[Illustration: _The rooster kept Bingo a prisoner_]
At last Charlie had finished helping the farm lady make the butter. They had taken it out of the churn, and the farm lady had put it in a big wooden bowl and beaten it with wooden butter paddles so that all the butter milk was squeezed out. She had given Charlie some butter in a smaller bowl so that he could finish making some of the butter all by himself. The farm lady had promised him that they should have it on the dinner table and surprise his Mother and his Auntie.
But it wasn’t dinner time yet, so Charlie ran into the garden to play with Bingo--and there was no Bingo to be seen! 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” ... 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.
But never again did Bingo bark at the chickens and chase them. He no longer thought it an amusing game. In fact Bingo never went near that chicken house again, he was so afraid of that terrible rooster.
CHARLIE DELIVERS MAIL FOR THE STAGE DRIVER
Well, I can tell you that Charlie and Topsy and Bingo liked living in the country very much. There were so many interesting things to do, and so many interesting people to talk to, and every single thing in the country was different from what it was in the city.
Charlie had different things to eat, and he wore different clothes. You never can guess what kind of clothes Charlie wore when he was in the country! Charlie wore blue denim overalls, just like the farm workers, and his Mother bought them for him at the country store, which is _ex-act-ly_ where the farm workers bought theirs!
One day Charlie ran out to the gate before breakfast to mail a letter for his Auntie. 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.