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BAWLY AND HIS WHISTLES · Bully and Bawly No-Tail (the Jumping Frogs)

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  Section sixteen of Bully and Bally No Tail the Jumping Frogs. This is the
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  LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Tom Merritt,
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  Bully and Ballyno Tail the Jumping Frogs by Howard R. Garris Bally and his
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  Whistles. Did you ever make a willow whistle that is out of a piece
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  of wood off a willow tree? No? Well, it's lots of fun.
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  And when I was a boy, I used to make lots of them,
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  big ones and little ones, and the kind that would almost make as
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  much noise as some factory whistles. If you can't make one yourself, ask
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  your big brother or your papa, or some man to make you one.
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  Maybe your big sister can. For some girls like Lulu Wibblewobble the duck can
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  use a knife almost as good as a boy. Well, if I'm going
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  to tell you about Bally No Tail, the Frog and his Whistles, I
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  guess I'd better start, hadn't I, and not talk so much about big
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  brothers and sisters. One afternoon, Bali was hopping along in the woods.
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  It was a nice warm day, and the wind was blowing in the treetops,
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  and the flowers were blooming down in the moss, and Bali was very
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  happy. He came to a willow tree and he said to himself, I
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  guess I'll make a whistle. So he cut off a little branch about eight
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  inches long, and with his knife he cut one end slanting just like the
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  part of a whistle that goes in your mouth, made a hole for the
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  wind to come out of. Then he pounded the bark on the stick gently
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  with his knife handle, and pretty soon the bark slipped off, just as
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  Mama takes off her gloves after she's been down to the five and ten cents
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  store. Then Bully cut away some of the white wood, slipped on the
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  bark again, and he had a whistle. My that's fine, he cried,
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  as he blew a loud blast on it. I think I'll make another.
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  So he made a second one, and then he went on through the
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  woods, blowing first one whistle and then the other, like the steam piano
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  in the circus parade. Hello, suddenly, cried a voice in the woods.
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  Who is making all that noise? I am answered Balie. Who are
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  you? I am Sammy littletail was the reply, and popped the rabbit boy
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  from under a bush. Oh what fine whistles, he cried when he saw
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  those Bally had made. I wish I had one. You may have,
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  Sammy, answered Bolly kindly, and he gave his little rabbit friend the biggest
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  and loudest twistle. Then the two boy animals went on through the woods,
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  and pretty soon they came to a place where there was a pond of water.
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  Excuse me for a minute, said Ballly. I think i'll have a
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  little swim. Will you join me, Sammy, he asked politely, No,
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  answered the rabbit. I'm not a good swimmer, but I'll wait here
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  on the bank for you. Then you may hold my whistle as well as
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  your own, said Ballly, for I might lose it under water. Then
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  enter the pond. Bally hopped and was soon swimming about like a fish.
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  But something is going to happen, just as I expected it would, and
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  I'll tell you all about it as I promised. All of a sudden,
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  as Bally was swimming about, that bad old skillery scalery alligator who had escaped
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  from a circus reared his ugly head up from the pond where he had been
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  sleeping and grabbed poor Bally in his claws. Oh let me go, cried
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  the boy Frog. Please let me go. No, I'll not, answered
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  the alligator savagely. I had you and your brother once before, and you
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  got away, but you shan't get loose this time. I'm going to take
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  you to my deep, dark, dismal den, and then we'll have supper
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  together. Well, BALLI begged and pleaded, but it was of no use.
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  That alligator simply would not let him go, but held him tightly in
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  his claws and made ugly faces at him, just like the masks on Halloween
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  Knight. All this while Sammy littletail sat on the bank of the pond,
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  too frightened at the sight of the alligator to hop away. He was afraid
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  the savage creature might at any moment spring out and grab him also, and
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  the rabbit boy just sat there, not knowing what to do. I wish
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  I could save Bully, thought Sammy. But how can I. I can't
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  fight a big alligator, and if I throw stones at him, it will
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  only make him more angry. Oh if only that was a fireman or a
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  policeman in the woods. I'd tell him and he'd hit the alligator and make
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  him go away. But there isn't a policeman or a fireman here. Then
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  the alligator started to swim away with poor BALI to take him off to his
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  deep, dark, dismal den. When all of a sudden, Sammy happened
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  to think of the two willow whistles he had his own, and bullies.
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  I wonder if I could scare the alligator with him and make him let Baly
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  go, Sammy thought. Then he made a plan. He crept softly to
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  one side, and he hid behind a stump. Then he took the two
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  whistles and he put them into his mouth. Next, the rabbit boy gathered
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  up a whole lot of little stones in a pile, and the next thing
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  he did was to build a little fire out of dry sticks. Then he
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  hunted up an old tin can that had once held baked beans, but which
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  now didn't have anything in it. Oh, I'll make that alligator wish he
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  had never caught Bully, exclaimed Sammy, working very quickly, for the savage
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  reptile was fast swimming away with the frog boy. Sammy put the stones in
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  the tin can together with some water, and he set the can on the
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  fire to boil, and he knew the stones would get hot too, as
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  well as the water, and surely enough, soon the water in the can
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  was bubbling and the stones were very hot. Then Sammy took a long breath
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  and he'd blue on those whistles, both at the same time, as hard
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  as ever he could. Then he took some wet moss and wrapped it around
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  the hot can so it wouldn't burn his paws, and he tossed everything hot
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  water, hot stones, hot can and all over into the pond close to
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  where the alligator was. Then Sammy blew on the whistle some more too too.
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  Splash into the water went the hot stones, hissing like snakes. Buzz,
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  bubble, fizz, went the hot water all over the alligator too.
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  Toot went the whistles, which Sammy was blowing, skiz skiz with the hot
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  fire ashes that also fell into the pond. Oh, it's a fire engine
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  after me. It's a terrible fire engine. After me. It's spouting hot
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  water and sparks on me, cried the alligator, real frightened like, and
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  then he was so scared that he let go of Bawlly and sank away down
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  to the bottom of the pond to get out of the way of the hot
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  stone and the hot water and the hot sparks, and where he couldn't hear
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  the screechy whistles which he thought came from fire engines. And Bally swam safely
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  to shore, and he thanked Sammy littleteal very kindly for saving his life.
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  And they went on a little farther and had a nice game of tag together
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  until supper time. So that's how the whistles that Baly made did him a
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  good service. And next, if it stops raining long enough so the moon
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  can come out without getting wet, and go to the moving pictures, I'll
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  tell you all about Grandpa Croker and Uncle Wiggily Longears. End of section sixteen.