My Friend Bobby

My Friend Bobby, by Alan
Edward Nourse

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Title: My Friend Bobby
Author: Alan Edward Nourse
Release Date: October 3, 2007 [EBook #22881]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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FRIEND BOBBY ***

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Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from The Counterfeit Man More Science
Fiction Stories by Alan E. Nourse published in 1963. Extensive

research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have
been corrected without note.

My Friend Bobby

My name is Jimmy and I am five years old, and my friend Bobby is
five years old too but he says he thinks he's really more than five years
old because he's already grown up and I'm just a little boy. We live out
in the country because that's where mommy and daddy live, and every
morning daddy takes the car out of the barn and rides into the city to
work, and every night he comes back to eat supper and to see mommy
and Bobby and me. One time I asked daddy why we don't live in the
city like some people do and he laughed and said you wouldn't really
want to live in the city would you? After all he said you couldn't have
Bobby in the city, so I guess it's better to live in the country after all.
Anyway daddy says that the city is no place to raise kids these days. I
asked Bobby if I am a kid and he said he guessed so but I don't think he
really knows because Bobby isn't very smart. But Bobby is my friend
even if he doesn't know much and I like him more than anybody else.
Mommy doesn't like Bobby very much and when I am bad she makes
Bobby go outdoors even when it's cold outside. Mommy says I
shouldn't play with Bobby so much because after all Bobby is only a
dog but I like Bobby. Everyone else is so big, and when mommy and
daddy are home all I can see is their legs unless I look way up high, and
when I do something bad I'm scared because they're so big and strong.
Bobby is strong too but he isn't any bigger than I am, and he is always
nice to me. He has a long shaggy brown coat and a long pointed nose,
and a nice collar of white fur and people sometimes say to daddy what
a nice collie that is and daddy says yes isn't he and he takes to the boy
so. I don't know what a collie is but I have fun with Bobby all the time.
Sometimes he lets me ride on his back and we talk to each other and
have secrets even though I don't think he is very smart. I don't know

why mommy and daddy don't understand me when I talk to them the
way I talk to Bobby but maybe they just pretend they can't hear me talk
that way.
I am always sorry when daddy goes to work in the morning. Daddy is
nice to me most times and takes me and Bobby for walks. But mommy
never takes me for walks and when we are alone she is busy and she
isn't nice to me. Sometimes she says I am a bad boy and makes me stay
in my room even when I haven't done anything bad and sometimes she
thinks things in her head that she doesn't say to me. I don't know why
mommy doesn't like me and Bobby doesn't know either, but we like it
best when mommy lets us go outdoors to play in the barn or down by
the creek. If I get my feet wet mommy says I am very bad so I stay on
the bank and let Bobby go in, but one day when Bobby went into the
water just before we went home for supper mommy scolded me and
told me I was bad for letting Bobby go into the water and when I told
her she hadn't told me not to let Bobby go in she was angry and I could
tell that she didn't like me at all that day.
Almost every day I do something that mommy says is bad even