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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"We had a dog Splash, and he ran away, too," said Sue.

"My dog would carry things in his mouth," went on Harry. "He used to
carry our paper, and sometimes he would take things you didn't want him
to, and carry them away."

"Oh, Bunny!" suddenly exclaimed Sue, "that's just what the big yellow
dog did. He took mother's pocketbook when we didn't want him to and
carried it away. Maybe this is the same dog!"

"What kind of a dog was yours?" asked Bunny of his new friend.

"He was a big yellow one," was the answer. "But he was never here in
this place, 'cause we were never here ourselves before this summer. So
he couldn't have taken your mother's pocketbook."

"But the pocketbook wasn't taken from here," said Bunny. "It was where
we live--in Bellemere. And it was a big, yellow dog! Could your dog run
fast?" he asked Harry.

"Oh, yes, terribly fast. But what's that about your mother's
pocketbook?"

Bunny and Sue told the story by turns, how they had seen the dog
running away with the pocketbook containing the five-dollar bill and
their mother's diamond ring.

"And he ran into a carpenter shop, and we ran in after him, and Mr.
Foswick locked us in, and Bunny broke a window, and we had a terrible
time!" explained Sue.

"I don't believe that was my dog," said Harry. "But Sandy--that was my
dog's name--would carry away lots of things in his mouth. I wish I had
him back. My father said he'd give a lot of money to find him--a reward,
you know."

"And I guess my father would give a reward if he could get back my
mother's diamond ring," added Sue. "But he can't. Bunker Blue says it's
gone forever."

"Children! Children!" called Mrs. Brown from the shore. "I think we had
better go now. It is getting late and it looks as if we might have
another storm. Come along. You have clams enough."

"Yes, I guess we have," said Bunny, looking in the basket.

The children started for the mainland, stopping in a little pool to
wash the mud off themselves and also to cleanse their shovels.

Bunny "sozzled" the basket of clams in the water to wash them, and when
Mrs. Brown explained how she made them into chowder Mrs. Slater
remarked:

"I wish they served that at the hotel."

"Won't you and Harry come over and have supper with us this evening?"
asked Mrs. Brown. "We'll give you some of the chowder then."

"Oh, yes, Mother, please do!" begged Harry, and Mrs. Slater consented.

"I'll tell you more about my lost dog when I come over to-night," called
Harry to Bunny and Sue, as they parted.

That evening Mrs. Slater and her son Harry were guests of the Browns at
supper, at which was served the chowder made from the clams dug by the
children that afternoon.

"It is delicious!" said Mrs. Slater, as she was helped to a second
plateful.

"I like it lots!" declared Harry. "I guess Sandy would, too, if he was
here."

"What's this about your dog being lost?" asked Mr. Brown, for he had
heard the children talking about it.

"We did lose a very valuable animal," explained Mrs. Slater. "We were
out automobiling one day, and in driving through a place called
Bellemere, on Sandport Bay----"

"Bellemere!" cried Bunny Brown. "Why, that's where we live!"

"That's where our dog was lost," said Mrs. Slater, smiling at him. "For
some reason he leaped out of the auto and went bounding away down the
street. My husband stopped and tried to get him back, but he would not
come. And he has been lost ever since. Harry misses him very much."

"What day was it that your dog ran away?" asked Mr. Brown, with a look
at his wife.

"Why, it was--let me see," answered Mrs. Slater slowly. "It was on----"

Her words were interrupted by a loud crash of thunder that shook the
bungalow, and all the electric lights suddenly went out.

"Oh!" cried Bunny, Sue, and Harry, all at the same time.

"I presume we're in for another storm," said Mr. Brown. "Sit still
until I light some candles. Often the electric lights go out in a severe
thunderstorm."

As Mr. Brown arose to strike a match another loud clap of thunder pealed
out.

CHAPTER XX

THE FLOATING BOX

The electric light service in Christmas Tree Cove was uncertain in
storms, and Mr. Brown always kept a supply of candles on hand, as well
as some kerosene lamps. Soon there was plenty of light in the room, and
as supper was about over when the storm broke the family and their two
visitors went into the sitting-room of the bungalow.

"I don't like storms," said Harry, and he kept close to his mother.

"There isn't any danger," remarked Mr. Brown. "The lightning hardly ever
strikes near the ocean or the bay. I think it may hit out far from
shore. But no houses have ever been struck up here."

"I guess the Christmas trees keep it away," said Bunny.

"Perhaps," laughed his mother. "It isn't bad, now that the worst
outburst is over. Come, Harry, tell us about your lost dog. We have lost
one, too."

So, while the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed, Mrs. Slater and
Harry told about their dog Sandy.

"And so he left us in Bellemere, and we haven't seen him since,"
finished Harry's mother.

"How strange!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "He left you the same day the
strange dog ran into our yard, where Bunny and Sue were playing seesaw,
and grabbed up my pocketbook. I wonder if, by any chance, it could be
the same animal in both cases."

"This dog was a big, yellow one," said Bunny, and he described the
animal that had caused him and Sue so much trouble.

"Sandy was yellow in color," remarked Mrs. Slater. "But I would not call
him a very large dog."

"Perhaps the dog that took my wife's pocketbook and diamond ring seemed
larger to Bunny and Sue than he really was," said Mr. Brown. "He rushed
into the yard and out again so quickly that he may have looked extra
big."

"It would be very strange if it should turn out to be our dog who made
so much trouble over your pocketbook," went on Harry's mother. "Sandy
did have a bad habit of running off with things. We tried to break him
of it. And, now that I recall it, he took one of my gloves when he
leaped out of the auto that day."

"The big, yellow dog that came into our yard and took my mother's
pocketbook didn't have any gloves on," explained Sue.

"No, he wouldn't be likely to have any on," agreed Mrs. Slater. "But he
might have carried one in his mouth."

"I didn't see it," said Bunny, shaking his head. "But he took the
pocketbook in his mouth and ran away."

They talked over the dog matter for some time, and then, as the storm
seemed to be growing worse again, Mrs. Slater began to think it was time
for her and Harry to go back to the hotel. A closed automobile was
called from the village, and in that the lady and her son prepared to
go to their hotel. It was then about eight o'clock in the evening.

"Mr. Slater has advertised for our lost dog," his wife said, as she was
departing. "If we ever find him, Bunny and Sue can look at Sandy and
make sure whether or not he is the dog that ran into their yard. Though,
of course, that will not bring back your ring, I am sorry to say," she
added.

The storm kept up all night and part of the next day. It rained hard and
the wind blew, though the thunder and lightning were soon over. It
settled into what the cove dwellers called a "nor'easter," and it was
not at all pleasant.

Bunny and Sue could not go out to play, but Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue
amused the children indoors. Mr. Brown had to go back to Bellemere, but
he went on the train, as the bay was so rough the boat did not run, and
Captain Ross had not returned with the _Fairy_.

"I wish Harry could come over and play with us," said Bunny on the
second day of the storm, as he stood with his nose pressed against the
window.

"It will be clear to-morrow," said Bunker Blue, who had come in from a
trip to the store. "The wind is working around and the sun will be out
to-morrow."

Bunny and Sue certainly hoped so, and when they arose the next morning
the first thing they did was to run to the window and look out
anxiously.

Bunker's prophecy had come true. The sun was shining and the wind was no
longer blowing, though the water in the bay was still rough.

"Let's go down to the beach!" cried Bunny, as soon as breakfast was
over. "Maybe we'll find a lot of things washed up on shore."

This was not unusual, for the storms along the coast, even in summer,
sometimes caused wrecks, and parts of them were often washed up on the
beach.

"Yes, let's," agreed Sue.

A little later Bunny and Sue were running down to the sandy shore, and
there they saw their new friend Harry, who was walking along with his
mother.

"Wasn't it a terrible storm?" called Mrs. Slater, when she saw the two
Brown children. "I never remember a worse one!"

"Yes, it was bad," agreed Bunny. "It was worse than when we were on the
_Fairy_. Did you see anything washed up?" he asked.

"Not yet," replied Harry. "What do you find after a storm?"

"Oh, lots of things," answered Bunny. "Once I saw a whale washed up on
shore. He was awful big."

"I wish I could see a whale washed up," said Harry longingly.

He looked across the tumbling waters of Christmas Tree Cove, as though
he might catch sight of some monster of the sea. But there was nothing
in view just then.

The three children, with Mrs. Slater, walked along a little farther.
Suddenly Sue, who was a short distance ahead, gave a delighted cry.

"What is it?" asked Bunny. "A cocoanut?" Once a ship laden with
cocoanuts had been wrecked and the shore strewn with the nuts.

"Is it a whale?" asked Harry.

"It's a big box," answered Sue, pointing. "Look, it's floating out
there, and I guess it's coming to shore right here."

The others looked toward the object at which Sue pointed and saw,
bobbing up and down in the waves, what appeared to be a large chest. The
wind and tide were fast bringing it up to where they stood on the
beach.

CHAPTER XXI

MR. RAVENWOOD

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood with Harry Slater and his mother on
the beach and watched the wind and the tide bringing nearer and nearer
to shore the floating box. As it came into plainer view, the children
could see that it was no ordinary refuse of the sea, like a broken
orange or lemon box, some of which floated ashore at Bellemere.

"That's a nice, good box," said Bunny, as he watched it bobbing up and
down on the waves. "It's a box just like Mr. Foswick, the carpenter,
makes."

"And it isn't broken, either," added Sue. Usually the boxes she and her
brother found on the beach were empty and smashed.

"Maybe it has something in it," suggested Harry. "Oh, wouldn't it be
funny if my dog was in it!" he cried.

"How could your dog be in it, dear?" asked his mother. "Sandy was lost
on shore. How could he be out in the ocean?"

"Well, maybe, after he jumped out of our auto he went on a boat and
maybe the boat sank and he got in this box, like a little boat, and now
he's coming back to me," explained Harry.

"Oh, no, you mustn't hope for any such good luck as that," said his
mother, with a smile. "If Sandy were in that box you would hear him
barking. And, besides, that box seems to be tightly nailed or screwed
shut. We'll soon see what's in it, for it is coming ashore," she added.

"Maybe it's Sandy," insisted Harry.

"I don't think there's any dog in it," Sue remarked. "But maybe there's
pirates' gold."

"Maybe," assented Bunny.

"What's pirates' gold?" asked Harry.

"It's gold the robber pirates take off ships," explained Bunny. "And
they put it in boxes, and then they bring it on shore and bury it in the
sand, and then they make a map in red ink so they won't forget where
they buried the box, and then they go off and get more gold, the
pirates do."

"What makes 'em bury the gold they already have?" asked Harry.

"So nobody can find it," explained Bunny.

Bunny and Sue liked to hear tales of the sea. Bunker Blue had told them
some, and I am afraid they were not altogether true, however interesting
they were.

"But that can't be a pirates' box," said Sue, "'cause I don't see any
pirates, and they wouldn't send a box to shore all by itself."

"No," agreed Bunny, "I guess they wouldn't, 'cause a box couldn't bury
itself in the sand. But I think there's something in this box."

"It does seem so," said Mrs. Slater, who was now quite as interested as
were the children. "Look," she went on. "It is going to come ashore at
that little point. Let's walk out on it, and we can pull it up on the
sand."

A little tongue of land extended out into the water near the spot where
they were standing, and soon Bunny, his sister, and Harry and Mrs.
Slater were out on the very tip of it, waiting for the box to be washed
ashore. The tide was rising, and the waves were still rather high on
account of the storm.

Nearer and nearer the box came, but when it was almost at the point of
land it seemed about to be washed away, farther up the coast.

"Oh, it is going past us!" exclaimed Mrs. Slater.

"I can wade in and get it!" said Bunny. "I'll take off my shoes and
stockings and get it," and, sitting down, he began to do this.

"I don't want to take off my shoes. You can get it without me, Bunny,"
remarked Sue.

"May I wade in, Mother?" asked Harry.

"It isn't deep," said Bunny, as Mrs. Slater hesitated. "And we won't
have to wade out very far."

"All right," agreed Harry's mother, with a smile. "You two boys may wade
in, and Sue and I will watch you. But maybe the box will be too heavy
for you."

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny, as Harry began taking off his shoes and
stockings. "Things in the water move easy. I can push or pull a big boat
all alone, if it's in the water, but I can't if it's on land. And the
box isn't very big."

"I wonder what's in it," said Sue, as her brother and Harry prepared to
wade out. "Maybe it's a lot of dolls from China."

"What makes you think it might be that?" asked Mrs. Slater, as she put
the boys' shoes and stockings up on the sand.

"Once some Chinese dolls came ashore at Bellemere," said Sue. "I got
one, but her eyes were washed out. I always had to make believe she was
asleep."

"How did they happen to come ashore?" asked Mrs. Slater.

"A ship that was coming from China got wrecked," explained Sue, "and the
boxes with the dolls in washed up on shore. But I guess this isn't a
doll box," she added.

"It doesn't look so," said Harry's mother. "It seems to be a very heavy
case, such as machinery comes in, but of course there can't be machinery
in it, or it would sink."

"And there can't be a dog in it, or he'd smother," added Sue, "'cause
the cover is nailed on tight."

The box was near the point of land now, and Bunny and Harry were wading
out to get it. Mrs. Slater and Sue could see that the box was a square
one, about three feet long, and as many high and wide. And there was a
cover on it.

"Catch hold now!" cried Bunny to Harry, and the two boys took hold of
the sides of the box and easily guided it up to the beach. It soon
grounded in the shallow water, but it was so heavy that when Bunny and
Harry had got it to the shore of the point of land they could move it no
farther.

"It's nailed tight shut all around," Bunny said, as he looked on all
four sides.

"Ain't there a cover that you can put back like on a trunk?" Sue wanted
to know.

"No, there ain't," answered Harry, "for if there was the hinges would
show--they always do."

"Oh, what do you think can really be in it?" cried Sue, dancing around
in excitement.

"Maybe it's a boat chest of some sort," suggested Bunny, who had heard
Captain Ross speak of such things.

"From China?"

"Oh, I guess it couldn't come from as far away as that."

"Course it couldn't," declared Harry.

"Children, I think we have made quite a find," said Mrs. Slater, as she
looked carefully at the box. "I wonder to whom it belongs."

"There's a name printed on it over here," said Bunny, pointing to the
side of the box turned away from shore.

"What does it say?" asked Mrs. Slater, for she could not look without
stepping into the water.

"There's an F and an R and an A and an N and a K," said Bunny slowly.

"That spells Frank," said Mrs. Slater. "What else is there?"

Bunny spelled out the rest of the name, and also an address.

"Well, then it would seem this box belongs to a Mr. Frank Ravenwood of
Sea Gate," said Harry's mother. "Is there anything else on that side,
Bunny?"

"No'm," he answered.

"Frank Ravenwood, of Sea Gate," went on Mrs. Slater. "Where is Sea Gate,
Bunny?"

"It's on the coast, just down below where we live," was the answer.

"Then we can write and tell Mr. Ravenwood of Sea Gate that we have his
box that was washed ashore," went on Harry's mother. "But we must get it
higher up on the beach or it will wash away again. I wonder----"

But she suddenly stopped, for Sue gave a cry of alarm and pointed toward
shore.

"Oh, look!" exclaimed the little girl. "Look!"

CHAPTER XXII

THE SURPRISING LETTER

Mrs. Slater was so interested in looking at the strange box which had
been washed up on shore, and was thinking so deeply about the name of
Frank Ravenwood which Bunny spelled for her that, for the moment, she
did not quite understand what Sue meant.

"What is it, Sue?" she asked the little girl, for Sue kept on pointing
toward something behind Mrs. Slater.

"The tide!" exclaimed Bunny's sister. "The tide's coming up and it's
washing over the sand and we're on an island! We can't get back lessen
we wade!"

Mrs. Slater gave a startled cry, and looked toward where Sue pointed.

Surely enough, while they had been watching the box and while Bunny and
Harry had been getting it to shore the tide had risen and now covered
part of the strip of sand on which they had all walked out. As Sue said,
it was an island, and the only way to get to shore was to wade.

"I'm going to take off my shoes and stockings!" cried the little girl,
hopping up on the box and beginning to loosen her laces. "You'd better
take off your shoes, too, Mrs. Slater. If you don't you'll get your feet
wet when you have to wade to shore. Course you haven't got your mother
here to scold you if you get your shoes wet, but maybe your husband
mightn't like it," went on Sue. "You can wade same as I can."

"We don't have to take off our shoes and stockings, 'cause we have 'em
off already," said Bunny. "Harry and I can wade."

"It looks as if I'd have to do that," said Harry's mother. "I wonder if
the water is very deep," she went on, as she looked at the water which
had covered the shore end of the little tongue of land.

"No, it isn't deep!" declared Bunny, and he waded out into it. "But it
keeps on getting deeper when the tide comes up. You'd better take your
shoes and stockings off now, Mrs. Slater, else maybe it'll be away up
over your head soon."

"I shouldn't want that to happen," she said, with a laugh. "I believe I
shall have to do as you children have done, and go barefoot," and she
glanced at Sue, who, by this time, had off her shoes and stockings.

Harry's mother looked at the stretch of water separating the little
party from the mainland. As Bunny had said, it would get deeper the
higher the tide rose, though, of course, it would not go over Mrs.
Slater's head. She sat down on the box, as Sue had done, and was just
beginning to take off her shoes when a voice called to them.

"Wait a minute! I'm coming to get you!" was what they all heard, and,
looking up, Bunny Brown saw Bunker Blue rowing along in his sailboat.
The sail, however, was not up now.

"Oh, Bunker, come and get us!" cried Sue. "We're caught by the tide,
and----"

"And we found a box and maybe it has pirate gold in it!" sang out Bunny.
"Look, Bunker!" and the little boy pointed to the box on the sand. It
was still partly in the water.

"I see," answered Bunker Blue. "I noticed that you'd been caught by the
tide, so I came in the boat to get you. Wait there, Mrs. Slater," he
went on. "There's no need of getting your feet wet."

In a little while Bunker rowed up to the place where the box rested and
where Bunny, Sue, and the others stood around it, the three children
barefooted. The little tongue, or peninsula, of land, was now an island,
rapidly growing smaller in size as the tide rose.

"Get in the boat and I'll row you to shore," said Bunker, as he grounded
his craft in the sand.

"Have we got to leave the box here?" asked Bunny.

"No, I'll come back and get that after I land you," said the fish boy.

So they all got into the boat, and it did not take Bunker Blue long to
row them to shore. Then he went back, and, after a little hard work, he
managed to get the box into his boat.

"I'll row this box down to the dock," called Bunker to those on shore.
"You walk along the beach until you meet me. Then we can see what's in
it."

This was done, and soon Uncle Tad and Mrs. Brown were down on the little
pier of Christmas Tree Cove, looking at the box and wondering what could
be in it.

"It's heavy, whatever it is," said Uncle Tad.

"Pirate gold is always heavy, I guess," said Bunny.

"Oh, it couldn't be gold!" declared Bunker Blue. "If it was gold in the
box I never could have lifted it."

"Let's open it!" suggested Sue.

"No, we must not do that," said Mrs. Brown. "When your father comes home
to-night I'll have him write to this Mr. Frank Ravenwood of Sea Gate. In
the letter daddy can explain how the box was found, and Mr. Ravenwood
can come here and get it if he wishes to. Until then, Bunker, you had
better take it up to the woodshed, where it will be safe from harm."

Uncle Tad and Bunker put the box on a wheelbarrow, and it was soon
stored in the woodshed back of the bungalow. For some time Bunny, Sue
and Harry wondered what could be in it, but, after a while, the children
ran off to play in the sand, and to wade and paddle in the water.

"Let's build a big sand fort," suggested Bunny.

"Oh, no, make it a doll house," cried Sue.

"All right, a doll house," said Harry, who was beginning to like Sue as
much as he did Bunny.

So they built a wonderful doll house of sand, with four rooms and an
elegant driveway. But just as it was completed the whole thing caved in.

"My! ain't I glad none of my dolls were in that," declared Sue.

Mr. Brown came up to his summer home that night, and, after looking at
the box, wrote a letter to Mr. Ravenwood, telling how it had been found.
This letter was mailed to Sea Gate, and then followed a time of waiting.
In the letter Mr. Brown had told how Bunny, Sue, and Harry Slater had
found the box.

"I wonder when we'll get an answer," remarked Bunny several times in
the next two days.

"If the box is at all valuable Mr. Ravenwood ought to answer daddy's
letter very soon," said Mrs. Brown. "I don't see how the box got into
the bay and floated all the way up here from Sea Gate. It is quite a
distance."

Three days after the strange find, when Bunny, Sue, and Harry were
playing with Rose and Jimmie Madden near the bungalow one afternoon,
Uncle Tad came up from the village with the mail.

"Here's a letter from Mr. Ravenwood, children!" said the old soldier.

"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Sue.

"Did he say his box had pirate gold in?" asked Bunny.

"I don't know. I didn't open the letter," answered Uncle Tad.

But Mrs. Brown soon read the note and, as she did so, a look of surprise
came over her face.

"Yes, that is Mr. Ravenwood's box," said Bunny's mother. "He is coming
here to-morrow in his motor boat to get it. But here is something else
very strange. I'll read it to you," she went on. Then she read:

"'Thank you, very much, for saving my valuable
box. I see a little boy named Harry Slater helped
in saving it. I wonder if he is any relation to a
Mr. Thomas Slater who has been advertising for a
lost yellow dog. I have found such a dog, and I am
going to bring him to Christmas Tree Cove in my
motor boat when I come after my box. If this is
the lost dog that is being advertised for, Harry
may have him back.'"

"Oh, I wonder if that is my dog!" exclaimed Harry.

"And if it is, I wonder if he can tell us where he left mother's
pocketbook," said Bunny Brown.

CHAPTER XXIII

"THAT'S THE DOG!"

When Daddy Brown came up to Christmas Tree Cove from his dock in
Bellemere that evening he, of course, was told about the letter from Mr.
Ravenwood.

"I am glad that we can give him back his box," said Bunny's father. "But
what is this about a dog?"

"You know we had a big dog named Sandy, of whom we were very fond," said
Mrs. Slater, who, with Harry, was paying a call after supper on the
Browns. "As I have told Bunny and Sue, one day, when we were out in our
auto looking for a place to spend the summer, Sandy leaped out and ran
away. We did all we could to get him back, but he disappeared, and we
had to go on without him, much to Harry's sorrow.

"The place where Sandy leaped from the auto and ran away was Bellemere,
and we were quite surprised when we got here to find that you people
lived there," went on Mrs. Slater, nodding at Mrs. Brown and her family.

"And maybe it was Sandy who ran in the yard and took the pocketbook when
Sue and I were having a seesaw out in the barn," suggested Bunny.

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