OFF TO CAMP
Bunny Brown opened his eyes, and sat up in bed. Then he blinked his
eyes. Next he rubbed them. Then he looked all around the bed.
Yes, there was no doubt about it, he was in his own little room, with
the pictures he so well knew hanging on the walls, with his toys on the
box in the corner. It was his own room, and he had awakened in his own
bed, and yet----
"Sue! Sue!" called Bunny in a whisper, looking toward the open door of
the room in which his sister slept. "Sue, is you there!"
"Yes, Bunny, I'm here."
"And are you in your own bed?"
"Yes, I is."
Sometimes Bunny and Sue did not speak just right, as perhaps you have
noticed.
"But, Sue--Sue," Bunny went on, "didn't we go to sleep in the tent; or
did we? Did I dream it?"
"I--I don't know, Bunny," answered Sue. "I 'members about being in the
tent. And Splash was there, too. But I'm in my bed _now_."
"So'm I, Sue. I--I wonder how we got here?"
Bunny looked all around his room again, as if trying to solve the
puzzle. But he could not guess what had happened. He remembered how he
and Sue had gotten up in the middle of the night, and how they had crept
inside the tent. Then Splash had come; and how funny it was when Sue
thought their dog was a bear. Then they had all gone to sleep in the
tent, and now----
Well, Bunny was certainly in his bed, and so was Sue in hers.
"How--how did it happen?" asked Bunny.
He heard a laugh out in the hall. Running to the door he saw his father
and mother standing there. Then Bunny understood.
"Oh, you carried us in from the tent when we were asleep; didn't you,
Daddy?" asked Bunny, pointing a finger at his father.
"Yes, that's what I did."
"Oh, Bunny, what made you and Sue do a thing like that?" asked Mother
Brown. "I was so frightened when I came in to cover you and Sue up, and
couldn't find my little ones. What made you do it?"
"Why--why," said Bunny slowly, "we wanted to get some practice at
camping out, Sue and I did--just like they practice piano lessons. So we
went to sleep in the tent."
"Well, don't do it again until we really go camping," said Daddy Brown.
"When we are in the woods, at Lake Wanda, you can sleep in the tent as
much as you like, for then we'll have cot beds and everything right.
Anyhow, I'm going to take down the tent to-day and get it ready to pack
up for camp."
"When are we going?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, in about a week, I guess," answered his father.
"Then I'm going to pack up," declared the little boy. "I've got lots of
things I want to take to camp."
"And so have I," called Sue, who had run out of her own room. "I'm going
to take two of my best dolls, and all their clothes."
"You can take some of your toys and play-things but not too many," said
Mrs. Brown. "You must remember that you'll be out in the woods a good
part of the time, having fun among the trees, or perhaps on the lake. So
you won't want too many home-toys."
"Are we going to have a boat on the lake?" asked Bunny eagerly.
"Yes, but you're not to go out in it alone. Bunker Blue is coming with
us, and he will look after you on the water, and Uncle Tad will look
after you in the woods--that is when either daddy or myself is not with
you children. Now you'd better get dressed for breakfast, and don't go
out in the middle of the night any more and sleep in a tent."
"We won't," promised Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
That week began the work of getting ready to go to camp. One of the
first things Daddy Brown did was to get two other tents. One of these
was to be the dining-room tent, where the table would be set for eating
when in camp. Another tent, smaller than either of the two, would do to
cook in.
Besides the tents they must take with them things to eat, knives, forks,
spoons, dishes, pots and pans, an oil stove and bed clothing.
All these things Daddy Brown, or Mother Brown, with the help of Uncle
Tad or Bunker Blue, packed. The big automobile, in which the Brown
family had eaten and slept when on their trip to grandpa's farm, was
once more made ready for a journey.
In this were packed the tents, the bedding, the stove, the good things
to eat, and all that would be needed in camp. Of course, they could not
take with them all they would want to eat through the summer, for they
expected to stay in camp until fall. But there were stores not far from
Lake Wanda, and in them could be bought bread, butter, sugar, tea,
coffee, or whatever else was needed.
"Are we going to sleep in the automobile this time?" asked Bunny, as he
looked inside the big moving van. "I don't see where we can make a bed,"
Bunny went on, for the van was quite filled with the tents, cot-beds,
chairs, tables, the oil stove and other things.
"No, we're not going to sleep in the auto this time," said Mr. Brown.
"It will only take us a day to get from here to Lake Wanda where we are
going to camp. So we will get up here, in our own home in the morning,
ride to camp, put up the tents, and that same night we will sleep in
them."
"Oh, what fun it will be!" cried Sue, joyfully.
"It will be dandy!" exclaimed Bunny. "And I'll catch fish for our supper
in the lake."
"I hope you won't catch them as you caught the turtle in the New York
aquarium, the time we went to Aunt Lu's city home," said Mother Brown
with a laugh.
"No, I won't catch any mud turtles," promised Bunny.
In the book before this one I've told you about Bunny catching the
turtle on a bent pin hook with a piece of rag for bait. He had quite an
exciting time.
Everyone at the Brown house was busy now. There was much to be done to
get ready to go to camp. Bunny and Sue were each given a box, and told
that this must hold all their toys and playthings.
"You may take with you only as much as your two boxes will hold," said
Daddy Brown to Bunny and Sue. "So pick out the play-toys you like best,
as the two boxes are all you may have. And when you get to camp I want
you always, when you have finished playing, to put back in the boxes the
toys you have finished with.
"In that way you will always know where they are, when you want them
again, and you won't have to be looking for them, or asking your mother
or me to help you find them. Besides, we must keep our camp looking
nice, and a camp can't look nice if toys and play-things are scattered
all about.
"So pick out the things you want to take with you, pack them in your
boxes and, after you get to camp, keep your toys in the boxes. That is
one of our rules."
"Aye, aye, sir!" answered Bunny making a funny little bob with his head
as he had seen some of the old sailors, at his father's dock, do when
they answered.
"I'm just going to take my dolls, and some picture books for them to
look at," said Sue.
"Pooh! Dolls can't look at picture books!" exclaimed Bunny.
"Yes, they can too!" cried Sue.
"No, they can't!"
"Well, I mean make-believe, Bunny Brown!"
"Oh, well, yes; make-believe! I thought you meant _real_."
"Well, _I_ can look at them real," said Sue, "and make believe I'm
reading to my dolls."
"Oh, yes," agreed Bunny.
"What are you going to take?" asked Sue of her brother.
"Oh, I'm going to take my fish pole, and my pop gun----"
"That only shoots a cork!" cried Sue. "You can't hit any bears with
that."
"I can scare 'em with it when it pops!" cried Bunny. "That's all I want
to do. I don't want to kill a bear, anyhow. I just want to scare 'em.
And maybe when I scare a little bear I can grab it and bring it home
and tame it."
"Oh, if you only could!" cried Sue. "Then we could make it do tricks,
and we could get a hand-organ and go around with a trained bear instead
of a monkey."
"Yes," said Bunny. "We could until the bear got too big. I guess I
wouldn't want a big bear, Sue."
"No, little ones is the nicest. Maybe we'd better get a monkey, anyhow,
'cause they never grow big."
"I don't believe any monkeys grow in the woods where we're going to
camp," observed Bunny. "But we'll look, anyhow, and maybe I can scare
one of them with my pop gun."
Then the two children talked of what fun they would have in camp. They
put things in their two boxes, took them out again and tried to crowd in
more, for they found they did not want to leave any of their toys or
play-things behind. But they could not get them all in two small boxes,
so finally they picked out what they liked best, and these were put in
the automobile.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown had done most of the other packing. The auto-moving
van was quite full, there being just room enough for Mrs. Brown, Uncle
Tad and the two children to ride in the back, while Daddy Brown and
Bunker Blue sat on the front seat.
At last everything was ready. The last things had been put in the
automobile, and tied fast. The children took their places, and called to
Splash. Of course he was to go with them. He would run along the road,
until he grew tired, and then he could ride in the automobile.
"All aboard!" called Bunker Blue as he sat at the steering wheel. "Is
everybody ready?"
"I am!" answered Bunny Brown. "I've got my fishing pole, and I can dig
some worms when I get to camp."
"Are you going to fish with worms?" asked Sue.
"Sure I am! Fishes love worms."
"I don't!" Sue said. "Worms is so squiggily." She always said that when
Bunny spoke of worms.
"Well, I guess we're all ready," remarked Daddy Brown. "Start off,
Bunker Blue."
"Chug-chug!" went the automobile.
"Bow-wow!" barked the dog Splash.
"Good-bye!" called Bunny and Sue to some of their little boy and girl
friends who had gathered to wave farewell. "Good-bye! Good-bye!"
Then the big automobile rolled out into the road. The Browns were off to
camp.