ter on it sent a shower that hit Button and nearly knocked him off
the limb, while it also drenched Bella to the skin. She ran along the
limb and tried to climb higher, but when Kittie saw what she was going
to do, she turned the stream full on her and made her climb down the
tree instead of going up. Then she soused Button from the tip of his
nose to the end of his tail, and chased him down the same way. But
when he got halfway down, he jumped and ran for home while Bella ran
toward the barn and hid under it. Thus ended Button's adventure, as he
related it to Stubby and Billy.

CHAPTER VIII

STUBBY TELLS WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM

"Well," said Stubby, "my story isn't much to hear. You will have a
good laugh over it, I suppose, though I can assure you what happened
to me was no laughing matter.

"When we left here, Mr. Noland drove straight out into the country,
and you must know he is a fast and reckless driver. I nearly bounced
out of the car two or three times, for when he comes to a bad place in
the road, instead of driving slowly he puts on more power and goes
through lickety-split. As for turns and curves, I fell over on his lap
every time he went around a corner. But the worst of it is he is very
impatient if there is anything in the road that he can't pass. And it
seemed to me I never saw so many pigs, chickens and slow-going farm
wagons before. He would toot his horn, and the old farmers would not
pay the slightest attention or give him one bit of the road, but just
keep right on in the middle and jog along, giving us their dust. Mr.
Noland would drive up close to their wagons and toot his horn until he
would nearly break it. Then he would try to pass and nearly upset his
machine in the deep ditches that bordered the road. But he always made
it on two wheels, if not on four, and as he passed he would call out
all sorts of things to the stupid old drivers. His favorite
expressions were, 'Say, do you think you own the road?' and 'If you
want to sleep, you better drive your old hayrack and rattling old
bones to the side of the road,' or 'Now take a little of _my_ dust and
see how _you_ like it!' And all the time he was growing madder and
madder.

[Illustration]

"Consequently when we came to some cows with one of them lying
straight across the road and several others blocking the way as they
stood about, I hopped out to drive them out of the way. But an old cow
with a calf instead of running away from m