Buddy’s Great Adventure

Quinlan often goes on adventures with Buddy. On this day Buddy was taking Quinlan to the creek to find tadpoles.

Buddy enjoyed playing with the tadpoles so he thought this was a good idea. He led Quinlan out the front door of the Dennis’ Den and up the dirt road past the Ingersol’s cabin to the small wooden bridge over Knutson’sCreek.

Quinlan stopped to look at the garden behind the Ingersol’s cabin and saw that the rows of carrots and radishes were just starting to come up and that the tomato bushes were starting to look less like weeds. The cherry tree had white blossoms and the trilliums were in bloom. Mrs. Ingersol was kneeling in the garden pulling weeds from around the newly spouting corn stalks. Mrs. Ingersol waved at Quinlan and called to him, “Don’t get lost”.

Quinlan waved and called back, ”I won’t”.

Buddy and Quinlan crossed the wooden bridge and crawled down the bank to edge of the creek. They looked all around the smoothly flowing water but found no tadpoles.

“We should go further up stream to that small pond,” said Quinlan. “Then maybe we can find the tadpoles”.

So Buddy and Quinlan crawled back up the creek bank and started walking up creek toward the small pond. They had been walking for quite a while by the time they came to the Thinking Tree.

The Thinking Tree is the tree that helped Quinlan think about things. Often he would come to the Thinking Tree when he had problems to solve and questions to ponder. The thinking tree is a large Cedar tree, which had large strong branches that were good for climbing. The Thinking tree is where Tommy lives.

As Buddy and Quinlan passed under the tree, Tommy called down to Buddy and asked, “Where are you going on such a nice spring day?”

“Oh, Hello Tommy. We are going to hunt the illusive tadpoles”, said Buddy.

“Why do you call them illusive?” asked Tommy.

“Because we haven’t found any, so they must be hiding”, Buddy replied.

Tommy came down from the thinking tree and, after a long discussion about the best way to find tadpoles, Tommy wanted to know why they were trying to find tadpoles in the first place.

Buddy explained that Quinlan’s father had told him that tadpoles grew up to be frogs. Quinlan didn’t quite know how this could happen so he wanted to catch one and watch to see if it grows up to be a frog.

“I also really like to swat at them in the water to watch them swim away so fast”, said Buddy.

Buddy and Tommy turned to follow Quinlan and discovered that while they were talking Quinlan had disappeared.

“Are you sure that he was with you?” asked Tommy.

“Yes, I’m sure,” said Buddy. “We were going to the pond to find tadpoles”.

“Then let’s go to the pond to find Quinlan”, said Tommy. And they followed the creek bank toward the pond. 

When they reached the pond, both immediately noticed that Quinlan was nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t see him”, said Tommy. “Do you suppose he got lost?”

Tommy and Buddy had discussed what to do at some length when buddy noticed something on the bank of the pond.

“Look, a foot print”, said Buddy.

“And look at the tadpoles”, said Tommy.

And they both did. Then Buddy sneaked up to the edge of the pond and swatted his paw at one of the tadpoles, which quickly swam away frightening the other tadpoles. Both Tommy and Buddy laughed and laughed to see the tadpole chaos.

“Do frogs also swim away if you swat them”, asked Tommy.

“No”, answered Buddy, “they leap away and then make croaking sounds and something like ‘MEE-DEEP’. Although I don’t know exactly what that means, I think it has something to do with telling me its name”.

“The next time I see one I’ll call out his name and see if he will talk with me”, said Tommy.

As Buddy contemplated this, Quinlan walked up to them carrying what looked like one of his father’s rubber boots.

Quinlan bent down to the pond edge and dipped the boot into the water until it was filled.

He then looked into the water from the big rock to the mossy flat spot.

 “All the tadpoles are gone”, he said. “Buddy, did you scare all the tadpoles away?”

Buddy looked up at Quinlan sheepishly, but did not answer.

Quinlan picked up the boot, dumped most of the water out of it, and said, “Well, I’ll have to try to catch a tadpole some other time when they aren’t so scared”. He then walked back toward the thinking tree to contemplate how to dry out the boot.

Tommy and Buddy followed Quinlan. As they walked along, a very green frog jumped into their path and said, “MEE-DEEP”.

“Well, Mr. Deep, What do you want?” asked Buddy somewhat sullenly.

“I want to thank you, croak,” Mr. Deep said. “You are a hero for saving my tadpoles from the human”.

“Oh, he wasn’t going to hurt any of them”, said Buddy, “ He was just going to take one of the tadpoles home to live with us until it grew up to be a frog like you.”

“Well, in that case, you are still a hero, but if you and your human return later, I will find a volunteer tadpole to come and live with you.” And with that the frog croaked and leaped into the bushes and disappeared.

“That was interesting”, said Tommy. “How does it feel to be a hero?”

“ It would feel better if I had some lunch”, said Buddy.

“I have an almost new apple at my house”, said Tommy.

And they walked toward the thinking tree.