LOST CHILDREN
All day long the search for the lost Patter was kept up, but the trick
dog could not be found. Even some of the police and firemen helped to
look, when they were not on regular duty. For the story of the tricks
Patter was going to do at the show in aid of the Home for Crippled
Children had spread all over Bellemere, and many were anxious to help
in the search.
All about boys and girls were asking every one they met, even strangers
on the street:
“Have you seen Patter?”
And if the person inquired of asked in turn:
“Who is Patter?” the reply would come:
“He’s the trick dog of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.”
But in spite of all their looking that day, Patter was not found.
Night came and Bunny and Sue, who had been out in turn with George,
Charlie and Harry, came back to their home. They were tired and
discouraged.
“Do you think we’ll ever find him, Mother?” asked Sue.
“Oh, yes, I think so,” was the answer. “Your father is going to put
a notice in the paper offering a reward to whoever finds Patter and
brings him home.”
“But if we don’t find him, what about the show?” asked Bunny. “We have
to have it soon.”
“The show will have to be postponed if Patter isn’t found,” said Mrs.
Brown.
“Does that mean we can’t have it?”
“No, it means it will be put off and given later. But don’t fret. Eat
your suppers and go to bed, and perhaps in the morning Patter will be
here.”
At supper Bunny and Sue ate a little better than at breakfast because
they had been outdoors all day in the fresh air. After supper they sat
up a while before going to bed, hoping some good news might come in
over the telephone.
But none came, though twice, when the doorbell rang, the children
rushed into the hall, thinking it was some one coming with the lost dog.
The first ring, however, was by a man looking for a new family who had
just moved on the street, and the second time it was a woman who called
to return a pattern she had borrowed of Mrs. Brown that morning.
“Oh, dear! I guess we’ll never find Patter!” sighed Bunny.
“Maybe he’s dead!” half sobbed Sue.
“Nonsense!” laughed their father. “Don’t be so gloomy! You’ll have your
dog back soon.”
But there was no news and no sign of the trick dog the next morning,
though Bunny ran to the shed as soon as he could slip out of bed and
downstairs.
“I dreamed in the night that he’d come back,” said Sue, and she was
much disappointed when she found out the dream had not come true.
After breakfast and after Mr. Brown had telephoned to the police, only
to find they had no trace of the dog, Mrs. Brown asked:
“What had we better do about the children’s show? Some of the ladies on
the committee have been calling me up.”
“Well,” said Mr. Brown slowly, “even if we got Patter back now, he
might be so frightened over being lost that he would not do his tricks
well, and he’d spoil the performance. I think the safest plan would be
to call the show off for a while. It can easily be given later.”
So this was done, and an advertisement was put in the paper, stating
that because Patter was lost the performance for the Home for Crippled
Children would take place later; just when was not known, but there
would be a notice in the paper.
“Will the people want their ticket money back?” asked Bunny, for quite
a goodly sum had been taken in from the sale of admissions.
“I think not,” his mother said. “People don’t take back money they have
given to charity.”
And this proved to be the case. Though the boys offered to return
it, no one asked to have his money refunded, even though the show was
postponed.
The search for Patter went on for several day without any result. At
last one morning Bunny whispered to Sue right after breakfast:
“Come on, let’s go off by ourselves.”
“Off where?” asked Sue.
“Off to find Patter. I think we can find him alone by ourselves
better’n all the others. They make so much racket looking around and
yelling that maybe Patter is afraid to come out.”
“Come out of where?” Sue wanted to know.
“Out of where he is hiding.”
“How do you know he is hiding, Bunny?”
“Oh, he must be, Sue, else he’d have answered some of my calls and
whistles. He’s hiding, or some one has hidden him. Come on--let’s go
and look for him--just you and me.”
“All right,” agreed Sue. She usually agreed with whatever Bunny said,
and she was quite willing to join in a search for the missing dog.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, as she saw Bunny rummaging
around in the pantry.
“I’m getting something to eat,” he answered.
“Why, we just had breakfast, Bunny.”
“I know we did. This isn’t breakfast. It’s for our dinner.”
“Dinner!” cried Sue.
“Yes, maybe we’ll be out looking for Patter until away late this
afternoon, and we’ll get hungry,” explained Bunny. “So I’m going to
take something along.”
“Get some for me, then,” begged his sister.
Bunny did. He took some cookies and cakes, though it would have been
better if he had taken some bread and peanut butter sandwiches. But the
cakes and cookies were easier to carry.
“Come on now, we’ll go,” said Bunny, stuffing the cookies and cakes
into his pockets. “But don’t make any noise.”
“Why not, Bunny?”
“’Cause! You think I want somebody to see us and stop us? If they hear
us they’ll say we oughtn’t to go and look for Patter all by ourselves.
But I guess we can find him.”
“I guess so, too,” agreed Sue.
Quietly the children went out the side door to a porch that was not
often used, and then they scurried through the back yard to the lots
and vacant fields beyond.
“Now we’ll go find Patter!” declared Bunny.
“Do you know where to look?” asked Sue.
“No. But I guess maybe he’d go where there was a lot of other dogs,”
suggested Bunny. “Maybe he was lonesome or he wanted to learn new
tricks for the show, and so he went where he could talk to other dogs.”
“Dogs can’t talk!” declared Sue.
“Well, they almost can,” asserted her brother. “Anyhow, they can waggle
their tails and it looks like talking. So I think Patter went to find
other dogs. And do you know where most of the dogs are in this town?”
“No! Where?” asked Sue.
“Down on River Street,” said Bunny.
“Oh, that isn’t a nice place!” cried Sue.
“Once daddy brought mother and me up from the shore and we rode in
the auto through River Street. It was dirty, and such a lot of dirty
persons live there. There was a lot of dogs, too.”
“Yes,” agreed Bunny. “Maybe dirty people always have a lot of extra
dogs around. Anyhow, down in River Street is the best place to look. We
can walk there, all right.”
River Street, as Sue had said, was the worst section of Bellemere,
and not a very safe place after dark, as bad characters lived there,
down among the factories. But, as Bunny had remarked, there were many
dogs there, and Patter might have taken it into his head to pay them a
visit. Or he might have been stolen away and taken there.
So Bunny and Sue started for River Street. It took them some little
time to reach it, and when they did they saw many dogs strolling
around. Once they thought they saw Patter and they called and whistled.
But the dog proved to be a strange one, and a boy shuffled up asking:
“That your dog?”
“No,” answered Bunny. “I thought he was, but he isn’t. My dog is a
trick dog.”
“What color?” asked the boy.
Bunny described Patter and then the strange boy, who was quite ragged
and dirty, said:
“Why, I think I know the very dog you’re looking for. I saw him going
down that street a while ago.”
“Oh, thank you!” cried Bunny, as he and Sue darted away.
“Did you really see their dog?” asked another ragged urchin of the one
who had spoken to Bunny and Sue.
“Naw, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout their dog,” he snarled.
“What’d you tell ’em you did for?”
“Just to have some fun. We’ll see how long they chase around looking
for a trick mut!”
The boy had played a mean trick, for fun, as he thought. But it made
trouble for Bunny and Sue.
The children searched the River Street section and attracted much
attention because they were well dressed--much better than the boys
and girls playing on the sidewalks. But for all they walked and looked,
no Patter could they find.
“I--I guess we’d better go home, Bunny,” said Sue, after a bit.
“I guess so,” agreed her brother.
They started out the right street, as they thought, but they took
so many twists and turns they could not be sure. At last they found
themselves in a narrow, dirty and unpleasant alley between high
buildings.
“Where are we, Bunny?” asked Sue.
“Oh, I don’t know,” was his weary answer. “I’m all turned around. I
guess we came the wrong way.”
“Do you mean we’re--lost, Bunny?” faltered Sue.
“I’m afraid so,” was the answer. “I’m afraid we’re lost!”