TOBY AND PATTER
Bunny Brown was so surprised by what his sister called, about Toby the
pony coming back, that the little boy let go of Patter’s hind legs,
which had been raised in the air to try to make him walk on his front
legs.
Down fell Patter’s legs, so suddenly that if Patter had been a little
boy or girl I’m sure he would have grunted, or perhaps he might even
have cried. But as he was a dog, though a trick dog, Patter whined a
little and then barked:
“Bow-wow-wuff!”
Perhaps that meant he didn’t like to be treated so. But Bunny did not
stop to think about the new trick dog just then. Bunny ran after Sue,
who was heading for the gate, outside of which stood a man with a pony
and a cart.
The man had gotten out of the cart and was now looking at Bunny Brown
and his sister Sue and their trick dog.
“If Mr. Brown lives here,” said the man, “I reckon this is his pony,
for it’s where I was told to leave it.”
“It’s our pony,” said Bunny, “and thank you for bringing him back to
us. His name is Toby.”
“So I was told,” said the man. “Well, here he is,” and he led the tiny
horse in through the gate that Bunny and his sister opened.
“Is he all cured?” Sue wanted to know. “His hair won’t fall and come
out any more, will it?”
“No,” answered the man, “his hair won’t fall out any more. He has been
boarding at our farm for some time, and now he’s cured. Your father
told me to leave him here for you. I just stopped at the office and he
told me to bring the pony up. So here I am.”
“And we’re glad of it!” cried Sue. “Now we have a pony and a trick dog,
and we’re going to give a show, maybe.”
“Is that a trick dog?” asked the farmer’s hired man, for he it was who
had brought Toby home.
“Yes, he does lots of tricks,” and Bunny held his arms in a circle so
Patter could jump through them.
“Oh, I didn’t know he could do that!” exclaimed Sue, as she watched
this trick.
“I didn’t, either,” admitted Bunny. “But Splash used to do this trick,
and I thought I’d try it for Patter. And he did it.”
“Yes, indeed, little man, he did!” said the farmer’s man, with a laugh.
“And now, if you’ll just call your mother, so I know it’s all right for
me to leave the pony with you, I’ll be getting back.”
Mrs. Brown was on her way out to the yard, for she had seen the man
driving up with the pony and cart. She now spoke to him and learned
that he had already seen Mr. Brown at the dock office, where the
children’s father had gone after breakfast.
“May we take a ride in the pony cart?” asked Bunny of his mother, when
the farmer’s man had gone and it was afternoon.
“Yes,” was the answer. “Toby is well and strong again, more healthy
than before, the man said, and I guess he can pull you in the cart. But
don’t go too far away.”
“We won’t!” promised Bunny and Sue. “May Patter come with us?” asked
Bunny.
His mother said the trick dog might go, and soon the little boy and
girl, with Patter sitting between them, were driving down a quiet
street near the Brown home.
“We mustn’t run Toby too much at first,” said Bunny, who was holding
the reins.
“No, ’specially after he just got over the falling-out-hair sickness,”
agreed Sue. “Can I drive a little now, Bunny?” she asked.
“Yes,” replied her brother. “Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to teach Patter to
hold the lines in his mouth and drive Toby?” he asked.
“Lots of fun!” agreed Sue. “But we’d better not do that until Patter
and Toby get to know each other better,” she added. “Let me drive now.”
So Bunny gave his sister the reins on a quiet street where automobiles
seldom came.
[Illustration: PATTER LOVED CHILDREN AND WAS DELIGHTED TO PERFORM FOR
THEM.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister and Their Trick Dog._ _Page 27_]
“That’s one of the tricks I’m going to teach Patter for the show
we’ll have,” said Bunny, after a while.
“What show?” Sue wanted to know.
“Oh, we’ll get up a performance,” said Bunny, as if nothing could be
easier. “Maybe it’ll be a circus like the one we had once, or maybe
we’ll give a show in the opera house. But we’ll do something to show
off Patter, and I’ll teach him to drive Toby.”
The children had a good time riding around in the pony cart, and Toby
seemed so fresh and strong, as if willing to trot for miles and miles,
that Bunny and Sue really didn’t want to turn around and go back home.
But they did at last, and to their surprise they saw their father at
the gate.
“Oh, Daddy!” cried Bunny, as Sue guided the pony and cart through the
gate, “what makes you come home so early?” For it was not time for
supper yet, and the boy knew his father did not close the office on the
boat and fish dock until nearly supper time.
“I came home to ask your mother if she had anything good to eat that
she wanted to send the poor man in the hospital,” answered Mr. Brown.
“The old man who wants to find a circus,” he explained.
“Are you going to the hospital?” asked Sue. “May I come?”
“I want to go, too!” cried Bunny.
“Well, perhaps I’ll take you both,” said Mr. Brown. “As long as you
have the pony cart out and while Toby seems so fresh and strong, I’m
sure it will do no harm if I ride with you to the hospital in the cart.
It isn’t far and it’s a level road the whole way.”
“Oh, we’ll all go to the hospital!” cried Sue, clapping her hands in
joy. Of course, for a well person to go to the hospital is not as bad
as when a sick person has to go. I think if Sue had been ill or hurt
and had to go to the hospital she might not have been so jolly. “We’ll
all go!” she said. “Bunny and Daddy and I and Patter!”
“No, Patter mustn’t go,” said Mr. Brown, with a shake of his head.
“Why not?” asked Bunny Brown.
“He might make a disturbance,” said Mr. Brown. “Besides, Patter is a
bit strange yet, and when you drive down the main streets of the town
he might jump out of the pony cart and run away. You wouldn’t want that
to happen, would you?”
“Oh, no!” cried Bunny and Sue.
So Patter was made to get out of the pony cart, though he did not want
to. Patter was shut up in the woodhouse for a time, and Mr. Brown
took the place left vacant by the dog. Then with his two children Mr.
Brown drove to the hospital where the old man had been taken after the
accident.
Bunny and Sue would have gone right into the rooms where the sick and
injured patients lay in their white beds, only their father thought
it unwise. There are sad sights to see, and sad sounds to hear in a
hospital, and it was not good for Bunny and Sue to see and hear them.
So they waited outside in the pony cart while their father went into
the big red brick building, carrying the basket of good things Mrs.
Brown had put up for the unknown man.
As it happened, however, Mr. Brown could not see the patient, who was
badly hurt and out of his head, not knowing what he was saying. So the
basket of good things was left until such time as the dainties could be
eaten.
Back home in the pony cart rode Daddy, Bunny and Sue, and Toby was so
strong from his long rest on the farm that he easily pulled the man and
children.
“Hello, Bunny!” “Hello, Sue!” called some boys and girls on the street,
not far from the Brown house as the children were driving back. “Is
that a new pony?” asked one boy.
“No, it’s just old Toby,” answered Bunny, and his father waved his hand
at George Watson and Harry Bentley, who were playing with Mary Watson
and Sadie West.
“He looks fine!” said Harry.
“Looks as if he’d just been painted!” and George laughed at the idea of
painting a horse.
Mrs. Brown was waiting for her family when they returned in the pony
cart, and at once asked about the old man.
“I’m sorry, but he was so ill I couldn’t see him,” explained her
husband. “I’ll go again, however.”
Mr. Brown got out of the pony cart and went back to his dock, but
as it was yet early Bunny and Sue were allowed to ride around a bit
longer, before it was time for supper and then bed.
“We’ll let Patter out now, as long as we are going to ride only around
the block,” explained Bunny, and he opened the shed where the trick dog
had been shut so that he wouldn’t follow after the pony cart.
With joyous barks Patter rushed out ahead of Bunny. Reaching the pony
cart the dog began racing around it, barking excitedly. The dog did not
like being shut up when the children went off to have a good time.
“Be quiet, Patter! Please be quiet,” begged Bunny.
But the more the boy talked the more excitedly the dog barked.
“What makes him so noisy?” asked Sue.
“I don’t know,” answered Bunny.
“Do you think he smells that Frenchman who might be sneaking around to
get our dog away?” asked the little girl.
“Oh, I don’t believe so,” said Bunny.
“Bow-wow!” barked Patter.
He stopped racing about and stood for a moment at the side of the pony,
while Bunny and Sue sat in the cart. Suddenly the trick dog made a
spring, and leaped into the air.
“Oh, look! Look!” cried Sue. “What’s he going to do?”