not knowing what trick it was, if such it should prove to be, that patter planned to do next, bunny could not answer his sister’s question. and then, as both children looked at the trick dog, patter suddenly jumped to the broad, fat back of toby, who was still hitched to the pony cart. right on the pony’s back jumped the dog.
“oh, look at that!” cried sue again.
“that’s a fine trick!” said bunny. “we must make him do that in the show we’re going to give. but i wonder why he did it? i didn’t tell him to.”
“nor i, either,” said sue. “oh, how cute he looks!”
and indeed patter did look “cute” on toby’s back. but this was not all the trick. for suddenly the dog, instead of standing on[44] all four feet, gave a sort of flop and there he was, standing on his front feet with his hind paws up in the air.
bunny and sue were so surprised they hardly knew what to say. they just stood there, looking at patter standing on his front paws upon the back of toby, the shetland pony.
as for toby, he did not in the least seem to mind it. he turned his head a little way, glanced at the dog on his back, and then seemed to think it was all right, for he made no move toward shaking patter off.
“oh, how do you s’pose he did that?” asked sue.
“i don’t know,” answered bunny. “he just did it—that’s all.”
and that, really, was all there was to it. patter had watched his chance and had leaped to the pony’s back. the trick dog did not long stand on his front paws. that is hard for any dog to do, and the best of them cannot keep it up for much more than a minute. standing on the hind paws is easier.
“that’s the very trick you said you were[45] going to teach patter to do, isn’t it, bunny?” asked sue of her brother.
“it is,” he answered. “but i didn’t have time to teach him. i guess he taught himself.”
“i’m going to call mother out to see,” said sue. but before mrs. brown could reach the yard, where patter had shown off his latest trick, the dog had become tired of standing on his front legs and had sat down on toby’s back.
the children told mrs. brown all that had happened.
“what do you s’pose made him do it?” bunny wanted to know.
“i think,” answered his mother, “that patter was taught the trick by his french master. this is the first time the dog had to show us that he could do it, and he jumped up as soon as toby stood still.”
“he didn’t jump up on toby’s back when he first saw our pony,” remarked sue.
“no, i suppose patter wanted to see what toby was like before he tried the trick,” suggested mrs. brown. “but now you know[46] your pony and your new dog are good friends.”
“just as good as splash and toby were,” said sue.
“i wish we had splash back,” sighed bunny. “then we’d have two dogs and a pony.”
“i think one dog and a pony is quite enough,” laughed his mother.
“but if we had splash we could have a lot better circus,” went on bunny.
“are you going to give another circus?” asked his mother, for the children once did that, as i have related to you in one of these books.
“yes, we’re going to have another circus and patter and toby will do tricks,” decided bunny, while sue nodded her head to show that she agreed with this.
“i’ll see if patter will mind me now,” said bunny. he called: “come down, patter!”
down jumped the trick dog off toby’s back. he wagged his tail, did patter, and looked up into bunny’s face as if asking what[47] other tricks the little master wanted performed.
“see if he’ll jump back again,” suggested mrs. brown. “if he does, you’ll know it is one of patter’s regular tricks to get on a pony’s back. you’ll know it wasn’t just an accident.”
so bunny patted his pony’s back and called:
“jump up, patter! jump up!”
in a second up jumped patter again, sitting calmly on toby’s back and looking from sue to bunny as if asking:
“is there anything more you want me to do?”
this time the dog did not stand on his front legs. perhaps he thought he had done enough of that hard trick.
“down!” cried bunny, and the trick dog leaped down.
“he’s a good minder,” said sue.
“yes, he minds very well,” agreed mrs. brown.
the news that bunny brown and his sister sue had a new trick dog soon spread all[48] through the neighborhood, and many boy and girl chums of the brother and sister called to see patter. they also wanted to see toby when sue explained that the pony had a lot of new hair in place of the old that had fallen out in his sickness.
the other boys and girls were allowed to make patter do some of his tricks, and two of the boys, george watson and charlie star, told of tricks they had seen a dog do in a circus.
“we’ll teach patter them,” decided bunny.
one of these tricks was to take a piece of wood in his mouth, the wood being fastened to a string and the string to a bell that was hung on the fence. when patter thus pulled the stick he made the bell ring.
“we’ll make believe that’s the school bell and that patter rings it to show us school is to start,” suggested charlie.
“that will be a good trick for the show,” said bunny.
it seemed to be all settled that patter would take part in a show and be the main actor, though nothing was yet settled about where[49] the show would be held or what would be done with the money that was taken in—if any was.
“but we have all summer,” said bunny, for this was only the beginning of the summer vacation.
another trick that george watson wanted patter to do was to climb a ladder, stand on a little platform at the top, and jump off into a blanket held by four boys, one at each corner.
they tried their trick first by putting patter up on the fence, pretending it was a ladder, and then bunny called to the dog to jump off. patter did it all right, landing in the blanket and so not getting hurt in the least.
but when they put the dog on top of the woodshed, george explaining that the ladder would be higher than this, then patter seemed to be afraid. he cried, crouched down, and would not jump off.
“he’s afraid,” said charlie.
“then he isn’t going to jump!” decided bunny. “lift him down off the shed. i’m not going to have my dog afraid!”
[50]and the boys, being kind-hearted, did not make patter jump from the roof of the high woodshed. the dog did not mind leaping from the fence, but the shed was too high for him, it seemed.
“maybe he’ll get used to it after a bit,” said bunny.
“anyhow, he does a lot of dandy tricks, and we sure can have him in a show,” decided charlie.
“we’ll have toby in, too,” said sue. the boys liked sue and let her play with them as often as she wished. and as she and bunny were nearly always together, the chums of one were the chums of the other.
one day when bunny and sue were playing with their dog in the yard their mother called to them, saying:
“i wish you children would go to the store for me.”
“we’ll go!” cried sue.
“and we’ll take patter,” said bunny.
the store was so near at hand that it was not worth while to harness toby to the pony cart. and so, hand in hand, with patter running[51] along, now in front and now behind them, bunny and sue went to the grocery store.
“hello, children!” called mr. gordon, who kept the store. “what will it be to-day?”
mr. gordon always asked the children that.
“three pounds of granulated sugar,” said bunny.
“and a bag of salt,” added sue.
often when the two children went to the store together they each remembered half of the things they were to get. to-day there were just two things—sugar and salt—and bunny remembered one while sue did not forget the other.
“sugar and salt, is it?” laughed mr. gordon. “well, don’t get them mixed, that’s all i have to say.” he went to get the articles and noticed, sitting in front of the counter, patter, the trick dog.
“that dog yours?” he asked.
“yes, sir,” answered bunny.
“hum,” remarked mr. gordon, in such an odd voice that bunny inquired:
“did you think he wasn’t ours?”
[52]“my daddy got him from a frenchman,” added sue.
“the reason i asked,” said mr. gordon, “was that a colored man was in here the other day, asking me if i’d seen a dog like that. it was just such a dog and just such a color, the darkey said.”
“this isn’t his dog!” cried sue. “this is our dog. daddy got him from a frenchman.”
“oh, i’m not saying he didn’t,” mr. gordon made haste to say. “but he’s like the colored man’s dog.”
“could the colored man’s dog do tricks?” bunny wanted to know.
“i’m not sure about that. the man didn’t say.”
“well, our dog does tricks,” said bunny.
“can he sneeze and roll over for a cookie?” asked mr. gordon.
“is that a trick?” bunny wanted to know.
“it’s a good trick!” declared the store man. “here, i’ll try and see if your dog can do it.”
mr. gordon took a sweet cracker from a box and raised it up so patter could see it.
[53]the dog held his head on one side and pricked up his ears.
“roll over and sneeze! roll over and sneeze!” called mr. gordon.
and, to the surprise of the children, their dog did just that. he made a noise that sounded like an old man sneezing, and then he rolled over.
“oh, how cute!” cried sue, as mr. gordon gave patter the cracker.
“that’s another trick for the show!” said bunny, with a laugh. “let me try to make him do it again, please, mr. gordon.”
“all right,” chuckled the grocer. this time he took out three crackers. “here’s one for you, bunny, one for sue, and one for the dog,” he said, for patter had quickly eaten the first cracker and was looking for more.
“sneeze and roll over, patter!” cried bunny, snapping his finger on his thumb. he also held out the cracker where the dog could see it. patter looked at it, cocked his head on one side and then he sneezed and rolled over.
“oh, he did it for me! he did it for me!”[54] cried bunny in delight, as he gave the dog the second cracker.
“i guess he knows more tricks than you think,” said mr. gordon, while bunny and sue ate their crackers.
“he’s the best dog we ever had!” declared bunny. “though of course we loved splash. but we haven’t got him now.”
“let’s see, what was it you wanted, vinegar and molasses?” asked the grocer.
“no, sugar and salt,” answered sue.
“i knew it was something like vinegar, anyhow,” chuckled the grocer, as he wrapped up the packages.
sue and bunny hurried home to tell the news about the “sneeze-and-roll-over” trick their dog could do. they were so excited that sue dropped the bag of salt, which burst and a lot spilled out.
“but, anyhow, it was better the salt should spill than the sugar,” said mary, the maid. “salt’s cheaper ’n sugar.”
the summer days passed, with bunny and sue having much fun with patter, teaching him new tricks now and then. bunny and[55] the boys often talked about the show they were going to have with patter and toby, but, as yet, they had done nothing about it.
one day mrs. brown sent bunny and sue in the pony cart down to their father’s dock. of course patter went along, for he knew his way about the town very well now, and would not get lost.
on their way home, when about half way back from their father’s dock, a big automobile truck came suddenly out of a side street, making such a noise that toby, the usually gentle and quiet pony, jumped in fright and then started to gallop as fast as he could.
“oh, toby’s running away! he’s running away!” cried sue, clinging to the side of the cart.
