Bobby and the Big Road  by Maud Lindsay

Taking Towser Home

B OBBY was ready and waiting when Florence and her papa and the jolly chauffeur came for him.

And the first question he asked them was, "Where is Towser?"

Towser was lying on the floor of the car and when Bobby patted him he thumped his tail and winked both eyes as if to say, "I am as glad to see you as you are to see me."

But Towser was homesick. Not even the juicy bones that Florence had given him for his dinner had made him forget Johnny.

He lay in the car with his nose on his paws, and looked so forlorn and miserable that it was hard for Bobby to believe that he was the same dog that had chased the spotted calf, and run down the Big Road to find the ox-wagon man.

But every time Bobby and Florence looked at him they laughed, for they knew how glad Towser would be by and by.

They planned what they would do when they got to Johnny's house:

When they were almost there, they would cover Towser up with a rug. Then when they stopped at the log cabin, Bobby would call Johnny, and ask if he had heard anything about Towser; and Bobby wasn't to laugh the least bit when he asked.

Then Florence would say: "I have brought you something, Johnny. It is here in the car"; and when Johnny came to see what it was, they would let him lift up the rug himself.

That is what they planned, but this is what really happened:

No sooner had they reached Johnny's house, and Bobby had called Johnny, than Towser jumped from under the rug, and began to bark, "Bow-wow-wow-wow!" Johnny could have heard him half a mile away.

"Towser, Towser!" he called, fairly tumbling out of the door; and nobody could keep Towser in the car then!

The children thought that they had never had so much fun in all their lives, as when they took Towser home to Johnny.