Laura Lee Hope - Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour

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Bunny and Sue were awake early the next morning, but Daddy Brown was
ahead of them, and their mother said he had gone on to the hotel to see
about the banjo boy.

"May we go there after we have eaten?" asked Bunny. "We want to see
Fred."

"It might not be he," said Mrs. Brown. "You had better wait until your
father comes back."

At first Bunny and Sue fretted a bit, but finally they became interested
in playing games under the big tree where the "Ark" had rested for the
night, and before they knew it their father came back.

"But he hasn't brought Fred!" cried Bunny.

"Maybe the minstrel boy wasn't the one after all," suggested Mrs. Brown.

"Well, I'm inclined to think he was," said her husband.

"Did you see him?" eagerly asked Bunny.

"No, he had run away. That's why I think it was Fred."

Then Mr. Brown explained:

"When I got to the hotel," he told Bunny, Sue and the others, "I saw Dr.
Perry walking around rather nervously. I asked him about the boy, and he
said that when he and his medicine van reached the hotel after closing
the show last night, he found that his banjo player had packed his
valise, taken his banjo, and gone off."

"Where?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Nobody knows. He left no word. That's what makes me think it was Fred.
He must have seen us in the crowd. And, as soon as he could wash the
black off his face, he hurried to the hotel ahead of Dr. Perry, got his
bag and ran away. Very likely he did not want to see us and hear us give
him the message from his parents. His heart must still be hard against
them. It is too bad, if that was Fred, for I had begun to think I had
found him. Still it may have been some other young fellow. Dr. Perry
said they often came and went without giving any reasons. But we'll
still be on the lookout for the missing boy."

Once more the "Ark" started off, and for several days there was just
ordinary travel. The children played and had fun, the dogs raced along
the road, barking and enjoying themselves, and the weather was fine.
Then came another day of hard rain, and the "Ark" was kept under a big
oak tree.

The day after the rain, when the wayside brooks were still high, but the
roads fairly good, Mr. Brown went on again. They were coming to a small
town, and had to cross a ditch over which was a small bridge. Usually
there was but little water in the ditch, but now, because of the rain,
the banks were full.

"I hope this bridge is strong enough for our car to go over," said Mr.
Brown. Slowly he steered the big machine on it. Hardly had it reached
the middle when there was a cracking of wood, and the bridge bent down.
The automobile sank with it.

"Oh!" cried Bunny, who sat in the back door. "We're going into the
ditch, Daddy!"

"We're there _now_!" said Sue as the "Ark" stopped with a jerk and a
bounce.

CHAPTER XVII

ON TO PORTLAND

There was no doubt about it, the big automobile was in the ditch. Or
rather, the rear wheels, having gone through the small bridge, were now
in the water of a little brook. The rains had made the usually dry ditch
into a brook that flowed swiftly along.

"Oh dear!" cried Mrs. Brown. "This is too bad!"

"Anybody hurt back there?" asked Mr. Brown, who, at the first feeling
that something was wrong, had put on the brakes. The automobile would
have stopped anyhow, as the wheels were held fast in the mud and the
broken pieces of the bridge.

"No, we're all right," answered Uncle Tad, looking at Bunny and Sue,
who, at the first sound of something wrong had crept closer to their
mother.

"My nose feels as if I had bumped it," said Bunny, rubbing his
"smeller" as he sometimes called it. "Though I don't remember doing it,"
he went on.

"I guess you did it when you jumped out of your seat," said his mother.
"We all jumped, it came so suddenly."

"And I dropped my Teddy bear and Uncle Tad stepped on her," murmured Sue
with sorrow in her tones. "Look, Uncle Tad, you've turned on her eyes!"

And, surely enough, the electric eyes of Sallie Malinda were glowing
brightly. Uncle Tad must have stepped on the switch button in the toy's
back and turned it on.

"But I guess she's all right," went on Sue, as she turned off the switch
and then turned it on again to see that it was working as it should.
"You didn't hurt her, Uncle Tad," she said.

"I'm glad of that, Sue," said the old soldier. "Now I guess I'd better
get around to see if I can help your father get the automobile out of
the ditch."

Dix and Splash, who had been racing up and down the road, came back,
panting and with their long red tongues hanging out of their mouths, to
see what the trouble was. They looked at the ditched automobile with
their heads on one side, and then sort of barked at one another. It was
as if Dix said:

"Well, what do you think about it, Splash? Do you think we had better
stay here and help them?"

"Oh, I don't see anything _we_ can do," answered Splash. At least it
_seemed_ as if he spoke that way. "Let's keep on playing tag."

And so the two dogs raced away.

"We do seem to be in a fix," remarked Mr. Brown as he came as near as he
could to the back of the automobile without getting into the ditch.

"What _can_ we do?" asked Mrs. Brown, and her voice was anxious.

"We'll soon see," answered her husband. "In the first place you had all
better get out of the car. I don't know how long it may stand upright.
It may topple over if the water washes away more mud from under one
wheel than from under another, and you'll be better out than in."

"But how are we going to _get_ out?" asked Bunny. "The back steps are
all under water!"

And so they were. When the bridge broke with the automobile the front
wheels were off the wooden planks and on the road beyond, and the rear
wheels went down when the bridge broke in the middle. So the "Ark" was
standing as though it had come to a sudden stop going up a steep hill,
at the bottom of which was a brook. The rear wheels, and all but the top
one of the back steps were under water.

"You can crawl out over the front seat," said Mr. Brown. "From there you
can easily get down to the ground if Uncle Tad and I help you. Then,
Mother, you might try your hand at getting a lunch, for it will soon be
noon, while Uncle Tad and I see what we can do about getting the
automobile out of the ditch."

"It will be some fun after all," said Bunny as he crawled out over the
front seat. "We can picnic alongside the road, Sue, and watch Daddy and
Uncle Tad get the car out."

"Yes," said Bunny's sister. "And maybe I'll make a pie for you and
Sallie Malinda."

"No, I guess I wouldn't try a pie to-day," said Mrs. Brown with a smile.
"We won't be able to use any stove except the small oil one, out on the
ground, and that will cook only a few things. We'll wait for the pie
until the auto is safe on the road again."

"I hope we can get it out of the ditch without breaking anything," said
Mr. Brown, as he helped his wife and children down the high front steps
of the big car, and then lifted out the oil stove, and other things that
would be needed for the lunch.

"Do you think there is any danger?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"A little," answered her husband. "But at least none of us can be hurt,
and the worst that can happen will be a little damage to our car."

"Oh, the dear old 'Ark!'" cried Mrs. Brown. "I hope it won't be damaged
much."

"So do I," said her husband. "If I had known that bridge was so weak as
to let us fall through I would have gone a different road. But I
suppose the rain and high water weakened the supports. However, don't
worry. We'll see what can be done."

After a look at the way in which the rear wheels of the big car were
lodged in the ditch, Uncle Tad and Mr. Brown went to the nearest town on
foot to get help. Mrs. Brown, Bunny and Sue made a little camp beside
the road, the children helping a little, and then running about to play.
The two dogs joined them in their fun.

"I guess I'll make a little cornstarch pudding," said Mrs. Brown, as she
got the other things ready for lunch; and when the pudding was finished
she covered it up, so no ants or bugs would get in it, and set it in a
hollow stump to keep until it would be needed for the dessert after the
lunch.

It was not long before Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad came back riding in a big
automobile truck which they had hired at the nearest garage to pull the
"Ark" out of the ditch.

"Will you have lunch first?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Yes, I guess we will," said her husband. "We'll eat while the garage
men are getting ropes and chains around our car to pull it out of the
ditch."

And so they ate their dinner under the shade of a big tree beside the
road. Two men had come in the auto truck to work for Mr. Brown, and they
went about it quickly, putting strong ropes and chains on the "Ark."

"And now I have a little surprise for you," said Mrs. Brown as she
poured tea for herself, Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad, and set milk before the
children.

"Oh, goodie!" cried Sue.

"Fine!" exclaimed Bunny.

Mrs. Brown went to the hollow stump. She looked in and then she cried:

"Oh, dear! No I haven't any either."

"Any what, either?" asked Mr. Brown.

"Surprise for you. I made a nice cocoanut cornstarch pudding, and put it
in this hollow stump, covering it up. But something has come along and
eaten it."

For a moment there was a silence, and then Bunny cried:

"Maybe it was a hungry bear!"

"Or maybe it was our squirrel Fluffy," said Sue. "He can hop around a
little now, 'cause his leg is almost well."

"Hum, the pudding's gone, is it?" said Mr. Brown. "That's too bad. Come
here, sir!" he suddenly called to Splash. The dog, who was lying beside
Dix near the brook, arose slowly and came to Mr. Brown, tail between his
legs and head drooping.

"And you too, Dix! Come here!" ordered Mr. Brown.

Dix walked up exactly as Splash had done, with drooping head and tail.
Mr. Brown took hold of the head of first one dog and then the other. He
looked closely at their mouths.

"Here we have the pudding thieves!" he cried. "Splash and Dix found the
dessert in the hollow stump and ate it. Didn't you, you rascals?"

The dogs whined and said not a "word." It was very plain that they had
taken the pudding.

"Oh, please don't whip them, Daddy!" begged Bunny.

"No; I won't," said Mr. Brown.

"I shouldn't have left the pudding where they could get it," said Mrs.
Brown. "It was all my fault. I'll make another for supper."

However, there were some cakes in a tin can in the "Ark," and as Uncle
Tad climbed in and got them out for the children before the garage men
started to pull the stalled automobile out with their machine, Bunny and
Sue had a little dessert after all.

"We're all ready to try to get your car out of the ditch now, Mr.
Brown," said one of the garage men.

"Oh, let's watch, Sue!" cried Bunny.

"But keep out of the way," ordered their father.

There was a puffing of the other auto truck, a grinding of the wheels,
and then the "Ark" was pulled slowly out of the ditch, and on to the
road again, the hind wheels running on long planks which the men put
under them. Thus out on to the safe and solid road rolled the "Ark."

"Hurrah!" cried Bunny Brown.

"Now we're all right," said his Sister Sue.

And indeed they were, for it was found that nothing was broken on the
big machine in which the Brown family were making their tour.

Mr. Brown paid the garage men, who went back to their shop, and the
"Ark" was soon on its way again.

"And the next time I come to a small bridge I'm going to find out how
much weight it will carry before I cross it," said the children's
father.

For a week or more the "Ark" traveled on. Every time he got a chance Mr.
Brown asked about Fred, in the different towns through which they
passed, but could get no trace of the missing boy.

They saw other medicine showmen who had with them players or singers,
but none of them were at all like the runaway Fred.

"It must have been he who was with Dr. Perry," said Mrs. Brown.

"Yes, and I presume he feared we knew him and so he ran on farther," her
husband added. "He may be in Portland now."

"How soon shall we be there?" asked Bunny.

"In a few more days now."

Two days later, as they camped outside a little village for the night,
they saw beside the road a signboard which read:

TWENTY MILES TO PORTLAND

"Oh, we'll be there to-morrow!" cried Bunny. "Then we can find Fred, and
can send him to his mamma and papa!"

CHAPTER XVIII

CAMPING OUT

Mr. Brown was awakened in the morning feeling little hands tugging at
him as he lay in his bunk, and childish voices crying:

"Come on, Daddy! Get up! Get up!"

"Eh? What's this? Get up!" he exclaimed. "Why, what's the matter, Bunny
and Sue?" he went on, as he saw the two standing inside the curtains
that hung in front of his bed.

"It's time to get up," said Sue.

"Why, it isn't six o'clock yet," answered her father, looking at his
watch, which was under his pillow. "Why are you out of your bunks so
early? Go back to sleep."

"But we want to get on to Portland to find Fred Ward," said Bunny. "It's
only twenty miles and we can soon be there if we start early."

"There isn't much you children forget, is there?" asked Mr. Brown with a
laugh, as he stretched and rubbed his eyes. Then as he opened wide his
arms Bunny and Sue piled into the bunk with him, having a good, hearty
tussle, until their shouts of laughter awakened Mrs. Brown and Uncle
Tad, while Dix and Splash, asleep under the big car, added their barks
to the din.

"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Has anything more happened?"

"Oh, these children want to leave before breakfast for Portland, to find
that runaway boy," said Mr. Brown. "Well, as long as they're awake I
suppose we might as well get up and start early. It's about time I
attended to my business affairs."

Breakfast was soon ready, and when it had been eaten the "Ark" was once
more chugging along the road. The travelers passed through several small
villages and then they came to the edge of a big city which, the
children's father told them, was Portland.

"Are we going to stay in the auto while we're here?" asked Bunny, for
Mr. Brown had said they would probably remain in Portland for nearly a
week, as he had several matters to look after.

"No, I'll give you a chance to stretch your legs," said his father.
"We'll store the automobile in a garage and you can live at a hotel
while I'm getting my business in shape."

"But what about Dix and Splash?" asked Bunny. "Where can they stay?"

"Oh, we'll find a hotel with a garage attached to it, and leave the dogs
there in charge of the 'Ark,'" said Mr. Brown.

"And what about finding Fred?" Sue queried. She, as well as Bunny, was
greatly interested in the missing boy.

"Oh, I'll do all I can to find him," promised Mr. Brown.

A hotel, with a garage attached to it, was easily found in Portland, and
as the "Ark" went through the streets many persons turned to look at it.
But Bunny and Sue did not mind this in the least.

"They'll think we're a new kind of gypsy," said Bunny.

"And they'll all wish they was us, riding around this way," said Sue,
as she laughed with Bunny.

"'They was us.' Oh, Sue!" groaned her mother.

Dix and Splash did not like very much being left alone in the garage,
and they whined and barked as they were chained near the auto. But the
garage keeper promised to be kind to them, to let them run about after a
while and to feed and water them.

"And we'll come to see you every once in a while," said Bunny and Sue,
as they patted and hugged their two pets.

Fluffy, the squirrel, now well again, had been set free, before entering
the city, in the woods that he loved.

So, for a while the Browns gave up their "Ark," and settled down to
hotel life. Mr. Brown had much business to look after in connection with
his fish and dock affairs at home, for he was part owner of a steamship
line that ran from Portland to Bellemere.

After a day or two he found a chance to ask about the missing boy. Mr.
Brown first appealed to the police. But they had no record of him, and
though inquiries were made of a number of theater owners, Fred Ward was
not found. The man whose name he had mentioned as being the one he
intended to see in Portland had moved away.

"Well, Fred may have come here," said Mr. Brown, "and, after he found
his friend was gone, he may have drifted on to some other town. I'm
afraid we can't find him."

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Bunny. "That's too bad!"

"Let us go to look for him," proposed Sue. "We found Nellie Jones, that
girl who lives at the end of our street, when she was lost away over on
the next block."

"Yes, but that was different from this," said Mrs. Brown. "Portland is a
big city, and if you go wandering about in it you'll be worse lost than
you were in the big woods. You children stay with me, and your father
will do all he can to find Fred."

So Bunny and Sue had to be content to stay at the hotel, to go
sightseeing with their mother, to go to the moving pictures, while Mr.
Brown looked after his business. Several times each day Bunny and Sue
went to the garage to see the dogs. And how glad Dix and Splash were to
see the children!

Finally the day came when Mr. Brown had finished his business. He made
several more attempts to find Fred, but could not do so and at last
wrote to Mr. Ward, as he had promised, that, as far as could be learned,
the missing boy was not in Portland.

"We will keep watch for him on our way back to Bellemere," Mr. Brown
said in his letter. "We are returning by a different route from that by
which we came. Every chance we get we will look for your boy."

Then the "Ark" was taken from the garage, to the delight of the dogs no
less than that of the children, and once more the Browns were on their
tour.

As Mr. Brown had said, they were going back a different way from the one
they had taken on coming to Portland. This was to give his family a
chance to see new towns and villages. And, as the weather still promised
to be fine, all looked forward to a jolly auto tour.

Every time he came to a good-sized city, and whenever he met a
traveling show, Mr. Brown inquired for Fred, but it seemed that the
missing boy was well hidden. Undoubtedly he did not want to be found.

Bunny and Sue had great fun on the homeward trip, which lasted even
longer than the outgoing one.

The party had ridden on for several days, each one marked by sunshine,
when one evening they came to a little clump of trees beside the road.
It was not far from a good-sized village.

"We'll stay here over night," said Mr. Brown, "and in the morning we'll
take a little side trip to a waterfall not far away."

"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Bunny. "Maybe I can make a wooden water
wheel, and have it splash in the falls and go around."

"No indeed you can't!" cried his father. "The falls are too big for
that. They are seventy feet high."

But, as it happened, when morning came and Mr. Brown was about to start
the automobile after breakfast, there was a sudden crash, and the big
car settled down on one side, like a lame duck.

"Oh, my!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What has happened now?"

"It sounded as if one of the big springs had broken," said her husband,
getting down off the seat to look. "Yes," he added, "that's it. This
means we'll have to stay here three or four days until I can get a new
spring put in."

For a moment Bunny and Sue looked a trifle sad. Then Bunny cried:

"Oh, that will be fun. We can camp out in a tent in the woods."

"Yes, you and Sue can play at camping, if you like," said their father.
"But I think you'll want to sleep in the auto at night."

"Oh, no! We won't!" laughed Sue. "Now for some fun camping out!" she
added.

CHAPTER XIX

AT THE LAKE

While Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad looked again at the spring of the auto, to
see just how badly it was broken, Bunny and Sue, with Mrs. Brown, went
over to the clump of trees, which was not far from the road.

"Oh, this will be a grand place!" cried Sue.

"Yes," agreed her brother. "We can put up the tent here," and he pointed
to a little knoll amid a circle of trees, "and then if it rains the
water will not come in."

Bunny's father had told him the first thing to do, in pitching a tent,
was to see that it would be dry in case of rain.

"Oh, I think you children will come into the 'Ark' when it begins to
shower," said Mrs. Brown.

"Oh, no! Why, it's lots of fun in a tent in the rain!" cried Bunny.
"Let's get it up right away."

"Better wait until daddy or Uncle Tad can help you," said Mother Brown.
"Now we'll sit down and rest in the woods."

"Well, as long as the 'Ark' had to break down, this was the best place
for it to happen, I guess," said Mr. Brown, as, with Uncle Tad, he came
over to the wood where Mrs. Brown and the children were seated on a
fallen tree.

"Is the break a bad one?" asked his wife.

"Yes, I think we'll need an entirely new spring, and it will take nearly
a week to get that. However, as the children will have as much fun
camping out here, as they would traveling in the car, it will be all
right. We are not far from a town, and we can get what we want to eat
from there."

"I think our cupboard is pretty well filled now," said Mrs. Brown.

"You might look to see if there is anything you need," suggested her
husband. "I am going into town to find a garage man and have him arrange
to get a new spring for me. Uncle Tad can be putting up the tent while
I'm away."

"I'm going to help," said Sue.

"And so am I!" cried Bunny.

As has been said, there was a tent carried on top of the Ark, and this
was now taken down by the old soldier and carried to the wood, there to
be set up for Bunny and Sue. The tent was large enough for the children
to sleep in if they wanted to. In fact, they had done so once or twice.
But their mother was not sure they would do so on this trip.

However, the tent was put up and the little folding cots made ready,
while Bunny brought his popgun and cannon with which to play soldier,
and Sue, her Teddy bear and set of dishes with which to play
keeping-house.

By the time this was done Mr. Brown had come back from the village,
bringing some chocolate candy for the children. He said he had seen an
automobile dealer and it would take fully a week to get a new spring for
the "Ark."

They had their dinner out-of-doors, and after that Bunny and Sue played
games in the tent. They said they were surely going to sleep in it at
night, so they made up the cots and took their little pajamas with them
into the canvas house.

"I'll have my flashlight, too," said Bunny; "and in case we want to get
up in the night to get a drink, Sue, we can do it easy."

"That'll be nice," said his sister.

In the evening, while the Browns were at supper, an old man, who seemed
to be a farmer, came strolling down the road, stopping at the big
automobile, and looking from it over to the children's tent in the
woods.

"You folks camping here?" he asked.

"Well, we're traveling in our car, and we've had to stop on account of a
broken spring," explained Mr. Brown. "The children thought it would be
fun to have a tent up in the woods. No objection I hope, if you own
those trees."

"Bless your heart! No objection at all! I do own that patch of wood, and
I'm glad to see the children's tent there. It sort of reminds me of war
time, when I was in the army. You're welcome to stay as long as you
like, and if you want anything I've got you can have it!"

"So you were in the war, too," remarked Uncle Tad, walking up to the
farmer. "I'm a veteran myself. Where did you fight?"

The two elderly men began talking and soon found that they had been in
the same Southern States together, though they had never met. Then, as
evening came on, the two soldiers talked of the old days of the war,
while Mr. Brown built a little campfire to make it seem pleasant. Bunny
and Sue listened to the tales of battles until finally Mrs. Brown,
noticing that their eyes were drooping, said:

"It's time for you tots to go to bed. Hadn't you better sleep in the
automobile?"

"No, we're going to our tent," said Bunny, seriously.

"Yes, we want to camp out," added Sue, sleepy as she was.

Knowing that it was perfectly safe, for the children had often camped
out before, Mr. and Mrs. Brown undressed the sleepy tots, and carried
them to their cots in the tent. Dix and Splash were given beds of hay on
the ground near the tent and told to stay on guard, which they would be
sure to do.

"Do you think they'll sleep out all night?" asked Mr. Brown of his wife,
as they made ready for bed in the automobile.

"I hardly think so," she said. "I'll leave the electric light, the one
outside the 'Ark' near the back steps, burning, so if they want to crawl
in here during the night they can."

"Good idea," said Mr. Brown.

Soon all was quiet around the big automobile and in the little white
tent over amid the trees. Bunny and Sue had fallen asleep almost as soon
as their heads touched the pillows.

But they did not sleep very long. Or so, at least, it seemed to them.

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