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BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE
by
LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of
The Bunny Brown Series, The Bobbsey Twins Series,
The Outdoor Girls Series, The Six Little Bunkers Series,
The Make-Believe Series, Etc.
Illustrated
[Illustration: MRS. SLATER AND SUE WATCH BUNNY AND HARRY BRING IN THE
BOX.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove._
_Frontispiece_--(_Page 210_)]
New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
Made in the United States of America
* * * * *
BOOKS
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
(Six Titles)
THE MAKE-BELIEVE SERIES
(Seven Titles)
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
(Ten Titles)
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
* * * * *
Copyright, 1920, by
Grosset & Dunlap
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE BIG DOG 1
II. IN THE CARPENTER SHOP 12
III. THE DIAMOND RING 23
IV. DADDY BRINGS NEWS 38
V. ADRIFT 47
VI. THE STRANGE DOG 59
VII. THE SLEEP-WALKER 68
VIII. A COLLISION 78
IX. THE MERRY GOAT 89
X. IN THE STORM 103
XI. WHERE IS BUNNY? 114
XII. CHRISTMAS TREE COVE 121
XIII. A CRASH 133
XIV. IN THE DARK 140
XV. BUNNY'S TOE 152
XVI. OVERBOARD 161
XVII. THE NEW BOY 170
XVIII. HELD FAST 178
XIX. ANOTHER STORM 187
XX. THE FLOATING BOX 198
XXI. MR. RAVENWOOD 205
XXII. THE SURPRISING LETTER 213
XXIII. "THAT'S THE DOG!" 221
XXIV. IN THE BOAT 228
XXV. WHAT STOPPED THE ENGINE 238
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE
CHAPTER I
THE BIG DOG
"Come on, Bunny, let's just have one more teeter-tauter!" cried Sue,
dancing around on the grass of the yard. "Just one more!" and she raced
over toward a board, put across a sawhorse, swaying up and down as
though inviting children to have a seesaw.
"We can't teeter-tauter any more, Sue," objected Bunny Brown. "We have
to go to the store for mother."
"Yes, I know we have to go; but we can go after we've had another seesaw
just the same, can't we?"
Bunny Brown, who was carrying by the leather handle a black handbag his
mother had given him, looked first at his sister and then at the board
on the sawhorse, gently moving up and down in the summer breeze.
"Come on!" cried Sue again, "and this time she danced off toward the
swaying board, singing as she did so:
"Teeter-tauter
Bread and water,
First your son and
Then your daughter."
Bunny Brown stood still for a moment, looking back toward the house, out
of which he and Sue had come a little while before.
"Mother told us to go to the store," said Bunny slowly.
"Yes, and we're going. I'll go with you in a minute--just as soon as I
have a seesaw," said Sue. "And, besides, mother didn't say we were _not_
to. If she had told us _not_ to teeter-tauter I wouldn't do it, of
course. But she didn't, Bunny! You know she didn't!"
"No, that's so; she didn't," agreed Bunny. "Well, I'll play it with you
a little while."
"That's nice," laughed Sue. "'Cause it isn't any fun teetering and
tautering all by yourself. You stay down on the ground all the while,
lessen you jump yourself up, and then you don't stay--you just bump."
"Yes," agreed Bunny. "I've been bumped lots of times all alone."
He was getting on the end of the seesaw, opposite that on which Sue had
taken her place, when the little girl noticed that her brother still
carried the small, black bag. Mother Brown called it a pocketbook, but
it would have taken a larger pocket than she ever had to hold the bag.
It was, however, a sort of large purse, and she had given it to Bunny
Brown and his sister Sue a little while before to carry to the store.
"Put that on the bench," called Sue, when she saw that her brother had
the purse, holding it by the leather handle. "You can't teeter-tauter
and hold on with that in your hand."
There was a bench not far away from the seesaw--a bench under a shady
tree--and Mrs. Brown often sat there with the children on warm summer
afternoons and told them stories or read to them from a book.
"Yes, I guess I can teeter better if I don't have this," agreed Bunny.
"Hold on, Sue, I'm going to get off."
"All right, I'm ready," his sister answered. You know if you get off a
seesaw without telling the boy or girl on the other end what you are
going to do, somebody is going to be bumped hard. Bunny Brown didn't
want that.
Sue put her fat, chubby little legs down on the ground and held herself
up, while Bunny ran across the grass and laid the pocketbook on the
bench. I suppose I had better call it, as Mrs. Brown did, a pocketbook,
and then we shall not get mixed up. But, as I said before, you couldn't
really put it in a pocket.
"Seesaw, Margery Daw!" sang Sue, as Bunny came back to play with her.
"Now we'll have some fun!"
And the children did. Up and down they went on the board their father
had sent up from his boat dock for them to play with. He had also sent
up the sawhorse. A sawhorse, you know, is made of wood, and, though it
has legs, it can't run. It's just a sort of thin bench, and a seesaw
board can easily be put across it.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were gaily swaying up and down on the
seesaw, and, for the time, they had forgotten all about the fact that
their mother had sent them to the store to pay a bill, and also to get
some groceries. They had not meant to stay so long, but you know how it
is when you get to seesawing.
"It's just the finest fun ever!" cried Sue.
"I'm sorry for boys and girls that ain't got any seesaws," said her
brother.
"Oh, I guess a lot of boys and girls have 'em, Bunny. Daddy said so,
once."
"Did he? I didn't hear him."
Up and down, up and down went the children, laughing and having a
splendid time. Sue felt so happy she began to sing a little song and
Bunny joined in. It was the old ditty of the Cow that Jumped Over the
Moon.
"We'd better go now, Sue!" called Bunny, after a while. "We can seesaw
when we get back."
"Oh, just five more times up and down!" pleaded the little girl, shaking
her curls and fairly laughing out of her eyes. "Just five more!"
"All right!" agreed Bunny. "Just five--that's all!"
Again the board swayed up and down, and when Sue was just sorrowfully
counting the last of the five, shouting and laughter were heard in the
street in front of the Brown house.
"Oh, there's Mary Watson and Sadie West!" cried Sue.
"Yes, and Charlie Star and Harry Bentley!" added Bunny. "Come on in and
have a lot of fun!" he called, as two boys and two girls came past the
gate. "We can take turns seesawing."
"That'll be fun!" said Charlie.
"Can't we get another board and make another seesaw?" asked Harry. "We
can't all get on that one. It'll break."
"I guess we can find another board," said Bunny. "I'll go and ask my
mother."
"No!" said Sue quickly. "You'd better not, Bunny!"
"Why?" asked her brother, in surprise.
"'Cause if you go in now mother will know we didn't go to the store, and
she might not like it. We'd better go now and let Charlie and Harry and
Sadie and Mary have the teeter-tauter until we come back," suggested
Sue. "It'll hold four, our board will, but not six."
Bunny Brown thought this over a minute.
"Yes, I guess we had better do that," he said. Then, speaking to his
playmates, he added: "We have to go to the store, Charlie, Sue and I.
You can play on the seesaw until we come back. And then, maybe, we can
find another board, and make two teeters."
"I have a board over in my yard. I'll get that," offered Charlie, "if we
can get another sawhorse."
"We'll look when we come back," suggested Sue. "Come on, Bunny."
Sue got off the seesaw, as did her brother, and their places were taken
by Charlie, Harry, Mary and Sadie. Though Sue was a little younger than
Bunny, she often led him when there was something to do, either in work
or play. And just now there was work to do.
It was not hard work, only going to the store for their mother with the
pocketbook to pay a bill at the grocer's and get some things for supper.
And it was work Bunny Brown and his sister Sue liked, for often when
they went to the grocer's he gave each a sweet cracker to eat on the way
home.
Bunny, followed by Sue, started for the bench where the pocketbook had
been left. But, before they reached it, and all of a sudden, a big
yellow dog bounced into the yard from the street. It leaped the fence
and stood for a moment looking at the children.
"Oh, what a dandy dog!" cried Charlie.
"Is that your dog, Splash, come back?" asked Harry, for Bunny and his
sister had once owned a dog of that name. Splash had run away or been
stolen in the winter and had never come back.
"No, that isn't Splash," said Bunny. "He's a nice dog, though. Here,
boy!" he called.
The dog, that had come to a stop, turned suddenly on hearing himself
spoken to. He gave one bound over toward the bench, and a moment later
caught in his mouth the leather handle of Mrs. Brown's black pocketbook
and darted away.
Over the fence he jumped, out into the street, so quickly that the
children could hardly follow him with their eyes. But it was only an
instant that Bunny Brown remained still, watching the dog. Then he gave
a cry:
"Oh, Sue! The dog has mother's pocketbook and the money! Come on! We've
got to get it away from him!"
"Oh, yes!" echoed Sue.
Bunny ran out of the yard and into the street, following the dog. Sue
followed her brother. The four other children, being on the seesaw,
could not move so quickly, and by the time they did get off the board,
taking turns carefully, so no one would get bounced, Bunny Brown and his
sister Sue were out of sight, down the street and around a corner,
chasing after the dog that had snatched up their mother's pocketbook.
"We've got to get him!" cried Bunny, looking back at his sister. "Come
on!"
"I am a-comin' on!" she panted, half out of breath.
The big yellow dog was in plain sight, bounding along and still holding
in his mouth, as Bunny could see, the dangling pocketbook.
Suddenly the animal turned into some building, and was at once out of
sight.
"Where'd he go?" asked Sue.
"Into Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop," her brother answered. "I saw him go
in. We can get him easy now."
On they ran, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. A few seconds later they
stood in front of the open door of a carpenter shop built near the
sidewalk. Within they could see piles of lumber and boards and heaps of
sawdust and shavings. The dog was not in sight, but Bunny and Sue knew
he must be somewhere in the shop. They scurried through the piles of
sawdust and shavings toward the back of the shop, looking eagerly on all
sides for a sight of the dog.
"Where is he?" asked Sue. "Oh, Bunny, if that pocketbook and the money
are lost!"
"We'll find it!" exclaimed Bunny. "We'll make the dog give it back!"
As he spoke there was a noise at the door by which the children had
entered the carpenter shop. The door was quickly slammed shut, and a key
was turned. Then a harsh voice cried:
"Now I've got you! You sha'n't play tricks on me any more! I've got you
locked up now!"