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"Oh, I mean only make believe," said Bunny.
"Oh, well, if it's just make believe that's different," agreed Sue. "I'll let you take my old rag doll for that."
Bunny and Sue gave Charlie a ride around the block in which his house was, and then he jumped out, after thanking them. Back home they drove with the sugar, Splash running on ahead.
"After this, you must always tie your pony when you let him stand in front of a store," said Mrs. Brown, when the children told her what had happened.
Bunny and Sue had many nice rides behind their Shetland pony. Sometimes Uncle Tad went with them. They learned to manage him quite well, and Mrs. Brown was not afraid to let the children go even on rather long drives. One day she said to them:
"Do you think you could drive Toby to the farm, and bring me back some new butter?"
"Oh, yes, Mother!" cried Bunny. "We'd love to!"
The farm, of which the children's mother spoke, was a place about two miles out of town, where a man sold butter, eggs and chickens. Mrs. Brown often sent there for fresh things for the table.
"Well, if you're sure it won't be too far for you, you may go," she said to the children. "But be very careful of autos and wagons."
"We will," they promised.
"We'll keep on one side of the road all the way," Bunny added.
He and Sue knew the road to the farm quite well, or they thought they did, and they were quite delighted to start off, not knowing what was going to happen to them.
"I'll put you up a little lunch to eat on the way," said Mrs. Brown, "for it may take you some time to go and come."
"Won't Toby get hungry, too?" asked Sue.
"Yes, but he can eat the grass alongside the road while you are taking your lunch. I won't have to put up any for the pony. But you might have a lump of sugar or a sweet cracker for him."
"That's what we will," said Bunny.
Then he and Sue got ready to start for the farm.
And what do you suppose happened to them before they got home again?
Chapter XII
The Wrong Road
Toby, the Shetland pony, stamped his feet in the soft grass in front of the home of Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue. Then he "shivered" off some flies that were biting his legs, and switched some off his back with his long tail.
"And now we're ready to start!" cried Sue, as she sat on the cushion near her brother, who was to drive the first part of the way.
"And don't drop the butter when you're coming back," said Mrs. Brown, as she saw that the children's lunch was safely put in the cart, together with a few lumps of sugar and some sweet crackers for Toby.
"We won't," promised Bunny. "Gidap, Toby!" he called, and away trotted the pony.
Down the village street went Toby, and Bunny and Sue smiled and waved their hands to some of their boy and girl friends who watched them driving away, wishing they were going.
"We'll give you a ride when we come back," promised Sue.
She turned to wave her hand to Sadie West, and then Sue saw Splash, the big dog, trotting along behind the pony cart.
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, "do we want to take Splash along?"
"No, I don't guess we do," Bunny answered. "There's a big dog at the farm, and he might fight our dog like he did once before."
This had happened. For once, when Mr. Brown took Bunny and his sister to the place to get some fresh eggs and butter, Splash had trotted along with them. And Splash and the other dog at the farm did not seem to be friends, for they fought and bit one another, and Mr. Brown and Mr. Potter, the man who owned the farm, ha...
"Whoa, Toby!" called Bunny to the pony, and he stopped. "Now you go on back, Splash!" ordered his little master.
But Splash did not want to go back. He sat down on the grass, thumped his tail up and down, and then sort of looked off to one side, as though to see how tall the trees were. He didn't look at Bunny or Sue at all, and when their dog didn't do this the children knew he didn't want to mind them.
"Go back home, Splash!" ordered Bunny.
"'Cause we don't want you fighting with that other dog," added Sue. "Go home like a nice doggie."
But Splash didn't seem to want to be a nice dog. He just sat thumping his tail and looking off at the trees.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Bunny, with a sort of sigh. "What'll we do? I guess I'll have to get out and take him back."
"If you do that," said Sue, "maybe Toby will walk away again."
"You could stay in the cart and hold the lines," said Bunny.
"I don't want to stay here if you're not going to," went on Bunny's sister.
"Then we can both get out and take Splash home," decided the little boy, after a while. "He'll go back if we go back a little way with him. He likes to be with us. And we can tie Toby to something so he can't walk away."
"What could we tie him to?" asked Sue.
Bunny looked all around. There were no hitching posts near by -- only some big trees.
"We could tie him to one of them," he said. "Or to a stone."
"Toby could pull a stone right along with him," objected Sue. "You'd better tie him to a tree."
"Maybe he could pull up a tree, too," said Bunny. "Once I saw a picture of an elephant pulling up a tree."
"Toby isn't as strong as an elephant," Sue said. Then she exclaimed: "Oh, Bunny, I know what we can do!"
"What?"
"We can throw a stick for Splash to run after. And when he goes back after the stick we can drive on with Toby and get so far away that Splash can't find us."
"That's so! We can do that!" exclaimed Bunny. "I'll do it. I'll throw a stick for Splash to go after, and you hold the reins," and he passed the pony reins to his sister.