The seventh road was a good
road, and curved this way and
that-- winding through green
meadows and fields covered
with daisies and buttercups
and past groups of shady trees.
There were no houses of any
sort to be seen, and for some
distance they met with no living
creature at all.
Dorothy began to fear they
were getting a good way from
the farm-house, since here
everything was strange to her;
but it would do no good at
all to go back where the other
roads all met, because the
next one they chose might lead
her just as far from home.
She kept on beside the shaggy
man, who whistled cheerful
tunes to beguile the journey,
until by and by they followed
a turn in the road and saw
before them a big chestnut
tree making a shady spot over
the highway. In the shade sat
a little boy dressed in sailor
clothes, who was digging a
hole in the earth with a bit
of wood. He must have been
digging some time, because
the hole was already big enough
to drop a football into.
Dorothy and Toto and the
shaggy man came to a halt before
the little boy, who kept on
digging in a sober and persistent
fashion.
"Who are you?" asked
the girl.
He looked up at her calmly.
His face was round and chubby
and his eyes were big, blue
and earnest.
"I'm Button-Bright," said
he.
"But what's your real name?" she
inquired.
"Button-Bright."
"That isn't a really-truly
name!" she exclaimed.
"Isn't it?" he
asked,
still digging.
"'Course
not. It's
just a--a
thing to call you by. You must
have a name."
"Must
I?"
"To
be sure.
What does
your mama
call you?"
He paused in his digging
and tried to think.
"Papa always said I was bright
as a button; so mama always
called me Button-Bright," he
said.
"What
is your
papa's
name?"
"Just
Papa."
"What
else?"
"Don't
know."
"Never mind," said the shaggy
man, smiling. "We'll call the
boy Button-Bright, as his mama
does. That name is as good
as any, and better than some."
Dorothy watched the boy dig.
"Where do you live?" she
asked.
"Don't know," was
the reply.
"How
did you
come here?"
"Don't know," he
said again.
"Don't
you know
where you
came from?"
"No," said
he.
"Why, he must be lost," she
said to the shaggy man. She
turned to the boy once more.
"What are you going to do?" she
inquired.
"Dig," said
he.
"But you can't dig forever;
and what are you going to do
then?" she persisted.
"Don't know," said
the boy.
"But you MUST know SOMETHING," declared
Dorothy, getting provoked.
"Must I?" he
asked,
looking
up in surprise.
"Of
course
you must."
"What
must I
know?"
"What's going to become of
you, for one thing," she answered.
"Do YOU know what's going
to become of me?" he asked.
"Not--not 'zactly," she
admitted.
"Do you know what's going
to become of YOU?" he continued,
earnestly.
"I can't say I do," replied
Dorothy, remembering her present
difficulties.
The shaggy man laughed.
"No one knows everything,
Dorothy," he said.
"But Button-Bright doesn't
seem to know ANYthing," she
declared. "Do you, Button-Bright?"
He shook his head, which
had pretty curls all over it,
and replied with perfect calmness:
"Don't
know."
Never before had Dorothy
met with anyone who could give
her so little information.
The boy was evidently lost,
and his people would be sure
to worry about him. He seemed
two or three years younger
than Dorothy, and was prettily
dressed, as if someone loved
him dearly and took much pains
to make him look well. How,
then, did he come to be in
this lonely road? she wondered.
Near Button-Bright, on the
ground, lay a sailor hat with
a gilt anchor on the band.
His sailor trousers were long
and wide at the bottom, and
the broad collar of his blouse
had gold anchors sewed on its
corners. The boy was still
digging at his hole.
"Have you ever been to sea?" asked
Dorothy.
"To see what?" answered
Button-Bright.
"I
mean, have
you ever
been where
there's
water?"
"Yes," said Button-Bright; "there's
a well in our back yard."
"You don't understand," cried
Dorothy. "I mean, have you
ever been on a big ship floating
on a big ocean?"
"Don't know," said
he.
"Then
why do
you wear
sailor
clothes?"
"Don't know," he
answered,
again.
Dorothy was in despair.
"You're just AWFUL stupid,
Button-Bright," she said.
"Am I?" he
asked.
"Yes,
you are."
"Why?" looking
up at her
with big eyes.
She
was going
to say: "Don't
know," but stopped herself
in time.
"That's for you to answer," she
replied.
"It's no use asking Button-Bright
questions," said the shaggy
man, who had been eating another
apple; "but someone ought to
take care of the poor little
chap, don't you think? So he'd
better come along with us."
Toto had been looking with
great curiosity in the hole
which the boy was digging,
and growing more and more excited
every minute, perhaps thinking
that Button-Bright was after
some wild animal. The little
dog began barking loudly and
jumped into the hole himself,
where he began to dig with
his tiny paws, making the earth
fly in all directions. It spattered
over the boy. Dorothy seized
him and raised him to his feet,
brushing his clothes with her
hand.
"Stop that, Toto!" she called. "There
aren't any mice or woodchucks
in that hole, so don't be foolish."
Toto stopped, sniffed at
the hole suspiciously, and
jumped out of it, wagging his
tail as if he had done something
important.
"Well," said the shaggy man, "let's
start on, or we won't get anywhere
before night comes."
"Where do you expect to get
to?" asked Dorothy.
"I'm like Button-Bright.
I don't know," answered the
shaggy man, with a laugh. "But
I've learned from long experience
that every road leads somewhere,
or there wouldn't be any road;
so it's likely that if we travel
long enough, my dear, we will
come to some place or another
in the end. What place it will
be we can't even guess at this
moment, but we're sure to find
out when we get there."
"Why, yes," said Dorothy; "that
seems reas'n'ble, Shaggy Man."
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