Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods Part 11

"She my cow--give good milk for little papoose. What for you run away?"

he asked, going up to the cow, rubbing her neck and pretending to talk into her ear.

The cow mooed softly and appeared glad to see Eagle Feather.

"Well, now you've got your cow back you can come to our camp, get the soup and go to your cabin," said Bunny. "I'm glad you found her."

"Boy and girl, with heap good medicine find," said Eagle Feather. "Much thankful to you. Some day make bow and arrows for boy, and moccasins for feet of little girl with bear that makes fire eyes at night. Indian glad!"

"Oh, we were only too glad to help you," said Bunny. "Now we must be going back to camp."

"Me come--cow come too," said Eagle Feather, and he led the cow by the broken rope. They were soon back at the tents, telling Mrs. Brown how they had found the lost cow. Eagle Feather spoke much about the toy train and the Teddy bear "medicine," but Mrs. Brown laughed.

"This is better medicine than all the toys in the world," she said, as she gave Eagle Feather a big pail of soup. "Take it home to your wife and children."

"Me will--all much 'bliged," and Eagle Feather bowed. Then with a farewell nod to the children the red man went off into the big woods leading his lost cow, who seemed glad to be on her way home again.

Mr. Brown came home that night to stay two or three days, for Bunker Blue could take care of the fish and boat business, and when Bunny's father heard what had happened when Bunny put the toy track too near the edge of the hill, the little boy was told not to do it again, and promised not to.

"Eagle Feather was very good to you, and you must be kind to him and to all the Indians," said Mr. Brown. "So the wetting didn't seem to hurt your toy engine, Bunny?"

"No, Daddy. I shook off all the water."

"Well, we'd better oil it and let it stand all night to take off the rust. For if it gets rusty it won't run."

Bunny did not want this to happen, so he left his toy railroad out in the kitchen tent that night, near the stove in which a little fire was kindled.

No cows stuck their heads into the bedrooms of the tent houses that night, and Bunny and Sue slept soundly. So did Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Uncle Tad, but some one must have been around the camp with very soft feet in the darkness. For when Bunny awakened early, and went out to have a look at his toy railroad, he set up a cry:

"It's gone! It's gone! Some one has taken it!"

"Taken what?" asked his father.

"My toy locomotive, my cars, the tracks, batteries and everything! Oh, dear! My toy train is gone!"

CHAPTER VIII

"WHERE HAS SALLIE GONE?"

"What's the matter, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad, who, as usual, had gotten up early to make the fire in the kitchen stove. It had gone out during the night, though a late fire had been built to make warmth for Bunny's train.

"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Tad again. "Have you found some more lost cows?"

"No. I've lost something instead of finding it this time," said the little boy.

"What have you lost?" asked Uncle Tad, as he began to shake the ashes out of the cook stove, getting ready to make a new fire in it. The stove pipe went right out through the tent, with an asbestos collar around it so the canvas would not catch fire.

"I've lost my electric train," cried Bunny Brown, looking around the kitchen tent to make sure his toy was not stuck in some corner. "I was playing with it yesterday, and I had one of the cars when I went with Sue and Indian Eagle Feather to find his lost cow. Then I brought it back to camp and I put it here so the water would dry out. Now it's gone!"

"Yes, it seems to be gone," said Uncle Tad, looking carefully around the tent, after he had put a match to the wood kindlings. "And I know you left it here because I saw it the last thing when I came in to make sure the fire was all right before going to bed."

"Then who could have taken it?" asked Bunny.

"Well, as to that I couldn't say," answered Uncle Tad slowly. "It might have run off by itself, I suppose?"

"It couldn't have!" declared Bunny. "Of course it runs by itself when the batteries are connected, but they weren't this time. And the train wasn't even on the track, though the rails were piled up near it, and so were the batteries. Yet everything is gone!"

"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, coming into the kitchen tent to start the breakfast.

"My train is gone!" said Bunny sadly. "And I didn't hear anybody around camp during the night," he added, and told of finding out about his loss.

"Do you suppose you could have got up in the night, walked in your sleep, and hidden the train somewhere else yourself?" asked Uncle Tad.

"Well, about a year ago that might have happened," said Mother Brown.

"But Bunny is cured of his sleep-walking habits now. He hasn't gotten up for several months, unless, as happened the other night when the cow poked her head in the tent, he woke up and cried out."

"But no cow came into the tent last night, Mother," said Bunny. "Anyhow a cow wouldn't like to eat a train of cars."

"A cow eat a train of cars!" cried Daddy Brown, coming into the tent just in time to hear what Bunny said. "Say, is that a riddle?"

"No. But it's a riddle to guess who or what took Bunny's train of cars,"

said Mrs. Brown. "He says he left them here, in front of the stove to dry out the water as you told him to, but they are gone now."

"That's queer," said Mr. Brown, looking about. "Is Bunny's train the only thing that is missing?"

"It seems to be, as far as we can tell by a hasty look around. But we'll have to see," said Mother Brown.

Uncle Tad, Mr. Brown and Bunny and Sue looked carefully about the tent while Mrs. Brown got breakfast. They saw several footprints, for the children, as well as the grown folks, had been about the tents all day, and Eagle Feather, the Indian, had also been there.

"Who knew that you had a train of cars?" asked Mr. Brown of his son when a long search had failed to find the toy.

"Well, I told the boy who brings the milk, the b.u.t.ter and egg man, and I guess that's all," said Bunny.

"You told Eagle Feather," put in Sue.

"Yes, but he wouldn't take them," said Bunny. "He thinks they are big medicine for finding his lost cow. He wouldn't take them."

"I'm not so sure of that," said Uncle Tad. "Indians like bright and pretty things and that electrical train must have been a great wonder to them; especially to Eagle Feather, who is a smart Indian."

"Then why didn't he take my Teddy bear, Sallie Malinda?" asked Sue. "My bear, with the blinking eyes, helped find the lost cow as well as Bunny's train did."

"Of course it did," agreed Mother Brown. "I don't believe Eagle Feather had a thing to do with it. If the train was stolen by tramps we'd better get another dog, Daddy Brown, to keep them away."

"Oh, don't get a dog!" cried Bunny and Sue together. "Splash is the best dog that ever was!"

"Yes. But he is so friendly with everybody that he would just as soon a tramp came up to the tent as some of the farm peddlers," said Mrs.