CHAPTER XI
LOST
Bunny and Sue leaned back in the trolley car seat, and felt very happy.They loved to ride and travel, and they did not think they were doingwrong to take a trolley ride without asking their mother or father. Ifthey had asked, of course, Mrs. Brown would not have let them go alone.But that is the way matters generally went with Bunny and Sue.
Faster and faster went the trolley car. Bunny looked at Sue and smiled,and she smiled at him. The conductor came along the step of the car,which was an open one, to collect the fares. Bunny and Sue each handedhim a five cent piece, and he handed them each back two pennies.
"Oh, I didn't know we got any change!" exclaimed Bunny, in surprise
"The fare to Wayville is only three cents, for such little tots as you,"the conductor said. "Are you sure you know where you are going?" heasked.
"We're going to our Uncle Henry's," replied Bunny. "And he lives nearthe big, white church."
"Well, I can let you off there all right. Now be careful, and don't leanover out of your seats. You're pretty small to be taking trolley ridesalone."
"We went alone in a boat the other day," Bunny told the conductor, "andwe got shipwrecked."
"On an island in the river," added Sue, so the conductor would know whather brother meant.
"Well, if you've been shipwrecked, I guess you are able to take atrolley ride," laughed the motorman, for Bunny and Sue were riding inthe front seat.
"Hey, conductor!" called a man in the back seat of the car, "there's adog chasing after us!"
"Why, so there is!" The conductor seemed much surprised as he lookedback.
Bunny and Sue stood up and also looked behind them. There, indeed, was abig shaggy dog, running after the car, his tongue hanging out of hismouth. He seemed very tired and hot.
"Why--why!" cried Sue, "that's our dog--it's Splash, and he splashed inand pulled me out of the water when I fell in, the time Bunny and I wereshipwrecked!"
"Oh, we forgot all about him, when we got on the car," Bunny cried. Hefelt very sorry for Splash.
"I thought he'd come right on the car with us," Sue said. "And we'd havemoney enough to pay his fare, too," she added, looking at the twopennies in her chubby fist. "Is it three cents for dogs, too, mister?"she asked the conductor.
The conductor laughed, and some of the passengers did also. Then Bunny,who had been looking at poor Splash, racing along after the trolley car,which was now going quite fast, called out:
"Please stop the car, Mr. Conductor. We want our dog!"
"But you can't take a dog on the car, my boy. It isn't allowed. I'msorry."
Bunny thought for a minute. Then he said:
"Well, if we can't bring our dog on the car, We'll get off and walk;won't we, Sue?"
"Yes, that's what we will."
"All right," agreed the conductor. "I'm sorry, for I'd like to do youthe favor, but I'm not allowed." He rang the bell, and the car slowedup. Splash barked joyfully, for he Was very tired from running after hislittle friends, who went so fast and so far ahead of him.
The conductor helped Bunny and Sue down. The car had stopped along acountry road, near a patch of woods, in rather a lonesome place.
"Here, youngsters," went on the trolley man, while Splash rushed up toBunny and Sue, barking happily, "here, youngsters, take your money back.You didn't ride three cents' worth, hardly, and I'll fix it up all rightwith the company. You'd better take the next car back home. Your dog canfind his way all right."
And then the car rattled off again, leaving Bunny and Sue, still withfive cents each, Standing in the road, with their dog Splash.
"Poor fellow," said Bunny, putting his arms around the shaggy neck ofhis pet, "you must be awful tired!"
"He is," Sue agreed. "We'll sit down in the shade with him, and let himrest."
They found a nice place, where the grass was green, and where some treesmade a shade, and near by was a spring of cool water.
Bunny made a little cup, from an oak leaf, and gave Sue a drink. Then hetook some himself, and, a little later, Splash lapped up some waterwhere it ran in a tiny stream down the grassy side of the road.
"Now he's rested, and we can go on," Sue remarked after a bit. "Whereshall we go, Bunny--to Uncle Henry's?"
"Well, it's too far to walk, and we don't want to ride in the car, andmake Splash run, so maybe we'd better go back home. We can get theballoons now. The conductor was good not to take our money."
"Yes, I like him," and Sue looked down the track on which, a good wayoff, could be seen the trolley car they had left.
"We can walk back home," went on Bunny. "It isn't far. Come on, Sue!"
Down the country road started the two children, Splash following, or,now and then, running off to one side, to bark at a bird, or at asquirrel or chipmunk that bounded along the rail fence.
Bunny and Sue thought they would have no trouble at all in going backhome, but they did not know how far away it was.
"All we'll have to do will be to keep along the trolley track," saidBunny. "If we had my express wagon now, and a harness for Splash, hecould pull us."
"Oh, that would be fun!" Sue cried. "It would be just like a littletrolley car of out own. You could be the motorman and I Would be theconductor."
"We'll play that when we get home," her brother decided. "Oh, look!What's Splash barking at now?"
The dog had found something beside the road, and was making quite a fussover it. It looked like a black stone, but Bunny and Sue could see thatit was moving, and stones do not move unless someone throws them.
"Oh, maybe it's a snake!" and Sue hung back as Bunny ran toward the dog.
"Snakes aren't big and round like that," her brother answered. "They'relong and thin, like worms, only bigger."
"Oh, it's a mud-turtle!" Bunny exclaimed as he came closer, "A greatbig mud-turtle, Sue."
"Will he--will he bite?"
"He might. He's got a head like a lobster's claw," replied Bunny. "Buthe won't bite me 'cause I won't let him get hold of my finger."
"He might bite our dog! Come away, Splash!" Sue cried.
But the dog knew better than to get too near the turtle, which reallycould bite very hard if he wanted to. Bunny got a stick, and poked atMr. Turtle, who at once pulled his head and legs up inside his shell.Then he was more like a stone than ever.
And, as it was not much more fan than looking at a stone, to watch theclosed-up turtle, Bunny and Sue soon grew tired of watching theslow-moving creature. Splash, too, seemed to think he was wasting timebarking at such a thing, so he ran off to find something new.
Once more the two children walked along the road. The sun grew warmerand warmer, and finally Bunny spoke, saying:
"Let's walk in the woods, Sue. It will be cooler there."
"Oh, yes," agreed the little girl. "I love it in the woods."
So into the cool shade they went, Splash following. They found anotherspring of water, and drank some. They gathered flowers, and found somecones from a pine tree. With these they built two little houses, dollsize.
Pretty soon Sue said she was hungry, and Bunny also admitted that hewas.
"We'll coon be home now," he said. "And we'll stop at Mrs. Redden's, andget our balloons."
"Then we'll have lots of fun!" cried Sue, clapping her hands.
But the patch of woods through which the children had started to walkwas larger than they thought. There seemed to be no end to it, the treesstretching on and on.
"Where's home?" Sue asked, after a bit. She was tired of walking.
Bunny stopped and looked about him.
"I can't see our house from here," he said, "but it's only a little waynow. I guess maybe we'd better go out on the road, Sue. We can seebetter there."
But the road, too, seemed to have disappeared. Bunny and Sue went thisway and that, but no road could they find. They listened, but they couldnot hear the clanging of the trolley car gong. It was very still andquiet in the woods, except, now and then, when Sp
lash would run throughthe dried leaves, looking for another mud-turtle, perhaps.
"I'm hungry!" Sue exclaimed. "I want to go home, Bunny!"
"So do I," said the little fellow, "but I don't seem to know where ourhome is."
"Oh! Are we--are we lost?" whispered Sue.
Bunny nodded.
"I--I guess so," he answered.