"So do I," said her husband. "If I had known that bridge was so weak as to let us fall through I would have gone a different road. But I suppose the rain and high water weakened the supports. However, don"t worry. We"ll see what can be done."
After a look at the way in which the rear wheels of the big car were lodged in the ditch, Uncle Tad and Mr. Brown went to the nearest town on foot to get help. Mrs. Brown, Bunny and Sue made a little camp beside the road, the children helping a little, and then running about to play.
The two dogs joined them in their fun.
"I guess I"ll make a little cornstarch pudding," said Mrs. Brown, as she got the other things ready for lunch; and when the pudding was finished she covered it up, so no ants or bugs would get in it, and set it in a hollow stump to keep until it would be needed for the dessert after the lunch.
It was not long before Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad came back riding in a big automobile truck which they had hired at the nearest garage to pull the "Ark" out of the ditch.
"Will you have lunch first?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, I guess we will," said her husband. "We"ll eat while the garage men are getting ropes and chains around our car to pull it out of the ditch."
And so they ate their dinner under the shade of a big tree beside the road. Two men had come in the auto truck to work for Mr. Brown, and they went about it quickly, putting strong ropes and chains on the "Ark."
"And now I have a little surprise for you," said Mrs. Brown as she poured tea for herself, Mr. Brown and Uncle Tad, and set milk before the children.
"Oh, goodie!" cried Sue.
"Fine!" exclaimed Bunny.
Mrs. Brown went to the hollow stump. She looked in and then she cried:
"Oh, dear! No I haven"t any either."
"Any what, either?" asked Mr. Brown.
"Surprise for you. I made a nice cocoanut cornstarch pudding, and put it in this hollow stump, covering it up. But something has come along and eaten it."
For a moment there was a silence, and then Bunny cried:
"Maybe it was a hungry bear!"
"Or maybe it was our squirrel Fluffy," said Sue. "He can hop around a little now, "cause his leg is almost well."
"Hum, the pudding"s gone, is it?" said Mr. Brown. "That"s too bad. Come here, sir!" he suddenly called to Splash. The dog, who was lying beside Dix near the brook, arose slowly and came to Mr. Brown, tail between his legs and head drooping.
"And you too, Dix! Come here!" ordered Mr. Brown.
Dix walked up exactly as Splash had done, with drooping head and tail.
Mr. Brown took hold of the head of first one dog and then the other. He looked closely at their mouths.
"Here we have the pudding thieves!" he cried. "Splash and Dix found the dessert in the hollow stump and ate it. Didn"t you, you rascals?"
The dogs whined and said not a "word." It was very plain that they had taken the pudding.
"Oh, please don"t whip them, Daddy!" begged Bunny.
"No; I won"t," said Mr. Brown.
"I shouldn"t have left the pudding where they could get it," said Mrs.
Brown. "It was all my fault. I"ll make another for supper."
However, there were some cakes in a tin can in the "Ark," and as Uncle Tad climbed in and got them out for the children before the garage men started to pull the stalled automobile out with their machine, Bunny and Sue had a little dessert after all.
"We"re all ready to try to get your car out of the ditch now, Mr.
Brown," said one of the garage men.
"Oh, let"s watch, Sue!" cried Bunny.
"But keep out of the way," ordered their father.
There was a puffing of the other auto truck, a grinding of the wheels, and then the "Ark" was pulled slowly out of the ditch, and on to the road again, the hind wheels running on long planks which the men put under them. Thus out on to the safe and solid road rolled the "Ark."
"Hurrah!" cried Bunny Brown.
"Now we"re all right," said his Sister Sue.
And indeed they were, for it was found that nothing was broken on the big machine in which the Brown family were making their tour.
Mr. Brown paid the garage men, who went back to their shop, and the "Ark" was soon on its way again.
"And the next time I come to a small bridge I"m going to find out how much weight it will carry before I cross it," said the children"s father.
For a week or more the "Ark" traveled on. Every time he got a chance Mr.
Brown asked about Fred, in the different towns through which they pa.s.sed, but could get no trace of the missing boy.
They saw other medicine showmen who had with them players or singers, but none of them were at all like the runaway Fred.
"It must have been he who was with Dr. Perry," said Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, and I presume he feared we knew him and so he ran on farther," her husband added. "He may be in Portland now."
"How soon shall we be there?" asked Bunny.
"In a few more days now."
Two days later, as they camped outside a little village for the night, they saw beside the road a signboard which read:
TWENTY MILES TO PORTLAND
"Oh, we"ll be there to-morrow!" cried Bunny. "Then we can find Fred, and can send him to his mamma and papa!"
CHAPTER XVIII
CAMPING OUT