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

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"And it will make such a nice one for Splash," said Sue. "You see, we
can put hinges on the little square place the carpenter cut out to make
a hole for me to get through, and we can make something fast to it that
Splash can get hold of with his teeth, like a knob, so he can pull the
door shut when it rains. It will be awful nice. I don't mind having been
shut up a bit when I think of Splash."

"But how did it all happen?" asked Mrs. Brown, while her husband and Mr.
Bixby were talking together.

The children told of Sue's adventure and of Charlie and Rose, and of the
big porch and of the lunch.

"But what does Mr. Bixby want, Mother? Is he really going to take Tom
away from us?" asked Sue.

"I don't know, my little girl. I hope not. But he seems to have the law
on his side."

"Well, you have your way of looking at it and I have mine," Mr. Bixby
was saying to Mr. Brown. "I hired this boy from the poorhouse and agreed
to pay him certain wages. Part he keeps for himself and the rest goes to
the poorhouse managers for his board in the Winter when he can't work.

"Then this boy ups and leaves me and comes to you. It isn't fair, and
I'm not getting the worth of the money I paid. For though he is a lazy
chap I managed to get some chores out of him."

"Of course," said Mr. Brown, "you may be right in what you say about
having the right to this boy's work because you paid for it. As for his
being lazy, I don't agree with you there. He has certainly been a help
to us about the camp."

"Oh, yes, where there's any fun in it Tom's right there! I s'pose he's a
good fisherman?"

"I never saw a better one," said Mr. Brown earnestly, while Bunny Brown
and Sue sat together on a big stump and wondered what it was all about.

"Yes, Tom'd rather fish than eat," said Mr. Bixby slowly, as he crossed
one ragged-trousered leg over the other.

"Who wouldn't with what I got to eat at your cabin?" burst out Tom who
had been standing back near the cook tent. "All I got was potatoes, and
once in a while bacon; I got so hungry I just _had_ to go out and fish."

"Well, we won't go into any argument about it," said Mr. Bixby. "I'm
entitled to work from you and I'm goin' to have you. That's all there
is about it."

"I'll never go back to you to be stung with them needles!" cried Tom.

At this Mr. Brown asked a question.

"What are these 'needles' Tom speaks of?" he asked. "I think I have a
right to know, as he is in my charge now, and if I let him go to you,
and he is hurt, I should feel I was to blame. I want to know about this
needle business."

"There wasn't anything to it. He just imagined it. I used to grab hold
of his arm, to shake him awake mornings, and I'd happen to hit his funny
bone in his elbow. You know how it is when you hit your elbow in a
certain place--it makes it feel as though pins and needles were sticking
in you."

"I have felt that," said Mrs. Brown.

"And so have I," added Bunny. "It's funny!"

"Well, that's all there is to it," said Mr. Bixby. "But I want Tom back.
I'm going to have him, too!"

"You shall have him if you have a right to him. But I shall look into
this first," said Mr. Brown. "You can't take him to-night."

"Oh, well, we sha'n't quarrel over that, as long as I get him to-morrow
to help dig potatoes. But you'll find I'm in the right, and that the boy
belongs to me for the Summer," said the hermit. "I'll do just as I
agreed to by him."

"Well, I'll look it up to make sure," said Mr. Brown. "It may be that
you are right, and it may be you are wrong. If you are, I'll say to you
now that you'll never get Tom away from me."

"That's right. Don't let him take me!" cried Tom, who seemed very much
afraid. "I don't want any more of his funny needles stuck in me. Let me
stay with you!"

"I will if I can, Tom my boy," said Mr. Brown.

"You'll find you can't keep him away from me," said Mr. Bixby, as he got
up to go. "And I won't hurt him, as he and you folks seem to think. All
I want are my rights."

The two men talked together a little longer, but Tom wanted to hear all
about Sue's having been shut in the trunk, so Bunny and his sister took
turns telling the story once more, while Tom listened eagerly.

"If I'd been there," he cried as Sue finished, "I'd a given that trunk
one kick and busted her clean open, Sue! I wouldn't have waited for no
carpenter."

One look at Tom's big feet seemed to indicate that he could easily have
"busted the trunk clean open."

"But it was better to saw a little door, to make a kennel for Splash,"
said Sue. "Anyhow I wasn't in there very long, and I could breathe a
little."

"Well, be careful about getting into trunks again," said her mother, and
Sue said she would.

The children played in the woods about the camp with Tom after supper,
while Mr. and Mrs. Brown sat off to one side talking earnestly.

"I guess they're talking about you," said Sue. "About your going away,
Tom."

"Well, I'm not going back to Mr. Bixby!" declared the lad.

"And we're not going to let you!" cried Bunny. "If he comes after you
we'll get in a boat and go down the lake and hide in that cave. We'll
take something to eat with us, and some fish lines to catch fish, and
we'll cook 'em over a campfire and we'll live in the big woods forever."

"What'll we do when Winter comes?" asked Sue.

"Oh, then daddy and mother will be back in the city and we can go and
live with them," replied her brother.

Early the next morning, while the children and Tom were having
breakfast, Mr. Brown was seen setting off toward the village.

"Where are you going, Daddy?" cried Sue.

"Can't you take us with you?" asked Bunny.

"No, I'm going off to see some of the townspeople--the authorities--the
head of the poorhouse and others, to find out what right Mr. Bixby has
to Tom."

"Oh, if you're going to help Tom that's all right!" said Sue. "We can
have some games among ourselves, can't we Bunny?" she added, turning to
her brother.

"Yes, but I wish I had my electric train."

"Well, you can play with the car you found in the hay," said Sue. "And
then we've got to make that trunk-kennel for Splash."

"Oh, so we have!" exclaimed Bunny. "I forgot about that. We'll have some
fun anyhow."

"And I'll help," said Tom. "Might as well have what fun I can if I have
to go back to Mr. Bixby's."

"You won't have to go back," said Bunny. "My father will fix it so you
can stay with us."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE NIGHT MEETING

Bunny and Sue, as soon as they had finished their breakfast, went down
to the edge of the lake to play. They wanted to go for a row, and Mrs.
Brown had said they could if Tom was along, so there was no trouble this
time.

Out on the water, where the sun was shining on the waves, Tom rowed the
children. Then Bunny brought out his fishing line and pole, baited the
hook with some worms he had dug, and began to fish.

"You won't get any fish here," said Tom. "There are too many boats
around. I can take you to a place where there are some good perch and
sunnies."

"No, I want to fish here," said Bunny. "It's easy to catch fish where
everybody else can. I want to try in a hard place."

So Tom kept the boat in about the same spot, rowing slowly about while
Bunny fished, and fished, and fished again, without getting a single
bite or nibble.

"Oh dear, it's so hot here out in the middle of the lake!" said Sue.
"Can't we go where it's cool and shady?"

"I know such a place as that," said Tom. "And you can catch fish there,
too."

"Does everybody fish there?" Bunny asked.

"No, hardly anybody. And you can't always catch fish there either, even
if you know the best places."

"Then we'll go," decided Bunny. "I want to go to a hard place."

"Is there anything I can do where you are going?" asked Sue.

"Well, you can gather pond lilies in the creek, which comes into the
lake up above a piece. I'm going to take you there," said Tom. "It's a
nice place."

"Oh, goody!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "Mother loves pond lilies."

"Well, there's lots up where we're going," said Tom, as he began to row
with strong, long strokes.

The creek, as Tom called it, was a lazy sort of stream flowing into one
part of the lake through a dense part of the big woods. Up this creek
very few persons went, as it was shallow for most boats, and they often
ran aground and got stuck.

"But our boat will be all right," said Tom, "for it has a flat bottom
and it doesn't lie very deep in the water. It could almost be rowed in a
good rain storm."

Farther and farther up the creek Tom rowed the children. The trees met
in a green arch overhead, and the only sounds were those of the dripping
waters from Tom's oars, the call of woodland birds or the distant splash
of a fish jumping up to get a fly that was close to the top of the
water.

"Shall I fish here?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, you ought to get a few here."

Bunny cast in, and it was not long before he had a bite. But when he
pulled up there was no fish on his hook.

"You must yank up quicker," said Tom. "They are only nibbling to fool
you. Pull up quickly."

"Look out!" suddenly called Bunny. He yanked his pole up so suddenly
that he pulled the fish out of the water, right over the heads of
himself, his sister and Tom, and with a splash the fish came down in the
water on the other side of the boat. There it wiggled off the hook.

"You pulled _too_ hard this time," said Tom with a laugh.

"I'll do it just right next time," said Bunny. And he did. When he felt
something pulling on his line he, too, pulled and this time he caught a
sun fish, large enough to cook. It had very pretty colors on it.

"It's too pretty to catch," said Sue. "But, oh! Look at the pretty pond
lilies!" and she pointed to some farther up the creek. "Can we get some,
Tom?"

"Wait until I catch one more fish," begged Bunny.

Bunny soon caught another fish, which had stripes around it "like a
raccoon," Sue said.

"That's a perch," Tom told the children. "They're good to eat, too. But
now we'll row up for the lilies."

However, in spite of the fact that their boat did not take much water,
it ran aground before it reached the lilies.

"Oh, how are we going to get them?" asked Sue, in disappointment.

"I'll wade after them," said Tom. "I can take off my shoes and socks.
The water won't be much more than up to my knees after I get over the
mud bar on which the boat has stuck."

Tom was soon wading in the mud and water, his trousers well rolled up.
He was just reaching for one very large lily when he gave a sudden call,
threw up his hands and sank down out of sight.

"Oh, Tom's gone! He's drowned!" cried Sue.

"We've got to save him!" shouted Bunny, struggling with the oars. But
the boat was fast in the mud, and he could not move it.

"What shall we do?" gasped Sue.

Before Bunny could answer, Tom's head appeared above the muddy water. He
had hold of the pond lily.

"I'm all right," he said. "I stepped on the edge of a hole under the
water, and it was so slippery I went down in before I knew it. But the
deepest part is only over my waist, and now that I'm wet I might as well
stay and get all the lilies you wish."

"Oh, that's too bad!" cried Sue.

"Not at all," said Tom. "I like it. Afterward I'll take a swim in the
clean part of the lake and wash off."

So, wet and muddy as he was, his clothes covered with slime from the
bottom of the creek, Tom kept on gathering the lilies. Once he found a
mud turtle which he tossed into the boat for Bunny. The turtle seemed to
go to sleep in a corner.

"There's a nice bunch for you," said Tom, coming back to the boat with
the flowers for the little girl.

"Oh, thank you, so much!" said Sue. "But I'm sorry you got wet."

"I'm not. These clothes needed washing anyhow," laughed Tom.

With that Tom pushed the boat off the mud bar, and down the creek into
deeper water, the children sitting on the seats.

"Now I'll tie you to shore, go in swimming in this clean water, and row
you home after I've dried out a bit," said Tom. So he went in swimming
with all his clothes on, except his shoes and socks, and soon he was
clean.

"Mother will be so glad to get the pond lilies," said Sue.

"And I guess she'll be glad to get my fish," said Bunny. "There's 'most
enough for dinner."

Tom was nearly dry when he reached home, and no one said anything about
his wet clothes.

"Oh, what lovely flowers!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "And what fine fish.
Did you catch them all alone, Bunny?"

"Yes'm, Momsie! Both of 'em. Where's Daddy?"

"Oh, off seeing some men. I believe there's to be a meeting at our camp
to-night to talk about your friend Tom and Mr. Bixby."

"I hope they don't send Tom back," said Bunny. "He knows everything
about this lake."

After supper several men came to Camp Rest-a-While. They were some of
the county officers. Eagle Feather and some of the Indians were
present, sitting by themselves, and Mr. Brown sat near Tom.

"May we stay and see what happens, Mother?" asked Bunny.

"I guess so. I don't know just what is going on, but I think your father
is going to try to arrange matters so Tom will not have to go back to
the hermit's to live."

"Hurray!" cried Bunny. "And while daddy is talking, I hope he'll ask
everybody if they've seen my electric train."

"And my Sallie Malinda," added Sue. "My nice 'lectric-eyed Teddy bear."

For all the inquiries that had been made had not brought forth any trace
of either of the children's toys. The man in whose barn Bunny had found
one car, said he had seen no one hiding it in the hay.

"Daddy is going to say something!" whispered Sue.

"Hush!" cautioned her mother.

Just then Mr. Brown arose and looked at the men in front of him.

[Illustration: TOM WADED IN THE MUD AND WATER TO GET THE LILIES.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods._ _Page_ 233.]

CHAPTER XXV

THE MISSING TOYS

"Gentlemen," began Mr. Brown, "I have asked you all to come to my camp
to-night to settle some questions, and, if possible, to find out what
has been going on around here.

"As I have told you, two rather costly toys, belonging to my children,
have been stolen. Eagle Feather's horse has been taken away. I know my
children's toys have not been found. And I think, Eagle Feather, your
horse is still missing?"

"Him no come back long time," said the Indian. "Stable all ready for
him--good bed straw, hay to eat. He no come home. Me t'ink somebody keep
him for himself."

"That's what we think, too, Eagle Feather," said Mr. Brown.

"Now there is one person I asked to come here to-night who is absent,"
he went on.

"The hermit," said some.

"Bixby," said others.

"I think we all mean the same man," said Mr. Brown.

"Now I have told you about this boy Tom, who was found by my children in
a cave near the lake shore," he continued. "He was found crying, saying
he was being stuck full of needles. I have not been able to get more
than that out of him. He says Bixby made him take hold of two shiny
balls, and then the needles pricked him. I have my own opinion of that,
but I'll speak of that later.

"I asked Bixby here to-night, that we might talk to him. I find that he
has a right to hire this boy to work for him, and under the law to keep
him all Summer. So it seems that unless we can show that Bixby has
treated Tom harshly he will have to go back."

"Unless we can prove that this needle-business was queer," said one man.

"Yes, and that is what I hoped to prove to-night. But since Mr. Bixby is
not here to talk to us----"

"Suppose we go and talk to him!" cried an officer.

"He may hear us coming, and run away," said another.

"Not if we go through the cave," suggested Tom. "I got into the cave,
where Bunny and Sue found me, by going through a hole in Bixby's
stable."

"Then you'd better lead us through the cave," said Mr. Brown. "We may
surprise the man at his tricks."

The party was soon going along the lake shore toward the cave.

The cavern was dark and silent when they entered it, but their lights
made it bright.

On they went, all the men, with Mrs. Brown, Uncle Tad and the children
coming at the rear of the procession. After they had gone far into the
cave the whinny of a horse was heard.

"Ha!" exclaimed Eagle Feather. "Him sound like my horse!"

They went on softly through the cave and were soon near the place where
Tom had entered it from the stable.

"Be very quiet now, everybody," said Mr. Brown.

"Sh-h-h," said Bunny to his mother and Sue, putting his finger on his
lips.

"I'll take a peep and see if any one's in sight," said Tom.

He went forward a little way and came back to whisper:

"There are two horses and a cow in there, and one horse looks like Eagle
Feather's."

"Let Indian see!" exclaimed the red man, and when he had peeped through
a hole between two stones in the stable wall, while Tom flashed a
flashlight through another hole, Eagle Feather cried:

"That my horse! Me git him back now!"

"Go a bit slow," advised Mr. Brown. "We want to see what else this Bixby
is up to. How can you get to the house from here, Tom?"

"Right through the stable, by the hole I got out of. His back door is
near the stable front door. Come on!"

On they went through the stable, Eagle Feather pausing long enough to
pat his horse and make sure that it was his own animal and grunting
"Huh!" in pleasure.

"Softly now," whispered Tom. "We are coming to where we can look into
one of the two rooms of Mr. Bixby's hut. It is there he sits at night
and where he gave me the needles."

In silence the party made its way to where all could look through the
window. Bunny's father held him up and Mrs. Brown took Sue in her arms.

What they saw caused them all great surprise. For there, on a table in
front of Bixby, the hermit, was Bunny's toy engine, and Sue's Teddy
bear. But the bear was partly torn apart, and from it ran wires that
joined with other wires from Bunny's electric locomotive and batteries.
At the other ends of the wires, were round, shiny balls, like those on
the ends of curtain rods.

On the other side of the table sat an Indian, and at the sight of him
Eagle Feather whispered:

"Him name Muskrat. Much good in canoe and water."

They saw the hermit put the two shiny knobs on the Indian's hands. Then
Mr. Bixby turned a switch and the Indian let out a wild yell and sprang
through the open door, crying:

"Thorns and thistles! He has stung me with bad medicine! Wow!"

"I think I begin to see the trick," said Mr. Brown.

"That's what he did to me," explained Tom, "but I didn't see a Teddy
bear or a toy locomotive."

This time the hermit, disturbed by the sudden running away of the
Indian, and by the voices outside his window, started toward the latter.

"Quick! Some of you get to the door so he can't get away," called Mr.
Brown, but Bixby did not seem to want to run away. He stood in the
middle of the room until Mr. Brown, Bunny, Sue and the others had
entered.

"Oh, there's my toy engine!" cried Bunny making a grab for it.

"And my Teddy bear!" added Sue.

"Look out, don't touch them!" called Mr. Brown. "He has fixed the dry
batteries in the toys to a spark coil, which makes the current
stronger, and he's giving shocks that way. Aren't you?" he asked,
turning to the hermit.

"Since you have found me out, I have," was the answer. "I admit I have
been bad, but I am sorry. I will tell you everything. I used to be a man
who went about the country with an electric machine, giving people
electrical treatments for rheumatism and other pains. I made some money,
but my wife died and her sickness and burial took all I had. Then my
electrical machine broke and I could not buy another.

"However, I did manage to get a little one, run with dry batteries, and
I began going about the country making cures.

"Then this place was left me by a relative. I thought I could make a
living off it with the help of a hired boy, so I got Tom.

"I found some Indians lived here, and, learning how simple they were and
that they thought everything strange was 'heap big medicine,' as they
called it, I thought of trying my battery on them. First I tried it on
Tom, and he yelled that I was sticking needles into him. He did not
understand about the electricity, and I did not try to explain.

"I remembered what your children had told me about having a toy train of
cars that ran by electricity, and a Teddy bear with two lamps for eyes.
I knew these batteries, though small, would be strong, and just what I
needed with what electrical things I had. So I stole the toy train of
cars and the Teddy bear.

"I was sorry to do it, but I thought if I could make enough money from
the Indians I could buy new batteries for myself and give the children
back their toys.

"But most of the Indians were afraid of the electrical current which
felt like needles, and I could not get many of them to come back after
they had once tried it. So I made no money.

"Tom ran away, and then I stole Eagle Feather's horse. I thought maybe
if I could sell the horse and get money enough to get a new machine that
did not sting so hard, I could make money enough to buy the horse back.

"But everything went against me, and now I have nothing left. I am sorry
I had to rip your Teddy bear apart, little girl, to get the wires on the
batteries. And as for your cars, little boy, I hid them in farms and
various places. I don't know where they are now, but the engine is all
right and in running order."

He quickly loosened the wires, and the toy locomotive ran around the
table on part of the stolen track.

"But my poor dear Sallie Malinda is dead!" cried Sue.

"No, I can sew her together again, if the batteries are all right," said
Mrs. Brown.

"And the batteries are all right," said the hermit, who had heard what
was said. "See, I'll make the eyes shine!"

He quickly did something to the wires and again the eyes of Sue's Teddy
bear shone out bravely.

"I realize how wrong I was to take the children's things," went on the
hermit, "but I knew no other way to get the batteries I needed. I only
had my cow to sell, and I dared not part with her, for she gave me milk
to live on. All the while I kept hoping my luck would be better.

"When Tom ran away I did not know what to do. I did not imagine the
little electricity I gave him would hurt him. A few of the Indians
seemed to like it."

"Yes, me hear um talk of heap big medicine that sting like bees," said
Eagle Feather. "But me no think hermit did it, what has my horse."

"I'm sorry I took it," said Bixby. "I'll give up my cow to pay for all I
took. Then I'll go away."

"Wait a minute," said Mr. Brown. "We'll decide about that later. You
have done some wrong things, but you have tried to do what was right.
We'll try to find a way out of your troubles. Stay here for a few days."

Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue took with them that night their toys so
strangely found, and in a few days the playthings were as good as ever,
for Mrs. Brown sewed up the ripped Teddy bear and Bunny had some new
cars for his electric engine. The track the hermit had kept, so
that was all right.

"Does electricity feel like pins and needles?" asked Bunny Brown one
day.

"I'll show you," said his father, and he did by a little battery which
he owned. This was after their return from camp.

"Is it like needles, or your foot being asleep," said Bunny.

But before this Mr. Brown had talked with some of his neighbors, and
they decided to give the hermit another chance. Tom would go back to
work for him on condition that no more electricity be used. The hermit
had a good garden and he could sell things from that. Eagle Feather was
given back his horse, and Mr. Bixby was not arrested for taking it. And
the mystery of the electrical toys being solved, life at Camp
Rest-a-While went on as before for a time.

Bunny and his sister had fine times, and once in a while Tom had a day's
vacation, and came over to see them.

"But I s'pose we can't stay here forever," said Bunny to Sue, one day.
"I wonder where we'll go next?"

"I heard father and mother talking something about a trip," said Sue.

And what that journey was may be learned by reading the next volume of
this series to be called: "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto
Tour."

"Say, we ought to have some fun on that!" cried Bunny.

"So we ought!" cried Sue. "I'm going to take my fixed-over Sallie
Malinda."

"Well, I'll take my flashlight instead of my locomotive and cars," said
Bunny. "We may have to travel at night."

And while the two children are thus planning good times together we will
say good-bye to them.

=THE END=

THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS

For Little Men and Women

By LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Bunny Brown" Series, Etc.

* * * * *

=12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.=

* * * * *

Copyright publications which cannot be obtained elsewhere. Books that
charm the hearts of the little ones, and of which they never tire. Many
of the adventures are comical in the extreme, and all the accidents that
ordinarily happen to youthful personages happened to these many-sided
little mortals. Their haps and mishaps make decidedly entertaining
reading.

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