Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove

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"I guess this hammer will be a good one," said Bunny, picking up one
with a claw on the end for pulling out nails. He had often seen Bunker
Blue at the boat dock use just such a hammer as this.

Bunny climbed up on a workbench near a window which, as he could look
out and see, was only a short distance from the ground. If that window
could be opened, the little boy and his sister could easily drop out and
not be hurt in the least.

"Can you get it open?" asked Sue anxiously, as she watched Bunny climb
upon the dusty carpenter bench.

"Oh, sure!" he answered. "We'll be out in a little while now; and then
we can go and hunt that big dog that has our mother's pocketbook."

"And the money, too," added Sue. "We've got to get the money and go to
the store, Bunny."

"Yes, that's right," he agreed.

With the hammer in his hand, he began looking over the window. He wanted
to see where the heads of the nails were sticking out, so he could slip
the claw of the hammer under them and pull them out by prying on the
handle. Bunny had not only pulled out nails himself before this, but he
had watched his father and Bunker Blue do it.

Bunny Brown also knew how windows were nailed shut. Once the Browns
owned a little cottage on an island in the river. They sometimes spent
their summer vacations in the cottage, and in the fall, when winter was
approaching and the cottage was to be closed, the windows were nailed
shut from the inside.

Once Bunny had helped his father nail the windows shut, and once he had
helped pull the nails out the next summer when the cottage was to be
opened. So Bunny was now looking for the heads of nails in the window of
Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop.

The first window he looked at was so tightly nailed, with all the heads
driven so far into the wood, that Bunny could get the claw of the hammer
under none of them. He made his way along the bench to the next window.
This window was nearer the street.

"Can you open that one?" asked Sue.

"Yes, I guess so!" exclaimed Bunny.

The little boy saw a nail head sticking out. He slipped the claw of the
hammer under it and pressed hard on the handle.

Whether Bunny had not put the claw far enough under the nail, or whether
the head was so small that the claw slipped off, neither of the children
knew. But what happened was that Bunny's hand slipped, the hammer also
slipped away from his grasp, and the next moment, with a crash and
tinkle of glass, the hammer broke through the window and fell outside.

"Oh, Bunny! are you hurt?" cried Sue, for once she had seen her mother
cut her hand trying to open a window that stuck.

"No, I'm not hurt," answered her brother. "But the hammer's gone out."

"You can get another. There's lots here," said Sue.

"But I can't fix the window," said Bunny, rather sadly. "It's all
busted!"

"It wasn't your fault!" said Sue stormily. "Mr. Foswick ought never to
have locked us in, and then you wouldn't have to try to unnail a window
to get out! It's his fault!"

"Maybe it is," said Bunny, leaning forward to look out of the broken
window.

"Don't try to crawl out!" exclaimed Sue. "You might get cut!"

"I'm not going to," said Bunny. "I was just seeing how far it was and
where the hammer went. It's on the grass, and it isn't far out of the
window at all. If we could only crawl out----"

"And get all cut on the glass? I guess not!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny!" she
suddenly exclaimed. "Look! There goes Mr. Reinberg, who keeps the
drygoods store. Call to him through the broken window, and he'll get us
out!"

Through the window, which he had broken with the hammer, Bunny had a
glimpse of the street. As Sue had said, the drygoods merchant was just
then passing.

"Hi!" suddenly called Bunny. "Let us out, please! Help us out, Mr.
Reinberg!"

The merchant looked up, down, and sideways. He could not at first tell
where the voice was coming from.

"Who are you and where are you?" he demanded.

"I'm Bunny Brown, and my sister Sue is with me," came the answer from
the little boy. "And we're locked in Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop."

"Oh, now I see you!" said the drygoods store man, glancing toward Bunny,
who could be seen through the window. "So you're locked in, are you? How
did it happen?"

"Mr. Foswick locked us in," said Bunny.

"He did! What for?"

"Oh, I guess he thought we were bad boys. But Sue isn't a boy; she's a
girl," explained Bunny. "If you could only open a door, or pull the
nails out of one of the windows, we could get out. I was trying to pull
out a nail and I broke the glass."

"Well, I don't believe I can get you out either way," said Mr. Reinberg,
and Bunny and Sue felt much disappointed. "I haven't a key to the door,
and I can't reach in and pull out the nails," went on the drygoods
merchant, as he came down the side alley and talked to Bunny through the
hole in the glass.

"But I'll go over to Mr. Foswick's house, which isn't far away, and get
him to come and let you out," went on Mr. Reinberg. "I'll go right away,
Bunny. Don't be afraid."

"Thank you; we're not," Bunny answered, as cheerfully as he could.

After the man had gone away it seemed more lonely in the old carpenter
shop than ever to Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. They walked away from
the window and Sue sat down on a bench.

"Do you suppose he'll be long?" she asked.

"Maybe not--Mr. Foswick doesn't live far."

To amuse himself and his sister Bunny picked up a handful of nails and
laid out a long railroad track. Then he got a big bolt and pretended
that was a locomotive and shoved it along the track.

"Where does the train run to?" asked the little girl.

"New York, Chicago and--and Camp Rest-A-While," said Bunny--the last
name being that of a place where they had once had a delightful
vacation.

He and Sue did not have long to wait. Soon along came the old carpenter
and Mr. Reinberg.

"Dear me! I didn't know I'd locked Bunny and Sue in," said Mr. Foswick,
as he opened the front door, unlocking it with a big key. "I thought it
was some of those pesky boys. They run in when I have the door open, and
when I'm away in the back part of the shop, and busy, they scatter the
shavings and sawdust all about.

"They came in once this afternoon," said Mr. Foswick, "and I made up my
mind if they did it again I'd teach 'em a lesson. So I locked my back
door, and I went into the alley near my front door. I knew all the
windows were nailed shut.

"Then, when I was in the alley, I heard somebody run into my shop, and,
quick as I could, I ran out, pulled the door shut, and locked 'em in. I
supposed it was some of those pesky boys, and I was going to keep 'em
locked up until I could go get their fathers and tell 'em how they
pester me. I didn't have a notion, Bunny, that it was you and Sue, or
I'd never have done such a thing--never!"

Mr. Brown often hired Mr. Foswick to do carpentry, and the rather
crabbed and cross old man did not want to offend a good customer.

"I'm very sorry about this thing I did, Bunny and Sue," went on Mr.
Foswick. "I'd no idea it was you I'd locked up. I supposed it was those
pesky boys. Both doors were locked--I made sure of that--and the windows
were nailed shut. I keep 'em shut so nobody can get in at night."

"Bunny tried to open one of the windows with a hammer," said Sue.

"And I--I guess I broke it--I mean the window," said Bunny. "I didn't
mean to."

"Oh, broke a window, did you?" exclaimed Mr. Foswick, and he seemed
surprised.

"If they hadn't broken the glass I might not have heard them calling,"
said the drygoods merchant.

"Oh, well, I guess you couldn't help it; and a broken window won't cost
much to fix," said the old carpenter. "I'm sorry you had all that
trouble, and I'm glad you're neither of you cut. Tell your pa and ma I'm
real sorry."

"We will," promised Bunny.

And then, after Bunny and Sue had started home on the run, for it was
getting late and toward supper time, Sue suddenly thought of something.
She turned back.

"Oh, Bunny!" she cried. "We forgot to ask Mr. Foswick about the dog!"

"So we did! The dog that has mother's pocketbook. Maybe he saw him run
out of the carpenter shop, and noticed which way he went. Let's go back
and ask him."

Back they turned, to find Mr. Foswick nailing a board over the broken
pane of glass.

"Well, you haven't come back to stay the rest of the night, have you?"
asked the old carpenter, smiling at them over his dusty spectacles.

"No, sir. We came back about the dog," said Bunny. "We were chasing a
strange dog that had mother's pocketbook, and he ran in here. That's why
we came in," the boy explained, and he told how they had been playing
with the seesaw when the strange animal jumped into the Brown yard.

"Did you see him come out of your shop?" asked Sue. "'Cause he wasn't in
there when we were."

"No, I didn't see any dog," said Mr. Foswick. "But there are some holes
at the back where he could have crawled out. That's what he must have
done. He didn't come out the front door. But we'll take a look."

It did not take the carpenter and the children long to search through
the shop and make sure there was no dog there. As Mr. Foswick had said,
there were several holes in the back wall of his shop, out of which a
dog might have crawled.

"What can we do?" asked Sue, looking at her brother after the
unsuccessful search.

"We've got to go home and tell mother," said Bunny. "Then we can maybe
find the dog and the pocketbook somewhere else. It isn't here."

"No, I don't see anything of it," remarked Mr. Foswick, looking around
his little shop. "You'd better go and tell your folks. They may be
worried about you. And tell 'em I'm sorry for locking you in."

Bunny and Sue hurried home. They found Mrs. Brown looking up and down
the street for them. The other children had gone away.

"Where have you been?" asked Mother Brown. "It is very late for little
people to be out alone. And where is my pocketbook and the groceries I
sent you for? Where is my pocketbook?" She looked at Bunny and then at
his sister, noting their empty hands.

"A big dog ran off with your pocketbook, Mother," explained Bunny. "He
jumped into the yard and picked it up off the bench when Sue was
teeter-tautering with me. Then he ran into Mr. Foswick's shop, and we
ran after him, and we got locked in, and I broke a window, and we
couldn't find the dog nor your pocketbook."

"Nor the money, either," added Sue. "There was money in the pocketbook,
wasn't there, Mother?"

Mrs. Brown did not answer that question at once.

"Do you mean to say a strange dog ran off with the pocketbook and
everything in it?" she asked Bunny.

"Yes, Mother," he answered.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown in a faint voice, and she sank with
white face into a chair. Mr. Brown, who had just come in, sprang to his
wife's side.

"Oh, don't take on so!" he exclaimed. "The loss of the pocketbook isn't
much. Was there a great amount of money in it?"

"A five-dollar bill," his wife answered.

"Oh, well, we shall not worry over that if we never find it," he went
on. "And you can get another purse." Daddy Brown was smiling.

"But you don't understand!" cried Mother Brown. "Just before I sent the
children to the store I was doing something in the kitchen. I took off
the beautiful diamond engagement ring you gave me, and put it in the
pocketbook. I meant to take it out in a moment, but Mrs. Newton came
over, and I forgot it. Then I slipped a five-dollar bill in the purse
and gave it to the children to go to the store. Oh, dear! what shall I
do?"

Mr. Brown looked serious.

"Are you sure the diamond ring was in the pocketbook?" he asked.

"Yes," replied his wife, and there were tears in her eyes. "The dog ran
away with the five-dollar bill, the pocketbook and my beautiful diamond
ring! Oh, what shall I do? What a terrible loss!"

CHAPTER IV

DADDY BRINGS NEWS

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know what to do or what to say
when they saw how bad their mother felt. There were tears in her eyes as
she looked at the finger which had held the diamond ring.

The little boy and girl well knew the "sparkler," as they sometimes
called it. Daddy had given it to mother before their wedding, and Mrs.
Brown prized it very much.

"It was very careless of me to put my lovely ring in the pocketbook, and
then to forget all about it and let you children take it to the store,"
said Mother Brown.

"But are you sure you did put it in the pocketbook?" asked Mr. Brown
again. "You may have done that, my dear, and then have taken it out
again and carried the diamond ring into the house before Bunny and Sue
went to the store. Try to think." And he sat down beside his wife while
the little boy and his sister looked on wonderingly.

"I know I left the ring in the pocketbook," replied Mrs. Brown, wiping
her eyes on her handkerchief. "I didn't think of it until a little while
ago, and then I thought Bunny and Sue would bring it back with the
change from the five-dollar bill. The ring was inside the middle part of
the pocketbook, and they wouldn't have to open that to get at the money.
Oh, children, did a dog really run away with the pocketbook?"

"Yes, he really did," said Bunny.

"And he run into the carpenter shop, and we ran after him, and Mr.
Foswick locked us in, and he was sorry, and Bunny broke a window, and he
was sorry, too," explained Sue, almost in one long breath.

"Well, that's quite a story," said Mr. Brown. "Let's hear it all over
again."

So Bunny and Sue told all that had happened, from the time they had been
teetering until they were let out of the carpenter shop after Mr.
Reinberg had heard them calling through the broken window.

"Oh, what shall I do?" asked Mrs. Brown once more, when the story was
finished.

"There is only one thing to do," said Mr. Brown. "I'll go back to the
carpenter shop, and Mr. Foswick and I will look for the pocketbook. The
dog probably dropped it among the shavings."

"Let us come, too," said Bunny. "We can show you where the dog ran in
the front door that was open."

"I think I can see that place all right myself," answered Mr. Brown.
"You children get your supper. I'll be back in a little while."

It was not a very joyful supper for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
Every once in a while they would see tears in their mother's eyes, and
they could not help but feel it was partly their fault that the diamond
ring was lost.

For if Bunny and Sue had gone to the store as soon as their mother had
told them to go, and had not stopped to play on the seesaw, and had not
put the pocketbook down on the bench where the dog so easily reached it,
all this trouble would not have come upon their mother.

Mrs. Brown must have known that Bunny and Sue were thinking this, for
she very kindly said to them:

"Now, don't worry, my dears. Perhaps daddy will find the pocketbook, and
the money and ring safely in it. I know you wanted to play, and that is
why you did not go to the store at once. But never mind. Mother should
not have left the ring in the pocketbook. It is largely mother's own
fault. Anyway, daddy will come back with the ring."

But Daddy Brown did not. Bunny and Sue had finished their supper, Mrs.
Brown taking only a cup of tea, when their father came in. It needed
only a look at his face to show that he had found nothing.

"Wasn't it there?" his wife asked, as he sat up to the table, though, to
tell the truth, he did not feel much like eating. He felt bad because
his wife was so unhappy about her lost diamond ring.

"Mr. Foswick and I searched the carpenter shop as well as we could,"
said Mr. Brown. "It was rather dark in there, and we could not see much.
But we found no pocketbook."

"Did you find the dog?" asked Sue eagerly.

"No, he had run out," said Mr. Brown. "We saw where he had scattered the
sawdust and shavings, though. Was it a dog you ever saw before, Bunny?"

"No, Daddy," answered the little boy. "He was a big, strange, new dog. I
wish we had him, 'cause we haven't any dog, now that Splash has run
away."

"I guess this dog has run away, also," said Mr. Brown. "There wasn't a
trace of him; nor of the pocketbook, either. But Mr. Foswick and I are
going to look in the shop again to-morrow by daylight. It may be the dog
dropped the pocketbook, and it got kicked under a pile of sawdust or
shavings."

"Did you see the place where I broke the window with the hammer?" asked
Bunny.

"Yes, the window was still broken," answered his father, who began to
eat his supper.

It was not at all a cheerful evening in the Brown home. Never before had
Bunny and Sue felt so unhappy--at least, they could not remember such a
time. They did not feel like playing as they generally did, though it
was a warm early summer night, and lovely to be out of doors.

"Never mind, dears," said Mrs. Brown, when she was putting them to bed.
"Perhaps we shall find the ring to-morrow."

"And the money, too," added Bunny. "Five dollars is a lot to lose."

"Maybe the dog ate it," suggested Sue.

"How could he?" asked her brother.

"Well, didn't Splash once chew up my picture-book? He ate one of the
paper leaves that had on it about Bo Peep and her sheep," said Sue. "A
five-dollar bill is paper, and so was my Mother Goose book, and Splash
ate that."

"No, I don't believe the dog ate the money," said Mrs. Brown. "It is
probably still in the pocketbook with my ring wherever the dog dropped
it. I should not mind the loss of the money if I could only get back my
lovely diamond ring. But go to sleep, dears. To-morrow we may have good
news."

And so Bunny and Sue went to sleep. They were up early the next morning,
but not so early as Mr. Brown, who, their mother said, had gone to the
carpenter shop to help Mr. Foswick look among the sawdust and shavings.

After a while Bunny and Sue went out in the yard to play with some of
the boys and girls who lived near by. And to them Bunny and his sister
told the story of what the strange dog had done.

"I am sure I saw that big yellow dog," cried Lulu Dare, one of the
girls. "It was down near Bradley's livery stable."

"Oh, maybe he's down by the livery stable now!" exclaimed Bunny.

"Let us go and see," added his sister Sue.

"No, I don't think the dog is there now," said Lulu. "He wasn't standing
still. He was running along."

"Did he have anything in his mouth?"

"Only his tongue and that was hanging out at first. Then he stopped to
get a drink at that box where Mr. Bradley waters his horses, and then
his tongue didn't hang out any more."

"Say, did that dog have a spot on his left leg?" asked one of the boys.

"Yes--a long, up-and-down spot."

"Then he wasn't the dog who took the pocketbook. That old dog belongs at
the hotel and he never comes up this way at all."

"Let us make sure," said Bunny; and a little later all of the boys and
girls visited the hotel. One of the boys was a nephew of the proprietor
so they had little trouble in getting the man's attention.

"No, my dog wouldn't do such a thing," said the hotel man. "He hasn't
been up your way. It must have been some other dog." And then the boys
and girls went home.

A little later Bunny went into the house to get some cookies, and then
he asked his mother if his father had come back with the ring.

"No, he telephoned that he and Mr. Foswick went all over the shop, but
they could not find the pocketbook," she said. "The dog must have
carried it farther off."

"Oh, dear!" sighed Bunny Brown. "What are you going to do, Mother?"

"I don't know just what daddy is going to do," she answered. "He said he
would talk it over when he came home to lunch. But don't worry. Run out
and play. Here are your cookies."

Bunny wanted to help his mother, but he soon forgot all about the ring,
the pocketbook, and the five dollars in the jolly times he and Sue and
their playmates had in the yard.

Soon after the twelve o'clock whistles blew, Bunny saw his father coming
along the street on his way home to lunch.

"Oh, Daddy! did you find mother's ring?" called the little boy, as he
ran to meet his father.

"No, not yet," was the answer. "But I have some good news for all of
you."

"Oh, maybe he's found Splash or the other dog!" cried Sue, as she, also,
ran to meet her father.

CHAPTER V

ADRIFT

The faces of Bunny and Sue shone with delight as they hurried along, one
on one side and one on the other of their father, each having hold of a
hand. Mr. Brown, too, was more joyful than he had been the night before
when the story of the lost ring had been told.

"Did you find Splash?" asked Sue, as she tripped along.

"No, I am sorry to say I did not," replied Mr. Brown. "I guess you will
have to give Splash up as lost. Though he may run back again some day as
suddenly as he ran off."

"And didn't you find the other dog--the one that took mother's ring in
the pocketbook?" asked Bunny.

His father shook his head.

"There was no sign of the other dog, either," Mr. Brown answered. "He
must have been a stray dog that just ran through the town. A sort of
tramp dog, I fancy."

"Then there isn't any good news," remarked Bunny, and he grew a little
sad and unhappy again.

"Yes, there is good news; though it isn't about mother's ring," said Mr.
Brown.

"Nor about a dog?" asked Sue.

"No, it isn't about a dog, either," her father said. "Come along, and
we'll tell mother. Perhaps it will cheer her up."

Mrs. Brown looked sharply at her husband when he entered the house with
the two children. She wanted to see if she could tell, by his face,
whether he had any better word than that which he had telephoned after
his visit to the carpenter shop.

"No," he said, in answer to her look, "we didn't find the pocketbook.
But Mr. Foswick is going to have a regular house-cleaning in his shop.
He is going to get the sawdust and shavings out of the way, and then we
can make a better search."

"I hope he will be careful when he takes them out," said Mrs. Brown. "My
pocketbook was not very large, and it might easily be thrown away in a
shovelful of shavings or sawdust."

"He will be very careful," her husband promised. "He is very sorry he
locked Bunny and Sue in his shop, very sorry indeed."

"Oh, we didn't mind!" exclaimed Bunny. "We were scared a little, at
first, but not much. Only I broke the window."

"Mr. Foswick didn't seem to mind that much," went on Mr. Brown. "The
'pesky' boys, as he calls them, certainly do bother him a lot by running
in the open front door when he is busy in the back of his shop. They
scatter the sawdust and shavings all about."

"Maybe some of those boys ran in and took my pocketbook and ring,"
suggested Mrs. Brown.

"Oh, no," explained Bunny. "We ran right in after the dog, and there
were no big boys around. We didn't see the dog run out, but Mr. Foswick
said there were holes in the back of his shop and he could get out that
way."

"Yes," agreed Mr. Brown, "he could. And he may have done so. We are
going to look around in the back of the shop as soon as the inside is
cleaned out."

"I do hope he will be careful," murmured Mrs. Brown.

"Why, the dog won't bite him!" exclaimed Bunny. "He ran away, that dog
did!"

"Oh, I mean I hope Mr. Foswick will be careful about looking in the
shavings and sawdust for my pocketbook," said Mother Brown.

"I will send Bunker Blue over to help him look," promised Mr. Brown.
"Bunker is a very careful lad."

"But what story are you going to tell us, Daddy?" asked Sue, as she
climbed up in her father's lap.

"A story! This time of day?" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, in surprise.

"She means the news," said Mr. Brown. "I have some for you, and I hope
you will think it is good, though it isn't about your lost diamond ring.
Did you children ever hear of Christmas Tree Cove?" he asked.

"Christmas Tree Cove!" exclaimed Bunny. "Oh, I know where that is! It's
up the river back of the bay. Is the dog there, Daddy?"

"Oh, no!" laughed his father. "Can't you think of anything but dogs,
Bunny boy? Well, as long as you know where Christmas Tree Cove is, how
would you like to go there to spend the summer?" As he spoke he looked
at his wife.

"Do you really mean it?" she inquired, her face brightening.

"Oh, won't that be fun!" cried Bunny and Sue together, almost like
twins, though Bunny was a year older than his sister.

"Well, I hope you will have some fun there," said their father. "Now
let's have lunch, and while we are eating I can tell you all about it."

"Is this the news you meant, Daddy?" asked Bunny.

"Yes," was the answer.

Christmas Tree Cove, as I may as well explain to you, was a sort of bay,
or wide place, in Turtle River, which ran into Sandport Bay. The town of
Bellemere, where Bunny and his sister lived, was partly on Sandport Bay
and partly on the ocean. The bay extended back of the town, and if one
sailed up the bay or went up in a motor boat one would come, after a
while, to Turtle River. I suppose it was called that because it had so
many turtles in it, and sometimes Bunny and Sue had caught them.

Christmas Tree Cove was so named because on the banks of it were many
evergreen trees, called Christmas trees by the children, and also by
some of the grown folk. And the cove had in it a few little islands. It
was a place where camping parties sometimes went, and often there were
picnics held there.

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