Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove Part 9

"Who?" asked his father.

"That big dog that took mother's pocketbook in his mouth and bounced away with it!" was the answer. "There he goes!"

Bunny pointed out a large, yellowish-brown dog just running around the corner of the next street. Then Bunny pulled his hand from his father's and raced after the strange animal.

"I'll make him show me where mother's ring and pocketbook are!" cried Bunny as he ran down the street.

CHAPTER VII

THE SLEEP-WALKER

So quickly did Bunny Brown pull away from his father to run after the strange dog that Mr. Brown had no chance to call to the little boy to be careful. Sue, however, who had hold of her father's other hand, seemed anxious.

"Maybe the dog will bite Bunny!" exclaimed the little girl. "Sometimes Splash used to growl if you took a bone away from him, and maybe this dog will growl if Bunny takes the pocketbook away from him."

"That might happen if the dog had mother's pocketbook," replied Mr.

Brown. "But I didn't see him have it, and I don't believe Bunny knows, for sure, whether or not this is the same dog."

"Maybe if he hasn't the pocketbook in his mouth he has it hid somewhere, and he's going to dig it up just as Splash used to dig up the bones he hid," went on Sue. "Let's go and look, Daddy!"

This was just what Mr. Brown wanted to do--to see what happened to Bunny, who had turned the corner running after the strange dog. So, taking a firmer hold of Sue's hand, daddy started to run. When they turned the corner they could see the chubby legs of Bunny working to and fro as he ran along some distance ahead of them. Ahead of him the big, yellow dog was also racing along and Bunny could be heard calling:

"Stop! Hold on there! Come back with my mother's pocketbook and her diamond ring!"

Several persons in the street were attracted by the shouts of the boy and his race after the dog.

"There'll be more excitement here in a little while than I want,"

thought Mr. Brown. "People will think there has been a theft, and they will join in the chase. Then the dog may get excited and bite some one.

I must catch Bunny and stop him from shouting."

Now Sue could not, of course, run as fast as could her father, and, though her legs worked to and fro in her very best style, Bunny was getting far ahead of them.

"I'll have to pick you up and carry you, Sue," said her father. And, stooping, he caught her up in his arms. It was easier for him to run fast this way, and he knew he would soon catch up to Bunny. As for the small boy, he was still chasing the dog. And the dog seemed to know he was being chased, for he ran on, looking back now and then, but never stopping.

"What's the matter, Mr. Brown?" asked a man who knew the fish dealer, as he saw Sue's father hurrying down the street, carrying her and racing after Bunny. "Has anything happened?"

"Oh, not much," was the answer. "My boy is trying to catch that strange dog, and I don't want him to--the dog might bite him."

"That's so," said the man.

"Stop, Bunny! Stop!" cried Mr. Brown, getting within calling distance of his little son. "Don't run after the dog any more!"

"But I want to get mother's pocketbook and ring," Sue's brother answered, as he slowed up and looked back.

"That dog hasn't it," went on Mr. Brown. "He has nothing in his mouth, and----"

"Oh, he has something in his mouth. It's red and I can see it sticking out!" interrupted Sue eagerly. "Maybe it's mother's pocketbook, Bunny."

"It's his tongue!" declared Bunny. "It's the dog's red tongue you see.

Mother's pocketbook was black."

"Well, this dog hasn't it, at any rate," went on Mr. Brown with a smile, as he put Sue down on the sidewalk beside Bunny, with whom he had now caught up. "And even if this were the same dog, we could not make him understand that we wanted him to take us to the place where he dropped the purse."

"I'm sure it's the same dog," insisted Bunny. "But he's gone now, anyhow."

This was true. Just as Bunny stopped after his father called to him the dog ran into an alley between two buildings, and though Mr. Brown, again holding his two children by the hands, looked in, there was no sight of the animal.

"Yes, he's gone," agreed Mr. Brown.

"You scared him, chasing after him like that, you did," went on Sue to her brother. "Didn't he, Daddy?" she asked her father.

"I guess the dog didn't need much scaring," said Mr. Brown. "Are you sure he's the same one, Bunny?"

Of this Bunny was quite positive, though Sue was not so much so. The animal looked like the one that had s.n.a.t.c.hed the pocketbook off the bench and had run into Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop with it. But that was as far as Sue could go.

The crowd which had started to gather when it saw the chase, now began to separate when it found there was to be no more excitement, and Mr.

Brown took a short cut through the back streets home with Bunny and Sue.

"We had a lot of adventures, Mother!" said Bunny, when they reached the house. "We got adrift on a boat, and we had a tow back, and I saw the dog that had your pocketbook, and I chased him and--and----"

"And I know a riddle about when is a snowdrift like a boat," broke in Sue, not wanting Bunny to receive all the attention.

"Gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "What does all this mean?" she asked her husband. "Did you really get back my pocketbook? Oh, if my ring has been found----"

"I'm sorry to say it hasn't," her husband said. "Bunny did think he saw the dog that took it, but I very much doubt that."

"And what's that about being adrift?"

"They were on the _Fairy_, and she floated out a little way from the dock."

"That's rather dangerous," said Mother Brown. "If such things are going to happen it will not be safe for us to go to Christmas Tree Cove."

"Oh, can't we go?" cried Bunny and Sue, thinking their mother was going to call off the trip.

"There was no danger," their father said, and he explained how it had happened. "It was not the fault of Bunny and Sue," he added. "The boat might have drifted off with any one on board."

"But it is strange if that dog should still be around here, after running off with my pocketbook," went on Mrs. Brown.

"I am not at all sure it was the same dog," her husband said. "Though Bunny may have thought it looked the same. But did you have any report from Mr. Foswick or Bunker Blue about their search in the carpenter shop for the pocketbook?" he asked his wife.

"Yes," she answered. "Bunker Blue and Mr. Foswick looked carefully. They swept out the shop, which hasn't happened in over a year, I imagine; but all they found was an old pair of spectacles Mr. Foswick lost six months back. Bunker was here a little while ago, and said there was no use of searching any further. He went back to the dock, as you told him to."

"It's too bad," said Mr. Brown. "Still, it can't be helped, and it shall not spoil our trip to Christmas Tree Cove. Can you be ready to start day after to-morrow?" he asked his wife.