Long Stretch At First Base Read Online Free PDF Page B

had
     never talked much with Tony Mandos.
    “Sure, it’s legal,” replied Tony. He shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess it’s all right.” He turned and looked at Terrysniffing around the yard. “That your dog?”
    Bobby nodded. “Yes. His name’s Terry. He’s a Scotty.”
    “We heard on the radio that a mad dog was loose somewhere around town,” said Tony. He grinned. “Guess it wasn’t yours, was
     it?”
    Bobby laughed. “Not Terry! How long ago did you hear that, Tony?”
    “About an hour ago.”
    “What kind of a dog was it?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention. Mom and Dad heard it, and they spoke about it. Guess by now it’s caught, anyway.”
    “Oh, sure,” said Bobby.
    Bobby was thinking more about what he had come here for than about the mad dog. He felt guilty and ashamed. Tony was a lot
     different than he had imagined.Even though Bobby played baseball with him, he hadn’t known Tony very well. Now, just in these few moments of talking with
     Tony, Bobby had learned a lot about what kind of a guy he was.
    Suddenly, Bobby was glad that Tony was home. It would have been terrible to have taken a mitt from a guy like Tony. Guess
     maybe it would have been terrible to take the mitt anyway, Bobby thought. The feeling of guilt grew worse, as if it were something
     that had come alive inside him. He hoped that Tony would not notice how he acted.
    Maybe if they did something together —
    “Want to go for a hike?” Bobby suggested. His breath came fast. He couldn’t ever let Tony know what he had really come here
     for.
    Tony looked up. He grinned. “Down through the gully?”
    Bobby’s face brightened. “Sure!”
    “Okay!”
    Tony tossed the mitt onto the porch. He ran toward the bridge where the kids swam. Bobby followed close behind. Once he looked
     back to see if Terry was following. But Terry had found something in the yard and was playing with it. He was growling and
     rolling over and over with whatever it was. It looked like an old shoe. That Terry could have fun with anything, thought Bobby,
     feeling much better.
    Bobby walked behind Tony down along the creek. They walked carefully over the large, flat rocks. Some of the rocks were slimy
     and slippery. In different places trees had fallen over the creek.The boys climbed onto the fallen trees and walked the full length to the other side. Then they climbed off and walked again
     along the wet rocks.
    The creek water was wide in some places, narrow in others; deep in some places, shallow in others.
    “Look!” said Tony suddenly.
    Bobby almost collided with Tony as he brought himself to a quick stop. He looked at where Tony pointed. A thin black snake
     was swimming in one of the shallow places. The water was so clear that the snake’s whole weaving body — about twenty inches
     of it — was easily seen.
    They saw crabs, too, crawling in the crystal-clear bottom. And polliwogs. And minnows. And skippers on top of the water.
    “Boy!” gasped Bobby. “Would I like to camp around here sometime!”
    “Me, too,” said Tony.
    Bobby told Tony about the tent he and Kirby had in the small woods above their house. And about the deer that had been feeding
     on their vegetables.
    “Wow!” said Tony. “That must’ve been fun!”
    “It was,” said Bobby.
    Now the rocky sides of the creek were higher. The trees that grew on the banks on either side towered high above their heads.
     Thin slices of golden sunlight shimmered at their feet.
    Just beyond them was a waterfall. It was five or six feet high. Not much water flowed over it now, though.
    “Watch yourself,” cautioned Tony.
    The boys climbed down the dry, sharpedgedrocks alongside the waterfall. They reached the bottom. The water gave off a hollow sound as it spilled down. It foamed up
     at the bottom like a big pot of boiling water.
    “Bobby!” Tony whispered. “Look! A dog!”
    Bobby whirled. A brown, curly-coated dog was standing on a rock directly in