Laura Lee Hope - Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods

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"No have got lil' gal's play bear. Nobody here have got. You look in
all Indian houses and see for yourself."

"No. I'll take your word for it," said Mr. Brown. "I believe the Teddy
bear is not here. It must have been taken by some one else. I will look
farther."

But Eagle Feather insisted on some of the head men's huts being
searched, and this was done. But no doll was found.

"Oh, dear! Where can Sallie Malinda be?" half sobbed Sue.

"Never mind," said her father. "If you can't find your bear, and Bunny's
cars are still gone, in two weeks I'll get you new ones. But I think
they will come back as mysteriously as they went away. Now, we must go
home."

"But I thought you were going to look in the cabin of the hermit," said
Bunny.

"We'll have to do that after dinner," answered Daddy Brown. But when
dinner was half over there came a telegram for Mr. Brown telling him he
was needed back at his business office at once, as something had gone
wrong about the fish catch.

"Well, I'll have to go now," said the children's father; "but I'll help
you look for the Teddy doll and the train of cars when I come back," he
said.

It was a little sad in Camp Rest-a-While when Mr. Brown had gone, but
Mother Brown let the children play store, with real things to eat and to
sell, and they were soon happy again. Finally Sue said:

"Bunny, do you know where that hermit's hut is--the one where you got
the milk the time the dog drank it?"

"Yes," slowly answered Bunny. "I do. But what about it?"

"Let's go there," answered Sue. "Maybe he has my Sallie Malinda. Daddy
was going to take us there, but he had to go away so quickly he didn't
have time. But you and I can go. I'm sure he'd give us my Teddy bear if
he had her."

"I guess he would," agreed Bunny. "But what would he want with it?
Anyhow, we'll go and see."

So he and Sue, saying nothing to their mother, except that they were
going off into the big woods back of the camp, left the tent and headed
for the hermit's cabin.

On and on they went, leaving Splash behind, for, of late, their dog had
not followed them as often as he had done before.

They had tramped through the woods for about an hour, looking in all
sorts of places for the missing Teddy bear and the toy train, when Sue
suddenly asked:

"Aren't we near his cabin now, Bunny? It seems as if we'd come an awful
long way."

"I was beginning to think so myself," said the little boy. "Yet I was
sure it was over this way."

The children walked on a little farther, but found themselves only
deeper in the big woods. Finally Sue stopped and said:

"Bunny, do you know where we are?"

"No, I don't," he answered.

"Then we're lost," said Sue, shaking her head. "We're lost in the woods,
Bunny Brown, and we'll never get home!"

CHAPTER XI

THE HERMIT AGAIN

Bunny Brown was a wise little lad, considering that he was only about
seven years old. But many of those years had been spent with his father
going about in the woods, and while there Mr. Brown had told him much
about the birds, bugs and animals they saw under the trees. So that the
woods were not exactly strange to Bunny.

Above all, he was not afraid in them, except maybe when he was all alone
on a dark night. And one thing had Mr. Brown especially impressed on
Bunny. This was:

"Never get frightened when you think you are lost in the woods. If you
think you are lost, you may be sure you can either find your way out, or
some one will find you in a little while.

"So the best thing to do when you fear you are lost is to sit quietly
down on a log, think which way you believe your camp or home is, think
where the sun gets up in the morning and where it goes to bed in the
night. And, whatever you do, don't rush about, calling and yelling and
forgetting even which way you came. So, when you're lost keep cool."

Remembering what his father had told him, Bunny Brown, as soon as he
heard Sue say they were lost, looked for a log and, finding one not far
away, he went over and sat down on it.

"Why, Bunny Brown!" cried Sue, "what in the world are you doing? Don't
you know we're lost, and you've got to find the way back to our camp,
for I never can. Oh, dear! I think it's over this way. No, it must be
here. Oh, Bunny, which is the right way to go?"

"That's just what I'm trying to find out," he said.

"You are not!" cried Sue. "You're just sitting there like a bump on a
log, as Aunt Lu used to say."

"Well, I'm doing what father told us to do," said Bunny. "I'm keeping
cool and trying to think. If you run around that way you'll get all
hot, and you can't think. And it may take both of us to think of the way
home."

"Well, of course, I want to help," said Sue. "I don't want you to do it
all. But we're awful much lost, Bunny."

"Are you sure, Sue?" he asked.

"Of course I'm sure. I was never in this part of the woods before and I
can't tell where it is."

"Do you know where the sun rises?" asked Bunny, for it was, just then,
behind some clouds.

"It rises in the east, of course," said Sue. "I learned that in our
jogfry."

"Yes, but which way is east from here?" Bunny wanted to know. "If I
could tell that, I might find our camp, 'cause the sun comes up every
morning in front of our tent, and that faces the east."

"But you can't walk to the sun, Bunny Brown. It's millions and millions
of miles away! Our teacher said so."

"I'm not going to walk to the sun," said the little boy. "I just want to
walk toward it, but I've got to know which way it is first, so's to
know which way to walk."

Sue looked about her, as did Bunny. Neither of them knew in what part of
the big woods they were, for they had never been there before. They were
both looking for some path that would lead them home. But they saw none.

Suddenly Sue cried:

"Oh, there's the sun! It's right overhead."

She pointed upward, and Bunny saw a light spot in the clouds. The clouds
had not broken away, but they were thin enough for the sun to make a
bright place in them.

"That must be the east," said Sue. "But how are we ever going to walk
that way, Bunny, unless we climb trees? It's up in the air!"

"That isn't the east," said the little boy. "That's right overhead--I
forget the name of it."

But I will tell you, and Bunny Brown can look it up in his geography
when he gets home. The point in the sky when the sun seems to be
directly over your head is the zenith.

"And it's noon and dinner time, too," went on Bunny.

"Can you tell by your stomach?" asked Sue. "I can, for my stomach is
hungry. It is always hungry at noon."

"I can tell by my stomach, for it is hungry just like yours," said Sue's
brother. "But I can tell by the sun. Daddy told me that it was noon, and
time to eat, when the sun was straight over our heads. Now, we'll get
out of the woods, Sue."

"How? Will the sun help us and bring us something to eat?" asked Sue.

"Well, the sun will help us in a way, for when it begins to go down we
will know that is the west. And the east is just opposite from the west.
So if we walk with our backs toward the west we'll be facing the east,
and if we keep on that way we'll be at our camp some time. All we'll
have to do is to walk away from the sun."

"And will that give us something to eat?" Sue demanded.

"Maybe," said Bunny Brown. "We may come to a farmhouse, and they might
give us some cookies and milk."

"How good that would taste!" cried Sue. "I wish I had some now."

"We'll walk on a way," said Bunny. "Maybe we'll come to a place where
they'll feed us. But be careful to keep your back to the sun."

Sue said she would, and the two lost children were soon walking through
the woods together. They walked on the path when they saw one, and
crossed over open glades or through underbrush when they came to such
places where they saw no path.

For the time being they had given up all idea of finding their missing
toys. All they thought was of getting home. Every once in a while Sue
would ask:

"Are we most there, Bunny?"

And he would answer:

"Not quite, but almost. Just a little farther, Sue."

Suddenly there was a noise in the bushes as if some one were coming
through in a hurry.

"Oh, maybe it's our dog Splash coming to find us!" cried Sue.

"I don't believe so," answered Bunny. "Besides, Splash would bark; and
whatever this dog's name is, he doesn't make a sound. Oh, look, Sue,
it's a man, not a dog!"

"A man?" cried Sue. "What kind?"

"Oh, I can't tell, except that he has a dog and he's very ragged." Bunny
peeped between some bushes and the next moment uttered a cry of
surprise:

"Why, it's the ragged hermit who gave us the milk and who was so good to
us!" cried Bunny. "He's the man who lives in the log cabin with the cow!
Now we're all right. He'll take us home. Now we're all right!" and Bunny
danced about.

"Oh, I'm so glad!" murmured Sue. "We're not lost any more!"

CHAPTER XII

WONDERINGS

Out from behind the bush where they had hidden on hearing the rustling
in the underbrush came Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, hand in hand. The
hermit, as they called the man who lived all alone in his little cabin,
looked up and saw them. So did the dog, and with a bark and a growl he
rushed toward the two children.

"Down, Tramp! Down!" called the hermit, and the dog sank to the
moss-covered ground, beating his tail up and down on the dried leaves.

"He wouldn't hurt you for the world," said the old, ragged man. "He
loves children, but he's so fond of them that he jumps up on them, and
tries to kiss them. Sometimes he tries to love them so hard that he
knocks them down. So I have to tell him to be careful."

"We're not afraid of good dogs," said Bunny.

"And we've got a dog of our own," added Sue. "His name is Splash, 'cause
he splashes through the muddy puddles so much that he gets us all wet
when he's with us. That's why we don't take him so often, lessen we know
it's going to be a dry day."

"I see," said the ragged man. "Well, Tramp is pretty good, except that
he loves children too much."

By this time the dog must have felt that it was time for him to get up,
and he arose and leaped toward Bunny and Sue. Sue turned to one side and
held her arm over her face, but Bunny waited for the dog to come near
enough so he could be patted, and this the dog seemed to like. When he
tried to jump up and put his paws on Bunny's shoulders the little boy
cried:

"Down! Down, Tramp!" and at once the dog sank down and wagged his tail
so hard that Sue said afterward she thought it would almost wag off.

The dog seemed to like Bunny and Sue, running about them, giving little
barks of joy and licking their hands.

"I like him," said Sue. "He's 'most as good as our dog. How did you come
to name him Tramp?"

"Well, he looked like a tramp when he came to me," said the ragged man,
who seemed to be clean enough, though his clothes were in tatters. "He
was all stuck up with burrs from the woods, one foot was cut and he was
covered with mud and water. I took him in, washed him, bound up his paw,
which had been cut on a piece of broken glass, and gave him something to
eat. He has been with me ever since."

"I should think he _would_ stay with you," said Bunny. "You were kind to
him."

"Well, I like animals," said the man. "But what are you children doing
off here in the woods. Do you want more milk?"

"Not this time, thank you," said Bunny. "When we go to the farmhouse now
we have a cover on our pail, and when we set it down on the road no dog
can come and drink the milk."

"But we don't set it down any more," said Bunny. "Mother told us not
to."

"That's good," said the ragged man, whose name was Bixby. "It's a good
thing you didn't want any milk, because I haven't any left. I used up
most of what my cow gave, and sold the rest to a party of automobile
folks that came along dreadfully thirsty."

"We have two automobiles," said Bunny. "One my father rides back and
forth to the city in and the other a big one, like a moving van, that we
can live in, and go where we want to. When night comes we just go to
sleep in it beside the road."

"That's what my dog Tramp and I would like," said the ragged man. "It's
no fun staying in one place all the while. But if you children are not
away off here looking for milk, what are you here for, I'd like to
know?"

"I'm looking for my Teddy bear with the blinking 'lectric lights for
eyes," said Sue.

"What makes you think you'll find him here, off in the woods?" asked Mr.
Bixby, after a pause.

"Well, somebody took my Teddy bear, which is a her, not a him, and is
named Sallie Malinda, from our tent," went on the little girl; "and, of
course, as a bear likes a wood, maybe they brought her here."

"And my train of cars is gone, too," said Bunny, as he told of that
having been taken from the tent.

"Why, that is surprising!" cried the ragged man. "Both your nice toys
taken! Who could have done it?"

"Well, I did think maybe I left my train on the track with the batteries
switched on so it would go," said Bunny. "But I left the track made into
a round ring, and of course, if my train did get to going by some
accident, it would just keep on going around and around like Splash
chasing his tail, and wouldn't go out of the tent."

"Of course," agreed the ragged man.

"And Bunny thought Sallie Malinda had walked off by herself," said Sue,
"but daddy said she couldn't, for there is nothing in her to wind up. So
that couldn't happen."

"Then who took her?" asked the ragged man.

"We thought Eagle Feather, or some of his tribe, might," replied Bunny,
"for they thought our toys were 'heap big medicine.' But we went to
their village, and no one there knew anything about them."

"That's what they said, did they?"

"Yes, that's what they said," agreed Bunny.

"But they might not have told the truth," went on Mr. Bixby, with a sort
of wink at Bunny.

"Oh, everybody tells the truth," said the little boy.

"Not always," returned Mr. Bixby with a laugh. "But never mind about
that now. You have come a long way from your camp."

"Oh, that's another thing we forgot to tell you about," said Bunny.
"We're lost."

"Lost?" cried the ragged man.

"Terrible lost," said Sue. "We don't even know which is east, where the
sun gets up, you know."

"Oh, I can easily show you that," said Mr. Bixby. "And you're not lost
any more, for I know where your camp is."

"We hoped you would," said Bunny.

"That's why we were glad to see you through the bushes. Can you take us
home?"

"I can and I will," said the ragged man. "I can take you back straight
through the wood, or around by my cabin, which will put you on the road
along which you went to get your milk that night. Then you'll have an
easier walk to Camp Rest-a-While, though a little longer one."

"Let's go by the road, though it is longer," said Sue. "I'm tired of
walking in the woods."

"All right, and I'll carry you part of the way," said Mr. Bixby.

"Will you give me a piggy-back?" asked Sue, who was not too old for such
things.

"A pickaback is just what you shall have," said Mr. Bixby, and Sue soon
got up on his back by stepping from a high stone, to the top of which
Bunny helped her.

"Please go slow," begged the little boy, "'cause we might happen to see
Sue's Teddy bear or my train of cars, where the Indians or somebody else
dropped it; though I don't believe Eagle Feather would do such a
thing."

"Oh, I don't think Eagle Feather would take your toys," said Mr. Bixby.
"He is quite honest. But some of his tribe are not, I'm sorry to say."

So he walked on with Sue on his back and Bunny trudging along beside,
and Tramp, the dog, first running on ahead and then coming back barking,
as though to say everything was all right.

"We'll soon be at my cabin," said the ragged man. "And then you can rest
before starting on the road home."

"Have you got anything to eat at your house?" asked Sue.

Bunny, who was walking along behind her as she rode on Mr. Bixby's back,
reached up and pinched one of his sister's little fat legs.

"Stop, Bunny Brown!" she cried. Then to Mr. Bixby she said again: "Have
you got anything to eat at your house?"

Once more Bunny pinched her leg, and Sue cried:

"Now, you stop that, Bunny Brown! I'm not playing the pinching game
to-day."

"Well, you mustn't say that," said her brother.

"Say what?" demanded Sue.

"About Mr. Bixby having anything to eat in his house," went on Bunny.
"You know mother has told you it isn't polite."

"Oh, that's right, Bunny! I forgot. So that's why you were pinching me?"

"Yes," answered Bunny.

Sue leaned over from the back of the ragged man and said, right in his
ear:

"Please don't give us anything to eat when you get to your house. It
wouldn't be polite for us to take it after me asking you the way I did."

"Hey? What's that?" asked the ragged man, seeming to wake up from a
sleep. "Did you ask me not to go so fast?"

"No, I asked you----"

Once more Bunny pinched his sister's leg.

"Don't tell him what you asked him and he won't know, and then it will
be all right," said Bunny.

"All right," whispered Sue. Then aloud she said: "Is it much farther to
your house, Mr. Bixby?"

"Why, no," answered the ragged man. "So that's what you asked me, was
it? I wasn't listening, I'm afraid. My cabin is only a little farther
on, and then after you rest a bit I'll put you on the road to your
camp."

"And maybe he'll give us something to eat without our asking," muttered
Sue to her brother, who was behind.

"Hush!" he whispered. "Don't let him hear you."

They were soon at Mr. Bixby's cabin.

"Now, if you'll sit down a minute," said the ragged man, "I'll get you a
few cookies. I baked them myself. Maybe they are not as nice as those
your mother makes, but Tramp, my dog, likes them."

"I'm sure we will, too," said Sue. "There! what'd I tell you, Bunny
Brown?" she asked in a whisper. "I knew he'd give us something to eat!
And it isn't impolite to take it when he offers it to you!"

"No, I guess it's not," said Bunny. "Anyhow, we'll take 'em."

The ragged man appeared with a plate of cookies. The children said they
were very good indeed, fully as good as Mother Brown baked, and Tramp,
the dog, ate his share, too, sitting up on his hind legs and begging for
one when the ragged man told him to. Then the dog would sit up with a
cookie balanced on his nose, and he would not snap it off to eat until
the man told him to.

"Well, I like to have you stay," said the hermit, "but it is getting
late, and perhaps I had better take you to the road that leads straight
to your camp."

"Yes, we had better go," replied Bunny. "We'll know our way home now.
Thank you for taking care of us and for the cookies."

"Which we didn't ask for," said Sue quickly. "Did we, Mr. Bixby?"

"No, you didn't," he answered with a laugh, and he seemed to understand
what Sue meant without asking any questions.

As Mr. Bixby started away from his cabin, to lead the children down to
the road, they met an Indian coming up the path. He was not Eagle
Feather, but one of the tribe.

"How!" and the Indian nodded to the ragged man.

"How!" answered Mr. Bixby.

"You got heap big medicine ready for make Indian's pain better?" asked
the red man.

"Yes, but not now--pretty soon," answered Mr. Bixby.

"All right--me wait. You come back soon byemby?" asked the Onondaga.

"Yes, in a minute."

"You don't need to go any farther with us," said Bunny presently. "We
can see the road from here and we know our way all right."

"Are you sure?" asked Mr. Bixby, who seemed anxious to get back to the
Indian, who appeared to be ill.

"Of course we can," said Bunny.

"Of course," added Sue.

"Then I'll leave you here," went on the ragged man. "I doctor some of
the Indians, and this is one of them. I'll say good-bye, and the next
time you're lost you must send for me."

"We will," laughed Bunny and Sue as they went on toward the road. They
knew where they were now, as they had come along this road after the
milk.

As they reached the highway they heard from the cabin of the ragged man
a curious buzzing sound.

"What's that?" asked Sue. "Is it bees?"

"No, I don't think so," answered Bunny. "It sounds more like machinery."

"Yes, it does," agreed Sue. "I wonder what kind it is."

"Sounds like a little saw mill," said Bunny.

"Say!" cried Sue, when they had walked on a little way. "Wasn't it queer
that that Indian asked about 'heap big medicine,' just the way Eagle
Feather spoke of my Teddy bear and your electric train?"

"Kind of," admitted Bunny. "I wonder what he meant?"

"Oh, I guess it's some medicine Mr. Bixby has for curing the stomach,"
went on Sue. "The Indian might have eaten too many green apples."

"Maybe," said Bunny. "Oh, here comes Splash, looking for us!" he cried,
as he saw the dog running along the road toward them.

CHAPTER XIII

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."

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