MR. BROWN MAKES A SEARCH
The Brown children ran to meet Splash, and he was quite as glad to see
them as they were to see him. Up and down he jumped, trying to kiss
them, making believe to bite them and all the while whining and barking
in joy.
"Did you think we were lost, Splash?" asked Sue.
"Bow-wow!" answered the dog, and that, I think, was his way of saying:
"I did, but I'm glad I've found you."
"And we _were_ lost, Splash," went on Bunny. "But now we're on our way
home again."
"Bow-wow!" barked the dog, and that meant he was glad.
Together the children and their dog walked on along the road, and Splash
went on so far ahead and so fast that often Bunny and Sue had to run to
catch up to him.
[Illustration: THEY MET AN INDIAN COMING UP THE PATH.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods._ _Page_ 129.]
"But we'll get home all the quicker," said Bunny.
"Maybe they sent Splash to find us," suggested his sister.
"Well, Splash is smart enough to do that if he had to," said Bunny.
"We'll soon be home now."
In a little while they made a turn in the road that brought them within
sight of the tents of Camp Rest-a-While.
"Now we're all right!" cried Sue.
"Bow-wow!" barked Splash.
"Oh, children! where have you been?" cried Mrs. Brown, coming out to
meet them. "I sent Uncle Tad off one way to look for you, and Splash in
the other. I was just thinking of starting off myself!"
"We were lost in the woods," said Bunny; "but the ragged man found us,
and then we met Splash. We didn't see Uncle Tad."
"Oh, maybe he's lost!" cried Sue.
"We can go to look for him," said Bunny.
"No you don't!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Two of you getting lost is enough
in one day. Uncle Tad knows his way back to camp from any part of the
big woods. But who was the ragged man?"
"Oh, he's the man that gave us the milk the time the dog drank it up
when we chased the squirrel," explained Sue. "He's awful nice, and he
gave me a piggy-back ride, and took us to his cabin, and gave us cookies
without us really asking."
"What do you mean by not really asking?" inquired Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, Sue means she sort of _hinted_ or spoke of 'em easy like," Bunny
explained. "I pinched her leg without Mr. Bixby--he's the ragged
man--seeing me, and then Sue stopped asking him if he had anything to
eat at his house. He offered the cookies all by his own self."
"Well, I'm glad of that," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "But after this
don't go into strange houses and even _hint_ for something to eat. That
isn't polite."
"Oh, but this isn't a _real_ house," said Bunny quickly. "It's a log
cabin."
"But it's home for the ragged man, as you call Mr. Bixby."
"It's a funny home," said Bunny. "He's got a buzzing machine in it and
the Indian that came while we were there asked for heap big medicine.
That's the way Eagle Feather spoke of my toy train."
"That's how we got lost in the woods, looking for my Teddy bear and
Bunny's 'lectric train," explained Sue. "We went on and on until we
didn't know where we were."
"Well, you mustn't do it again," said her mother. "Don't go far into the
woods unless your father, Uncle Tad or I am with you. Then you won't get
lost."
"Wouldn't Splash do?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, Splash is all right--he'd know the way home," said Mrs. Brown.
"Now come in, wash and get ready for lunch."
"We don't want very much," said Bunny. "The ragged man gave us so many
cookies."
"I hope they weren't too rich for you," said Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, no, Mother, they couldn't be!" exclaimed Bunny. "'Cause he's an
awful poor, ragged man."
"Oh, _rich_ cookies means they have too much shortening--butter or lard
or something in 'em," said Sue. "I know, for I've taken a cooking
lesson; haven't I, Momsie?"
"Yes, Sue, and you must take some more, for you are getting older."
"And some day I'll get up a real dinner for you and Bunny and daddy and
Uncle Tad and the ragged man and Eagle Feather," said the little girl.
"You wouldn't know how to cook for Indians," said Bunny. "They eat bear
meat and deer meat, and roots and the bark of trees and maybe berries."
"Well, I could give Eagle Feather berries in a pie," declared Sue, "and
I could make slippery elm tea, and roast some acorns for him."
"That would be quite an Indian feast," laughed Mrs. Brown. "But come now
and get what you want, and don't go so far off into the woods again."
The children promised that they would not, though both said they wanted
to hunt farther for their lost toys, or taken-away toys, which was
probably what had happened to them.
When lunch was over, the children played about the tents, using some of
the games and toys they had had before Mr. Brown brought the wonderful
electric train and the Teddy bear with the shining electric eyes.
"We can have lots of fun," said Sue.
"Yes. But anyway I want my train back," declared Bunny.
"And I want Sallie Malinda!" exclaimed Sue with a sigh. "She was just
like a real baby bear to me."
"Why don't you call a Teddy bear he?" asked Bunny.
"'Cause she's a _girl_. Can't you tell by the name _Sallie Malinda_?"
asked Sue.
Bunny was about to continue talking to the effect that the _Teddy_ bear
ought to have a boy's name, when there came the sound of wheels outside
the tent, and a cheery voice called:
"Hello, everybody!"
"Oh, it's daddy!" cried Bunny and Sue together. "Daddy has come home!"
"They rushed out of the tent to meet him, to hug and kiss him, and for a
while he pretended to be smothered by the two little children who hung
about his neck.
"We went hunting for our toys which are lost," said Bunny.
"And we got lost ourselves," added Sue.
"But we got found again----"
"By a dog----"
"And a man----"
"And we had cookies----"
"And an Indian came to get heap big medicine----"
"And I'm going to cook a dinner----"
Thus the children called, one after the other, and I leave you to guess
who said what, for I can't do it myself as they talked too fast.
But at last they quieted down, and Mrs. Brown had a chance to talk to
her husband and tell him the news. Uncle Tad had, in the meanwhile, come
back, not being able to find the lost ones, and he was very glad to see
them safe in the camp.
Mr. Brown had come home early that day, but before long it was time for
supper. Bunny and Sue ate nearly as much as though they had had no
lunch and had eaten no cookies at the ragged man's cabin.
"And so you heard a queer buzzing noise in the hermit's cabin as you
were coming away?" asked Mr. Brown.
"Yes," said Bunny, "we did."
"I think I'll take a look up around there myself," said Mr. Brown, with
a nod at his wife across the table.
"Oh, is something going to happen?" asked Sue.
"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.