Out in the Park one day, children, I met a little boy not bigger than you are, who told me that he liked stories about a boy and a dog and the things they did together. He said that it must be a real boy and a real dog, and there must be other animals in the story, not great, big, fierce ones, but just neighborly ones—animals a boy might, perhaps, meet when he went for walks in the woods—and take pictures of and get to know. So this is the story of the way a real boy and a real dog spent their first summer in the real country; and the fun they had together. Buddy Jim and old Dog Sandy are waiting for us over on the front page.