Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove Part 18

"Felt more as if we ran into something," Bunker answered. "But I didn't see so much as a canoe."

"We struck something under water, of that I'm sure," said Captain Ross.

"We'd better take a look. We're near sh.o.r.e, anyhow, and it won't take long to row over if we have to," he added. "But we surely did hit something."

"Maybe it was a whale," suggested Sue.

"Whales don't come up in the bay. They're too big and fat," declared Bunny.

"Well, maybe then it was a shark," the little girl went on. "They're not so fat."

Captain Ross and Mr. Brown hurried below deck again, but presently came up, and the seaman said:

"We can't find anything wrong below--no leak or anything. We may have hit a big, submerged log or piece of a wreck. Start the motor again, Bunker, and we'll see if that's all right."

The gasolene engine was not damaged, but something else was wrong. As soon as the machinery started there was a trembling and throbbing throughout the whole boat, but she did not move ahead.

"I see what the matter is!" said Captain Ross. "The propeller is broken.

It hit something."

"Oh, can't we go to Christmas Tree Cove?" asked Sue.

"We'll get there somehow," answered Captain Ross. "But the propeller is surely broken."

And so it proved. The propeller, you know, is something like an electric fan. It whirls around underwater and pushes the boat ahead. The propeller on the _Fairy_ had struck a floating log and had been broken, as they found out later.

"If we can't go by means of the engine we can sail," remarked Captain Ross, when it was found that the boat would not move an inch, no matter how fast the motor whirled around. "Hoist the sail, Bunker. We'll get Bunny Brown and his sister Sue to Christmas Tree Cove yet! Hoist the sail!"

"Oh, it's lots of fun to sail!" cried Bunny.

"I like it better than motoring!" added Sue, who was no longer yelling.

Soon the white sail was hoisted, and, as the wind blew, the _Fairy_ slipped easily along through the water. There was no "jiggle" now, as Bunny called it, for the motor was not running like a sewing machine down in the hold of the boat.

Nearer and nearer the boat approached the sh.o.r.e. The clumps of green trees became more plain. Soon little houses and bungalows could be seen.

Then the children saw a long dock extending out into the water.

"That's where we tie up," said Captain Ross. "I think the wind will hold until we get there."

"It's too bad you had such bad luck bringing us here," said Mrs. Brown.

"I'm sorry, Captain, that your boat is broken."

"Oh, a smashed propeller isn't anything," he answered, with a laugh. "I was going to get a new one, anyhow. I'll just land you folks and then I'll sail back to Bellemere and have my boat fixed."

"And then you can come back and get us," said Sue; "but not for a long, long time, 'cause Bunny and I are going to stay at Christmas Tree Cove and have fun."

"That's what we are!" said Bunny Brown.

Slowly the boat swept up to the dock. Then the sail was lowered, and she was tied fast. Next began the work of unloading the things the Browns had brought with them to keep house all summer in the little bungalow, which was not far from the dock.

Mr. Brown, Uncle Tad, Captain Ross and Bunker Blue unloaded the things, and Mr. Brown hired a man to cart them to the bungalow. Bunny and Sue said good-bye to Captain Ross, who, with the help of a man whom he could hire at Christmas Tree Cove, would sail his boat back later that day.

Then the children, with their mother, walked up a little hill to the little house where they hoped to spend many happy days.

"Oh, isn't it pretty!" exclaimed Sue, as she strolled up the path, bordered with clam sh.e.l.ls. "It's awful nice here."

"I hope you will like it," said Mrs. Madden, the woman who had been engaged by Mr. Brown to open the bungalow and sweep it out in readiness for the family. "I live near here, and we like it very much," she added, as she held the door open for Mrs. Brown and the children.

"Can you catch any fish?" asked Bunny, looking down toward the water and the dock where his father and the others were lifting things out from the boat.

"Oh, yes, there's fine fishing and clamming and crabbing," said Mrs.

Madden. "My boy and girl will show you the best places."

"That will be nice," said Mrs. Brown. "Now we'll have a look at the place." Neither Mother Brown nor the children had yet seen the bungalow which Mr. Brown had engaged for them.

They went inside, and while Mrs. Madden was showing Mrs. Brown about the house Bunny and Sue ran off by themselves to see what they could find.

Mrs. Madden was just pointing out to Mrs. Brown what a pleasant place the dining-room was, giving a view of the bay, when suddenly a great crash sounded throughout the house. It was followed by silence, and then Sue's voice rang out, saying:

"Oh, Mother! Come quick! Bunny's in! Bunny's in!"

CHAPTER XIV

IN THE DARK

Mrs. Brown, who had been looking at the beautiful view of Christmas Tree Cove from the window of the bungalow dining-room, turned to Mrs. Madden when Sue's cry rang out.

"Something has happened to those children!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Where are they calling from? I must go to them."

"That cry sounded as if it came from the pantry," answered the other woman. "It's just through that door," and she pointed.

As Mother Brown started for the place Sue called again:

"Please come quick! Bunny's in and he can't get out!"

"What can't he get out of?" asked Mrs. Brown.

Mother Brown pushed open the door leading into the pantry, and there she saw a strange sight. Sue was standing beside Bunny and trying to pull him out of a barrel in which he was doubled up in a funny way, almost as a clown in a circus sometimes doubles himself up to slide through a keg. Only Bunny was not sliding through. He was doubled up and stuck in the barrel.

"He's in," explained Sue, "and I can't get him out."

"And I can't get out either!" added Bunny. "I'm stuck!"

"Are you hurt?" asked his mother.

"No, not 'zactly," he replied. "'Cept it sort of pinches me."