Latest / Classic Dog Stories / Drafted, by Vesta Tharp

Transcript

Drafted, by Vesta Tharp · Classic Dog Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section six of Best Dog Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Section
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: six drafted by Vesta Tharp. Buddy Hopkins stood on the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: rickety front steps of the little house where he lived
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and tried to make out what was going on in
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the next block. The performance was so puzzling that he
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: decided to go down and investigate. But on the way
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to the gate, he turned back and puckered his lips
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: into a peremptory whistle. Nothing happened. Nothing, ever, did happen
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: when he whistled for spot, So as usual, he went
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: back and peered under the steps. Sure enough, there was
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the delinquent, ardently fletcherizing and old shoe, over which he
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: regarded his master with affectionate interest. Didn't you hear me? Whistle?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Exclaimed Buddy. What kind of dog are you? Anyway? The
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: question was almost an indelicate one, for when had dragged
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: into the open, it was apparent that his genealogy was well,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: rather complicated. He wasn't exactly a spaniel, and he wasn't
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: exactly a But never mind that there was one thing
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: he decidedly was he was the puppiest puppy dog that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: ever wagged a tail, or blundered about on impossibly big feet,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: or looked at a boy at a soft, adoring eyes.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: That was the way he looked at Buddy now, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the boy returned the look and kind As the two
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: young things started for the gate in an instrucable confusion
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of bare feet and black and white paws, it was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: not until they reached the cluttered, in unkempt front yard
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of Being Cottage that Buddy discovered what was happening there.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Under the masterful direction of Lizzie Bean, five children were
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: digging a hole in one corner. Lizzie, who by age
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and temperament was the dominating spirit of the neighborhood, wiped
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the beads of honest toil from her brow and hastened
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to explain, Hello, Buddy, She said, we're digging a coal mine.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Teacher told us all about it last winter. You just
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: dig and dig till you come up to coal, and
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: there you are. We'll get to it before winter, and
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: then we'll have it right handy here instead of having
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a pick up along the tracks. Gee said Buddy, it's great.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Lizzie handed up an old tin pail full of dirt
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to Charlie Stevens, who with great importance lugged it out
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: to the street. Jimmy ran bent to his task of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: wielding a broken stove shovel. Thomas Jefferson Johnson, whose color
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: matched his name, pushed his soapbox wagon up for Jimmy
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to fill out in the road. Joey Bean and bow
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: legged Willy Bean were posted to shovel the dirt into
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the ditch. Over by the sagging porch. Violet Alice Bean,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: aged three, sat on the ground scraping out her own
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: private coal mine with a battered tin spoon. Buddy beheld
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: these activities with growing excitement. We're helping Uncle Sam, too,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: observed Lizzie. You see, get in her own coal will
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: leave that much more for other folks. Ain't it a
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: wonder Nobody thought of it before I did, you bet,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: said Buddy, I'll help you. I'm an awful good digger,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I am. And he laid hold of another battered shovel
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and started for the hole at its brink. He stopped
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: short with the shock of a sudden inspiration. Gee, he exclaimed,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: spot can help too. Just give him some to bury
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and he can dig like anything. Lizzie hesitated. There was
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: also impressive cessation of work on the part of Jimmy
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: rand and T. J. Johnson dug his black toes into
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the ground and looked the other way. So say here, listen,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Bud said, Lizzie. You see this coal minein we're doin.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Ain't no common job, you see, We're kind of a club. Yep,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: put in, Charlie Stevens. This is the Army folks club.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Ain't you got somebody in the army, kid demanded Jimmy.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: If you have, you can pitch in. But if you ain't,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you gotta get out. Because them's the rules. You gotta
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: have a Sammy in the army or you can't get
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: into the club. Buddy's pinch little face went suddenly pale
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: under its streaks of dirt, and the shovel slipped from
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: his nervousless grasp. Yes, he knew about their folks. The
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Being children had an uncle in France. Charlie Stevens's brother
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: had run away and enlisted. Jimmy's two brothers were with
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Company G and even Thomas Jefferson could boast of military connections,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: for his cousin was in the draft. Buddy gulped hard
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: if a feller's mother's got killed and he ain't never
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: had nobody but just an old grandmother and grandpap, how
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: can he have folks in the army. He was interrupted
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: by a howl from Violet Alice, and the children turned
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to behold her eclips by a kaleidoscope effect in black
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and white, which experience enabled them to identify a Spot
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: out of the fullness of his loving puppy heart. He
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: was insisting on licking her chubby face. Sister Lizzie's indignation
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: had the fierceness of the maternal instinct. Take your dog
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: off of my sister, Buddy Hopkins, She shrieked. Ah, he
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: ain't hurting her, said Buddy. But he moved over to
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the point of disturbance and captured the active section of it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Then the two little figures trailed dejectedly out of the yard.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Every day for a week, the Army Folks club labored
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: with more or less spasmodic intensity, and every day Buddy
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and Spot, driven to an exclusive enjoyment of each other's society,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: became more dependent on his companionship. Perhaps there is no
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: love more enthralling than that which a boy gives to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: his first dog, unless it is the devotion with which
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a puppy requites its first master. And in Buddy's case,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: this warm and wonderful exchange was almost the boy's whole
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: heart life. His grandmother had never loved him, her daughter's
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: child had been a bitter legacy to her. His grandfather
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: really did care for him, but the shadow of Missus
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Hopkins's antagonism fell always between the two, keeping their affection
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: for each other an unexpressed emotion which left the boy's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: heart hunger unsatisfied. So on his dog he lavished all
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the riches of his childish soul instead of a mother's kisses.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: The puppies little pink tongue dried his tears that first
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: night when he cried himself to sleep over the coal
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: mine incident. Instead of putting his arms around a motherly
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: neck and sobbing out his troubles, he hugged his dog
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and found comfort and appeasement in the struggles of the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: wriggling little body to convey a perfect passion of affection.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: His dog, the one being in the world that adored him.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: After his rebuff by the army folks, Buddy avoided the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: being neighborhood with bitter dignity. But on the last day
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: of that eventful week, his curiosity overcame his deeper emotions, and,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: accompanied as usual by Spot, he strolled down in that direction.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: The club was performing its duties rather perfunctorily by this time,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: so everybody was unfinedly glad to resume friendly relations with
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a former esteemed contemporary like Buddy. This prevailing good feeling
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: might have led to his becoming a non descript member
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of the club if something quite unexpected had not happened.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: It was Lizzie, of course, that silent it's the group
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: with the commanding gesture, so that they heard from somewhere
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: in the distance the muffled measured tread of scores of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: marching feet. With a wild shout of joy, the war
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: folks cast aside their shovels and started for the gate.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Down the street. They tore Willie Bean, whose personal architecture
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: was a decided handicap, bringing up the rear. It's the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: soldiers from the train, shouted, Charlie, come on, the Sammis
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: are going up Main Street. On they ran, breathless and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: purple and panting. They came to where long lines of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: husky boys from the great Middle West were singing their
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: way through crowds that cheered, that waved and smiled and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes sighed as they went swinging by, eager excited that
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: army folks chased feverishly along beside the troops who were
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: having this bit of exercise after hours of railroad travel,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and who sang as they marched the song which ran.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: He was just a long, lean country gank from way
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: out west where the hop toads. He was six feet
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: two in his stocking feet, and kept getting thinner the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: more he'd eat. Hello, kids, called the soldiers. And just
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: at that moment when the struggling little group was thus
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: brought into the limelight of public attention, spot cavorting madly along,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in an intoxication of joy and gladness, perceived what appeared
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to him to be a good opening, and attempt to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: negotiate it. Of course, Willy Bean's architecture would have encouraged
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: any puppy to try the same stunt, for, as previously remarked,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Willy's legs were unmistakably suggestive of a pair of parentheses.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: But the result was that Willy was catapulted into a sergeant,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and that Spot monopolized the attention of the entire company
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: for a few hectic moments. Probably this fact was responsible
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: for what happened after the troops had returned to their train,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: escorted by a large part of the town's population, including
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Lizzies and her satellites. Leaning from the windows, the soldier
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: suddenly recognized Spot with shouts of joy. Hey, kid, what's
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the pup's name? Buddy never knew just why, he answered,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: as he looked up into the laughing faces. He didn't
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: say Spot at all. What he piped in his funny,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: troubled voice was Sammy, hand him up here and let
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: him get next to the real thing, called the very
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: sergeant that had been catapulted by Willie. Buddy Entrance by
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: this attention, lifted the wriggling form up to the sergeant's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: long arms, and delightedly watched the hilarious reception of his
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: dog by these heroes of the imagination, while from the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: windows the train rolled waves of melody. But he was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: brave as he was thin. When the war broke out,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: he got right in on hitched the mule put the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: plow away, and then the old folks heard him say
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: good bye Ma, good bye Pa, good bye mule with
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: your old he ha. I may not know what the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: war is about, but you bet, by gosh, I'll soon
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: find out. Buddy. His lips parted in an ecstasy of excitement,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: did not notice that the signal had been given and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the train was creeping ahead. And oh, my sweetheart, don't
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: you fear. I'll bring you a king for a souvenir.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I'll get you a turk and a kaiser two. And
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: that's about all one fellow can do. Faster and faster
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: went the train, its windows crowded with laughing faces, while
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: from car windows and station platform came a medley of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: cheers and goodbyes. Lizzie Bean waved her long arms and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: cheered shrilly. The other members of the army folks did likewise,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and then quite suddenly they fell silent, staring open mouthed
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: at a familiar little figure which was running, running, his
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: bare legs flying in a futile pursuit of the now
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: swiftly moving train. As they watched, they saw him stop
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: despairingly and throw himself on the ground, face downward. It's buddy,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: they exclaimed. Lizzie looked around her sharply. Gee, she said,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: they've gone off with his dog. The crowd on the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: platform melted away. Only the club members had noticed the
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: small boy face down the cinders along the track, and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: then they approached him with the embarrassed offers of sympathy.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Come on, Buddy, coaxed Charlie. Spott'll get home all right.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: They'll let him out down the track. Come along, Bud,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: urged Lizzie, and with supreme generosity, she added, come on,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and we'll let you help dig I guess we'll probably
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: find that cole this afternoon. The stricken Buddy picked himself
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: up and followed them silently until they reached the being gate,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and then, with a shake of the head, he went
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: on home. After supper, he went out to the gate
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and waited, peering through the gathering dusk, His ears strained
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to hear the patter of racing feet. When he went
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: up to the low attic where he slept, his grandfather
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: followed him. What's the matter, buddy, the old man asked,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: with awkward tenderness. Buddy buried his head in the pillows.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Can't you tell your old granddaddy. They took my dog,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: sobbed the boy who took your dog? If any of
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: them kids is pestering you, your granddaddy'll tend to him.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: The soldiers took him, They took him off on the cars. Gosh,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: said the old man. How did they get your dog?
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: He demanded, And when Buddy, between his sobs, had explained
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the matter, he patted the shaking shoulders and tried to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: offer consolation. Never mind, sonny, he said, never mind. Tell
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you what I'll do. I'll get you another dog. I
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: seen one today. He's a regular dog. This one is
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: spotwant nothing but a pup anyway, This yere one is
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a real dog. Buddy tried to respond, but gave it up.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want no real dog, he sobbed. I just
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: want my puppy. Day after day, Buddy waited, nursing a hope,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: which grew fainter and fainter. One evening, when his grandfather
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: came to supper, the child was in the woodshed getting
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: chips to the kitchen stove, and the old man peered
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: in his eyes alight his hands behind his back. What
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: did you guess I brought you, sonny? He said, mysteriously.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Buddy looked up and a sudden radiance flooded his face.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: My dog, he cried. Yep, the old man said persuasively,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I've brought you the nicest little pupp you've ever seen,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and he produced a wriggling little bunch and held it
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: out with a gesture he tried to make confident, but
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: all the swift joy faded from the boy's eyes, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: after one glance with preferred substitute, the something just as
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: good as the one and only thing he wanted, he
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: turned away. It's awful good of you, Grandpa, but his
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: voice broke. I don't want nothing but my own dog.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: The old man helplessly regarded the little creature in his hands.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I thought maybe you'd like him, he said, But I
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: can take him back. He started to the house, but hesitated,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and taking out of his pocket a shabby purse, he
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: slowly extracted a half dollar from its sparse contents. Here, sonny,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: he said, don't say nothing to your grandmother, but here's
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a half dollar you laid out after supper, and take
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the kids to the movies. But the boy was still
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: sobbing and did not even look up budd He quit quavered.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: The old man, take it and go to the show
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: like a good kid. The shaking fingers pushed the money
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: into Buddy's hands, and the boy looked up to see
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the wrinkled and weather beaten old face twitching painfully. Grandpap
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: was crying. The child's sobs were hushed by the wonder
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: of that sight, and he suddenly threw his arms around
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: the old man's neck. I'll be good, It'll be fine, Grandpap,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: he declared, bravely. An hour later, the entire membership of
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the Army Folks Club, escorted by the rank outsider Buddy,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: sat in the second row of the Empire Moving Picture
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Palace and prepared for two hours of bliss. First there
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was a fire in New Jersey, then the wreck of
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a freight train, an airplane flight, the inevitable picture of
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: soldiers training, and finally a great parade of troops at
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Camp Dodge in their own state. Here was something doing.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: As the lines of soldiers swung along, the audience clapped
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and cheered. In the second row, spectator sat eagerly forward,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: all except Buddy. Temporarily he had forgotten his grief. But
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: now these lines of marching men brought back his sense
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of loss and loneliness, and he saw the screen through
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a blinding mist of tears. Surreptitiously, he put up his
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: grimy little hand to wipe them away, when suddenly he
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: felt a violent poke which almost sent him out of
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: his seat. Look, shrieked Lizzie. Buddy look, dashing his tears away.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Buddy did look, and there beheld cavorting awkwardly beside a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: sergeant whose face was stanmdedmp on Buddy's memory, the unmistakable
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: figure of a black and white puppy dog on He
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: came straight toward the front of the picture, straight so
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: it seemed to the breathless boy in the second row,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to the arms, which he held out with an inarticulate cry,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: And then, in that mysterious way peculiar to moving pictures,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: spot with a final wag of his tail, vanished from
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the screen, and Buddy's empty arms fell back hopelessly. His
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: grandfather was sitting on the steps when Buddy came home,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: in the grip of renewed sorrow, And after the boy
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: had told what happened and had crept up to bed,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the old man stayed there a long time. His pipe
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: held between his teeth with unwonted determination. He was very
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: gentle with Buddy in the days it followed, and a
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: secret understanding grew and deepened between them. But for all that,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the boy's heart ached with loneliness, the Army Folks Club
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: now regarded him as quite a figure of romance, and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the invitation to joining the coal mining operation had been
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: renewed with great cordiality. Buddy tried to respond, but he
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: was subject to sudden attacks of emotion which would send
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: him flying home to the haven of the woodshed. One afternoon,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: he heard his grandmother's shrill tones. Buddy wondered vaguely who
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: could be the object of a wrath, And at the
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: sound of footsteps, he shrank back into the darkest corner,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: And then the miracle happened. For reaching in through the door,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: his grandfather's big, rough hands set down a tumultuous something
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: in black and white that flung itself upon him and
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: fairly devoured him in an insatiable yearning to get closer
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: than the immutable laws of matter would permit. When at last,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: half suffocated with joy and with puppy caresses, Buddy looked
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: up at the old face smiling down at him, He
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: could only smile back, dumb with happiness. His grandfather sat
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: down on the chopping block, and, drawing a paper from
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: his pocket, put on his spectacles with hands which tremble.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Guess you didn't think your old granddaddy had much sense anyway,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: did you, he demanded, with ilk and pride. Guess you
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: didn't think he'd have gumption enough to write to Camp
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Dodge and tell the whole United States Army about his
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: boy's pup, did you. Well, that's what he had, And
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: sure enough, the USA done just what I asked him to.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: They sent your pup back by express this afternoon, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and I just knocked off work. It's kind of warm
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: working today anyhow, and brung him home soon as he
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: got here. Buddy was still dumb. He silently hugged the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: wriggling bunch of love in his arms, but he looked volumes,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I will say, preceded his grandfather. They'd done the thing
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: up Brown. Listen here to what they sent with with Sammy.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Buddy's eyes widened at the name, but he kept on
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: saying nothing. His grandfather, smoothing out the paper, motioned him
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to come and read. It was a very important looking
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: document which stated in fallless official language, that an honorable
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: discharge had been granted to one Sammy Hopkins of Company
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: A tenth Regiment of the National Army. Buddy spelled it
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: out word by word, then he read it again, and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: finally he looked up into the beaming face above him,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: suddenly printed a fierce kiss on the wrinkled cheek, snatched
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the paper from the threadbare knee where it was spread,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and dashed out the door spot. That is to say,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Sammy escaped from his arms, and the two raced through
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the yard, out the front gate, down the street, and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: interrupted startlingly into the midst of that somewhat languid war
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: folks Club arrived at his great moment, Buddy controlled himself
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: by a violent effort of the will, and interrupted the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: storm of excitement which greeted the reappearance of that is
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Sammy read that, he said grand delinquently, and he presented
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the honorable discharge, Gosh said the combined masculine membership of
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the Army Folks Club. When the contents of the document
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: have been digested, but the female of the species, who
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: always goes the male one better, gathered herself together, say
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the situation for a moment, and in the person of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Dictator Lizzie, pronounce these remarkable words you can get in
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: the army, folks, Now all right, Buddy Hopkins. And what's more,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you've got the only soldier what's actually been in the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: army and has come back honorably discharged. So what I
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: say is that we got a makes Sammy the president
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of this here club. And what I say goes end
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: of Section six