Rover the dog was bored that day, he had no one with
whom to play. He chased a few birds off the fence but that was not much fun. He decided to visit his friend the beaver who was Building a lodge. Rover said, “ my dear friend, can I help you build your lodge?”
The beaver said, “that is kind of you, Rover, but can you fell a log? And could you dive under water to put logs in place? I am afraid,” said the beaver, “I just could not use you. But if you come back tomorrow, maybe then we can play.”
Rover left disappointed, but soon came across a blackbird building a nest. He said to the blackbird, “I am bored, can I help you build a nest?”
“That is very kind of you,” said the blackbird, “but can you fly? My nest is up high on a tree where you can’t get to unless you can fly. But do come back when I am finished building my nest and then we can play.”
Rover was very disappointed. Everyone was too busy to play. He thought he may as well go home and chase some more birds off the fence. Nothing better to do. He was almost home when he heard a faint voice ask “want to play?”
Rover couldn’t believe his luck. Someone actually wanted to play. He looked around, and saw a gopher sticking its head out of a hole in the ground.
The gopher said, “over here, dog, let’s play catch.”
Rover thought that should be easy enough to do and he leapt forward. Rover was quick, but not quick enough, because the gopher had disappeared in the hole. The gopher stuck his head out at the other end of his tunnel and said, “here dog!”
Rover dashed over but again the gopher had disappeared, only to pop up on the other end again. That went on for a long time because Rover was determined to win.
In time Rover got too tired to carry on and he went home.
It wasn’t quite the ga
me-playing he had in mind, but he did have fun.
Back home he saw a lot of birds on the lawn, but he was too tired to chase them.
