"He'd know him even if he had on a Hallowe'en false face, wouldn't he?"

asked Sue.

"I guess so," answered Daddy Brown. "Well, I'll go and telephone to Mr.

Ward and see what he says."

The people in the house into which the telephone wires ran were very willing Mr. Brown should use the instrument, and he was soon talking to Mr. Ward back in Bellemere.

"Surely you may take Dix with you," said Mr. Ward over the telephone wire. "I only hope he will not be a trouble to you. I know he will make a fuss just as soon as he comes anywhere near Fred. So, in that way, you may be able to trace my boy. I hope you will. His mother hopes so too.

She is beside me here as I am talking, and she sends you her thanks.

Take Dix with you if you wish."

"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sue, when she heard the news. "Aren't you, Bunny? Now we have two dogs!"

"Yes, one will be yours and one mine, until we get back home with Dix.

Then we'll each own half of Splash, as we've always done."

This suited Sue, and, now that the dog question was settled, the automobile started on again.

For a little while everything was peaceful and quiet in the big automobile. Bunny went outside on the front seat with his father, and looked down the road along which they were running. It was a pleasant road, with trees arching across overhead from one side to the other.

Inside the big car Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad "got things to rights," as the children's mother called it, while Sue took out some of her toys, including the big Teddy bear with the electric eyes, whose adventures have been told in the book just before this one.

Bunny and his father talked together on the seat in front. Bunny was interested in whether or not they would find Fred.

"Well, we may and we may not," said Mr. Brown. "It is true Fred said he was going to run away to Portland, the city where we are going. But we will not be there for some time, and before then Fred may think he does not like it there and go somewhere else."

"Well, I think Dix will help find him, don't you?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, I hope so, Son."

Just then came a call from inside the automobile.

"Who's ready for dinner?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TWO DOGS CAME WITH A RUSH.

_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour._ _Page_ 79.]

"I am!" cried Bunny, the first one.

"So am I," added Sue.

"Then come on! Rations are served," said Uncle Tad who had been in the army.

He and Mrs. Brown had cooked their first meal on the gasolene stove in the little kitchen and dining room combined, and it was now ready to serve.

Bunny clambered in by way of the front seat and took his place at the little table.

"I think we had better stop beside the road while we eat," said Mr.

Brown. "This automobile is all right for traveling, but the roads are so rough here that I may spill my tea. So we'll anchor and eat."

"Daddy thinks we're in a boat I guess, when he talks about anchoring,"

said Sue, who, more than once, had been out in the big fishing boat with her father.

Then the meal began. There was some cooked meat, for they could carry meat in the ice box, baked potatoes, and, best of all, some pie.

It was while he was eating his pie and drinking his milk that Bunny suddenly cried:

"The dogs!"

"What about them?" asked Mrs. Brown quickly. "Are they fighting? Where are they, Bunny?"

"Just over in that field playing. But we didn't call Splash and Dix to dinner."

"Oh, is that all? I think they can wait a bit," said Mrs. Brown with a laugh. "By the way you spoke I thought something had happened."

"Well, this pie tasted good, that's part of what happened," said Bunny, with a laugh. "And then I got to wishing Dix and Splash could have some."

"I'll feed them when the rest of you have finished," promised Mrs.

Brown.

When the meal was over Mrs. Brown gathered up a big plateful of sc.r.a.ps from the table, and gave it to Bunny to feed Dix and Splash.

"Here Dix!" called Bunny, inviting the "company" dog first, which was proper, I suppose. "Here, Dix and Splash!"

The two dogs heard and must have known that they were being called to dinner, for they came with a rush, each one trying to see which would be the first to reach Bunny with the plateful of good food.

"You'd better put the dish on the ground and get away," said Mr. Brown with a laugh. "Otherwise they'll be so glad to see you, Bunny, that they'll knock you down and roll over you."

"I guess they will," said the little boy. So he put the plate of meat, bread and potato sc.r.a.ps on the ground near the big automobile and then stepped back out of the way.

Dix and Splash did not take long to finish the food on the plate, and then they looked up at Bunny and wagged their tails, as if asking for more.

"No more!" called Mrs. Brown to them, for she understood the feeding of dogs. "That will do you until supper."

Seeing they were going to get no more, Dix and Splash ran off together again to have more fun rolling about in the gra.s.s.

"Where do you think we shall stop for the night?" asked Mrs. Brown of her husband as they set off once more.

"Just outside the town of Freeburg," he answered. "We'll sleep in the auto, of course, for if we are making a tour this way it's the proper thing to do. But we'll be near enough a town for supplies or anything we may need."

"Goodness! We don't need anything this soon, nor have we a place to put another thing away," protested Mrs. Brown.

Her husband laughed. "However, it's well to be near a town overnight,"

he said.

So the big automobile chugged on. Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad washed the dishes and put them away, and then they sat looking out at the side windows and enjoying the trip. Now and then Mr. Brown would talk in through the open window against which the steering wheel seat was built.

Bunny and his sister sometimes rode inside, and again outside with Daddy Brown.

"This is lots of fun, I think," said Bunny, as he sat beside his father, and the auto went rather fast down a hill.