That reminded Bobby; he was sure that he hadn't stepped on It while he wasn't thinking or he would have felt it under his foot as he did the spoon. Perhaps it might be somewhere along this mysterious, inviting white road, all covered with dust and lined with trees and bushes, that wound away further than anyone could see. It might be just beyond that turn; there where the meadow lark went sailing happily up into the sky. He would go there and look.
Dragging his toes in the dust to see if his lost birthdays might be covered up there, Bobby gained the turn in the road, and the next one, and the one beyond that, and still trudged on, his short legs aching and stumbling. He wasn't thinking about the thing he musn't think about! Why didn't he feel it under his feet? Perhaps because the water wasn't in his eyes so he couldn't see, as it had been when he stepped on the spoon. He began to fear he couldn't go much farther. Still he kept on.
Then suddenly the sun went entirely to bed. Bobby began to be frightened for he had never been out all alone with the darkness. When it's all dark, little boys can't tell what other things may be about. His lip began to tremble and now the water did come into his eyes. That interested him; it was so when he stepped on the spoon; it might be that he would find his—what he was looking for—now, and he stumbled on through the dust and the gathering darkness towards the next turn in the road.
As he toiled on, he became conscious of a gentle purring sound behind him that kept getting louder and louder. He was almost at the turn when there came a fierce honking right behind him. Blinded by the water in his eyes, he could but dimly see a great black mysterious object almost on him when he turned. He was too frightened to move. The thing came to a sudden stop just a few feet from him and he saw that it was only a 'mobile. A rough, young voice cried:
"Don't you know enough to get out of the road when you hear a car coming, you little—"
"James! You might have struck him!" cried a sweet, frightened voice from the body of the 'mobile. "We ought not to have tried to make home without having the lights on."
"Don't stand there in the way like a——" the rough, young voice began, but the woman's voice interrupted:
"The child is crying! Open the door, James."