The Fling Read online

  Hills in purple shadows sprawl,

  Haze and fogginess cover all.

  Thanks we give for peaceful sleep,

  For a day in which to reap,

  Crystal air and endless sky,

  And for the wings that let us fly.

  Spread we now our feathered wings,

  Soaring soft and silent rings.

  May this day bring us success

  Finding a cure for hungriness.

  Pretty strange, huh? I thought so, and when they finished the song, they all spread their big black wings, pushed off their respective limbs, and soared off into the morning sky, until there were only three of us left in the tree: me, Wallace, and Junior.

  I began to realize that Wallace was glaring at me. Let me tell you, that’s a bad way to start the morning, with a buzzard glaring at you.

  “Junior, wake up and look at your so-called friend. You said he was a buzzard from Abilene? Just happened to be wearin’ a pair of ears? Ha. Wake up and you’ll see what I tried to tell you last night but you wouldn’t listen, and never do.”

  Junior yawned and blinked his eyes at me. “Oh m-my g-g-goodness, it’s our d-d-doggie friend, doggie friend!”

  I gave him a nod. “Morning, Junior.”

  “W-w-well, D-d-d-doggie, w-w-we have to g-g-go to w-w-work, go to work, and h-h-hunt some g-g-grub.”

  “Well, glory be!” Wallace muttered. “I’d begun to wonder if you’d planned to order in a pizza. Let’s get airborne, son, we’re already behind.”

  Wallace spread his wings and flapped away. Junior smiled, waved the tip-end of his wing, and flew away, leaving me all alone in the tree.

  I jumped to the ground and trotted the last three miles to ranch headquarters. I was feeling pretty good about things. It was a beautiful morning. I had managed to dodge the cannibals and survive another night. And we mustn’t forget that I’d had a Big Fling in town and had even managed to pull my friend Ralph through a deep personal . . .

  Wait a second, hold everything. Remember that story Ralph told me, about how the two bullies stole the weenies from him? Well, in the middle of the night, I woke up and realized that my restless mind had been working on that very case, even as my body got some well-deserved slumber. The pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place, and you just won’t believe what I figured out. Here, look at the evidence.

  Evidence #1: Ralph burped, remember? And I smelled garlic.

  Evidence #2: He burped again, and I smelled garlic again.

  Evidence #3: Weenies are known to contain a lot of garlic.

  Evidence #4: When Ralph walked away, I noted that he was fat and shaped like a weenie.

  Do you see it now? You missed it the first time around, didn’t you? Well, he didn’t fool me, not for a . . . okay, he fooled me. The scrounge ate all my weenies, and I believed his silly, outrageous, unbelievable story!

  But the important thing here was that I had learned a valuable Lesson on Life: Never trust your lunch with a jailhouse mutt. That had made the whole experience . . . phooey.

  Case closed.

  See you down the road.

  Further Reading

  Have you read all of Hank’s adventures?

  1 The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

  2 The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

  3 It’s a Dog’s Life

  4 Murder in the Middle Pasture

  5 Faded Love

  6 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

  7 The Curse of the Incredible Priceless Corncob

  8 The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse

  9 The Case of the Halloween Ghost

  10 Every Dog Has His Day

  11 Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest

  12 The Case of the Fiddle-Playing Fox

  13 The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve

  14 Hank the Cowdog and Monkey Business

  15 The Case of the Missing Cat

  16 Lost in the Blinded Blizzard

  17 The Case of the Car-Barkaholic Dog

  18 The Case of the Hooking Bull

  19 The Case of the Midnight Rustler

  20 The Phantom in the Mirror

  21 The Case of the Vampire Cat

  22 The Case of the Double Bumblebee Sting

  23 Moonlight Madness

  24 The Case of the Black-Hooded Hangmans

  25 The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado

  26 The Case of the Kidnapped Collie

  27 The Case of the Night-Stalking Bone Monster

  28 The Mopwater Files

  29 The Case of the Vampire Vacuum Sweeper

  30 The Case of the Haystack Kitties

  31 The Case of the Vanishing Fishhook

  32 The Garbage Monster from Outer Space

  33 The Case of the Measled Cowboy

  34 Slim’s Good-bye

  35 The Case of the Saddle House Robbery

  36 The Case of the Raging Rottweiler

  37 The Case of the Deadly Ha-Ha Game

  38 The Fling

  39 The Secret Laundry Monster Files

  40 The Case of the Missing Bird Dog

  41 The Case of the Shipwrecked Tree

  42 The Case of the Burrowing Robot

  43 The Case of the Twisted Kitty

  44 The Dungeon of Doom

  45 The Case of the Falling Sky

  46 The Case of the Tricky Trap

  47 The Case of the Tender Cheeping Chickies

  48 The Case of the Monkey Burglar

  49 The Case of the Booby-Trapped Pickup

  50 The Case of the Most Ancient Bone

  51 The Case of the Blazing Sky

  52 The Quest for the Great White Quail

  53 Drover’s Secret Life

  54 The Case of the Dinosaur Birds

  55 The Case of the Secret Weapon

  56 The Case of the Coyote Invasion

  57 The Disappearance of Drover

  58 The Case of the Mysterious Voice

  59 The Case of the Perfect Dog

  60 The Big Question

  About the Author and Illustrator

  John R. Erickson, a former cowboy, has written numerous books for both children and adults and is best known for his acclaimed Hank the Cowdog series. He lives and works on his ranch in Perryton, Texas, with his family.

  Gerald L. Holmes has illustrated numerous cartoons and textbooks in addition to the Hank the Cowdog series. He lives in Perryton, Texas.