e Tad and Mr. Brown helped Mrs. Brown get the supper. When it was
over there was a large platter full of good things left for the two
dogs. They were hungry, for they had run far that day, and they ate up
every scrap.

Then they stretched out for a while near a campfire Mr. Brown made under
some trees, for it was a little cool in the evenings. As the children
had been up early that morning, Mrs. Brown told them they must be early
in bed, and after watching the fire until their eyes began to shut of
themselves, Bunny and Sue started for their little bunks.

Just as they were getting undressed, though it was scarcely dark, the
barking of dogs was heard down the road.

"That's Dix and Splash!" exclaimed Bunny. "And something must have
happened. Splash wouldn't bark that way if there was nothing the
matter."

"Here comes Dix now," said Sue, looking out of the automobile window.
"And oh, Bunny! Look what he's brought home with him!"

"What is it?" asked Bunny, whose bunk was on the other side of the big
car.

"It's a cow. Dix is leading home a cow on the end of a rope!" exclaimed
Sue.

CHAPTER IX

TWO DISAPPEARANCES

For a moment the two children looked out of the automobile windows at
the strange sight. Then, unable longer to think of going to bed when
there was likely to be some excitement, they both came out from behind
the curtains that screened off their cots, and cried together:

"Dix has got a cow!"

"Dix has got a _what_?" asked Mrs. Brown, thinking she had not
understood.

"Dix has got a _cow_!" went on Bunny. "He's leading her by a rope. I
guess he thinks it's our cow."

"Well, what will those dogs do next?" asked Mr. Brown, who was reading a
newspaper he had purchased from a passing boy, who rode his route on a
bicycle.

"It's true enough--about the cow," said Uncle Tad, who was outside the
automobile putting out the last embers of the campfire, that there
might be no danger during the night. "One of the dogs is leading home a
'cow critter,' as some farmers call them.

"It's Dix," he went on a moment later as the two dogs, both barking
excitedly, came close to the big moving van, Dix having hold of the rope
that was tied fast to the cow's neck. He was leading her along, and the
cow did not appear to mind. "Dix must have found the cow wandering along
the road," went on Uncle Tad, "and, thinking we might need one, he just
brought her home."

"Very thoughtful of Dix, I'm sure," said Mr.