Part 8 (1/2)
”We couldn't go without Splash,” announced Sue. ”He'd be so lonesome for us that he'd cry, and then he'd start out to find us and maybe get lost and we'd never find him again. Go back after him, Daddy! It isn't very far.”
”All right,” said good-natured Mr. Brown. ”I'm glad we're not in a hurry. Still I'd like to keep going, now that we've started. But please, all of you, make sure nothing else is forgotten. For we don't want to go back another time. All ready to turn around and march backward,” and he backed the big automobile at a wide place in the road, for it needed plenty of room in which to turn.
Slowly the big car made its way back to the Brown home. Mary, the cook, was the first to see it, and, running to the door, she cried:
”Oh, whatever you do, come in and sit down if only for a minute, some of you! Oh, do come in and sit down!”
”What for, Mary?” asked Mrs. Brown. ”Has anything happened?”
”No, but 'tis easy to see you've forgotten somethin'; and when that happens if you don't sit down, or turn your dress wrong side out, bad luck is sure to foller you when you start off again. So come in and sit down, as that's easier than turning a dress.”
”Oh, let me turn my knickerbockers outside in!” cried Bunny. ”That will be as good as you or Sue, Momsie, turning your dresses. It's easy for me. Then I can make-believe I'm a tramp, and I'll run on ahead and beg for some bread and b.u.t.ter for my starving family,” and he imitated, in such a funny way, the whine of some of the tramps who called at the Brown kitchen door, that his mother laughed and Sue said:
”Oh, Momsie, let me turn my dress wrong-side out, too, and I can play tramp with Bunny. That will be fun!”
”No, you mustn't do that,” said Mrs. Brown. ”While we're hunting for Splash--who isn't in sight. Where can he be?--we'll go in and sit down a moment to please Mary.”
”Would we have bad luck if we didn't?” asked Bunny.
”Not at all. But some persons, like Mary, believe in them; and Mary is very fond of us. Even if we do not believe in some of the things those we like believe in, as long as it does no harm to our beliefs, we can do them to please a friend.”
Even Mr. Brown, because he liked Mary, went in and sat down for a minute with the others.
”Now you've done away with the bad luck,” said the cook with a smile.
”What was it you came back for?”
”Splash,” answered Bunny.
”He didn't come with us,” added Sue.
”Well, it's no wonder, the funny way he's cuttin' up with that dog next door,” said Mary.
”What did he do?” asked Bunny. ”Was it funny? Please tell us, Mary.”
”Well, it might have been funny for him, but it wasn't for me,” said the cook, though she could not help smiling. ”The two dogs was playin' tag on the lawn. I had some napkins spread out on the gra.s.s to bleach, and what did that dog Dix do but run down in the brook, and then come back with his feet all mud and run over my napkins. Sure, I had to wash 'em all again. That's what them two dogs did. The bad luck was just startin'
in when you come back, an' it's good you did, to sit down a bit an' take it off.”
”But we must get on again,” said Mr. Brown. ”So hurry, Bunny and Sue.
Find Splash. If he's muddy make him swim through the brook and clean himself off. A run along the sunny road will soon dry him.”
”But don't let him splash your clean clothes, children,” called their mother after them, as the two ran off together to find the missing dog.
”I hear them barking!” called Bunny, as he and his sister hurried toward the end of the yard.
”So do I.” Then, a moment later, the little girl added: ”There they are!” and she pointed to the two dogs playing on the green lawn not far from a little brook that ran through Mr. Brown's grounds.
”Here, Splas.h.!.+ Splas.h.!.+” called Bunny.
The dogs stopped their playing, and looked toward the children. As soon as Splash saw his little master and mistress he came rus.h.i.+ng toward them as fast as he could.