Don't Tell Mom — Richard Baker

Come on, take off your shoes and socks. Stick them in this hedge. No one will see them. Walk with me barefoot through that fresh plowed field and feel the soft warm moist soil cuddle your feet. Who ever said that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place has never been down to the Allen's house. Meet Doug Don, his pigs, his horse and his old wooden garbage wagon. Walk through the woods, swim in the Cass River and move the outhouse back, but don't tell Mom. Catch the Fireflies. Watch them crank the Gas up to the top of the pump into that glass holder before it goes into the tank of that old square backed car. Pull Pea Vines off the truck on its way to Clark Canning Company. Nothing tastes as good as fresh raw Pea's, but don't tell Mom. Then after our trip is through, we will pull our shoes and socks out of the hedge and put them on before we go home, but don't tell Mom. And when she says, "I don't how you get your feet so dirty," don't tell Mom!