though it was perhaps half a mile from where bunny and his chums and the farmer stood to the field of corn where the cows were causing such trouble, still the animals were in plain sight, for they were up on top of a hill. they could be seen walking in among the rows of corn, tramping down much of it, and eating what they wanted.
bunny stooped down, took hold of patter’s head and turned it so the dog could look straight at the distant cows in the corn. then bunny spoke, while all the others kept silent.
“patter, go drive those cows out! chase ’em out!” said bunny. “go chase the cows!”
patter barked once or twice, fixed his eyes sharply on the cows, and then, breaking away from bunny, ran to the canal, jumped in, and swam across.
[183]as soon as the dog was on the other side of the water he began racing up the hill, barking loudly all the while. from where they stood, the boys and the farmer could watch patter plainly.
the dog ran the half mile distance much more quickly than the boys or mr. boardman could have done, even if they had swum over the canal. reaching the field of corn, patter rushed in, snapped at the legs of the cows, and so barked at them and worried them, but without hurting them, that they were glad to amble out of the cornfield into the meadow where they belonged.
“well, that’s a pretty smart trick!” exclaimed the farmer. “i never saw a dog like that before. he’d be valuable to me. what will you sell him for, bunny?”
“i’m never going to sell patter!” declared bunny proudly.
“how did you make him drive out the cows? i never saw him do it before!” exclaimed george.
“i didn’t know he could do it, either,” said charlie and harry.
[184]“well, my mother told me about a dog her father used to own when she was a little girl,” said bunny, as he and the boys walked along with mr. boardman, who was going to mend the fence so the cows couldn’t get out again. “and this dog my grandfather had would chase pigs out of a field when he saw them, even if he was a long way off. so i thought maybe if that dog would chase pigs, my dog would chase cows—and he did.”
“he certainly did! i never saw a dog do better!” chuckled the farmer. “any time you want to sell him, bunny, i’ll buy him from you.”
“i’m never going to sell him!”
“anyhow he’s going to be in a show,” added george.
“who is, bunny or his dog?” asked the farmer.
“both of us,” answered bunny. “so is my sister sue, and our pony toby, too.”
“we’re all going to be in the show,” added charlie. “we’re going to do tricks and there’ll be an alligator and white rats——”
“and a trained rooster,” suggested harry.
[185]“the admission is ten cents,” said george.
“i’ll take a ticket right now!” exclaimed the farmer, putting one hand in his pocket. “in fact i’ll take two tickets and bring my wife. it was worth more’n twenty cents to have the cows driven out of my corn.”
“we haven’t got any tickets ready yet,” bunny said.
“but we’ll be selling them in a few days, and then we’ll bring you some,” added george.
“all right, i’ll take two,” promised the farmer.
the boys went with him up to the cornfield on the hill, where patter was still on guard keeping out the cows. then the fence was mended so the animals could not again get out of their pasture.
“thanks, a whole lot, boys, for what you and the dog did,” called mr. boardman, as bunny and his chums started away. “and don’t forget—i want two show tickets.”
“we must get the tickets ready,” said george to his chums, as they walked down the hill.
[186]“maybe we could have ’em printed like real tickets,” suggested harry.
“pete gordon has a printing press,” announced bunny. “i guess he’d print ’em for us, ’cause we buy most of our groceries from his father.”
pete gordon was the son of the grocery store owner, and when the boys explained to him what they wanted he kindly promised to print the tickets for them. when they were ready the tickets looked like this:
grand show
in
bunny brown’s barn
see the trick dog
see the trick pony.
see sister sue
————
admission $10
that dollar sign in front of the 10 was a mistake, pete said, and he had not noticed it until all the tickets were struck off. but, as[187] he explained to the boys, it didn’t really make any difference.
“you can easily tell ’em it’s meant for ten cents,” he remarked.
“and maybe it’s a good thing you did make that mistake,” said george. “when folks get a ten dollar ticket for ten cents they’ll think it’s a bargain!”
“that’s so,” agreed bunny and his chums.
so they started out to sell tickets for the show, in which patter was to play a principal part with toby, the shetland pony. but, somehow or other, the tickets did not sell very well. many persons on whom the boys called with them laughed and said, kindly enough:
“oh, i guess i don’t want any to-day. come around some other time, boys.”
finally, after many had refused to buy, the boys got together in bunny’s barn to talk matters over.
“something has got to be done,” said george seriously.
