They knew the way to the farm, for they had been there many times before, though this was their first visit in the pony cart. Mr. Potter saw them coming up the drive, and called out:

"My! you certainly are coming in style this time. Are you going to buy my place?"

"No, only some b.u.t.ter, if you please," replied Bunny. And while it was being wrapped up he hitched Toby to a post, and then the little boy and girl went into the house, where Mrs. Potter gave them each a gla.s.s of sweet milk.

"We have some cookies and things to eat that mother gave us," said Bunny, "but we're going to have a little lunch in the woods going home.

We've a lump of sugar for Toby, too."

"My! you're well off!" laughed Mrs. Potter. "Now, there's your b.u.t.ter.

Don't spill it on the way home."

"We won't," promised the children, and soon they were driving back again.

"When are we going to eat our lunch?" asked Sue, after a bit.

"We can eat it now," said Bunny. "I was just looking for a shady place."

"There's some shade over there," went on Sue, pointing to a clump of trees a little distance away. "We can drive off on that other road and have a picnic."

"All right," Bunny agreed. And then, forgetting that his mother had told him not to get off the straight road between the farm and home, Bunny turned the pony down a lane and along another highway to the wood.

There, finding a place where a little spring of water bubbled out near a green, mossy rock, the children sat down to eat their lunch. But first they tied Toby to a tree and gave him his piece of sugar and the crackers. After that he found some gra.s.s to nibble.

Bunny and Sue had a good time playing picnic in the woods. They sat under the trees and made believe they were gypsies traveling around.

"I wonder if they is any gypsies around here?" asked Sue.

"George Watson said there were some camping over near Springdale,"

answered Bunny.

"Let's don't go there," suggested Sue.

"No, we won't," agreed her brother. "And I guess we'd better start for home now. Mother told us not to be late."

They fed Toby some cookie crumbs left in one of the boxes, and then started to drive out of the wood. But they had not gone very far before they came to a bridge over a noisy, babbling brook.

"Why, Bunny," cried Sue, "this isn't the way we came! We didn't cross over this bridge before!"

"Whoa!" called Bunny. He looked at the bridge and at the brook. Then he said: "That's right, Sue. We didn't. I guess we're on the wrong road."

"Does that mean we--we're lost, Bunny?" asked Sue.

CHAPTER XIII

TOBY FINDS THE WAY

Bunny Brown did not at once answer his Sister Sue. He sat in the pony cart, looking around. It was a pretty spot. Behind them were the woods, and, on either side, green fields. Before them ran the brook. But there were no houses in sight.

"Are we lost, Bunny?" asked Sue again.

That seemed to wake Bunny up from his daydream.

"Lost! No, of course not!" he exclaimed. "How could anybody be lost in the day time?"

"Well, Sadie West was lost once in the day time," said Sue. "She was in a big city, and she couldn't find her mamma nor her house nor anything!"

"Well, this isn't a city," said Bunny. "This is the country and I know how to get home."

"Oh, do you?" asked Sue, much relieved. "How, Bunny?"

"Why--why, all I've got to do is turn around and go back," he said. "We came the wrong way after we drove out of the woods, that's all. Now I'll turn around and go back. Come on, Toby!" he called to the Shetland pony. "Back up and we'll go home."

But Toby did not seem to want to back up. He pulled the cart and the children in it, on toward the brook. At one side of the bridge was a little slope, leading down to the water. There were marks to show that horses and wagons had crossed there, driving through the stream.

"Whoa, Toby!" cried Bunny. "Where are you going?"

The little pony was headed straight for the brook.

"Oh, I guess he wants a drink of water," said Sue.

"Maybe he does," agreed Bunny, as he saw that the pony was not going to stop. "He pulls terrible hard on the reins," he went on. "I guess he does want a drink, Sue. We'll let him have it, and then we'll turn around and drive back."

Toby walked along until his front feet were in the water. Then, as he did not have on a cruel check-rein, which hurts horses and ponies, Toby could lean his nose right down into the water and take a drink. When horses have a check-rein on they can't lower their heads to drink or eat until the strap is loosened. So if ever you have a horse or pony, don't put a check-rein on him. Toby's neck was free to bend any way he wanted it to, which is as it should be.

"Oh, Bunny, I know what let's do!" cried Sue, as Toby raised his head, having drunk enough water.

"What'll we do?" asked Bunny.

"Let's drive right on through the water! It won't come up over our cart, and it will wash the wheels nice and clean."

"All right. We'll do it," agreed Bunny.

He remembered that once, when he and Sue were at Grandpa's farm, the old gentleman had driven his horses and the wagon, with the children in it, through a shallow brook, after letting the horses drink. This was at a place called a "ford," and Bunny and Sue were at a ford in this brook.

"Gidap, Toby!" called Bunny, and the pony waded on into the water, pulling the cart after him. He seemed to like it, as the day was warm and there had been a lot of dust in the road.

The water washed and cooled the pony's legs, and also cleaned the wheels of the basket cart. The brook was not deep, not coming up to the hubs of the wheels, and the bottom was a smooth, gravel one, so Toby did not slip.

"Oh, that was fun!" cried Sue, as Bunny drove out on the other side of the ford. "And now we can cross back over on the bridge and go home, can't we, Bunny?"

"Yep. That's what we'll do," said her brother.

There was plenty of room to turn around on the other side of the stream, and soon Toby was clattering over the bridge, under which the stream ran. Down the road he went, and along a patch of woods, Bunny and Sue talking over what a good time they had had.

But, pretty soon, the little girl said: