Grass root efforts to start a baseball team and a newspaper, have their humour and their happy outcome as described and pictured in the traditional Daugherty manner. Gummy McReady of Indian Falls, who loves newspapering and baseball, has the summer ahead of him with no opportunity to do either; editor Doc Hennesy of the Town Crier has no place for him and Indian Falls has no Little League. So Gummy, his dog Funling (who can sit up and ""type"") and his friend Tubby, start their own paper- and one thing leads to another. Ethics of journalism and other ethics become involved in the boys' attempt to make a go of their paper, to form a society for world improvement and to castigate two town delinquents who eventually become the backbone of the new ball team. There is a flippancy to their shenanigans that heightens this portrayal of practical idealism.