Saddle up! This month’s Cricket is headin’ West!

Ride the stage to adventure with “Hector and the Gambler’s Gold Watch,” and learn about what stagecoaches were really like in “Running Horses and Red Stagecoaches.” Even the bugs have gold fever in Cricket Country.

Cricket goes east, too—Far East—with a new serial about a baseball-crazy boy who was a homerun star on his team in America, but has to deal with new teammates and an aging grandfather when his family returns to Japan. And Old Cricket takes you to Hong Kong, where one park is filled with people walking their pet … birds!

There’s also a humorous tale about “Fishke the Simple-Minded of Chelm,” the conclusions to “The Pirate King” and “The Owl in the Henhouse,” and a new art contest.