Bunny Brown and his sister Sue and their trick dog

by Laura Lee Hope

Now this was a trick that Patter had never been asked to do. It was not really a trick at all. In fact it was more useful than doing some of the tricks Patter could perform. For if Patter could stop Toby from running away he might save Bunny and Sue from being hurt. At any rate Bunny was going to try.

Leaning over the side of the cart, Bunny called to the trick dog:

“Stop him, Patter! Take hold of the reins and stop Toby from running away!”

Bunny snapped his fingers and pointed to Toby’s back. Perhaps he should have pointed to the trailing reins, but he did not. And Patter, pricking up his ears and looking at Bunny’s outstretched hand pointing to the pony, had but one thought in mind. This was to do the trick he had done before—that of jumping on Toby’s back.

And, in another instant, Patter leaped up, landed on the pony’s back and sat there. He did not try the trick of standing on his front legs as he had done before.

“Oh, look what he did!” cried Sue.

“Yes,” said Bunny. “I didn’t mean for him to do that. I wanted him to grab the lines from the ground.”

“Well, he can do it just as well from Toby’s back,” said Sue.

“Oh, so he can!” exclaimed Bunny. “Grab the lines, Patter! Grab the lines!” cried the little boy.

Whether Patter, crouched on the pony’s broad, fat back, understood these words or not, he saw the gesture and he reached forward and caught hold of the reins in his teeth, near the place where they ran through two shiny rings on the middle part of the harness.