THE SUMMER BUMMER AND THE DAISY
Ruth Moon Kempher
Some time ago-- this is not a once upon a time story, because it is very nearly almost true-- I knew a dog who was named The Summer Bummer, Sum for short. He was almost all the kind of dog called a German Shepherd because his family came from Germany, where they took care of sheep. There was another part of him that was some other kind of dog. We don’t know what it was, except it must have been some kind of dog that is lazy.
The main thing to know about the Summer Bummer is that he was a nice dog, but he was terribly lazy. Even if we lived in Germany, which we don’t, I’m sure he would have ignored all his duties with the sheep. At home, he wouldn’t help with the dishes or the cooking or even sing a song for his supper. He was a dog who just liked to laze.
He was SO lazy, he would even refuse to take a bath. Now that is bad. Dogs who do not take baths have a tendency to smell bad. It IS bad. One summer, it was so very bad, with the Summer Bummer refusing to take his baths, that no one would have anything to do with him. When he came into a room, people would pinch their noses and make terrible faces and say “Pooh, pooh, Summer Bummer. You stink.”
That is not nice, but that is how it was. The Summer Bummer did not care. He would lie down and stick his tongue out. His tongue would drip. And his tummy would pant. And his tangled coat-- O, pooh. It did stink.
German Shepherds are proud dogs, you know. They do not like to admit that they have made a mistake. And they also like to have people like them. So the Summer Bummer was very sad. He knew he ought to take a bath so people would let him be close to them again. But on the other hand, he was very lazy. So he was lonesome for a long time. He would lie around a while, but when no one would pay attention to him because he smelled so bad, he would finally get up and go outside all by himself. He would go for a lonesome walk and feel sorry for himself, but he was too lazy to do much else.
One day Sum went for a particularly lonesome walk out where there was a big field of daisies and Queen Anne’s lace and all sorts of grass growing up tall. There were little yellow butterflies hopping about in the flowers, but when they got wind of the Summer Bummer, they shook their antenneas in disgust and flew away. O dear. If a butterfly doesn’t like the way you smell, things are very bad, indeed.
And the Summer Bummer was SO dirty. O me. You may not believe this, but while he was out in that field feeling lonesome and sorry for himself, a seed from one of the daisies fell into his tangled dirty coat. This seed was just about ready to sprout roots, anyway, but falling into such a dirty place made it think it was time to put roots out, and start to grow. And that is exactly what this silly daisy did.
Down went its roots, and up went its stem, and its flower bud shot up. . . It was astonishing.
At first, the Summer Bummer didn’t know what was going on. He felt those roots tickle and he thought it was a flea. And do you know, that dog was SO lazy he wouldn’t even bother to scratch a flea.
By the time the Summer Bummer came home, that silly daisy had grown up, magic, and the poor dog didn’t know it, but he was walking around with a flower growing out of his coat. I knew he was a dirty dog, but that was too much.
“O, Sum!” I said when he came home. “Look! You have a daisy in your coat!”
He turned his head as far around as it would go, and sure enough. There was the daisy nodding at him. And Summer Bummer was so happy, he grinned. That daisy was the first thing in a long time to treat him like a friend.
This story is getting very long, so I will try to make it short. For a while, they were absolutely inseparable, the Summer Bummer and the daisy. They went out in the sun, and lay in the sun and were perfectly lazy together.
But a dog’s coat, no matter how dirty it gets, is not really a good place for a daisy to grow. And the daisy, like all good flowers, needed not just dirt, but water.
After a few days of being very thirsty, the daisy began to droop. It was too polite to complain, but it could hardly hold its head up anymore.
Then the Summer Bummer was in a fix. What should he do to help his friend? He went so far as to consider taking a bath! But he didn’t do that, not because he was too lazy, but because he thought that soap would be bad for daisy roots. He was considering taking a shower kind of bath when a very nice thing happened to help them both. Outside, it began to rain.
Normally, Sum would never go out into the rain. He did not like the feel of rain in his eyes. He did not like to be wet. Wet dogs smell so bad they can even smell themselves! Then he knew how bad things were! But the daisy had been a loyal friend when no one else would pay attention.
He actually TROTTED, going out into the garden, where the rain was gently coming down. He went trot trot trot out to the edge of the garden bed, and sat down, and let the lovely warm rain get into his eyes, and soak into his coat, and he sat and he sat, smelling wetter and wetter doggy smells. O dear.
He did not like the rain. But the daisy loved it! The daisy felt stronger and stronger from the moment they went trot trot out the door. And when the rain began to soak into Sum’s coat, the daisy stretched out its roots, and held up its head, and began to positively GLOW.
The Summer Bummer wanted to be a good friend, and so he sat there feeling half miserable and half proud of himself. He sat just long enough for the daisy to be wet enough to slide out of his coat, roots and all, right down into the garden, where the roots went down and the daisy began to properly grow.
The Summer Bummer is an old dog now, and the daisy is a big bush out in the garden. Now that he’s old, I’m afraid Sum is even lazier than he used to be. But he takes his bath happily every now and then, because he has learned that if you don’t keep yourself properly clean, life can be very complicated.
