IN THE CARPENTER SHOP
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were so surprised at hearing that harsh
voice, and at hearing the door slammed shut and locked behind them, that
they just stood and looked at each other in the carpenter shop. They
forgot, for the moment, all about the big yellow dog and the pocketbook
he had carried away. Then Bunny managed to find his voice and he cried:
"Who was that, Sue?"
"I--I guess it was Mr. Foswick," she answered. "I'm almost sure it was."
"Yes," agreed Bunny, "I guess it was. But what did he want to lock us in
for? We didn't do anything. We just came in to get mother's pocketbook
and the grocery money away from the dog."
"I p'sume he made a mistake," said Sue. "He must have thought we were
the bad boys that tease him. I saw some of 'em come in once and scatter
the sawdust all over. And I heard Mr. Foswick say he'd fix 'em if he
caught 'em. He must have thought we was them," she added, letting her
English get badly tangled in her excitement.
"I guess so," agreed Bunny. "Well, we'll tell him we aren't. Come on,
Sue!"
Giving up, for the time being, their search in the carpenter shop for
the strange, big yellow dog, Bunny and Sue walked back toward the front
door, which had been slammed shut. And while they are seeking to make
Mr. Foswick understand that he had made a mistake, and had punished the
wrong children, I shall have a moment or two to tell my new readers
something about the characters whose adventures I hope to relate to you
in this story.
The town of Bellemere, which was on the seacoast and near a small river,
was the home of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. Their father, Walter
Brown, was in the boat and fish business, owning a wharf, where he had
his office. Men and boys worked for him, and one big boy, Bunker Blue,
was a great friend of Bunny and his sister. In the Brown home was also
Uncle Tad, an old soldier.
In the first book of this series, called "Bunny Brown and His Sister
Sue," I told you many of the things that happened to the children. After
that they went to Grandpa's farm, and played circus, and there are books
about both those happy times. Next the children paid a visit to Aunt
Lu's city home, and from there they went to Camp Rest-a-While.
In the big woods Bunny and Sue had many adventures, and they had so much
fun on their auto tour that I could hardly get it all in one book.
When Mr. Brown bought a Shetland pony for the children they were
delighted, and they had as much fun with it as they did in giving a
show. That is the name of the book just before the present one you are
reading--"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show." In that volume
you may learn how a stranded company of players came to Bellemere, and
what happened. Bunny and Sue, as well as some of their playmates, were
actors and actresses in the show, and Splash, the dog, did a trick also.
But Splash had run away, or been taken away, during the winter that had
just passed, and Bunny and Sue no longer had a dog.
Perhaps they thought they might induce the big one that had jumped into
the yard to come and live with them, after they had taken the pocketbook
away from him. He was not quite the same sort of dog as Splash, but he
seemed very nice. Bunny and Sue kept hoping Splash would return or be
brought back, but, up to the time this story opens, that had not come
about.
The show the two Brown children gave was talked about for a long time in
Bellemere. Of course, Bunny and Sue had had help in giving it, and the
show was also a means of helping others. Now winter had passed, spring
had come and gone, and it was early summer. Bunny and Sue had been
playing in the yard before going to the store for their mother when the
strange dog had sprung over the fence, snatched up the pocketbook, and
had run off with it, darting into the carpenter shop.
"I don't see anything of him," said Sue, as she and Bunny made their way
amid the piles of boards and lumber and over piles of sawdust and
shavings toward the door.
"You don't see anything of who?" asked Bunny. "Mr. Foswick or the big
dog?"
"The dog," answered Sue. "I couldn't see Mr. Foswick, 'cause he's
outside. He shut the door on us."
"Yes," agreed Bunny, "so he did. Well, maybe we can open it."
But, alas! when Bunny and Sue tried the door they found it locked tight.
Bunny had been afraid of that, for he thought he had heard a key turned
in the lock. But he had not wanted to say anything to Sue until he made
sure.
Rattle and pull at the door as the children did, and turn the knob,
which they also did several times, the door remained shut.
"We--we're locked in!" said Sue in a sort of gasping voice, looking at
Bunny.
"Yes," agreed her brother, and he tried to speak cheerfully, for he was
a year older than Sue, and, besides, boys oughtn't to be frightened as
easily as girls, Bunny thought. "But I guess we can get out," Bunny went
on. "Mr. Foswick thinks we're some of the bad boys that bother him.
We'll just yell and tell him we aren't."
"All right--you yell," suggested Sue.
So Bunny shouted as loudly as he could:
"Mr. Foswick! We didn't do anything! We didn't scatter your sawdust! You
locked us in by mistake! Let us out, please!"
Then he waited and listened, and so did Sue. There was no answer.
"I guess you didn't yell loud enough," said Sue. "Try again, Bunny."
Bunny did so. Once more he shouted through the closed door, or at least
at the closed door. He shouted loudly, hoping the carpenter would hear
him and open the door.
"Mr. Foswick! We didn't do anything!" yelled Bunny Brown.
Still there was silence. No one came to let the children out.
"I guess we'd better both yell," suggested Sue. "You can shout louder
than I can, Bunny, but it isn't loud enough. We've both got to yell."
"Yes, I better guess we had," agreed the small boy.
Standing close to one another near the door, they lifted their voices in
a shout, saying:
"Mr. Foswick! Mr. Foswick! _We--didn't--do--anything!_"
They called this several times, but no answer came to them.
"I guess he's gone away," said Sue, after a bit.
"Yes, I guess so," agreed Bunny. "Well, we've got to get out by
ourselves, then."
"How can we?" his sister wanted to know. "The door's locked, and we
can't break it down. It's a big door, Bunny."
"Yes, I know it is," he answered. "But there's windows. I'll open a
window and we can get out of one of them. They aren't high from the
ground. We got out of a window once when Bunker Blue, by mistake, locked
us in the shed on the dock, and we can get out a window now."
"Oh, I hope we can!" cried Sue. "And can we get the dog out of the
window, too, Bunny?"
"The dog!" exclaimed Bunny, forgetting for the moment about the animal.
"Oh, I guess we won't have to get him out. He isn't here."
"But he ran in here," insisted Sue. "We saw him come into this carpenter
shop."
"Yes," agreed Bunny. "But he isn't here now. If he was we'd see him or
hear him."
"Maybe he's hiding," suggested Sue. "Maybe he's afraid 'cause he took
mother's pocketbook and the money in it, and he's hiding in the sawdust
or shavings."
"Maybe," Bunny admitted. "Well, I'll call to him to come out. He only
took the pocketbook in fun, I guess. Here, Splash, come on out! We won't
hurt you!" he cried, moving back toward the center of the shop and away
from the locked front door. "Come on, Splash!"
"His name isn't Splash!" objected Sue. "This isn't our nice dog Splash
that ran away, and I wish he'd come back."
"I know he isn't Splash," agreed Bunny. "But it might be. And Splash is
a dog's name, and if this dog hears me call it he may come out. Come on,
old fellow!" he called again coaxingly. But no dog crawled out from
under the shavings, sawdust, or piles of boards.
"Where can he be?" asked Sue.
"I guess he ran out the back door," suggested Bunny.
"Then maybe we can get out there, too!" cried the little girl, and she
and her brother, with the same thought, ran to the rear of the shop.
"Here is the door," said Bunny, as he pointed it out.
It was a large affair that slid back from the middle of the wall to one
corner. It was tight shut.
"And it's locked, too," cried Sue, pointing to a big padlock.
To make sure, her brother tried the padlock. Sure enough, it was locked,
and the key was nowhere in sight.
"I can slide the door a little bit," said Bunny, and by hard work he
managed to move it about an inch. This allowed a little of the breeze
to come into the carpenter shop but that was all.
"We can't get out through that crack," protested Sue, pouting. "Nobody
could. Oh, dear! I don't see why this old carpenter shop has got to have
all the doors locked."
"Hum, that's funny!" said Bunny Brown.
"How do you s'pose that dog got out with both doors locked?" asked Sue
of her brother.
Bunny paused to think. Then an idea came to him.
"He must have jumped out a window, that dog did," he said. "There must
be a window open, and he got out that way. And that's how we can get
out, Sue. We'll crawl out a window just like that dog jumped out. Now
we're all right. Mr. Foswick locked us in his carpenter shop by mistake,
but we can get out a window."
"Oh, yes!" agreed Sue, and she felt happier now.
But again came disappointment. When the children made the rounds of the
shop, looking on both sides, they not only saw that not a window was
open, but when Bunny tried to raise one he could not.
"Are they stuck?" asked Sue.
"No," replied Bunny. "They're nailed shut! Every window in this shop is
nailed shut, Sue, and the doors are both locked!"
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue in a faint voice, and she looked at her brother in a
way he felt sure meant she was going to cry.