IN THE DARK
Mrs. Brown, who had been looking at the beautiful view of Christmas Tree
Cove from the window of the bungalow dining-room, turned to Mrs. Madden
when Sue's cry rang out.
"Something has happened to those children!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Where
are they calling from? I must go to them."
"That cry sounded as if it came from the pantry," answered the other
woman. "It's just through that door," and she pointed.
As Mother Brown started for the place Sue called again:
"Please come quick! Bunny's in and he can't get out!"
"What can't he get out of?" asked Mrs. Brown.
Mother Brown pushed open the door leading into the pantry, and there
she saw a strange sight. Sue was standing beside Bunny and trying to
pull him out of a barrel in which he was doubled up in a funny way,
almost as a clown in a circus sometimes doubles himself up to slide
through a keg. Only Bunny was not sliding through. He was doubled up and
stuck in the barrel.
"He's in," explained Sue, "and I can't get him out."
"And I can't get out either!" added Bunny. "I'm stuck!"
"Are you hurt?" asked his mother.
"No, not 'zactly," he replied. "'Cept it sort of pinches me."
Mrs. Brown did not stop to ask how it had happened. She took hold of
Bunny on one side, and Mrs. Madden took hold of him on the other. Then,
while Sue helped them hold down on the barrel, they pulled up on the
little fellow and soon had him out. Luckily the edge of the barrel was
smooth and without any nails, so that Bunny was not scratched nor were
his clothes torn.
"Now tell me about it," said his mother, as she set him on the floor
and led him and Sue out of the small pantry.
"Well, I--I was climbing up on the barrel to see if there was anything
to eat on the shelves," explained Bunny Brown. "And some boards were on
the barrel. I stepped on them, but they slipped; and then----"
"And then Bunny slipped!" broke in Sue. "I saw him slip, but I couldn't
stop him."
"And then I went right on down into the barrel," resumed Bunny. "And I
was stuck there, and Sue hollored like anything, and--well, I didn't
find a single thing to eat," he ended.
"No, I didn't order any food for you, as I didn't know just what you'd
want," explained Mrs. Madden. "If you're hungry," she said to the
children, "you can come over to my cottage--it isn't far--and I can give
you some bread and milk."
"Oh, I am hungry!" said Bunny.
"So'm I," added Sue.
"I couldn't think of troubling you," put in Mrs. Brown. "We have some
things on the boat, and----"
"I've just baked some cookies," went on Mrs. Madden, who lived at
Christmas Tree Cove all the year around. "I'm sure the children would
like them. My boy and girl, who are about the same age as yours, like my
cookies very much;" and she smiled at Bunny and Sue.
"Oh, Mother," began Bunny, "couldn't we----"
"Let me take them over and give them a little lunch while you are
getting things to rights," urged the kind woman to Mrs. Brown. "It will
be no trouble at all, and Rose and Jimmie will be glad to see them."
"Are they your children?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, dear. And they'll be glad if you'll play with them."
"Very well, they may go. And thank you very much for the invitation,"
said Mrs. Brown. "It will be better to have them out of the way when the
men are bringing in the trunks and things. But I hope they will give you
no trouble. Don't fall into any more barrels, Bunny!"
"I won't," promised the little boy. "I wouldn't 'a' fallen in this one
if the boards hadn't slipped."
"It's the flour barrel," explained Mrs. Madden. "The family that was
here last year used to have a regular cover for the barrel, but one of
the boys took the cover to make a boat of, and after that they put some
loose boards back on."
"I'll have Mr. Brown make a new cover for the barrel," said Mrs. Brown.
"But that doesn't mean, Bunny, that you may climb on it again," she
added.
"Oh, I won't," he agreed. "I was just climbing up to see if there was
anything to eat on the pantry shelves. But I won't have to do that if
you're going to give us some cookies," he added, looking at Mrs. Madden.
"Yes, I'm going to give you some cookies," she laughed. "Come along.
I'll bring them back safely," she added.
So, while Mr. Brown, Captain Ross, Bunker Blue and Uncle Tad carried the
things up to the bungalow from the boat and dock, Bunny and Sue followed
Mrs. Madden to her cottage not far from the bungalow. Mr. Madden was a
clammer and fisherman, and his wife did some work for the summer
colonists.
Bunny and Sue saw a little boy and girl of about their own ages looking
at them as they neared the cottage.
"Here are some new playmates for you, Jimmie and Rose," said their
mother. "They are hungry, too."
"And my brother Bunny fell in a barrel when he was looking for something
to eat on the pantry shelves," explained Sue.
"Did it hurt you?" Jimmie Madden wanted to know.
"No; it was fun," laughed Bunny Brown, and then he told of that
adventure.
Mrs. Madden brought out some glasses of milk, slices of bread and jam,
and also a plateful of cookies, at the sight of which the eyes of Bunny
and Sue opened wide with delight. Then followed a pleasant little play
party on the shady porch of the cottage.
Rose and Jimmie told of the fun to be had at Christmas Tree Cove--how
there were shallow wading places, deeper pools for bathing, and little
nooks where one could fish.
"Can you go out in a boat?" asked Jimmie of Bunny.
"Yes, if somebody bigger goes with us," Bunny answered. "We can get my
Uncle Tad to take us out."
"Sometimes Rose and I go out with my father when he's fishing or digging
clams," said the Christmas Tree Cove lad. "I can dig clams at low tide."
"I've done that, too," said Bunny. "We live on Sandport Bay."
The four children talked and played until it was time for Bunny and Sue
to run back to the bungalow. They found that all the things had been
brought up from the boat and that Captain Ross had sailed away again.
The bungalow was furnished, and Mrs. Brown had only to bring such things
as knives and forks for the table, linen for the beds, and the clothes
they were to wear.
A grocer and a butcher had called while Bunny and Sue were at the Madden
cottage, and now supper was being prepared by Bunker Blue and Uncle Tad,
each of them being almost as good a cook as was Mrs. Brown.
Mrs. Brown and her husband were busy making up the beds for the night,
and as Bunny and Sue came racing in, almost as hungry as though they had
not been given a lunch by Mrs. Madden, their mother called to them:
"Get washed for supper now, children."
A little later they were sitting down to their first meal in the
bungalow at Christmas Tree Cove.
"Do you think you are going to like it here?" asked Daddy Brown.
"It's dandy!" exclaimed Bunny, being careful not to talk with his mouth
too full of bread and butter. "And Jimmie is a nice boy."
"I like Rose, too," said Sue.
After supper the children ran over to the cottage to play again, and
before bedtime they walked along the sandy beach with their father and
mother. But pretty soon it was noticed that Bunny and Sue were not
saying much, and their walk was becoming slow.
"Time for little sailors to turn in!" said Mother Brown, and soon Bunny
and Sue were slumbering in little white beds in the bungalow.
The rest of the family, except Bunker Blue, sat up rather late, talking
over the events of the past few days. They had enjoyed the trip to
Christmas Tree Cove, all except the storm.
"I know we'll have a lovely summer," said Mrs. Brown, as she and her
husband went to bed.
When they were passing Bunny's room a dog barked in the distance. The
little fellow seemed to hear it, for he sat up in bed and cried:
"There! There he is! There's the dog that has your ring, Mother! I'm
going to get it!"
"He's talking in his sleep again," whispered Mr. Brown.
"Yes," agreed his wife in a low voice. "The loss of the pocketbook seems
to get on his mind. Go to sleep, Bunny," she murmured to him, going into
his room, and pressing his head down on the pillow. Then he turned over
and went off to Slumberland again.
The next day and the many that followed were full of joy for Bunny Brown
and his sister Sue. They played with Rose and Jimmie, they waded in the
water, they sailed little boats, and they made houses in the sand.
Often, as they sat on the beach, Bunny would look back toward the thick
green clumps of evergreen trees which gave the place its name.
"Couldn't we go and take a walk in them?" he asked Jimmie one day.
"Yes," was the answer. "Only you want to be careful."
"Why?" asked Bunny.
"'Cause the woods are awful thick. You can't see your way very well, and
once Rose and I got lost."
"Oh, we wouldn't go in very far," said Bunny. "Some day I'm going into
those woods."
Two or three days after that, when he and Sue had played in the sand
until they were tired, Bunny said:
"Let's go to the woods!"
"All right!" agreed Sue. "Shall we get Jimmie and Rose?"
"No, let's go by ourselves," said her brother. "I want to see if we can
find our way all by ourselves."
And so, not telling their father or mother or Uncle Tad or Bunker Blue
anything about it, off the two children started.
It was pleasant, shady and cool in the evergreen woods of Christmas Tree
Cove. On the ground were brown pine needles and the shorter ones from
the spruces and the hemlocks. Here and there the sun shone down through
the thick branches, but not too much. It was like being in a green
bower.
On and on wandered Bunny and Sue, thinking what a nice place it was.
They found pine cones and odd stones, with, here and there, a bright
flower.
All of a sudden Sue looked around.
"Bunny, it's getting dark," she said. "I can't see the sun any more. I
guess it's night, and we'd better go back home."
"I don't believe it's night," said the little boy. "I guess the trees
are so thick we can't see the sun. But we can go home. I'm getting
hungry, anyhow. Come on."
They turned about to go back, and walked on for some time. Sue took hold
of Bunny's hand.
"It's getting terrible dark," she said. "Where's home, Bunny?"
The little boy looked around.
"I--I guess it isn't far," he said. "But it is dark, Sue. I wish I had a
flashlight. Next time I'm going to bring one. But we'll soon be home."
However, they were not. It rapidly grew darker, and at last Bunny Brown
knew what had happened.
"We're lost, and it's going to be a dark night," he said, holding more
tightly to Sue's hand. "We're lost in the Christmas trees!" he added,
and his sister gave a little cry and held tightly to him.