LOST DOG
Everyone had a different idea as to how the tickets could best be sold,
and when there are half a dozen or more boys all talking at once it is
hard to get anything straight. Besides Bunny and his three particular
chums--George, Harry and Charlie--a number of other lads had been asked
to help with the performance. They had also tried to sell tickets, but
no one had had much luck.
Mr. Boardman took the two he had promised to buy, but if the boys
wanted to make money from the show--and of course they did--twenty
cents was not much.
So, as I have mentioned, the boys talked the matter over, and each one
had a different idea of how to bring success. They talked so much and
said so many things that I have not room for a quarter of it.
Finally George, being the oldest of the boys, seemed to hit on the
right idea.
“I tell you what it is, fellows,” he said, “we’ll have to give this
show for somebody.”
“What do you mean--give it for somebody?” asked Charlie. “Aren’t we
giving it for ourselves--for the fun of it, and to show people what
fine tricks Bunny’s dog and pony can do?”
“That’s just it,” went on George. “We must give the show for somebody
else. You know, when they had the fair, it was for the church, and a
lot of people came and spent money when they wouldn’t go to the moving
pictures for fun. When Bunny and Sue gave a show once before it was for
Red Cross, and lots of people came ’cause they knew their money would
go to Red Cross. And now----”
“Oh, I see what you mean!” cried Bunny, so eager that he did not beg
pardon of George for interrupting. “People think the money is for us
_kids_ and they think _we_ don’t need it.”
“That’s my idea!” said George. “Now if we could say this show was for
the benefit of the Red Cross, or something like that, people would buy
a lot of tickets.”
“Come into the house and talk to my mother,” suggested Bunny. “She
knows a lot, my mother does.”
“That’s right!” cried the boys. I believe they felt this same way about
their own mothers.
“My! what’s all this about? A raid on the pantry?” cried Mrs. Brown,
smiling, when she saw Bunny leading his boy friends toward the house.
“We want some advice,” said George.
“But if you have any cookies I guess we’d like them, too,” said Bunny,
with a laugh.
“All right,” agreed his mother. “Perhaps I can give you both. I am sure
I can give you cookies,” she went on, as she asked Mary to bring out a
large plate filled with sugar and molasses disks. “As for advice, what
kind do you want?”
“It’s about the show,” explained Bunny. “The tickets aren’t selling,
and we want to make money for some benefit.”
“I see,” remarked his mother. “Well, as it happens, some ladies have
just called on me to ask me to help in raising money for a Home for
Crippled Children. We thought of giving a fair, but if you boys want to
give your show for the benefit of the Home, I’m sure the ladies would
be glad to do all they could to help you sell the tickets, since they
would raise money that way.”
“Just what we want!” cried George.
“Hurray!” shouted Bunny. “I knew mother could think of something!” he
added.
And so it was arranged. Mrs. Brown called on the telephone the ladies
who had been to see her, and they were very glad to have the show of
Bunny and Sue under their charge. They at once appointed a committee
which would help sell the tickets.
“I guess maybe we’d better have new ones printed,” suggested Bunny,
when told that the ladies would help. “That ten dollar mistake on ’em
doesn’t look very nice.”
“No, leave the tickets just as they are,” said his father. “It’s a
‘kid’ show and people will only laugh at the mistake. Besides, some men
I know will be glad to pay the price as it stands on the ticket--I’ll
make ’em,” he added, with a laugh.
“What!” cried Bunny. “Will somebody pay _ten dollars_ for a ticket?”
“They will when they know it is to help the poor, crippled children,”
answered his father.
And this proved to be true. More than one man, whom Mr. Brown knew
and spoke to about the matter, gave a ten dollar bill gladly for the
crudely printed ticket, and some took more than one, though they did
not all intend to come to the show.
Now that the boys could say the barn performance was to be for the
benefit of the Home for Crippled Children the tickets sold more quickly.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” asked one lady who at first had
said she did not care for tickets. “If it’s for the Home, of course
I’ll take one. Better give me three,” and so the sale was made.
Then Bunny discovered another way to make the tickets sell more
quickly. He and Sue, or perhaps some of the boys, would go to a house
and explain about the tickets. Nearly always the person spoken to
would agree to take at least one ticket.
“But where is it?” they would ask, when Bunny or Sue made no motion
toward handing over the ticket.
“It will be here in just a minute,” Bunny would answer.
Then he would give a whistle and around the corner of the house would
rush Patter with the ticket in his mouth. The dog would sit up on his
hind legs in front of the one who wanted the ticket and hold it out to
be taken.
“Oh, how cute!” was the general exclamation. “I’ll take another ticket
if your dog will bring it to me in that way!”
“Oh, he will!” Bunny would say.
Then Patter would go back around the corner of the house, and when
Bunny whistled, Patter would come dashing back with another ticket in
his mouth. So, often, two were sold where, had it not been for this
trick, only one would have been taken.
Of course it was just another of Patter’s tricks. Some time before this
Bunny and Sue had discovered that if one of them kept Patter out of
sight of the other, and gave him something to hold in his mouth, when
a whistle was heard Patter would dash to find Sue or Bunny--whoever
whistled.
The children used to take Patter around the corner of the barn. Bunny
would hide himself, and Sue would hold Patter by the collar, after
giving him something to hold in his mouth. Then, at Bunny’s call, the
dog would rush away as soon as Sue let go his collar.
So when they wanted him to help sell admissions for the show, they
just put a ticket in his mouth. They would do that before knocking on
the door or ringing the bell, and then of course, when Bunny whistled,
around the corner would come rushing Patter with the ticket.
“It’s one of the best things you ever thought of,” said George.
While the ticket-selling was going on the boys did not forget to make
Patter, Wango, and Toby practice their tricks. The monkey seemed to
like to swing on the trapeze with the dog, and Mr. Winkler was glad
to have his pet do something for the aid of the Home for Crippled
Children.
As for Toby, he was always willing to do what Bunny and Sue got him to
do. And no dog ever enjoyed tricks more than did Patter.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could put Toby up on the trapeze and have
Wango and Patter both on his back,” said George in the barn one day,
after a practice.
“Why, Toby would break our trapeze! It isn’t strong enough to hold
him,” objected Bunny.
“I know it isn’t now. But we could put on more ropes,” said George.
But when Mr. Brown heard about this talk he said:
“Nothing like that! It would be dangerous to get Toby up on a swing or
a trapeze. It’s all right for the dog and the monkey, as they’re not so
heavy--but not Toby.”
So, with a sigh, George gave up that plan.
At last all was in readiness for the show, which was but two days off
now. Most of the tickets had been sold, the seats had been put in the
barn, Bunny and Sue’s Uncle Tad, the old soldier, helping all he
could. Patter and Toby had been put through their tricks again and
again until they were nearly perfect. A new clown suit and the silver
and gold suit had been made for Patter, and Bunny had also sewed what
he called the tramp suit. Certainly it was very ragged.
And then, when the show was but two days off, something dreadful
happened.
One morning Bunny went out to the shed where Patter slept each night,
but could not see his dog.
“Where’s Patter?” he asked Sue.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “Isn’t he in his box?”
But there was no dog there, and the door had been locked when Bunny
opened it.
“Oh, where can Patter be?” cried Bunny and Sue.