It was quite dark when Mr. Brown came back.  The children were asleep, but Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad were sitting up reading.

“Well?” asked Mrs. Brown, as she noticed how tired her husband looked.  “Did you have far to go?”

“About two miles, and mostly uphill.  But I found the cow’s owner.”

“Did you?  That’s good!  How did you manage?” asked Uncle Tad.

“Well, I was going along, Splash leading the cow as proud as a peacock, when, all of a sudden, I saw a man hurrying toward me.  He seemed very much excited, and asked me if that was my cow the dog was leading.

“I told him it was not; that one of the dogs that was with us on our auto trip had brought her in; and that I was bringing her back, looking for the owner.”

“‘I’m him,’ he said.  ‘And I can soon prove the critter’s mine.’”

“I told him I hoped she was, for I was tired of walking with her.  So he stopped at two or three farmers’ houses, and they all said the cow belonged to Mr. Adrian Richmond, who was the man that met me.  So I left the cow with him and came on home, for this does look like home,” he added, as he gazed around the small but cozy room in the auto-van.

“Did the farmer tell you how Dix came to lead off his cow?” asked Uncle Tad.

“No, he only guessed that the animal must have pulled loose from her stake and wandered off down the road.  She was used to being led home every night by the farmer’s dog, so she didn’t make any objections.”

“Then Dix must be a sort of a cow dog,” remarked Mrs. Brown, and later it was learned that Dix had once been on a western ranch and had helped the cowboys with their work.

So with the cow disposed of, and the two dogs asleep on some old blankets under the automobile, the little party of travelers settled down for the night.  They all slept soundly, and in the morning the first thing Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue wanted to know about was the cow.  Their father told them all that had happened.

“That Dix is a great dog!” cried Bunny.  “I’m glad we brought him with us.”

“So’m I!” echoed Sue.  “And maybe to-day he’ll find Fred.”

“How can he?” asked Bunny.

“Because you know the funny old man who stopped us, to see if we were a traveling show, said that boy banjo player was to come to this town.  And even if the one he saw was colored it might be Fred blacked up.”

“That’s so,” agreed Bunny.  “We’ll get daddy to ask.”

A breakfast was cooked in the auto and eaten out-of-doors, because it was such a lovely morning.  More than once as they ate in the shadow of the big car other autoists, passing, waved a merry greeting to the happy little party, and as horse-drawn carts and wagons passed along the road on their way into town, many curious glances were cast at the travelers.

It was rather a strange way of making a journey, but it suited the Browns, and they preferred their big automobile to any railroad train they could have had.