely did," was the laughing answer. "I remember how we all went flying head first into a snow drift."
"There's a nice pocket knife," was Toad's next remark. "I mean the one with the pearl handle, just next to that doll with the pink dress on."
"Oh!" exclaimed Reddy, "here's what just suits me," catching sight, for the first time, of a punching bag.
"How do you work it?"
"Why, you see there's an elastic rope on each end of it, and one of them you tie to a ring in the floor and the other to something overhead. Then when you give it a punch it comes back to you with a bang."
"Well, I'd rather have a football; then maybe we could get up a regular team," remarked Toad.
"I'll bet all those reals would cost about ten dollars," ventured the other, pointing to a box of marbles toward the front of the window. "If I was rich I'd buy them."
"What for? You have plenty. You won nearly all mine away from me. Look!" he added in a low voice, "there goes Herbie's mother into the store. Let's see what she buys."
"Hello, Daddy," greeted both the boys, as old Mr. Williams, with his white hair, red cheeks and dancing blue eyes, came to the doorway of the shop and smiled at them.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!" he replied. "Have you been good boys?"
"I should say we have," cried Toad. "Everybody's good before Christmas."
"Well, run along home then, and I'll tell your mas just what you want," promised Daddy. "Herbie's ma's in here now and she doesn't want you boys to know what she buys."
"All right," answered Reddy. "Don't forget to say I want a punching bag and a pair of skates."
"And I want a new sled," chimed in Toad, as they both started off.
"Shucks, I didn't see half the things, did you?" protested Reddy.
"Oh, well, we can come down again this afternoon," was the cheering answer. "Come on over to my house, anyway," he called as they parted.
THE SNOW FIGHT
"First chooser!" cried Charley Brown, a happy-faced boy who bore the name of "Chuck" among his friends.
"Second," shouted Reddy, and when the sides were chosen Toad found himself with Herbie, a boy with whom he played very often, and four others on Reddy's side.
It was then decided by the choosers, who were also the captains, to build two forts, ten yards apart, and a half hour was agreed upon as time enough in which to do the work.
"We must hurry," Reddy told the boys he had chosen, "and I think," he added in a low voice, "three of us had better build the fort while the other three make snowballs, as we want a lot on hand so we wont have to stop firing to make them.
"Work fast," he ordered as he selected two of them to help him build the fort.
Toad piled up great heaps of snow while Reddy and Herbie packed it down with wooden spades into a wall which curved like a new moon.
"How are the snowballs getting on, boys?" asked Toad of the three boys who were working hard making them.
"We're stacking them up so they'll be easy to get at," answered one.
"They're good hard ones," said another. "It's fine packing snow."
"We're going to have plenty, too," laughed the third.
"Wonder what Fat's doing?" cried Reddy. "He's bringing a pail of water from the house."
Frank, called "Fat" by the other boys, because of his size, was Reddy's older brother.
"I wonder," mused Toad. "He's pouring it on the walls of their fort. Oh, don't you see," he added a moment later, "it's to make it freeze."
"Let's do that too," proposed Herbie. "I'll get the water," and he started for the house.
Ten minutes later the walls of the fort were like a solid mass of ice, and the snowballs were inside in four heaps so all were anxious for the fun to begin.
THE VICTORY
"Hey, Captain of the enemy!" shouted Chuck from the other fort, "are you ready?"
"All ready," came the answer. "Fire!"
A storm of snowballs flew through the air and Reddy barely had time to duck his head as they whizzed by.
"Looks as though they had plenty of balls, too," exclaimed Toad, hastily picking up an armful and running outside to get within closer range.
"I don't think so," protested Herbie. "I could see all of them working on the fort. We have lots more, I'm sure."
"Well," cried the Captain, "let everybody take a pile of snowballs and we'll run out together and maybe we can drive them from their fort."
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page