“Now he’s started he won’t turn back,” said Mr. Brown.  “He just missed us before, thinking, I suppose, if he saw us go, that we would come back.”

The big automobile traveled on for about an hour, and they were several miles from the Brown home when Bunny, looking out of the rear door of the auto-van cried: 

“Why there’s Dix, Fred Ward’s dog, following us along with Splash!  Look!”

“So he is,” said Mrs. Brown.  “Oh, dear!  These dogs!  What are we going to do?”

CHAPTER VII

DIX IN TROUBLE

“Is Dix really following us?” asked Mr. Brown, as, once more, he stopped the big automobile.

“He seems to be,” answered Mrs. Brown.  “He and Splash are trotting along together as happy as two clams.”

“Clams can’t trot,” said Bunny quickly.

“No, but they can be happy,” said his mother.  “And Splash and Dix seem to be happy, now, trotting along together after us.”

“They’re altogether too happy,” said Mr. Brown.  “I wonder how we’re going to get Dix back home?  Mr. and Mrs. Ward think as much of him as we do of Splash, and they’ll be sorry to have him run away.”

“We must try to send him home some way,” said Mrs. Brown.  “Bunny, you have a pretty good way with dogs, suppose you get out and try to drive Dix back home.  Tell him we love him, think he’s a nice dog and all that, but we believe it isn’t best for him to come with us now.”

“All right, I will,” said Bunny, and he hopped down from the automobile, which had a little set of steps at the back to make getting in and out easy.  Though Bunny, it is true, generally jumped out, not using the steps at all.

While the big automobile had been traveling on, Splash, knowing he was a member of this party, had gone along as a matter of course.  And, perhaps, in some kind of dog language (which I am sure there must be) he had said to his friend Dix something like this: 

“Come along, old chap.  The folks are going for a little excursion into the country.  I know they are, for once before we traveled like this, and it was jolly fun.  There’ll be good things to eat, and no end of cats to chase, too, if you like that.”

“Well, I used to like it,” Dix said—­perhaps.

“Then come along,” urged Splash.  “I’m sure the folks will be glad to have you.”

“All right, I will,” Dix may have answered.

And so it was he had run along, playing beside the road with Splash.  And it was not until the automobile had gone several miles that the family noticed that another dog besides their own was following them.

“Drive him back home as your mother told you, Bunny,” said the little boy’s father.

Bunny ran back to where Dix and Splash were rolling over and over on the grass.  They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

“Go on home!  Go on home!” cried Bunny.