Ellis Parker Butler 
Swatty 
A Story of Real Boys

‘Swatty’ is a tale about friendship among a group of boys led by Swatty, a feisty young lad with a knack for getting into all sorts of mischief. ‘One day Swatty came over to my yard and he said, ‘Say!’ so I said, ‘Say what?’ and he said, ‘Say, you know Herb’s tricycle?’ and I said I did. Herb was Swatty’s brother that wanted to marry my sister Fan and he had got the tricycle a couple of years ago, when all the bicycles were high-wheel bicycles. He had got it for him and Fan to ride on, and it was a two-seat one—side-by-side seats—and after a few times Fan wouldn’t ride on it because it made her as conspicuous as a pig on a flagpole. So Herb rode on it alone some, and with some other fellow some, but mostly he kept it chained up in Swatty’s barn and said he would scalp Swatty and skin him alive if Swatty ever touched it. So this day Swatty came over and he said, ‘What do you think!’ because Herb said when he was married to Fan, Swatty could have the tricycle. You bet Swatty was tickled. So I asked him who would ride on it with him. ‘Well—you will, ‘ he said. ‘And Bony. That’s when I ain’t taking somebody else.’ He didn’t say who else, but I knew, because I knew Swatty was having my sister Lucy for his secret girl. ‘And part of the time, ‘ I said, ‘I can have it alone, can’t I, Swatty?’