"Hey, Ike, do you know about Mr. Johnson?"

"Not as much as I'd like. What have you heard about him?"

"Mike Johnson's family goes way back.  His mom's people were the first settlers from Massachusetts to come to Richmond, before it was even a town.  You know the Johnson farm?  The family's been there since 1918."

"Seems like everybody's heard of Mr. Johnson.  He's the nicest two-legger I know."

"He's a busy one, too.  You should see all the animals he has at his farm.  He has dairy cows, and beef cows and sheep and chickens.  He has llamas and Maine Coon cats.  He has extra-rare White Park cattle, and lots of horses. Some of the horses belong to other people, and live at his farm.  Some of the animals belong to the Friendly Farm over in Dublin.  Mr. Johnson takes care of them during the winter."

"I heard he likes wild animals almost as much as he likes the tame ones."

"That's true.  He can tell you about bears and bobcats, an eagle and a talking crow.  Also about a huge eel that lives in his swimming hole."

"But he likes us the best, doesn't he, Buck?"

"Well, I bet he likes us the biggest!  I bet he thinks about us when he's cutting hay every summer.  He cuts hay all over Swanzey.  Can you imagine 3,000 bales of hay?"

"Yum!  Some of that's for us!"

"A LOT of that's for us.  It helps the people who own the fields, too, because otherwise the fields would turn into forest.  Swanzey wouldn't be as pretty if it was only forest."

"He does all that, and he takes care of us, too.  We're blessed to have Mr. Johnson."

"Buck, Swanzey is blessed to have him."

- Buck and Ike