"She isn"t feeling very well, and the air will do her good," answered Sue, who made her "make-believe" very real to herself.
So, having made a nice bed of rags for her Teddy bear, Sue put Sallie Malinda to sleep near the rear door of the auto and got out one of her books to look at the pictures. Bunny was building some sort of house with some new blocks his father had bought for him, but he was not having very good luck, for the motion of the auto made the house topple over almost as soon as Bunny had it built.
After a while Sue thought her Teddy bear had had enough sleep near the auto door, so she went to take her in. But when she reached the rag bed Sallie Malinda was not there.
"Oh, my Teddy bear is gone!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny, do you think she falled out? Daddy! Daddy! Stop the auto! My Teddy bear is lost!"
Mr. Brown stopped the car at once, though he did not understand all of what Sue said. The little girl told him what had happened.
"Sallie Malinda gone!" cried Mother Brown. "That"s too bad! She must have been jostled off when the auto went over a b.u.mp. I think we"ll have to go back and look for her," she said to her husband.
Then Bunny gave some more news.
"Dix is gone too!" he cried. "I"ve been watching a long while and I haven"t seen him. And Splash is acting awful funny--just as if Dix had run away."
"Hum! This _is_ rather strange!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "Two disappearances at once."
"What"s disappearcesses?" asked Sue.
"It means going away--the word your father used does," explained Mrs.
Brown with a smile. "But it certainly is strange that Dix and the Teddy bear should go away together."
CHAPTER X
DIX COMES BACK
For a moment Sue stood looking at her mother, seeming to be thinking very hard about something. Then she asked:
"Momsie, do you think Dix took Sallie Malinda away?"
"Well, it seems so," said Mrs. Brown. "That is, if Dix has really gone away. We had better make sure of that, first. There is no question about your Teddy bear"s being gone, for I saw her in the rag bed by the back door of the auto not half an hour ago."
"Well, I suppose she either fell out, or Dix, thinking to have a game of tag with her, took her out, though the Teddy bear, with the batteries inside to make her eyes light up, isn"t easy for even Dix to carry very far," said Mr. Brown.
"But how are we going to get my darling Sallie Malinda back?" asked Sue, and there were tears in her eyes.
"Daddy will find some way. Won"t you, Daddy?" asked Bunny, for he did not like to see his little sister sad.
"Well, the only thing I can see to do is to turn the automobile around and go back to look for Sue"s Teddy bear," said Mr. Brown. "He may be lying beside the road where he fell from the auto."
"My Teddy bear isn"t a _he_, Daddy!" cried Sue. "She"s a _she_! Aren"t there _lady_ Teddy bears as well as _gentlemen_?"
"Yes, I suppose so," laughed Mr. Brown. "I forgot for the moment that your Teddy"s name was Sallie. But whether it"s a he or a she I suppose you"d like to have me go back for it, wouldn"t you?"
"Indeed I would, Daddy! I don"t know what I"d do without Sallie Malinda."
"All right, then we"ll turn the auto around."
"We"ve done about as much going backward as we have going forward on this trip," laughed Uncle Tad. "But still we must get Sue"s pet. It wouldn"t do to go off and leave _her_."
"I can"t understand about Dix, though," said Mrs. Brown. "Surely he wouldn"t run away and leave us after he had come this far with us."
"Maybe he is just playing hide-and-go-seek with Splash," said Bunny.
"Maybe it"s Dix"s turn to hide."
"Suppose you call him," suggested Mrs. Brown.
Bunny called and whistled, in a way he had been doing to get Dix to come to him ever since the Ward dog had joined the traveling automobile party. But there came no answering bark, and even Splash seemed surprised when he could not find his playfellow.
"Hi, Splash!" called Bunny. "Where is Dix? Go find him!"
Splash ran around and barked, which was his only way of talking, but he came back frequently to the children, who, with their parents and Uncle Tad, were standing beside the auto, and he did not bring Dix back with him.
It was as though Splash said:
"I know you want to find Dix, but I don"t know where he is. There is no use in my running my legs off to find him, for he is a long way from here."
"Dix possibly has been missing a longer while than we know," said Mr.
Brown. "I noticed once, as we were going over a bridge, that Splash went in and had a little swim. But I did not see Dix with him, though I didn"t think anything about it at the time. We had that trouble with the engine farther back than that. When I got that fixed Dix was about. But from then on I haven"t seen him, and that was some miles back."
"Maybe that"s the time my dear Sallie Malinda fell out," said Sue. "Or else Dix took her."
"I don"t believe he"d do that," said her father. "He was too well trained. He isn"t a puppy any longer, to hide boots, shoes and toys. I don"t believe Dix took your Teddy."
"Well, anyhow let"s go to find him," said Bunny. "I mean _her_," he added quickly, as he noticed Sue looking sharply at him. "Maybe we"ll find Dix and the Teddy bear at the same time."
"If Dix hasn"t gone off to find a cow or an elephant or a camel or something like that to make us a present of," said Mrs. Brown with a laugh.
"Oh, Momsie! Do you think Dix would really bring back an elephant?"
asked Bunny eagerly.
"No, my dear, I was only fooling. But let"s start back, Daddy, for I know Sue will be very anxious to-night about her Teddy bear."
Back they started in the automobile over the road they had just traveled. Now and then they stopped and called Dix, but the dog did not come to them.
Splash added his barks and whines to the general calling but no Dix answered.
"He must be mighty far away," said Bunny.
"Yes, I"m afraid we"ll never find him, or my dearest Sallie Malinda either," said Sue, and once more tears came into her eyes.
As the auto went along, in addition to calling for Dix, every one in the party, including the children, had looked along the road for a sight of the Teddy bear that might have fallen from the automobile. But Sallie Malinda was not to be seen, and Sue did not know what to do.
"Well, we"ll go back to where I last noticed that Dix was with us," said Mr. Brown. "Then if we don"t find your Teddy, Sue, I"ll have to get you another."