"I'm glad you did," said Daddy Bunker. "I'm sorry there was so much trouble, but I'm glad no one was hurt. I guess we can't depend on a mule for hauling our car out of the ditch."
"I guess not," said the canal boat man who had proposed using the long-eared animal. "General Sherman is all right, but he doesn't like to pull automobiles."
"Who's General Sherman?" asked Russ.
"That's my mule's name," answered the canal boat man.
"You children had better run back to Mr. Brown's now," said Daddy Bunker to Russ and the others. "We'll see what we can do toward getting the car out, though I don't see how we can travel any farther to-day. It means another night on the road."
"Oh, it's fun! I like it," said Rose.
"It will be all right if nobody walks in his sleep," added Russ.
"But I want to see mother and Mun Bun and Margy," said Vi, in a sad little voice.
"We'll see them to-morrow," promised her father. "And I talked to mother on the telephone, so I know she's all right, and she knows we're all right."
Vi looked more cheerful on hearing this, and soon she and the others were ready to start back to Mr. Brown's pleasant farmhouse.