Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove

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BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE

by

LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of
The Bunny Brown Series, The Bobbsey Twins Series,
The Outdoor Girls Series, The Six Little Bunkers Series,
The Make-Believe Series, Etc.

Illustrated

[Illustration: MRS. SLATER AND SUE WATCH BUNNY AND HARRY BRING IN THE
BOX.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove._
_Frontispiece_--(_Page 210_)]

New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
Made in the United States of America

* * * * *

BOOKS

BY LAURA LEE HOPE

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE

THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES

THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST

THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES

(Six Titles)

THE MAKE-BELIEVE SERIES

(Seven Titles)

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES

(Ten Titles)

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

* * * * *

Copyright, 1920, by
Grosset & Dunlap

Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE BIG DOG 1

II. IN THE CARPENTER SHOP 12

III. THE DIAMOND RING 23

IV. DADDY BRINGS NEWS 38

V. ADRIFT 47

VI. THE STRANGE DOG 59

VII. THE SLEEP-WALKER 68

VIII. A COLLISION 78

IX. THE MERRY GOAT 89

X. IN THE STORM 103

XI. WHERE IS BUNNY? 114

XII. CHRISTMAS TREE COVE 121

XIII. A CRASH 133

XIV. IN THE DARK 140

XV. BUNNY'S TOE 152

XVI. OVERBOARD 161

XVII. THE NEW BOY 170

XVIII. HELD FAST 178

XIX. ANOTHER STORM 187

XX. THE FLOATING BOX 198

XXI. MR. RAVENWOOD 205

XXII. THE SURPRISING LETTER 213

XXIII. "THAT'S THE DOG!" 221

XXIV. IN THE BOAT 228

XXV. WHAT STOPPED THE ENGINE 238

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE

CHAPTER I

THE BIG DOG

"Come on, Bunny, let's just have one more teeter-tauter!" cried Sue,
dancing around on the grass of the yard. "Just one more!" and she raced
over toward a board, put across a sawhorse, swaying up and down as
though inviting children to have a seesaw.

"We can't teeter-tauter any more, Sue," objected Bunny Brown. "We have
to go to the store for mother."

"Yes, I know we have to go; but we can go after we've had another seesaw
just the same, can't we?"

Bunny Brown, who was carrying by the leather handle a black handbag his
mother had given him, looked first at his sister and then at the board
on the sawhorse, gently moving up and down in the summer breeze.

"Come on!" cried Sue again, "and this time she danced off toward the
swaying board, singing as she did so:

"Teeter-tauter
Bread and water,
First your son and
Then your daughter."

Bunny Brown stood still for a moment, looking back toward the house, out
of which he and Sue had come a little while before.

"Mother told us to go to the store," said Bunny slowly.

"Yes, and we're going. I'll go with you in a minute--just as soon as I
have a seesaw," said Sue. "And, besides, mother didn't say we were _not_
to. If she had told us _not_ to teeter-tauter I wouldn't do it, of
course. But she didn't, Bunny! You know she didn't!"

"No, that's so; she didn't," agreed Bunny. "Well, I'll play it with you
a little while."

"That's nice," laughed Sue. "'Cause it isn't any fun teetering and
tautering all by yourself. You stay down on the ground all the while,
lessen you jump yourself up, and then you don't stay--you just bump."

"Yes," agreed Bunny. "I've been bumped lots of times all alone."

He was getting on the end of the seesaw, opposite that on which Sue had
taken her place, when the little girl noticed that her brother still
carried the small, black bag. Mother Brown called it a pocketbook, but
it would have taken a larger pocket than she ever had to hold the bag.
It was, however, a sort of large purse, and she had given it to Bunny
Brown and his sister Sue a little while before to carry to the store.

"Put that on the bench," called Sue, when she saw that her brother had
the purse, holding it by the leather handle. "You can't teeter-tauter
and hold on with that in your hand."

There was a bench not far away from the seesaw--a bench under a shady
tree--and Mrs. Brown often sat there with the children on warm summer
afternoons and told them stories or read to them from a book.

"Yes, I guess I can teeter better if I don't have this," agreed Bunny.
"Hold on, Sue, I'm going to get off."

"All right, I'm ready," his sister answered. You know if you get off a
seesaw without telling the boy or girl on the other end what you are
going to do, somebody is going to be bumped hard. Bunny Brown didn't
want that.

Sue put her fat, chubby little legs down on the ground and held herself
up, while Bunny ran across the grass and laid the pocketbook on the
bench. I suppose I had better call it, as Mrs. Brown did, a pocketbook,
and then we shall not get mixed up. But, as I said before, you couldn't
really put it in a pocket.

"Seesaw, Margery Daw!" sang Sue, as Bunny came back to play with her.
"Now we'll have some fun!"

And the children did. Up and down they went on the board their father
had sent up from his boat dock for them to play with. He had also sent
up the sawhorse. A sawhorse, you know, is made of wood, and, though it
has legs, it can't run. It's just a sort of thin bench, and a seesaw
board can easily be put across it.

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were gaily swaying up and down on the
seesaw, and, for the time, they had forgotten all about the fact that
their mother had sent them to the store to pay a bill, and also to get
some groceries. They had not meant to stay so long, but you know how it
is when you get to seesawing.

"It's just the finest fun ever!" cried Sue.

"I'm sorry for boys and girls that ain't got any seesaws," said her
brother.

"Oh, I guess a lot of boys and girls have 'em, Bunny. Daddy said so,
once."

"Did he? I didn't hear him."

Up and down, up and down went the children, laughing and having a
splendid time. Sue felt so happy she began to sing a little song and
Bunny joined in. It was the old ditty of the Cow that Jumped Over the
Moon.

"We'd better go now, Sue!" called Bunny, after a while. "We can seesaw
when we get back."

"Oh, just five more times up and down!" pleaded the little girl, shaking
her curls and fairly laughing out of her eyes. "Just five more!"

"All right!" agreed Bunny. "Just five--that's all!"

Again the board swayed up and down, and when Sue was just sorrowfully
counting the last of the five, shouting and laughter were heard in the
street in front of the Brown house.

"Oh, there's Mary Watson and Sadie West!" cried Sue.

"Yes, and Charlie Star and Harry Bentley!" added Bunny. "Come on in and
have a lot of fun!" he called, as two boys and two girls came past the
gate. "We can take turns seesawing."

"That'll be fun!" said Charlie.

"Can't we get another board and make another seesaw?" asked Harry. "We
can't all get on that one. It'll break."

"I guess we can find another board," said Bunny. "I'll go and ask my
mother."

"No!" said Sue quickly. "You'd better not, Bunny!"

"Why?" asked her brother, in surprise.

"'Cause if you go in now mother will know we didn't go to the store, and
she might not like it. We'd better go now and let Charlie and Harry and
Sadie and Mary have the teeter-tauter until we come back," suggested
Sue. "It'll hold four, our board will, but not six."

Bunny Brown thought this over a minute.

"Yes, I guess we had better do that," he said. Then, speaking to his
playmates, he added: "We have to go to the store, Charlie, Sue and I.
You can play on the seesaw until we come back. And then, maybe, we can
find another board, and make two teeters."

"I have a board over in my yard. I'll get that," offered Charlie, "if we
can get another sawhorse."

"We'll look when we come back," suggested Sue. "Come on, Bunny."

Sue got off the seesaw, as did her brother, and their places were taken
by Charlie, Harry, Mary and Sadie. Though Sue was a little younger than
Bunny, she often led him when there was something to do, either in work
or play. And just now there was work to do.

It was not hard work, only going to the store for their mother with the
pocketbook to pay a bill at the grocer's and get some things for supper.
And it was work Bunny Brown and his sister Sue liked, for often when
they went to the grocer's he gave each a sweet cracker to eat on the way
home.

Bunny, followed by Sue, started for the bench where the pocketbook had
been left. But, before they reached it, and all of a sudden, a big
yellow dog bounced into the yard from the street. It leaped the fence
and stood for a moment looking at the children.

"Oh, what a dandy dog!" cried Charlie.

"Is that your dog, Splash, come back?" asked Harry, for Bunny and his
sister had once owned a dog of that name. Splash had run away or been
stolen in the winter and had never come back.

"No, that isn't Splash," said Bunny. "He's a nice dog, though. Here,
boy!" he called.

The dog, that had come to a stop, turned suddenly on hearing himself
spoken to. He gave one bound over toward the bench, and a moment later
caught in his mouth the leather handle of Mrs. Brown's black pocketbook
and darted away.

Over the fence he jumped, out into the street, so quickly that the
children could hardly follow him with their eyes. But it was only an
instant that Bunny Brown remained still, watching the dog. Then he gave
a cry:

"Oh, Sue! The dog has mother's pocketbook and the money! Come on! We've
got to get it away from him!"

"Oh, yes!" echoed Sue.

Bunny ran out of the yard and into the street, following the dog. Sue
followed her brother. The four other children, being on the seesaw,
could not move so quickly, and by the time they did get off the board,
taking turns carefully, so no one would get bounced, Bunny Brown and his
sister Sue were out of sight, down the street and around a corner,
chasing after the dog that had snatched up their mother's pocketbook.

"We've got to get him!" cried Bunny, looking back at his sister. "Come
on!"

"I am a-comin' on!" she panted, half out of breath.

The big yellow dog was in plain sight, bounding along and still holding
in his mouth, as Bunny could see, the dangling pocketbook.

Suddenly the animal turned into some building, and was at once out of
sight.

"Where'd he go?" asked Sue.

"Into Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop," her brother answered. "I saw him go
in. We can get him easy now."

On they ran, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. A few seconds later they
stood in front of the open door of a carpenter shop built near the
sidewalk. Within they could see piles of lumber and boards and heaps of
sawdust and shavings. The dog was not in sight, but Bunny and Sue knew
he must be somewhere in the shop. They scurried through the piles of
sawdust and shavings toward the back of the shop, looking eagerly on all
sides for a sight of the dog.

"Where is he?" asked Sue. "Oh, Bunny, if that pocketbook and the money
are lost!"

"We'll find it!" exclaimed Bunny. "We'll make the dog give it back!"

As he spoke there was a noise at the door by which the children had
entered the carpenter shop. The door was quickly slammed shut, and a key
was turned. Then a harsh voice cried:

"Now I've got you! You sha'n't play tricks on me any more! I've got you
locked up now!"

CHAPTER II

IN THE CARPENTER SHOP

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were so surprised at hearing that harsh
voice, and at hearing the door slammed shut and locked behind them, that
they just stood and looked at each other in the carpenter shop. They
forgot, for the moment, all about the big yellow dog and the pocketbook
he had carried away. Then Bunny managed to find his voice and he cried:

"Who was that, Sue?"

"I--I guess it was Mr. Foswick," she answered. "I'm almost sure it was."

"Yes," agreed Bunny, "I guess it was. But what did he want to lock us in
for? We didn't do anything. We just came in to get mother's pocketbook
and the grocery money away from the dog."

"I p'sume he made a mistake," said Sue. "He must have thought we were
the bad boys that tease him. I saw some of 'em come in once and scatter
the sawdust all over. And I heard Mr. Foswick say he'd fix 'em if he
caught 'em. He must have thought we was them," she added, letting her
English get badly tangled in her excitement.

"I guess so," agreed Bunny. "Well, we'll tell him we aren't. Come on,
Sue!"

Giving up, for the time being, their search in the carpenter shop for
the strange, big yellow dog, Bunny and Sue walked back toward the front
door, which had been slammed shut. And while they are seeking to make
Mr. Foswick understand that he had made a mistake, and had punished the
wrong children, I shall have a moment or two to tell my new readers
something about the characters whose adventures I hope to relate to you
in this story.

The town of Bellemere, which was on the seacoast and near a small river,
was the home of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. Their father, Walter
Brown, was in the boat and fish business, owning a wharf, where he had
his office. Men and boys worked for him, and one big boy, Bunker Blue,
was a great friend of Bunny and his sister. In the Brown home was also
Uncle Tad, an old soldier.

In the first book of this series, called "Bunny Brown and His Sister
Sue," I told you many of the things that happened to the children. After
that they went to Grandpa's farm, and played circus, and there are books
about both those happy times. Next the children paid a visit to Aunt
Lu's city home, and from there they went to Camp Rest-a-While.

In the big woods Bunny and Sue had many adventures, and they had so much
fun on their auto tour that I could hardly get it all in one book.

When Mr. Brown bought a Shetland pony for the children they were
delighted, and they had as much fun with it as they did in giving a
show. That is the name of the book just before the present one you are
reading--"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show." In that volume
you may learn how a stranded company of players came to Bellemere, and
what happened. Bunny and Sue, as well as some of their playmates, were
actors and actresses in the show, and Splash, the dog, did a trick also.
But Splash had run away, or been taken away, during the winter that had
just passed, and Bunny and Sue no longer had a dog.

Perhaps they thought they might induce the big one that had jumped into
the yard to come and live with them, after they had taken the pocketbook
away from him. He was not quite the same sort of dog as Splash, but he
seemed very nice. Bunny and Sue kept hoping Splash would return or be
brought back, but, up to the time this story opens, that had not come
about.

The show the two Brown children gave was talked about for a long time in
Bellemere. Of course, Bunny and Sue had had help in giving it, and the
show was also a means of helping others. Now winter had passed, spring
had come and gone, and it was early summer. Bunny and Sue had been
playing in the yard before going to the store for their mother when the
strange dog had sprung over the fence, snatched up the pocketbook, and
had run off with it, darting into the carpenter shop.

"I don't see anything of him," said Sue, as she and Bunny made their way
amid the piles of boards and lumber and over piles of sawdust and
shavings toward the door.

"You don't see anything of who?" asked Bunny. "Mr. Foswick or the big
dog?"

"The dog," answered Sue. "I couldn't see Mr. Foswick, 'cause he's
outside. He shut the door on us."

"Yes," agreed Bunny, "so he did. Well, maybe we can open it."

But, alas! when Bunny and Sue tried the door they found it locked tight.
Bunny had been afraid of that, for he thought he had heard a key turned
in the lock. But he had not wanted to say anything to Sue until he made
sure.

Rattle and pull at the door as the children did, and turn the knob,
which they also did several times, the door remained shut.

"We--we're locked in!" said Sue in a sort of gasping voice, looking at
Bunny.

"Yes," agreed her brother, and he tried to speak cheerfully, for he was
a year older than Sue, and, besides, boys oughtn't to be frightened as
easily as girls, Bunny thought. "But I guess we can get out," Bunny went
on. "Mr. Foswick thinks we're some of the bad boys that bother him.
We'll just yell and tell him we aren't."

"All right--you yell," suggested Sue.

So Bunny shouted as loudly as he could:

"Mr. Foswick! We didn't do anything! We didn't scatter your sawdust! You
locked us in by mistake! Let us out, please!"

Then he waited and listened, and so did Sue. There was no answer.

"I guess you didn't yell loud enough," said Sue. "Try again, Bunny."

Bunny did so. Once more he shouted through the closed door, or at least
at the closed door. He shouted loudly, hoping the carpenter would hear
him and open the door.

"Mr. Foswick! We didn't do anything!" yelled Bunny Brown.

Still there was silence. No one came to let the children out.

"I guess we'd better both yell," suggested Sue. "You can shout louder
than I can, Bunny, but it isn't loud enough. We've both got to yell."

"Yes, I better guess we had," agreed the small boy.

Standing close to one another near the door, they lifted their voices in
a shout, saying:

"Mr. Foswick! Mr. Foswick! _We--didn't--do--anything!_"

They called this several times, but no answer came to them.

"I guess he's gone away," said Sue, after a bit.

"Yes, I guess so," agreed Bunny. "Well, we've got to get out by
ourselves, then."

"How can we?" his sister wanted to know. "The door's locked, and we
can't break it down. It's a big door, Bunny."

"Yes, I know it is," he answered. "But there's windows. I'll open a
window and we can get out of one of them. They aren't high from the
ground. We got out of a window once when Bunker Blue, by mistake, locked
us in the shed on the dock, and we can get out a window now."

"Oh, I hope we can!" cried Sue. "And can we get the dog out of the
window, too, Bunny?"

"The dog!" exclaimed Bunny, forgetting for the moment about the animal.
"Oh, I guess we won't have to get him out. He isn't here."

"But he ran in here," insisted Sue. "We saw him come into this carpenter
shop."

"Yes," agreed Bunny. "But he isn't here now. If he was we'd see him or
hear him."

"Maybe he's hiding," suggested Sue. "Maybe he's afraid 'cause he took
mother's pocketbook and the money in it, and he's hiding in the sawdust
or shavings."

"Maybe," Bunny admitted. "Well, I'll call to him to come out. He only
took the pocketbook in fun, I guess. Here, Splash, come on out! We won't
hurt you!" he cried, moving back toward the center of the shop and away
from the locked front door. "Come on, Splash!"

"His name isn't Splash!" objected Sue. "This isn't our nice dog Splash
that ran away, and I wish he'd come back."

"I know he isn't Splash," agreed Bunny. "But it might be. And Splash is
a dog's name, and if this dog hears me call it he may come out. Come on,
old fellow!" he called again coaxingly. But no dog crawled out from
under the shavings, sawdust, or piles of boards.

"Where can he be?" asked Sue.

"I guess he ran out the back door," suggested Bunny.

"Then maybe we can get out there, too!" cried the little girl, and she
and her brother, with the same thought, ran to the rear of the shop.

"Here is the door," said Bunny, as he pointed it out.

It was a large affair that slid back from the middle of the wall to one
corner. It was tight shut.

"And it's locked, too," cried Sue, pointing to a big padlock.

To make sure, her brother tried the padlock. Sure enough, it was locked,
and the key was nowhere in sight.

"I can slide the door a little bit," said Bunny, and by hard work he
managed to move it about an inch. This allowed a little of the breeze
to come into the carpenter shop but that was all.

"We can't get out through that crack," protested Sue, pouting. "Nobody
could. Oh, dear! I don't see why this old carpenter shop has got to have
all the doors locked."

"Hum, that's funny!" said Bunny Brown.

"How do you s'pose that dog got out with both doors locked?" asked Sue
of her brother.

Bunny paused to think. Then an idea came to him.

"He must have jumped out a window, that dog did," he said. "There must
be a window open, and he got out that way. And that's how we can get
out, Sue. We'll crawl out a window just like that dog jumped out. Now
we're all right. Mr. Foswick locked us in his carpenter shop by mistake,
but we can get out a window."

"Oh, yes!" agreed Sue, and she felt happier now.

But again came disappointment. When the children made the rounds of the
shop, looking on both sides, they not only saw that not a window was
open, but when Bunny tried to raise one he could not.

"Are they stuck?" asked Sue.

"No," replied Bunny. "They're nailed shut! Every window in this shop is
nailed shut, Sue, and the doors are both locked!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Sue in a faint voice, and she looked at her brother in a
way he felt sure meant she was going to cry.

CHAPTER III

THE DIAMOND RING

Whistling as cheerfully as he could, Bunny Brown glanced all around the
carpenter shop.

"Are you whistling for the dog?" asked Sue.

"No, not zactly," Bunny answered. "I'm just whistlin' for myself. I'm
going to do something."

"What?" asked Sue.

She knew that whenever Bunny was making anything, such as a boat out of
a piece of wood or a sidewalk scooter from an old roller skate, he
always whistled. The more he worked the louder he whistled.

"What are you going to make now?" asked Sue.

"Oh, I'm not going zactly to _make_ anything," Bunny explained. "I'm
just going to _do_ something. I'm going to open one of these windows so
we can get out, same as the dog did."

"But he didn't get out of a window," objected Sue. "How could he, if
they were nailed shut before we came in? And they must 'a' been, 'cause
we didn't hear Mr. Foswick hammering."

"Yes, I guess the windows have been nailed shut maybe a long time,"
agreed Bunny. "But, anyhow, the dog got out and we can get out."

"But how could he get out if both doors are locked and the windows
nailed shut?" Sue wanted to know.

Bunny could not answer that. Besides, he had other things to look after.
He wanted to get himself and his sister out of the carpenter shop before
Sue began to cry. Bunny didn't like crying girls, even his sister,
though he felt sorry for them.

"I can take a hammer and pull the nails out of a window where it's
nailed shut, and then I can raise it and we can crawl out," explained
Bunny to his sister. "There's sure to be a hammer in a carpenter shop."

There were, several of them, lying around on the benches and sawhorses
that seemed to fill the place. There were other tools, also; sharp
chisels and planes, but Bunny and Sue knew enough not to touch these.
The children might have been cut if they had handled the sharp tools.
Mr. Brown kept sharp tools at his dock for mending old boats and making
new ones, so Bunny and his sister knew something about carpentry.

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