DIX AND THE COW
"Now," said Bunny, as he sat down on a little stool in the auto to talk
to his father and mother--and Sue, of course, and Uncle Tad, who were
all listening. "Now it wouldn't hurt an awful lot to take Dix with us,
would it?"
"What do you mean?" asked his mother.
"I mean Dix wouldn't eat much more than Splash, would he?"
"Oh, I guess if it comes to feeding dogs, two come about as cheaply as
one," said Mr. Brown with a laugh. "But what's the idea, Bunny?"
"Well, I'd like to have Dix come along with us then. It will save time
now in taking him back."
"Yes, it will do _that_," said Mr. Brown. "And it's quite a way back
home this time."
"And Splash will have company to play with all the while," went on
Bunny. "Two dogs are happier than one, aren't they?" he asked. "If two
dogs eat more than one then two must be happier than one."
"It's a new way of looking at it, but I guess it may be true," laughed
Mrs. Brown. "But are you doing all this talking, Bunny, just to have
company for Splash?"
"No indeedy I'm not!" exclaimed Bunny. "I haven't 'splained it all."
"What else is there?" asked Mr. Brown, laughing.
"Well, if Mr. Ward will let us take Dix along--and you can find out
about that over the telephone--then maybe we can find Fred."
For a moment no one spoke after Bunny had announced his plan. His father
and mother looked sharply at him, and so did Sue and Uncle Tad.
"How can Dix find Fred?" asked Sue.
"'Cause didn't the bloodhounds find the runaway slaves in Uncle Tom's
Cabin?" demanded Bunny.
"Yes," answered Sue. "I 'member that."
"Well then, won't Dix find Fred the same way?" went on Bunny. "He can
smell his tracks along the road and we'll find that runaway boy a lot
quicker than if we didn't have his dog along. Fred and Dix were always
together, and I guess Fred couldn't have run away if Dix had seen him.
So if we take Dix along, and have to look for Fred in big crowds, Dix'll
come in 'specially handy."
"Oh, won't that be fun!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "Do let's take
Dix along!"
"I believe Bunny's plan is a good one," said Mr. Brown, after thinking
about it a while. "We don't know Fred very well, and he may look
different, now that he has gone away from home, from what he did before.
His dog would know him, however, no matter how Fred dressed."
"He'd know him even if he had on a Hallowe'en false face, wouldn't he?"
asked Sue.
"I guess so," answered Daddy Brown. "Well, I'll go and telephone to Mr.
Ward and see what he says."
The people in the house into which the telephone wires ran were very
willing Mr. Brown should use the instrument, and he was soon talking to
Mr. Ward back in Bellemere.
"Surely you may take Dix with you," said Mr. Ward over the telephone
wire. "I only hope he will not be a trouble to you. I know he will make
a fuss just as soon as he comes anywhere near Fred. So, in that way, you
may be able to trace my boy. I hope you will. His mother hopes so too.
She is beside me here as I am talking, and she sends you her thanks.
Take Dix with you if you wish."
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sue, when she heard the news. "Aren't you,
Bunny? Now we have two dogs!"
"Yes, one will be yours and one mine, until we get back home with Dix.
Then we'll each own half of Splash, as we've always done."
This suited Sue, and, now that the dog question was settled, the
automobile started on again.
For a little while everything was peaceful and quiet in the big
automobile. Bunny went outside on the front seat with his father, and
looked down the road along which they were running. It was a pleasant
road, with trees arching across overhead from one side to the other.
Inside the big car Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad "got things to rights," as
the children's mother called it, while Sue took out some of her toys,
including the big Teddy bear with the electric eyes, whose adventures
have been told in the book just before this one.
Bunny and his father talked together on the seat in front. Bunny was
interested in whether or not they would find Fred.
"Well, we may and we may not," said Mr. Brown. "It is true Fred said he
was going to run away to Portland, the city where we are going. But we
will not be there for some time, and before then Fred may think he does
not like it there and go somewhere else."
"Well, I think Dix will help find him, don't you?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, I hope so, Son."
Just then came a call from inside the automobile.
"Who's ready for dinner?"
[Illustration: THE TWO DOGS CAME WITH A RUSH.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour._ _Page_ 79.]
"I am!" cried Bunny, the first one.
"So am I," added Sue.
"Then come on! Rations are served," said Uncle Tad who had been in the
army.
He and Mrs. Brown had cooked their first meal on the gasolene stove in
the little kitchen and dining room combined, and it was now ready to
serve.
Bunny clambered in by way of the front seat and took his place at the
little table.
"I think we had better stop beside the road while we eat," said Mr.
Brown. "This automobile is all right for traveling, but the roads are so
rough here that I may spill my tea. So we'll anchor and eat."
"Daddy thinks we're in a boat I guess, when he talks about anchoring,"
said Sue, who, more than once, had been out in the big fishing boat with
her father.
Then the meal began. There was some cooked meat, for they could carry
meat in the ice box, baked potatoes, and, best of all, some pie.
It was while he was eating his pie and drinking his milk that Bunny
suddenly cried:
"The dogs!"
"What about them?" asked Mrs. Brown quickly. "Are they fighting? Where
are they, Bunny?"
"Just over in that field playing. But we didn't call Splash and Dix to
dinner."
"Oh, is that all? I think they can wait a bit," said Mrs. Brown with a
laugh. "By the way you spoke I thought something had happened."
"Well, this pie tasted good, that's part of what happened," said Bunny,
with a laugh. "And then I got to wishing Dix and Splash could have
some."
"I'll feed them when the rest of you have finished," promised Mrs.
Brown.
When the meal was over Mrs. Brown gathered up a big plateful of scraps
from the table, and gave it to Bunny to feed Dix and Splash.
"Here Dix!" called Bunny, inviting the "company" dog first, which was
proper, I suppose. "Here, Dix and Splash!"
The two dogs heard and must have known that they were being called to
dinner, for they came with a rush, each one trying to see which would
be the first to reach Bunny with the plateful of good food.
"You'd better put the dish on the ground and get away," said Mr. Brown
with a laugh. "Otherwise they'll be so glad to see you, Bunny, that
they'll knock you down and roll over you."
"I guess they will," said the little boy. So he put the plate of meat,
bread and potato scraps on the ground near the big automobile and then
stepped back out of the way.
Dix and Splash did not take long to finish the food on the plate, and
then they looked up at Bunny and wagged their tails, as if asking for
more.
"No more!" called Mrs. Brown to them, for she understood the feeding of
dogs. "That will do you until supper."
Seeing they were going to get no more, Dix and Splash ran off together
again to have more fun rolling about in the grass.
"Where do you think we shall stop for the night?" asked Mrs. Brown of
her husband as they set off once more.
"Just outside the town of Freeburg," he answered. "We'll sleep in the
auto, of course, for if we are making a tour this way it's the proper
thing to do. But we'll be near enough a town for supplies or anything we
may need."
"Goodness! We don't need anything this soon, nor have we a place to put
another thing away," protested Mrs. Brown.
Her husband laughed. "However, it's well to be near a town overnight,"
he said.
So the big automobile chugged on. Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad washed the
dishes and put them away, and then they sat looking out at the side
windows and enjoying the trip. Now and then Mr. Brown would talk in
through the open window against which the steering wheel seat was built.
Bunny and his sister sometimes rode inside, and again outside with Daddy
Brown.
"This is lots of fun, I think," said Bunny, as he sat beside his father,
and the auto went rather fast down a hill.
"It's just great! My Sallie Malinda Teddy bear likes it, too," put in
Sue, who was also on the front seat. Both of them together took up no
more room than one grown person, and the front seat was built large
enough for two.
Dix and Splash raced on together, sometimes playing a game like
wrestling, trying to see which could throw the other, and again rushing
along as fast as they could go, sometimes behind, and sometimes in front
of the automobile.
At the foot of the hill, down which the automobile had gone rather fast,
a man stepped out from a fence beside the road and held up his hand.
"What does that mean?" asked Sue.
"It means to stop," said her father, as he slowed up the machine.
"What for?" Bunny inquired.
"Well, he may be a constable--that is a kind of a policeman," said Mr.
Brown. "He wants us to stop, thinking, maybe, that we were running too
fast. But I know we weren't."
"Will he 'rest us?" asked Sue. "If he does I'm going to hide Sallie
Malinda. I'm not going to have her locked up!"
"Nothing will happen," said Mr. Brown with a laugh. "I have run an
automobile long enough to know what to do."
Mr. Brown brought the big machine to a stop near the spot where the man
was standing with upraised hand.
"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Brown good-naturedly. "Were we going too
fast?"
"Oh, nopey!" exclaimed the man with a laugh. "I jest stopped you to see
what kind of a show you was givin'."
"What kind of show we are giving?" repeated Mr. Brown in surprise.
"Yep! I thought maybe you was one o' them patent medicine shows that
goes 'round in big wagons and stops here and there, and a feller sings,
or plays, or somethin', then the head man or woman sells medicine
what'll cure everything you ever had in the way of pain or ever expect
to have. I thought I'd see what kind of a show you've got."
"We haven't any," laughed Mr. Brown. "You may look in the auto if you
like, and see how we live in it. We are traveling for pleasure."
"I see you be, now," said the man after a look. "Wa'al, I'm right sorry
I stopped you."
"That's all right," said Mr. Brown pleasantly. "This is a heavy machine,
and I don't like to get it to going too fast downhill. It's too hard to
stop. So it's just as well we slowed up."
"You see I'm the inspector of all them travelin' shows," went on the
man. "Ribbans is my name, Hank Ribbans. Every medicine show or other
show that comes to town has to git a permit from me, else they can't
show. But you're all right, pass on."
An idea came into Mrs. Brown's head.
"Do you have many shows passing through here, with musicians who play to
draw a crowd?" she asked.
"Oh, sartin, surely. 'Bout one once a week as a rule. There was one that
showed here two or three nights ago--no, come to think of it now, it was
last night. There was a young feller--nothin' but a boy--dressed up in
the reddest and bluest suit you ever see. And say, how he could play
that old banjo!"
"Oh, a banjo! Maybe it was Fred!" cried Bunny.
The same thought came to his father and mother.
"Tell us about this boy," requested Mr. Brown. "We are looking for one
who plays the banjo," and he described Fred Ward.
"Well, this can't be the one you're lookin' for," said Mr. Ribbans.
"'Cause this feller was a negro."
"Maybe he was blacked up like a minstrel," said Bunny.
"I couldn't say as to that," returned the inspector. "Anyhow they paid
for their license all right, and they sold a powerful lot o' Dr. Slack's
Pain Killer. Then they went on out of town. That's all I know. Well, you
don't need a license from me; so go ahead, folks!"
He waved good-bye to them as they went off again.
Bunny and Sue were eager to ask questions about the colored boy who
played the banjo for the medical show.
"Do you think he could have been Fred?" asked Bunny.
"It is possible," answered his father.
"Maybe we can find him," added Sue.
"We'll make inquiries about this show in the next town we come to," said
Mr. Brown.
But as the next town was the one outside of which they were to spend the
night, they decided to put off until the next day asking questions about
the colored banjo player.
Uncle Tad and Mr. Brown helped Mrs. Brown get the supper. When it was
over there was a large platter full of good things left for the two
dogs. They were hungry, for they had run far that day, and they ate up
every scrap.
Then they stretched out for a while near a campfire Mr. Brown made under
some trees, for it was a little cool in the evenings. As the children
had been up early that morning, Mrs. Brown told them they must be early
in bed, and after watching the fire until their eyes began to shut of
themselves, Bunny and Sue started for their little bunks.
Just as they were getting undressed, though it was scarcely dark, the
barking of dogs was heard down the road.
"That's Dix and Splash!" exclaimed Bunny. "And something must have
happened. Splash wouldn't bark that way if there was nothing the
matter."
"Here comes Dix now," said Sue, looking out of the automobile window.
"And oh, Bunny! Look what he's brought home with him!"
"What is it?" asked Bunny, whose bunk was on the other side of the big
car.
"It's a cow. Dix is leading home a cow on the end of a rope!" exclaimed
Sue.