there is a great deal of work to be done whenever a church fair is held. bunny and sue did not know this, but it is true. mrs. brown and her friends were kept very busy, and when bunny asked when he and sue could take patter to the opera house, where the fair was to be held, and make him stand up and hold the ticket basket, mrs. brown said:
“it will not be until next week.”
“well, then i’m going to keep on teaching patter and wango to swing in the trapeze,” said bunny.
“will you have the dog and the monkey do tricks at the church fair, mother?” sue wanted to know.
“i hardly think so,” said mrs. brown. “i’m afraid it could not well be done with the[109] other things we have planned. i guess we’ll just have patter alone at the fair.”
“i’d rather it would be that way,” said bunny. “’cause if we do the dog and monkey and trapeze trick at the fair, people wouldn’t want to come and see it when we have a show of our own.”
“oh, that’s right,” agreed sue.
george and the other boys were a little disappointed when bunny told them the trapeze trick could not be done at the fair. but they shouted with glee when told how patter had held the basket and how it was planned to make him do it at the door on the nights when the church fair would be held.
“well, if he’s going to do that we’d better make him practice now,” suggested charlie star.
“all right,” agreed bunny. “i’ll get a basket.”
he brought one out from the house, and no sooner did patter see his little master with the basket than the dog ran to him and gently took it from bunny’s hand. then patter sat up on his hind legs, as if “begging.”
[110]“who taught him that trick?” asked charlie star.
“i don’t know,” bunny answered. “but i guess it must have been that frenchman who gave the dog to my father. he must have taught patter a lot of tricks we don’t know anything about.”
“well, as long as he holds up the basket, let’s pretend we’re ladies at the church fair, and we’ll make believe put tickets in the basket,” suggested george. “this will get patter used to doing it.”
“how can we be ladies when we haven’t got long hair?” asked charlie star, with a laugh.
“we haven’t got anything for tickets,” objected harry.
“use little stones for tickets,” suggested george. “and if any of you want long hair to make believe you’re ladies, put on some of those carpenter shavings for curls.”
he pointed to a corner where a carpenter had been doing some work at the brown house and had left a pile of curled shavings. with whoops of delight the boys swooped down on these and fastened them up under their caps[111] so that the “curls” hung down on either side of their faces.
“now we’re ladies at the church fair, and we must each drop a ticket in the dog’s basket,” said george.
so the boys, with their false curls of shavings, marched in indian file up to patter, sitting on his hind legs holding the basket. and as the lads passed they each dropped a stone in as a ticket.
“he does it fine!” exclaimed george, when patter never moved, but sat there like a stone statue of a dog. “he’s a fine fellow, bunny.”
“yes, i like my trick dog very much,” said bunny.
after each boy had put his “stone ticket” into the basket, patter was allowed to drop the basket and romp around a bit, so he would not get tired of standing in one position too long.
“maybe we’d better practice him a bit on the trapeze,” said bunny, after the ticket taking had been gone through with for the third time.
“it would be a good idea,” said george.[112] “we ought to have the monkey, though, to get patter used to him.”
“let’s go and see if we can get wango,” suggested harry.
the boys went over to the home of the old sailor. usually wango was outside on the porch, if the weather was warm enough, and it was now, for it was summer. but to-day no wango could be seen. miss euphemia winkler, jed’s sister, was there, however, and she seemed very busy about something.
“what do you boys want?” she demanded rather crossly, as she saw them stop just outside the fence.
“please, miss winkler,” began bunny, “could we take wango a little while? we’ll be sure to——”
“don’t speak to me about that horrid monkey!” cried miss winkler, shaking her broom at the boys. “i never want to see him again. if he were here you could take him and welcome, but he isn’t here!”
“where’s he gone, if you please?” asked bunny.
“don’t ask me! i hope he’s gone back to[113] china, or india, or wherever it was my brother was foolish enough to bring him from! i never want to see him again—the monkey i mean!” added miss winkler quickly. “look at the work he made me!”
“what did he do?” asked george.
“why, when i was baking cookies he swooped down off the mantel and grabbed both paws full,” said miss winkler, as she went on sweeping dirt from the porch. “then, when i chased him, he ran out here and grabbed up two flower pots and threw them at me. the pots smashed and the dirt flew all over! oh, i never saw such a monkey!”
the boys watched her for a few seconds and then bunny said in a low voice to the others:
“there’s no use waiting for wango to come back. he won’t come as long as he sees miss winkler there with a broom. he’ll think she wants to beat him.”
“where do you s’pose wango is?” asked harry.
“oh, i guess he’s hiding around in the trees,” bunny answered. “that’s where he[114] runs to when miss winkler takes after him. come on, we’ll go back and make patter do his trapeze trick alone.”
on their way back the boys looked up in the trees they passed for a sight of wango, but they saw nothing of the pet monkey. then they turned toward bunny’s house to go out to the barn and give patter some practice on the trapeze.
when nearly at his house bunny and his chums saw bunker blue driving along the street in one of mr. brown’s delivery autos.
“oh, bunker, give us a ride home!” called bunny.
“can’t!” answered the red-haired lad.
“why not?”
“because i’m going to the hospital.”
“are you sick, or is it the auto?” asked george.
“i’m going to see a sick old man,” went on bunker. “he’s the one who came to your house the night you got the trick dog, bunny,” explained the dock boy. “your father is sending him some nice fresh fish, for he is better now and can sit up and eat. if i wasn’t going[115] to the hospital i’d ride you boys home,” said bunker.
“oh, that’s all right,” said bunny.
“hospitals come first,” said harry.
“maybe we could go to see the old man and take patter along and have him do some tricks,” suggested charlie star. “it would cheer the old man up.”
“i’ll ask him if he wants to see you,” promised bunker blue, as he kept on in the automobile.
the boys went to the barn and there patter was dressed up in the clown suit of red, white and blue that he wore when he first did tricks for bunny and sue. the boys had some trouble putting it on patter, but finally managed to do it.
“he looks just like a circus dog,” said charlie.
“yes,” agreed bunny, “i guess maybe he was in a circus before the frenchman had him.”
patter did not object to being dressed in his clown suit, nor did he mind jumping up on the trapeze board and swinging there. in[116] fact he was a very good-natured dog, doing all the tricks he knew cheerfully, and as many times as he was asked.
“if he takes tickets in the church fair, your dog ought to have a different suit, bunny,” said charlie.
“he ought to be dressed in orange and black, or something like that,” added harry. “sort of a hallowe’en, you know.”
“i’ll ask mother to make him a new suit,” offered bunny.
when this matter was spoken of to mrs. brown she said that some of the ladies of the church were making a new suit for the dog.
a few days later came the time for the church fair. it was to be held in the opera house. at first none of the boys or girls who were sue’s or bunny’s friends had intended to go, but when it became known that patter would be there, more young folks said they would attend. they wanted to see the dog take tickets.
as mrs. brown had said, two of the ladies on the committee had planned a new suit for patter, and the day before the fair they[117] brought it home. it was yellow and black and had spangles on it that glittered in the light.
“oh, this is a fine suit for our dog!” cried bunny. “could we keep it for him until we have our own show?”
the ladies said the suit was patter’s to keep forever, and it would belong to bunny and sue just as the dog did.
whether it was the news that patter would “take tickets” at the church fair or whether it was some other attraction, i do not know, but it is true that a large crowd made its way toward the opera house the night the fair opened.
at the door, in his new suit, holding in his mouth a basket for the tickets, sat patter. near him were bunny and sue to make sure that patter would not drop the basket.
person after person came to the fair, looked at the dog holding the basket, and then, with a laugh, dropped in his admission ticket.
the basket was nearly full and bunny was thinking of emptying it when sue gave a sudden cry and pointed to something coming in[118] one of the opened windows. for the part of the opera house where the church fair was held was on the ground floor. shows and entertainments took place upstairs.
“look! look!” cried sue. “there’s a black kitten with white feet.”
“it doesn’t make much difference what kind of feet she has,” said bunny quickly. “but if that’s a kitten she’d better not let patter see her. he doesn’t like cats.”
as bunny spoke this word “cats,” patter pricked up his ears as if he knew what was said. then he looked around and saw the pussy on the window sill, inside the church-fair hall. in another moment patter dropped the basket of tickets, which scattered all about, and the dog, with a loud bark, raced across the room to get the kitten.
