“Well,” remarked Buddy, “I see the ropes, but I don’t see any waves.”  But, no sooner had he spoken than a big wave rolled, splish-splash-splosh, right up the shore of the pond, which was rather sandy, and it sprayed itself over the toes of Buddy and Brighteyes—­the wave splashed, you understand—­not the sand, of course.

“Whee!” cried Buddy, all excited-like.  “There’s a wave!”

“Yes, and here comes another!” cried his sister, and, sure enough, another wave came sizzling and sloshing up out of the pond.  And then another, and another, and another, until there were a dozen, or, maybe a dozen and a half of waves, one after the other.

“Oh, this is grand!” cried Buddy.  “It’s almost as good as Asbury Park!” and, really it was, I’m not fooling a bit.  Of course the waves weren’t as big as those at the seashore, but they were pretty good size.  Well, Buddy and Brighteyes rushed into the water, keeping hold of the ropes, and the waves splashed all around them, and they splashed around in the waves, and pretty soon Buddy cried: 

“Oh, I got a mouthful of water, and it’s salty, just like the ocean!”

“Sure enough it is!” agreed Brighteyes, taking a small mouthful to taste.  “I wonder what makes it?”

“And I wonder what makes the waves, and I wonder where Percival is?” went on Buddy, and just then there came such a big wave that it almost knocked him over, and he had to cling to the ropes.  Then what should happen, but that at the far end of the pond, up rose old dog Percival, laughing as hard as he could laugh.

“I told you I would make waves!” he cried, and how do you s’pose he did it?

Why, he had a big, empty box, and he would raise that up and down in the water of the pond, as hard as he could, and this splashed, and made the waves; and Percival had a bag of salt, to make the water salty.  Now, wasn’t he the smart dog though?

Well, he went on, making more salty waves, and Buddy and Brighteyes paddled around in them, and yelled and hollered, and held on to the ropes, and ducked each other, and splashed and had as good a time as if they had been at the seashore; and so did Percival, too, I guess.  Then, after a while they came out of the water and dried off, after thanking Percival.

Now, if our bathtub doesn’t freeze up so the canary bird can’t go in swimming I’ll tell you presently about Buddy building a sand house.

STORY XXVIII

BUDDY BUILDS A SAND HOUSE

The little guinea pig children had so much fun bathing in the pond, where Percival, the circus dog, made the salty waves for them, as I told you about in the previous story, that they went in swimming as many times as their mamma would let them.

Percival was only too glad to make the waves, and hold the bag of salt in the pond, to make it salty, just like the ocean.  Sometimes the old dog would jounce a box up and down, to make the waves, and again, when he wanted larger ones, he would use a barrel.  Then the waves of the pond would be over the heads of Buddy and Brighteyes, and they had to cling to the ropes with all their might.