Benny’s Rainy Day Adventure.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 15, 13 October 1906, Page 44

Benny’s Rainy Day Adventure.

Drip, drop! Fitter, pitter, patter! Drip, drop! Fitter, pitter, pitter, patter! 1H That was the sound that Benny heard over and over and over again as he sat on the balcony leaning his head on the railing and watching the rain dripping down into the river. It was holiday time, but Benny had Ho one to play with, for he was staying in a little house by the river with his father and mother, far away from his home in London and all his little friends. Lots of grown-up people came to stay at this little house, sometimes staying a few days, sometimes longer, but they ■were not the sort of people you could play with. This was the first wet day. and it Seemed such a long one to Benny, for his train was at home in London, and all the other things he had to amuse himself with were there too. Somehow no one had expected to have rainy days in the holidays. Big men went fishing, even in the rain, but Benny was only seven, so he was not. allowed to go fishing in the rain. How it poured down! Drip, drop! Fitter, patter! Dripsy, drop! Lower and lower - went Benny's head as he listened to the soft patter and watched the water. fll He had no brothers and sisters, his governess did not come in the holidays. and all day he had been alone. Drip, drop! Drip, drop! Listen, listen! Whose voice was that calling? Benny started up. listening hard. it Sounded like Uncle Jim's voice. Benny looked out at the river. Just below him on the water came gliding a little boat, with soft cushions in it, but no one to row it. Just opposite to Jlenny that little boat stopped. “Drip, drop! Come, come! ” Cquld it be the boat that was speaking? Benny clambered over the balcony verv quickly, and with one spring he was in the boat. The boat glided on again, and Benny stood up in it, watching the water as he floated along, past all other boats, past the bridge, past the place where the .water-lilies grew, till at last there were no more boats and no more people, but Only the water and the banks and the trees, whose branches dipped right over till they touched and seemed to kiss the river. 'Down a little creek went the boat, with Benny still standing in it. •'Drip, drop! Come! Listen! ” The boat stopped, and Benny looked at the weeds that lay just under the water and at the water-lily leaves that lay just.on top of it. Three little rats sat among the weeds, and Benuy, who was generally afraid of such things, was quite pleased to see them. They were fat rats, and well-to-do. and they sat and looked at him with friendly eyes. “ What do you do here? ” asked Benny. “ We swim and dive and enjoy life,” Said the rats. “ Did you hear that voice that called tne just now. when I was sitting in the balcony? ” asked Benny. “ No, we hear no voices except the voices of men and women who come here to picnic,” answered the rats, “and jvo do not like that sound. They laugh iso loud and disturb our peace.” “ I thought perhaps you had called me. It was rainy, and 1 was al! alone. Will you play with me?” said Benny. The litis looked knowingly at each Other, and whispered among themselves. Then, one after another they slipped quietly into the water and swam away. Benny was very disappointed. Then the boat glided out of the creek, and went on up the river. Benny Sat down, and wondered where he was going next. On and on went the boat, past the meadows with the long grass and the daisies, past the trees, past the houses on the river bank. At last the boat drew into the side of the river among the reeds, and. being tired, Benny lay down among the cushions in the boat ami the rain left off. and the sun shone and birds began to sing. Benny lay still, watching the water. Presently he burst out laughing, for what, do you think he saw? He saw three little wild ducks come out from Among the weeds. “ They must be having a game,” eaid Benny to himself. Sure enough, they were playing hide and seek among the rushes. Every now and then one would dive in under the water, and the others would swim after to try and find it.

Then, ever so far off, it would come up, just where they least expected it. Benny laughed so heartily that the little black ducks heard him, and came swimming up to his boat. .—, “Do you like being so wet?” asked Benny. “ Why, of course we do. We live in the water! ” “Is it nice in the water?” he asked. “Come and try,” said the ducks. So Benny dived in out of the boat, and began to swim about in the water. Here and there he swam, just like the ducks, and soon he was so happy playing hide-aud-seck among the reeds that he forgot about the rainy day, and that all his toys were in London. “ What are these things swimming about under the water? ” asked Benny presently. “ They are fishes, of course,” answered the ducks. “Will they eat me?” asked Benny, feeling a little shivery at the thought. “Oh, no! ” answered the ducks, “they like flies to cat Letter than boys. Look!” Benny did not quite know what it was he was to look at. “I did not see anything,” he said. The duck took him on among the reeds. “ Now, watch those flies,” they said, and Benny watched them, circling in and out, just above the water. At that moment up came a little fish to the surface of the water, snap went his mouth, and—oh, dear! oh, dear! —he had eaten a fly. “ You horrid little fish! ” exclaimed Benny. “ You horrid, horrid little thing. Foor fly! ” The ducks only laughed; then one of them said, “ You eat fish for your dinner, why should not the fish eat the fly for his dinner? ” Just then the mother duck called her children, and said it was bed-time. So the little Wack ducks said, “We are playing with a boy, and we don’t want to come to bed.” “You must do as you are told, my ducks,” answered the mother. “We do not like doing what we are told,” said the ducks to Benny. “ I don't either,” said Benny; “at least, not always.” “Now! Now! ” called put the mother duck from amongst the reeds, “ did you not hear my voice?”

“Can we bring the boy with us?” the little ducks asked. “No, indeed! I have no lied suitable for a boy. Come, now —quick, quick, before I and off swam the little ducks in a great hurry-skurry, Benny laughed to see them scuttle in among the reeds. “I wonder what their mother would have done to them if they had not gone! ” he thought to himself. As he turned and swam away, h ■

heard the youngest duck, who was feeling sulky at the thought of bed-time, say to its mother. “ I don’t want to go to bed. I shan't love you any more now.” “ I'm sorry,” said the mother duck, anil I daresay she smiled, because she knew he did not really mean it; “ but, you see. it is right for you to go to bed now.” The little duck gave a sulky quack. Then Benny went off to his boat, clambered in. and sat down wondering where he would got next. It seemed very

strange to him that his clothes were quite dry. and he did not feel at all as if he had been in the water all that time. He quite missed the little ducks, and he wondered what sort of a bed was suitable for a duck, and why he could not have slept among the reeds in a duck’s bed just as comfortably as in any other. It must be much nicer than a boy’s bed, and. anyhow, it would be an adventure. The boat was beginning to move. Benny stood up and opened his eyes very wide that he might miss nothing that was going on.

Drip, drop! Fitter, patter! Fitter, patter, drop! Benny woke up with a sudden start to find himself on the balcony. His mother and father and uncle were standing and looking at him. It was still raining, but he was too excited to hear it. “ When I am big,” he said, “ I shall go out into the whole world in a boat like that, and find out all the adventures there are in the whole world —not only adventures with ducks, you know, but big adventures.”

“What is the boy talking about?” asked his father. '■ You must have been telling him some of your wild tales, Uncle Jim,” said Mother. Uncle Jim laughed and sat down in the same chair with Benny. “Let us go adventures together, Benny boy, shall we? ” he said. “Well!” said Benny, “of course, if you’d like to come, you can; but adventures ought to be alone, oughtn't they ? ” “ Well, perhaps they are more thrilling alone,” admitted Uncle Jim.

Benny thought a little. ‘•J think I’ll take you, if you’d like it. But, you must promise never to say I must not do things when it is raining, because I shall be big then, and it will not matter if f do go out and get wet.” “ 1 promise,” said Uncle Jim. Then they began to make plans together about all they would do when Benny was grown up. 1 think.” said Benny, when he was being put to bed, think, Uncle Jim is the very nicest person of all the other ones in the world.”