Other editions of book Rick and Ruddy

A tale of a boy and a dog. Rick, the boy, befriends Ruddy, the shipwrecked dog, and is well repaid by the animal's devotion. The first chapter is titled "Rick Wants a Dog" and the second is "Ruddy Wants a Home". How can a story that starts out like that be anything but wonderful? Rick and Ruddy is a story for the ages and is a book every child is sure to love and treasure. Here is a tale that goes straight to the heart of every young person who reads it. How the kindness of a little Jersey boy to a shipwrecked dog is later repaid by the devotion of the faithful animal, is a wholesome and interesting piece of juvenile narrative. Rick is a boy that young folks would like to know, while Ruddy is one of the most admirable canines in the world of books. “Boys from eight to twelve will enjoy roaming through the woods with Rick and his dog Ruddy. These two find at the end of a perfect day that there are many exciting days ahead of them, for they are to take a long trip down the river in a motor boat known more familiarly as ‘Sallie.’ Rick’s friend Chot accompanies them, and an old Uncle makes it a very interesting trip, for, of course, there is a bona fide mystery.” -Social Progress, Volumes 6-7, January 1922

Rick and Ruddy CHAPTER I RICK WANTS A DOG Rick Dalton sat on the sandy beach tossing white stones and bits of shell into the little waves that broke almost at his feet. The tide was just on the turn; soon it would come in, and the big, booming rollers would drive Rick farther up toward the dunes, where the wind was making a queer, whistling sound as it bent the long spears of saw-edged grass, whipping off venturesome, gray hoppers, that had boldly crawled up, perhaps to get a better view of the heaving ocean. "I don't care!" murmured Rick, but, from the tone of his voice, and the look on his face, one might have said that he did care, and very much, too, about something. But still Rick said: "I don't care!" And he said it over and over, until it was almost like the song the waves seemed to sing as they swished up the beach, rolling over and over the white sand, pebbles and bits of shell, swishing them along as if they, too, didn't care what happened. "I don't care!" exclaimed Rick again, as he tossed a larger stone out so that it fell with a splash near a floating bit of wood, and frightened away an osprey that was about to swoop down and catch a sea bass which had ventured too near the surface. "I want a dog! I just want a dog, and I think mother might let me have one! I don't care!"