It was still raining heavily, when Ardath and Arthur awakened from sleep. They had not only rested, but actually slept. It is much easier to sleep on a rainy day than on a sunny day.

The door of Grandfather's Study was open when they went downstairs. He was writing at his desk, but he looked up and greeted them with an unexpected question.

How would you like to come along to Berryville, with me, this afternoon?"

"I'll wear my boots and raincoat," Arthur was eager. "It will rain on us in the spring wagon."

Ardath did not seem as enthusiastic as Arthur. "The horse will get all wet." She sympathized. "But I'd like to go with you."

"Don't worry about the horse. We will leave him in the horse stable and the spring wagon and surrey can stay right in the wagon shed." Grandfather assured the children and surprised them all in one breath. "This is a day when an automobile comes in handy."

It had been such a busy week, Ardath and Arthur had no even wondered after that first day when Adam had not come to meet them in a station wagon when they had arrived, why no one used an automobile on the farm. Ardath remembered vaguely having heard a motor start the morning Father and Mother left on their trip.

"I didn't know you had an automobile." Arthur exclaimed. "Do you really have one? Where do you keep it? Why don't you drive it?"

Arthur had not been so excited all week.

Instead of answering the questions, Grandfather said, "Come on, we will see if we can find one."

The children followed Grandfather across the breezeway to a garage. They had not been to the garage, but once they had tried the door and found it to be locked. There had been so many other things to do there was no time to waste on being merely, curious.

Grandfather's car was a splendid one. They had never seen one like it. The steering wheel was on the right side of the car and there were many strange gadgets on the instrument panel which Grandfather pointed out to them, when he introduced them to the car.

"Children, this is ‘Old English'." Grandfather introduced them to his automobile as formally as he had introduced them to the dogs.

Both Ardath and Arthur sat on the front seat with Grandfather as he backed "Old English" out of the garage. They did not ask where they were going. It was surprise enough to be going to Berryville with Grandfather in his automobile, but a bigger one when he stopped in front of the motion picture theater.

The picture they saw was about a handsome collie dog that looked just like Hector. The collie dog in the picture obeyed orders and allowed himself to be harnessed to a small cart with children driving him. There were reins to the harness like the reins on Will Power's harness. The collie seemed to know where the children wanted him to go, as Will Power knew where Adam wanted him to go.

Arthur was wondering if he might teach Hector to pull him around in a little cart when Grandfather leaned toward him and whispered, "Not Hector, he is too old for such tricks." Arthur was disappointed. He had not had time to have the fun of thinking about it. It could have been fun, imagining, but not after Grandfather said he was to old for tricks.

"The puppies could be taught new tricks", Grandfather suggested.

Both children watched the action of the picture, intently. Arthur was so full of the idea of training the puppies that he talked about it when the show was over, all the way back to the farm.

During dinner time, he talked about the tricks the dog in the motion picture had cone and asked again about the puppies.

"Which one of the puppies may I train to do tricks?" he asked Grandfather.

"Can you tell the puppies apart?" Grandfather asked a counter question. "We better be looking at the puppies when we make that careful decision." Arthur agreed.

At the end of the meal, Mary brought a plateful of cookies the children had helped to bake. That was the third big surprise of the day. Grandfather did not put a limit on the number of cookies each child could eat.

He said, "I expect you will each know when you have had enough cookies."

Arthur wanted to go right to the dog kennels when he had eaten all the cookies he could eat. Grandfather went with him. Ardath helped Mary take the dishes to the kitchen from the dining room, then Mary said "Run along; you want to see the puppies, too."

Ardath thanked Mary for being so thoughtful. She really did want to see the puppies. When she go to the kennels, Grandfather and Arthur were talking seriously.

Ardath put her hand through the fence and patted a puppy. "You are too little to pull a wagon, aren't you, puppy?" She asked the pup.

"I was telling Arthur", Grandfather took Ardath into the conversation, "that it is too soon to tell which puppy would be the best for training."

"Next summer, if we come to visit Grandfather, he may have a bigger dog for me to train," Arthur told Ardath with more enthusiasm that could be understood because Arthur had been so sure the puppy training could begin at once. Ardath knew that Grandfather had a very special way of convincing people to do what was right.
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