Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue and Their Shetland Pony Part 21

"Bunny, I don't see any houses."

Bunny looked around. He didn't see any either.

"Maybe we'll come to some pretty soon," he told his sister.

But, as they drove on, the trees on either side of the road became thicker. They grew more closely together, and were larger, their leafy tops meeting in an arch overhead, making the road quite dusky. The road, too, instead of being hard and smooth as it had been, was now soft sand, in which Toby could not pull the cart along very fast.

"Bunny," said Sue, and her voice sounded as though she were a little frightened, "are we lost yet?"

Bunny did not answer for a moment or two. He looked all around while the Shetland pony plodded slowly on. Then he called:

"Whoa!"

"What are you stopping for?" asked Sue.

"I guess this is the wrong road again," Bunny answered. "We didn't go right, even after we came back from the brook."

"Oh, Bunny! are we really lost?" cried Sue.

"I guess so," her brother answered. "But we're not lost very much. We can easy find our way back again."

"How?" Sue demanded.

"We can turn around."

"But we turned around once before, Bunny, and we didn't get where we wanted to! I want to go home!"

"Well, I don't guess this way is home," said the little boy. "We never came through so much sand before. Toby can hardly pull us. We've got to go back, out of this."

"But where shall we go after this?" Sue wanted to know. "Oh, dear! I wish we'd let Splash come along!"

"Why?" asked Bunny.

"'Cause then he could show us the way home. Dogs don't ever get lost, Bunny Brown!" and Sue seemed ready to cry.

"Maybe ponies don't, either," said Bunny, feeling he must do something to make his sister feel better. "I guess Toby can find his way home as easy as Splash could."

"Oh, do you really think so?" asked Sue, smiling again, and seeming much happier. "Can Toby find the way home, Bunny?"

"I guess so. Anyhow, I'm going to let him try. But first I'll turn around so we can get out of this sand."

Toby seemed glad enough of this, for it was hard pulling with the soft ground clinging to the wheels. In a little while the cart was back on the hard soil again, though still the trees met overhead in an arch and made the place dark.

"Do you know where we are, Bunny?" asked Sue.

Her brother shook his head.

"Do you know where our home is?" Sue went on.

Once more Bunny shook his head.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue.

"But I guess Toby knows," said the little boy. "I'm going to let him take us home. Go on home, Toby!" he called, and let the reins lie loosely on the pony's back.

The Shetland looked around at the children in the cart, which he could easily do, having no "blinders" on the sides of his head. Blinders are almost as bad as check-reins for horses and ponies. Never have them on your pets, for a pony needs to see on the sides of him as well as in front.

Toby looked back at the cart and then he gave a little whinny.

"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, "what do you s'pose he looked at us that way for?"

"I guess he wanted to see if we had fallen out," said Bunny. "But we haven't. We're here, Toby!" he called to the pony. "Now take us home, please!"

Whether Toby understood or not, I cannot say. Probably the little pony was hungry, and he wanted to go on to his stable where the oats and hay were. Crackers and sugar might be all right, he may have thought, but he needed hay and oats for a real meal.

And perhaps he really did know the way home. Lots of horses do, they say, even on a dark night, so why shouldn't a pony in the day time?

That's what Bunny and Sue thought.

Bunny never touched the reins. He let them rest loosely on Toby's back, and on the pony went. When he came to a hard, level road Toby began to trot. And pretty soon Sue cried:

"Oh, Bunny! Toby has found the way out! We're not lost any more!"

"How do you know?" asked Bunny.

"'Cause I can see Miss Hollyhock's house, and we both know the road home from there! See it!" and Sue pointed down the road.

CHAPTER XIV

TOBY'S OTHER TRICK

Bunny Brown stood up in the pony cart and looked to where Sue pointed.

Across a little green valley he could see another road, at one point was a small cottage, nestled among the trees, and with vines growing about it.

"Yes, that's where Miss Hollyhock lives," he said.

"And then we aren't lost any more, are we?" asked Sue.

"No, I guess not," Bunny said. "But we have to get on that other road."

This the children soon did, taking a highway that cut across the valley.

Toby had taken them out of the woods on a new path, but it was just as good as the one they had driven on in going to the farm, though longer.

And in a little while they were going past the cottage where lived the elderly woman, known all around as "Old Miss Hollyhock." This was because so many of those flowers blossomed near her cottage.

"Well, my dears, where have you been?" she asked.