55

X PRINCE PLAYS TAG 65

XI ROVER DOES SOME MISCHIEF 72

XII ROVER FINDS BABY BETTY 77

XIII PRINCE SEES A DRAGON 81

XIV HOW ROVER SAVED THE HOUSE 91

XV PRINCE USES HIS EYES 96

ILLUSTRATIONS

"'What is his name?' asked Sue" _Frontispiece_

PAGE

"Rover made them all jump over the stone wall" 21

"'You must go home to the barn'" 31

"Rover snapped at him with his sharp white teeth" 37

"'Strangers must not come into this yard when the folks
are away'" 49

"Rover looked savagely at the dog in the looking glass" 75

"'Whoa, Prince, steady, Prince,' said she" 87

"'Why! the bridge is gone!' said Farmer Hill" 99

FOREWORD

These stories are founded on memories of my childhood on the farm. They
first took definite form in response to the requests of my own little
boys: "Tell me about when you were little, Mama." Some of them were
demanded over and over again; but it remained for Bobby, the youngest,
to insist that they be "put into a book."

Many a time, after listening to one of them, he would say: "I wish you
would write your stories, Mama, so that other children could hear
them."

Always I replied: "I will try sometime."

But never did the time come when there were not other things to do.

Finally, one night, when I had finished telling, "How Rover Got the
Cows out of the Corn," he said: "Mama, you always say you will write
your stories, but you never do. Truly, I'm afraid the other children
will never know them."

I looked up. There were tears in Bobby's eyes.

Did it mean so much to him? Would other children like the stories?

"Bobby," I said, "truly, I will try to write them. After Christmas I
will begin."

So after the holidays were over and the older boys had gone back to
college, the writing was commenced.

"Will they do?" said I to Bobby when he had heard the last story read.
"Do you think a publisher will like them?"

"The children will like them," he replied.

So that is how Prince and Rover happened to be wri