CHAPTER XVIII SELLING TICKETS

Though it was perhaps half a mile from where Bunny and his chums and the farmer stood to the field of corn where the cows were causing such trouble, still the animals were in plain sight, for they were up on top of a hill. They could be seen walking in among the rows of corn, tramping down much of it, and eating what they wanted.

 

Bunny stooped down, took hold of Patter’s head and turned it so the dog could look straight at the distant cows in the corn. Then Bunny spoke¹, while all the others kept silent.

 

“Patter, go drive those cows out! Chase ’em out!” said Bunny. “Go chase the cows!”

 

Patter barked once or twice, fixed² his eyes sharply on the cows, and then, breaking away from Bunny, ran to the canal, jumped in, and swam across.

 

[183]As soon as the dog was on the other side of the water he began racing³ up the hill, barking loudly all the while. From where they stood, the boys and the farmer could watch Patter plainly.

 

The dog ran the half mile distance much more quickly than the boys or Mr. Boardman could have done, even if they had swum over the canal. Reaching the field of corn, Patter rushed in, snapped at the legs of the cows, and so barked at them and worried them, but without hurting them, that they were glad to amble⁴ out of the cornfield into the meadow where they belonged.

 

“Well, that’s a pretty smart trick!” exclaimed the farmer. “I never saw a dog like that before. He’d be valuable to me. What will you sell him for, Bunny?”

 

“I’m never going to sell Patter!” declared Bunny proudly.

 

“How did you make him drive out the cows? I never saw him do it before!” exclaimed George.

 

“I didn’t know he could do it, either,” said Charlie and Harry⁵.

 

[184]“Well, my mother told me about a dog her father used to own when she was a little girl,” said Bunny, as he and the boys walked along with Mr. Boardman, who was going to mend the fence so the cows couldn’t get out again. “And this dog my grandfather had would chase pigs out of a field when he saw them, even if he was a long way off. So I thought maybe if that dog would chase pigs, my dog would chase cows—and he did.”

 

“He certainly did! I never saw a dog do better!” chuckled⁶ the farmer. “Any time you want to sell him, Bunny, I’ll buy him from you.”

 

“I’m never going to sell him!”

 

“Anyhow he’s going to be in a show,” added George.

 

“Who is, Bunny or his dog?” asked the farmer.

 

“Both of us,” answered Bunny. “So is my sister Sue, and our pony⁷ Toby, too.”

 

“We’re all going to be in the show,” added Charlie. “We’re going to do tricks and there’ll be an alligator⁸ and white rats——”

 

“And a trained rooster,” suggested Harry.

 

[185]“The admission is ten cents,” said George.

 

“I’ll take a ticket right now!” exclaimed the farmer, putting one hand in his pocket. “In fact I’ll take two tickets and bring my wife. It was worth more’n twenty cents to have the cows driven out of my corn.”

 

“We haven’t got any tickets ready yet,” Bunny said.

 

“But we’ll be selling them in a few days, and then we’ll bring you some,” added George.

 

“All right, I’ll take two,” promised the farmer.

 

The boys went with him up to the cornfield on the hill, where Patter was still on guard keeping out the cows. Then the fence was mended so the animals could not again get out of their pasture.

 

“Thanks, a whole lot, boys, for what you and the dog did,” called Mr. Boardman, as Bunny and his chums started away. “And don’t forget—I want two show tickets.”

 

“We must get the tickets ready,” said George to his chums, as they walked down the hill.

 

[186]“Maybe we could have ’em printed like real tickets,” suggested Harry.

 

“Pete Gordon has a printing press,” announced Bunny. “I guess he’d print ’em for us, ’cause we buy most of our groceries from his father.”

 

Pete Gordon was the son of the grocery store owner, and when the boys explained to him what they wanted he kindly⁹ promised to print the tickets for them. When they were ready the tickets looked like this:

 

GRAND SHOW

IN

BUNNY BROWN’S BARN

 

See the Trick Dog

See the Trick Pony.

SEE SISTER SUE

————

ADMISSION $10

 

That dollar sign in front of the 10 was a mistake, Pete said, and he had not noticed it until all the tickets were struck off. But, as[187] he explained to the boys, it didn’t really make any difference.

 

“You can easily tell ’em it’s meant for ten cents,” he remarked.

 

“And maybe it’s a good thing you did make that mistake,” said George. “When folks get a ten dollar ticket for ten cents they’ll think it’s a bargain!”

 

“That’s so,” agreed Bunny and his chums.

 

So they started out to sell tickets for the show, in which Patter was to play a principal part with Toby, the Shetland pony. But, somehow or other, the tickets did not sell very well. Many persons on whom the boys called with them laughed and said, kindly enough:

 

“Oh, I guess I don’t want any to-day. Come around some other time, boys.”

 

Finally, after many had refused to buy, the boys got together in Bunny’s barn to talk matters over.

 

“Something has got to be done,” said George seriously.

 

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

4 amble   

vi.缓行，漫步

参考例句：

• The horse is walking at an amble.这匹马正在溜蹄行走。
• Every evening,they amble along the bank. 每天晚上，他们都沿着江边悠闲地散步。

5 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

6 chuckled   

轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
• She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

7 pony   

adj.小型的；n.小马

参考例句：

• His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
• They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。

8 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

9 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。