BUNNY'S TRICK
For a moment after the rush and fall of the snow from the roof, the mass
of white flakes coming down with a swish and a thud, there was silence.
Sue, Helen, and Charlie were so frightened and surprised that they did
not know what to do. Then, after two or three seconds, Sue seemed to
find her voice, and she exclaimed:
"Where's Bunny?"
"He--he's gone!" gasped Helen.
But Charlie understood.
"Bunny's covered up under that snow!" he cried. "We've got to dig him
out. You'd better run in and tell your mother, Sue!"
This was something Sue understood. Mother was the one to tell in times
of trouble, especially when daddy wasn't there.
"Oh, Mother! Mother!" cried Sue, running toward the house, "Bunny is
under the snow--a big pile of it!"
"And we must dig him out!" screamed Helen, remembering what Charlie had
said.
Charlie, while the girls ran screaming toward the house, leaped toward
the pile of snow that had slid from the roof and began digging in it
with his hands.
And while Bunny is under the snow heap, from which he doubtless hoped
soon to be rescued, I will take just a moment or two to tell my new
readers something about Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
Those were the names of the children. Their father, Mr. Walter Brown,
kept a boat and fish dock in the town of Bellemere on Sandport Bay, near
the ocean. Helping Mr. Brown at the dock was Bunker Blue, a big, strong
boy, very fond of Bunny and Sue. The first book of the series is called
"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," and in that you may read of the many
adventures the children had together, and with their friends, who,
besides Charlie and Helen, were George and Mary Watson, Harry Bentley,
Sadie West, and a number of other children.
In the town of Bellemere were other persons, more or less friendly to
Bunny and Sue. I have mentioned Jed Winkler, an old sailor who owned a
monkey named Wango. His sister, Miss Euphemia, was not as fond of
monkeys or children as was her brother.
Uncle Tad was an old soldier, who lived in the Brown home. He was really
an uncle to Mr. Brown, but Bunny and Sue claimed him as their own. In a
distant city lived Aunt Lu, whom the children had once visited.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue had many adventures besides those told of
in the first book. They went to Grandpa's farm, they played circus, they
visited at Aunt Lu's city home, they camped in the woods at "Camp
Rest-a-While," journeyed to the big woods, took an auto tour, had rides
on a Shetland pony, gave a show in the town hall, and just before this
story opens they had been to Christmas Tree Cove, where they took part
in many strange happenings and solved a queer mystery.
They had been back from Christmas Tree Cove for some time, and now
winter had set in. Then came the big storm, the making of the snow man
and the slide of snow from the roof, covering Bunny Brown from sight.
"Oh, Mother! Mother! come and get Bunny out," cried Sue, as she raced
toward the house.
"And bring a shovel!" added Helen, glancing back to see where Charlie
was trying to get to the bottom of the pile by using his hands.
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she came to the door in answer
to the cries of the two girls.
"Oh, Bunny--Bunny--a--a--" Then Sue had to stop, for she was breathless.
"He's under the snow!" cried Helen, able to finish the sad news Sue had
started.
Mrs. Brown, who had been sewing in the house, had heard the slide of
snow from the roof, and had also heard the thud it made as it landed in
the yard. Now she understood what Sue and Helen meant. Bunny, somehow or
other, was under that snowslide.
"Oh, Uncle Tad!" cried Mrs. Brown. "Come quick! Bunny is under a
snowslide from the roof! We'll have to get him out!"
Mrs. Brown hurried from the house, followed by the two little girls. But
Helen paused long enough to shout:
"Bring a shovel! That's what Charlie said!"
"Is Charlie under the snow, too?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she hurried
around the corner of the house.
"No'm. But he's digging with his hands," Helen answered. "I guess the
shovels Bunny and Sue were making the snow man with are too small to dig
with."
This was so, and Mrs. Brown was thinking of turning back into the house
to get the large shovel when she saw Uncle Tad coming with it.
"I'll soon dig him out," said the old soldier, as he began to work with
the shovel.
"Poor Bunny!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "I can't even see him."
"The snow came down from on top," explained Charlie. "It went right over
his head and everything!"
"I hope he isn't hurt," said Mrs. Brown, picking up one of the small
shovels the children had been using and beginning to help Uncle Tad dig.
"I guess it won't hurt him much," Charlie said. "The snow's soft. Once I
was in a snow house and the roof fell in on me and I was all covered up,
but I wasn't hurt."
"That's good," remarked Mrs. Brown. "We're digging you out, Bunny," she
called.
"I don't guess he can hear you," said Helen, when no answer came from
beneath the snow.
"I couldn't hear when I was in the snow house," said Charlie. "My ears
were all stopped up."
"We'll soon have him out," declared Uncle Tad, tossing aside big
shovelfuls of the damp snow. "It's a deep pile, though."
There were now three of them digging away at the pile of snow which hid
Bunny Brown from sight. Of course Uncle Tad was doing the most work, as
his shovel was so large. Pile after pile he tossed aside, and he was
fast getting to the bottom, when, all of a sudden there was a cracking
sound, and the handle of Uncle Tad's shovel broke in the middle.
"Oh, dear!" cried the old soldier. "This is too bad!"
"And we haven't another large shovel!" said Mrs. Brown. "Walter took our
second one down to the dock with him this morning!"
"Well, perhaps I can make this do," said Uncle Tad. "Though I can't work
as fast as I could if the handle wasn't broken."
"Sue, and Helen, run next door and see if you can borrow a large snow
shovel," called Mrs. Brown. "Don't stop to tell them what it's for, or
Bunny may smother."
"Oh, no'm, I guess he won't," Charlie said, as he dug away with the
little shovel that Sue had been using. "When I was under the snow I
could breathe all I wanted to."
Mrs. Brown said she was glad to hear this, but, for all that, she dug as
fast as she could with the other small shovel, and Uncle Tad, using the
one with the broken handle, did the best he could.
Helen and Sue hurried next door to see if they could borrow a broad
wooden shovel, but before they returned Uncle Tad had managed to dig
down through the pile of snow until he reached the ground and the side
of the house foundation--the upper part of the cellar wall.
"Why, Bunny isn't here!" cried Uncle Tad, in great surprise.
"Isn't he?" asked the little boy's mother, looking over Uncle Tad's
shoulder down into the hole in the snow pile.
"There isn't a sign of him," went on the soldier. "Are you sure you saw
him get covered from sight here?" he asked Charlie.
"It was right here," answered Bunny's chum. "He was rolling a snowball
to make a hat for the man when down the snow slid off the roof. It
covered Bunny and the snowball he was rolling."
"Oh, we must hurry!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, now growing very anxious. "He
surely will be smothered, under the snow all this while!"
She began to dig again with the small shovel, and Uncle Tad was doing
his best with the broken one when Sue and Helen, coming around the
corner with a large shovel which they had borrowed next door, gave a
sudden cry.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"There's Bunny now!" exclaimed Sue. "Look!"
They all looked, and, surely enough, Bunny was coming up the outside
steps of the cellar. He walked up as if nothing had happened.
"Bunny Brown! what trick is this?" exclaimed his mother. "What made you
pretend to be buried under all that snow and give us such a fright for,
when you weren't there at all?"
"But I was there, Mother," Bunny said. "I was under the snow."
"Then how did you get out?" Uncle Tad asked. "It surely looks like a
trick, Bunny Brown."