Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods Part 20

"And will you find our lost toys?" asked Bunny eagerly.

"No, I don't promise you that. In fact I have given them up for lost, and have ordered new ones for you, though not such fancy ones. They are altogether different. I'll have them for you to-morrow night."

This set the children into a wild guessing game as to what their father had got, and they amused themselves until nearly bed time.

They did not notice that Mr. Brown left camp, nor that he wandered down the road, in the direction of the home of the ragged man. When Mr.

Brown came back, after the children were in their cots, his wife asked him:

"Did you find anything?"

"No, I can't say I did. I made a search around Bixby's cabin and went over into the Indian village to talk to Eagle Feather. But I didn't find out anything about the missing toys. I guess wandering tramps must have taken them. I'll get the kiddies new ones."

By this time Bunny and Sue were fast asleep, dreaming of the new playthings they were to have.

CHAPTER XIV

THE RAGGED BOY

"Ding-dong! Ding-ding! Ding-dong!" rang the breakfast bell in Camp Rest-a-While. Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, snug in their cots, heard it, stirred a bit, turned over, and shut their eyes.

"It's too early to get up," murmured Bunny.

"Yes," muttered Sue. "Much too early. I can sleep more."

And off to sleep she promptly went, Bunny doing the same thing.

"What's the matter with those children?" asked Uncle Tad, who was ringing the bell. He waved it through the air all the faster so that it seemed to sing out:

"Ding-ding-dong! Ding-dong-ding! Ding-ding--dingity-ding-dong ding!"

"Maybe that's a fire," said Bunny, wide-awake now.

"Oh, maybe it is!" agreed Sue.

"What's the matter? Aren't you ever going to get up?" asked Uncle Tad, looking into that part of the tent where Bunny and Sue had their cots.

"Where's the fire?" asked Bunny, though, now that he was wide-awake, he knew there was no fire.

"And will you take us to it?" asked Sue, making a grab for her clothes which were on a chair near her cot, and still believing in the fire.

"There isn't any fire," said Uncle Tad, "except the one out in the stove, and that's getting breakfast. Come on! What makes you so slow?"

asked Uncle Tad.

"Oh, but they were so tired yesterday, from getting lost, that I let them sleep a little longer this morning," said Mrs. Brown.

"It's long past getting up time," went on Uncle Tad. "If Bunny is going to be a soldier, and Sue a trained nurse they'll find they will have to get up much earlier than this."

"That's so!" cried Bunny. "I forgot I was going to be a soldier. And as you're to go to nurse me, Sue, you'd better get up, too."

"All right, I will, Bunny. But I'm dreadful sleepy."

However, now that the two were awake, from the ringing of Uncle Tad's bell and his talk about soldiers and nurses, Bunny and Sue found it was not so very hard to get dressed.

Then they fairly danced to the breakfast table, which was set out of doors, as it was a fine day.

"Where's daddy?" asked Bunny.

"Oh, he had an early meal and said he was going fishing out in the lake," said Mrs. Brown.

"He promised to take me the next time he went," said the little boy.

"He's coming back in a little while to get you both," said their mother.

"He wanted to have some good fishing by himself while it was nice and quiet in the early morning hours. When you children go with him, you laugh and chatter so, and get your lines so tangled up that your father can't fish himself in comfort.

"But he likes to take you, and as soon as he has a chance to catch some fish himself, he'll come back and take you out in the boat."

"Oh, that'll be great!" cried Bunny. "I'm going to get my fish pole and line ready."

"I don't want to catch any fish," said Sue. "I don't like to have 'em bite on the sharp hook. I'll go and get one of my dolls and give her a boat ride. But I wish I had my Teddy bear."

"He'd catch fish," said Bunny, winding up his line on the little spool, called a reel, on his pole.

"She's a she. And anyway, Teddy bears can't catch fish," said Sue.

"No, but _real_ bears can. Our teacher told us. They lean over the edge of a river and pull the fish out with their claws. Bears likes fish."

"But my Sallie Malinda isn't a real bear," said Sue.

"You could make believe he was," insisted Bunny. "And if you put his paw in the water, and sort of let it dingle-dangle, a fish might bite at it."

"She," sighed Sue. "But just as if I'd let a fish bite my nice Teddy bear! Besides, I haven't got her."

"No, that's so," agreed Bunny. "Well, I guess you'll have to take a regular doll then."

"And don't you let her make believe fall into the water, either, and get her sawdust all wetted up," said Sue.

"I won't," promised Bunny.

Then the children began to get ready for their father's return with the boat, and when Sue's doll was laid out in a shady place on the gra.s.s, and Bunny's pole and line were where he could easily find them, the little boy said:

"Let's walk down to the edge of the lake, and maybe we can see daddy quicker."

"All right--let's," agreed Sue, and the two were soon walking, hand in hand, down the slope that led to the water.