"Yes, but you aren't supposed to do that in riddles," returned Captain Ross.

After supper on the Fairy, Uncle Tad took the two children on shore, Bunny and Sue having secured their mother's permission to ride on the merry-go-round. It was a big affair, playing jolly tunes, and the animals were large and gaily painted.

Bunny and Sue had a number of rides, always begging for "just one more," until Uncle Tad finally said:

"No, that's enough! You'll be ill if you whirl around any more. Come, we'll walk around and look at things, and then we'll go back to the boat."

He led them around to see the other attractions at the little park near the big hotel. Somehow or other, Bunny wandered away from Uncle Tad and Sue while Sue and the old soldier were looking at a man blowing colored glass into birds, feathers, balloons and other fantastic shapes.

But finally Uncle Tad said:

"Come, Sue, we must be going now. Where's Bunny?"

"He was here a minute ago," answered Bunny's sister.

She looked around. They were on a plaza, or open space, at one end of which stood the musical merry-go-round. At the other end was a drive where little ponies and carts could be hired for short rides.

As Sue and Uncle Tad looked, there suddenly dashed from this place a large, white goat. And on the back of the goat was Bunny Brown, clinging fast!

"Oh, look! Look!" cried Sue. "It's a merry-go-round goat! It's a merry goat, and Bunny's having a ride on his back!"

As she spoke the animal dashed straight for the whirling carousel, and Bunny's face, showing some fright, was turned toward his uncle and his sister.



CHAPTER X

IN THE STORM

Before Sue and Uncle Tad could do anything, even if they had known what to do, something very queer happened. The goat, on whose back Bunny was riding, jumped up on the big, circular platform of the merry-go-round. It was on this platform that the wooden animals, birds, and fishes were built, and where, also, were the broad wooden seats for older folk, who did not like to get on the back of a lion or a camel and be twirled around.

The platform was broad, for boys and girls had to step up on it to make their way to whatever animal they wanted to sit on, and the men who collected the tickets also had to walk around on this wooden platform while the machine was in motion. And it was in motion when the live goat jumped on it.

There was plenty of room for "Billy" on the merry-go-round, though why he jumped up on it I cannot say. You can hardly ever tell why a goat does things, anyhow.



Right up on the moving merry-go-round leaped the goat, with Bunny clinging to the long hair of his back. The goat slid along until he came up beside a lion, on whose back a frowsy young person was riding.

"Oh, my!" cried this girl, "one of the wooden animals has come to life." She screamed and would have fallen from the lion, Sue thought, but for the fact that a young man was standing beside her. He had come around to collect her ticket and when he heard her scream and saw her sway back and forth he grasped her.

"Sit still!" advised the ticket-taker.

"But look! Look!" cried the girl. "One of the wooden animals has come to life! Oh, I'm so afraid! And look! He has a little boy on his back!"

The goat on which Bunny was riding was quite large, really as big as one of the wooden goats of the merry-go-round, and, as the make-believe creatures were painted to resemble the real animals as nearly as possible, the sight was a surprising one.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed the young man ticket-taker. "It isn't one of the wooden animals! It's a real goat from the ones over by the ponies. He's alive, of course."

The frowsy girl giggled.

"And I'm alive, too!" added Bunny, his hands wound in the goat's long hair. "But I didn't want to ride the goat up here!"

"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" shouted Sue from the outer edge of the merry-go-round, which she and Uncle Tad had now reached. "Look out, Bunny, or you'll fall off!"

There was a laugh from the crowd of evening pleasure-seekers that had gathered at the shore resort.

"I am holding on!" cried Bunny. "Whoa now, goat!" he called.

"Stop the machine!" exclaimed Uncle Tad.

"All right; we'll stop it," said the ticket-taker, who still held to the frowsy young person on the back of the lion.

The goat seemed quiet enough now. After it had jumped up on the moving platform, with Bunny on its back, the animal just stood there, looking around. Perhaps it felt quite at home with the wooden horses, the ostriches, lions, tigers, camels, and other creatures so gaily painted and with pieces of looking glass stuck all over them.

Slowly the merry-go-round came to a stop, and the ticket-taker, letting go of the girl, who had not fallen from the back of the lion, hurried to Bunny's side.

"I'll lift you off," he said.

"Thank you," answered Bunny. A moment later he was walking over to join Sue and Uncle Tad, while a man stepped from the crowd and took charge of the goat, which he led to the edge of the platform. The goat leaped down and off as Bunny had done.

"I hope my goat didn't hurt you when he ran away with you," said the man, walking up to Bunny, Sue, and Uncle Tad and leading the horned creature.

"Oh, no, he didn't hurt me," Bunny answered. "But I didn't think he'd run away with me just 'cause I got on his back."

"He isn't used to having boys and girls on his back unless he wears a saddle," the man explained.

"Did you jump on the goat's back, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad.

"Well, I didn't exactly jump on," replied the little boy. "I was leaning over, looking at him, and I sort of wanted to see how it would feel to get on his back. And I did, and then he ran up on the merry-go-round with me. But I held on so I wouldn't fall."

"It's a good thing you did!" declared Sue.

"How did it happen?" asked Uncle Tad.

"All I know about it is this," said the man who owned the goat. "I have a few of these Billies and Nannies for children that don't want a ponyback ride. But I was getting the goats ready to put in the stable for the night, and I'd taken off the saddles. I had my back turned, and the first I knew I heard a shout. I turned and saw this boy on Nero's back, heading for the merry-go-round. I followed as fast as I could. Nero is a gentle goat, but I couldn't tell what he'd do when he got mixed up with the wooden animals," he finished.

"No," said Uncle Tad, "that's so. You did wrong, Bunny, to get on the goat's back without asking permission."

"I—I didn't mean to," said the little boy. "When you and Sue were looking at the glass-blower I went over to look at the ponies and the goats. And I just sort of leaned over this goat, and, first I remember, I was on his back and he ran away with me."

"There's no harm done," said the goat's owner, as the people in the crowd smiled and laughed at what had happened. "Come over in the morning and I'll let you have a regular ride on a saddle—you and your sister," he added as he looked at Sue.

"Thank you," she answered. "I'll come if mother will let me."

"I guess we have to go on to Christmas Tree Cove in the morning," announced Bunny. "Anyhow, I'm much obliged for this ride," he said. "Nero's a good goat," and he patted the head of the animal.

"Yes, he's a good goat," agreed the owner.

Then he took his horned steed back to the pony stand, the merry-go-round started off again with the loud music, and Uncle Tad took Bunny and Sue back to the Fairy.

Of course there was considerable talk and some laughter on board the boat when the story was told of Bunny's goat ride. His mother, laughing, told him never to do such a thing again, and, of course, Bunny said he wouldn't.

"Did you like that ride?" questioned Sue, when they were getting ready to go to bed.

"I did and I didn't," was Bunny's answer. "I got on the goat so sudden-like I didn't have time to make up my mind about it. He was an awful quick goat, Nero was."

"I guess most goats are quick. Once I saw a goat go after a man who was pasting up bills on a board. My, but that man had to run to get out of the way!"

"Maybe the goat wanted his bills or his paste," said Bunny. "I once heard that goats love to eat billboard paper just for the paste on it."

"Maybe so."

Bright and early the next morning Bunker Blue arose and began to wash down the decks of the boat. As he was splashing the water around in his bare feet with his trousers rolled up, a young man with a bundle under his arm came down to the dock.

"Here are the dresses and things Mrs. Brown lent to the young ladies," said the young man. "They are very much obliged. I brought them early, for I thought maybe you'd want to get an early start."

"Yes, I believe we are going to leave soon," answered Bunker. "But I don't like the looks of the weather," he added. "It seems to me we are going to have a storm. If you get another canoe and paddle out in it," he said, "I wouldn't go too far from shore."

"Thank you, I'll be careful," was the answer.

Bunny and Sue awakened and got ready for breakfast, and Bunker told about the visit of the young man. Then the children went out on deck to look at the sea and sky.

I say the "sea," though really it was all part of Sandport Bay, and not exactly the open ocean, though it was a very large body of water.

"Do you think it's going to rain, Bunker?" asked Sue.

"I think it's going to rain and blow, too," answered the fish and boat boy, who had learned to read the weather signs. "But the Fairy is able to stand it, I think. How are you after your goat ride, Bunny?"

"Oh, I feel fine!" declared the little boy. "But I want to get to Christmas Tree Cove before long."

"So do I," added Sue. "I'm going to make a little bungalow there for my dolls."

"And I'm going to make one to camp in," declared her brother.

They started off right after breakfast, and as Bunny and Sue played around on the deck they could see their father and Captain Ross talking together and looking up at the sky every now and then.

"We'll keep near shore," they heard the captain say. "Then if the storm breaks we can tie up."

But, though the clouds scudded across the sky all day, the storm did not break. It was black and lowering when evening came, but, after another look all around, Bunny heard the captain say to their father and mother:

"We may as well keep on. It may blow over, and if we tie up over night it will take us just so much longer to get there. I'd better keep on, don't you think?"

"Yes," said Mr. Brown, "keep on."

So the Fairy kept on through the waters of the bay. Bunny and Sue, after being allowed out on deck to watch the distant twinkling lights of other vessels, were put to bed in their bunks, and Mrs. Brown fastened some broad canvas straps up in front of their berths.

"What are they for?" asked Sue, as she kissed her mother good night.

"So you won't fall out if the boat rolls and rocks too much in the storm," was the answer.

"Oh, I like to be out in a storm!" exclaimed Bunny.

"I do if it's not too hard a storm," said Sue.

"I think this will be only a small one," replied Mrs. Brown, but as she went out on deck and felt the strong wind and noticed how high the waves were she felt a trifle uneasy.

Some hours later Bunny and Sue were each awakened about the same time by feeling themselves being tossed about in their berths. Bunny was flung up against the canvas straps his mother had fastened, and at first he did not know what was happening. Then he heard Sue ask:

"What's the matter?"

"Don't be afraid," said Bunny. "It's only the storm, I guess. Oh, feel that!" he cried, and as he spoke the Fairy seemed to be trying to stand on her "head."



CHAPTER XI

WHERE IS BUNNY?

Sue Brown did not know quite what to do. As she cuddled up in the little berth aboard the Fairy, she felt herself being tossed over toward the edge. At first she was afraid she would be thrown out on the cabin floor, but the strips of canvas her mother had fastened in place stopped the little girl from having a fall, just as they had stopped Bunny.

Sue looked up at the tiny electric light, operated by a storage battery. Captain Ross had put it there so the children would not be in the dark if they awakened in the night and needed something.

"Bunny! Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, "I don't like a storm on a boat at night!"

Before Bunny could answer his sister the door of the little stateroom where they were was opened and Mother Brown looked in. She was dressed, and her head, face and hair were wet as though she had been out in the storm. And she really had, for a moment.

"So you're awake, children," she said. "The storm is a bad one, and we are heading for a quiet cove where we will soon be sheltered and more quiet."

"Can't I get up, Mother, and dress?" asked Bunny. "Maybe we'll have to get off the Fairy and into the rowboat, and I want my clothes on."

"Yes, you may get up and dress," said Mrs. Brown. "But there is no danger that we shall have to take to the small boat. It is just a severe summer storm, with much wind and rain, but not much else."

"Does it thunder and lightning?" asked Sue.

"No; or you would have heard it and seen it before this," her mother said. "Here, Sue, I'll take you over in my room and you may dress there. Bunny, can you manage by yourself?"

"Yes, Mother," he answered.

Mrs. Brown carried Sue in her arms to the room across the main cabin. It was not easy work with the boat pitching and tossing as it was, but finally the affair was managed, and Sue had her clothes put on. Bunny dressed himself, though not without some difficulty, for when he tried to stand on his right foot to put his left shoe on he slid across the little room and against the opposite wall. But he was not hurt.

Soon all of them except Captain Ross were in the main cabin. In answer to a question about the sailor, Mr. Brown said:

"He's out steering the boat. He wants to bring her safe into Clam Cove, he says, and then we'll anchor for the night. But he thought it best for us all to be dressed. The storm is worse than any of us thought it would be."

After the first feeling had worn off of being suddenly awakened in the night, Bunny and Sue did not mind it much. They sat around, looking a little anxiously at their father or mother as the boat plunged and rolled, but when they saw how calm their father, mother, Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue were, the children took heart also.

"Here are some cookies," said their mother, bringing out a bag from a locker. "I'd give you some milk to drink, only it would spill the way the boat is rocking."

"Yes," said Mr. Brown, with a smile, "there'd be as much milk on the floor, I imagine, as the children would drink."

The storm grew worse instead of less, but Captain Ross was a good seaman, and in about an hour he brought the Fairy into a sheltered harbor known as Clam Cove, because of the number of clams that were dug there.

"Now we'll ride easier," said Bunker Blue. "I'll go up and help get the anchor over," he added.

Soon Bunny Brown and his sister Sue heard sounds on deck which told of the big anchor being put over the side, and then the boat came to rest. She still pitched and tossed a little, but not nearly as much as before. The wind still blew and the rain came down in pelting drops. But the craft was water-tight and it was, as Bunker Blue said, "as dry as a bone" inside.

"You children can go back to your berths now," said Mother Brown, when the cookies had all been eaten. "I don't believe you'll be tossed out now."

"All right," assented Bunny and Sue, for they were beginning to feel sleepy in spite of the excitement of having been awakened by the storm.

And soon, save for the uneasy motion of the storm, which was not felt much in Clam Cove, there was once again calm aboard the Fairy.

In the morning, though the wind was still high, the rain had stopped. The outer bay, though, was a mass of big waves, and after one look at them Captain Ross said:

"I think we'd better stay here until it quiets down. We could navigate, but there's no special hurry."

"No," agreed Mr. Brown, "there isn't. We are not due at Christmas Tree Cove at any special time, so we'll take it easy."

"Then we can watch the clam boats," said Bunny. "I like to watch them."

The clam boats were of two kinds, large rowing craft in which one or two men went out and with a long-handled rake pulled clams up from the bottom of the cove. The other boats were sailing craft. They would start at one side of Clam Cove, spread their sails in a certain way, and drift across the stretch of water. Over the side of the boat were tossed big rakes with long, iron teeth. These rakes, fastened to ropes attached to the boat, dragged over the bottom of the cove much as the fishermen in the small boats dragged their rakes.

Of course the sailboats could use much larger rakes and cover a wider part of the cove. Now and then the men on board the sailboats would haul up the rakes, which were shaped something like a man's hand is when half closed and all the fingers and the thumb are spread out. The clams were dumped on deck, afterward to be washed and sorted.

The sight was not new to any of the Browns, and of course Bunker, Uncle Tad, and Captain Ross had often taken part in clam raking. But Bunny and Sue never tired of watching it. Now they sat on deck, as much out of the wind as possible, and looked at the drifting boats and at the clammers in their dorries.

The storm was passing. Gradually the wind was dying out and the waves were getting smaller.

"I think we can start again by this afternoon," said Mr. Brown, coming up on deck following a short nap in the cabin. He had felt sleepy after dinner.

"Yes, we can leave before evening if you say so," replied Captain Ross. "How are you enjoying it?" he asked Sue. "Let's see, I know a riddle about a clam, if I can think of it. Let me see now, I wonder——"

"Where's Bunny?" asked Mrs. Brown, coming up on the deck at that moment.

"Wasn't he with you?" asked her husband.

"No, he didn't come down. I asked Bunker some time ago about him, and Bunker said he was on deck with Sue. But he isn't. Where is Bunny?"



CHAPTER XII

CHRISTMAS TREE COVE

When a family is making a trip on a boat and one of the children becomes lost, or is missing, there is always more worry than if the same thing happened on land. For the first thing a father and a mother think of when on a boat and they do not see their children or know where they are, is that the missing child has fallen into the lake, river or ocean—whatever the body of water may be.

So when Mrs. Brown came up on the deck of the Fairy and did not see Bunny, who she had thought was with Sue, she asked at once where he was.

And when Mr. Brown heard his wife say that Bunny had not come to the cabin he, too, began to wonder where the little boy was.

"Where did Bunny go, Sue?" asked Mother Brown. "Wasn't he sitting here with you?"

"Yes, he was here a little while ago," answered Sue. "And then I was watching two of the sailboats to see if they would bump together, and I didn't look at Bunny. When I did look he was gone, but I thought he was downstairs."

"He isn't," said Mrs. Brown, "and he isn't here on deck. Oh, if he——"

She did not finish what she was going to say, but quickly ran to the side of the boat and looked down into the water, as if she might see Bunny paddling around there. The Fairy was still anchored in Clam Cove, waiting for the storm to blow out.

"Is Bunny in swimming?" asked Sue.

"What's the matter?" asked Captain Ross, who was up "for'ard," as he called it, meaning the front of the boat. He and Bunker Blue were mending one of the sails. "Anything wrong, Mrs. Brown?" asked the jolly old sailor.

"I can't find Bunny," she answered. "He was here with Sue a moment ago. Oh, I'm afraid Bunny——"

"Now, don't think that anything has happened!" interrupted Mr. Brown. "He's probably hiding somewhere."

"Bunny wouldn't do that," declared his mother.

"No, we weren't playing hide and go seek," said Sue.

"Then he must be downstairs in one of the cabins, or he is asleep in his berth," said Mr. Brown. "I'll look."

"I'll help," offered Uncle Tad, who, himself, had been taking a nap in his berth.

"I suppose he must be down below if he isn't up here," said Mrs. Brown, hoping this was true. "I want to look, too."

Sue was beginning to be a bit frightened now, and she started to follow the others below, while Captain Ross and Bunker Blue, seeing how worried Mr. and Mrs. Brown were, dropped the sail on which they were working and decided to join in the search.

It did not take them long to make a search of the boat below decks. No Bunny was to be found. He was not in his own bunk, nor in that of any one else, nor was he in the small room where the gasolene motor was built, though Bunny liked to go there to watch the whirring wheels when the motor was in motion.

"Where can he be?" exclaimed Mrs. Brown.

Then, suddenly, Sue gave a joyful cry and clapped her hands.

"I think I know where he is!" exclaimed the little girl. "I just happened to think about it. Come on!"

Wonderingly they followed her. Sue ran to the stern of the Fairy, where the steering wheel was placed. Here was a small rowboat turned bottomside up. It was kept for the purpose of going to and from shore when the larger craft was anchored out in the bay.

Going close to this overturned boat Sue leaned down so she could look under it. The two ends of the boat, being higher than the middle, raised it slightly from the deck, leaving a sort of long, narrow slot. And Sue called into this slot:

"Bunny! are you there? Answer me. Are you there?"

For an instant there was no reply, and Mrs. Brown, who had begun to think she should have looked there first, was about to conclude that, after all, it was a wrong guess, when suddenly a voice answered:

"Yes; here I am."

The boat tilted to one side and out from beneath it came rolling Bunny Brown. He seemed sleepy, and his clothes were mussed while his hair was rumpled. And there was a queer look on his face.

"Why, Bunny! Bunny Brown, what possessed you to crawl under that boat and go to sleep?" asked his mother. "You have frightened us! We thought perhaps you had fallen overboard."

"No," said Bunny slowly, shaking his head, "I didn't."

"We see you didn't," said his father, a bit sternly. "But why did you hide under the boat?"

"I wasn't hiding," answered Bunny. "And if I had fallen overboard into the water you would have heard me yell," he went on, speaking slowly.

"I suppose so," agreed Mr. Brown. "But if you weren't hiding under that boat, what were you doing?"

"I was—I was thinking," answered Bunny sheepishly.

"Thinking!" exclaimed his mother.

"Yes, about the dog that took your pocketbook," went on the little boy. "I wanted to be in a quiet place where I could think about him and maybe guess where he was so I could make him give back your diamond ring, Mother. So I crawled under the boat. It was nice and warm there, and the wind didn't blow on me, and I was thinking and I was thinking, and——"

"And then you fell asleep, didn't you?" asked Uncle Tad, as they all stood around Bunny on deck.

"Yes, I guess I did," was the answer. "And I didn't dream about the dog, either."

"Did you think of any way to find him?" asked Captain Ross.

"No," answered Bunny, "I didn't. But I wish I could."

"Oh, you mustn't think any more about that dog," said his mother, with a smile, as she patted the little boy's tousled head. "I'll manage to get along without my diamond ring, though I would like to have it back."

"Well, I couldn't think," complained Bunny, with a sigh. "I guess maybe I was too sleepy."

"Better not hide yourself away again," cautioned his father. "You must be extra careful aboard a boat so your mother will not have to worry, or this trip to Christmas Tree Cove will not be any pleasure to her."

"When shall we get there—to the place where the Christmas trees are, Daddy?" asked Sue.

"Oh, to-morrow, I guess," answered Captain Ross. "I'll land you up there, and then I'll cruise back. And I'll come after you, to bring you home, whenever you want me," he added to Mr. Brown.

"We're going to stay all summer," said Bunny. "Wouldn't it be funny if we could find that big dog and your pocketbook at the Cove, Mother?" he asked.

"Oh, that could never happen!" declared Sue.

So the lost Bunny was found, and then it was nearly time to get supper. The wind had all died out now, and it was so calm in the cove that Captain Ross decided to start the boat without further delay.

"We can tie up wherever you want to over night, or we can anchor out in the bay, or keep on going," he said to his passengers.

"I think we'd better keep on going," said Mrs. Brown. "I shall worry less about Bunny and Sue when they are lost if it happens on dry land. I'll know then that they haven't fallen overboard."

"We could fall in off shore, just the same as off a boat," suggested Bunny.

"Not quite so easily. And you must be careful when you get to the bungalow in Christmas Tree Cove," said Daddy Brown. "The bungalow is right on the shore, but the water is shallow for a long distance out," he went on.

"Oh, I'm not going to fall in!" declared Bunny.

"Then we'll start and travel all night," said Captain Ross. "Speaking of falling into the water," he said, with a jolly laugh, "can you tell me the answer to this riddle, Bunny or Sue? Why should you tie a cake of soap around your neck when you go in swimming?"

"I never tied a cake of soap around my neck," said the little girl.

"I like to play the cake of soap is a boat in the bathtub," remarked Bunny. "It's lots of fun."

"But this is a riddle," went on the seaman. "Why should you tie a cake of soap around your neck if you go in swimming in deep water?"

"It can't be for you to eat if you get hungry," said Bunny, "can it, Captain Ross?"

"Of course not!" cried his sister. "How could you eat a cake of soap?"

"You could if it was a chocolate cake," returned the little boy. "But that isn't the answer to the riddle. Please tell us, Captain," he begged, as Bunker Blue began to pull up the anchor.

"When you go swimming in deep water and get carried too far out, if you have a cake of soap tied around your neck it might wash you ashore! Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed the jolly old sailor. "Do you see, Bunny—Sue? If you had a cake of soap on your neck it could wash you ashore. Soap washes, you know."

"That's a pretty good riddle," said Uncle Tad, while the two children laughed. "I must remember that to tell my old friend Joe Jamison when I get back to Bellemere. A cake of soap washes you ashore! Ha! Ha!"

"Oh, I know a lot of better ones than that," said Captain Ross. "Only I can't think of 'em just now. Well, all clear, Bunker?" he called.

"Yes, sir," was the answer.

"Then start the motor."

And soon the Fairy was under way again.

Supper was served as the boat slipped through the blue water of the big bay. It was a calm, quiet, peaceful night, quite different from the one of the storm, and Bunny and Sue did not have to be strapped in their bunks. They slept well, and when they came on deck in the morning they looked over toward shore.

"Oh, what a lot of Santa Claus trees!" cried Sue. "Look, Bunny!"

"That's Christmas Tree Cove up there," said Captain Ross, pointing to the evergreens where they were thickest. "We'll soon be there."

"And, oh, what fun we'll have!" cried Bunny. "I'm going to dig clams and catch crabs, and we'll have a clambake on shore, Sue."

"And my dolls can come to it, can't they?" asked the little girl. "I brought some of my dolls with me, but they're packed up," she added.

"Oh, yes, your dolls can come to the clambake," agreed Bunny. "Will there be any other boys up at Christmas Tree Cove to play with?" he asked his father.

"Or girls?" Sue wanted to know.

"Yes. It is quite a summer resort," was the answer. "I fancy you will have plenty of playmates."

"I had better be getting things ready to go ashore, I suppose," said Mrs. Brown.

"Yes," answered her husband. "I'll help you."

They were just going down into the cabin, and Bunny and Sue were on deck, looking at the distant green trees, when there was a sudden shock, a bump, and the boat keeled far over to one side. It seemed as if the Fairy had struck something in the water.

"Oh, we're going to sink!" cried Sue.



CHAPTER XIII

A CRASH

Bunker Blue, who was at the steering wheel of the Fairy, heard the dull noise, felt the shock, and saw the boat tip over to one side. Instantly he pulled the wire which shut off the motor, and then he turned the steering wheel over, trying to make the boat come upright again.

This the craft did, though Sue kept on calling:

"We're going to sink!"

Soon the boat was resting quietly in the water, on a "level keel," as a sailor would say, and floating slowly along.

"Now we're all right, Sue!" said Bunny. "Stop your yelling! We're not going to sink!"

"How do you know?" she asked. "We bumped into something, and maybe there's a hole, and the water's coming in, and——"

Just then Mr. and Mrs. Brown came running up on deck, followed by Uncle Tad and Captain Ross. The old seaman, with an anxious look around, called to Bunker Blue.

"What happened? Did some one run into us?"

"Felt more as if we ran into something," Bunker answered. "But I didn't see so much as a canoe."

"We struck something under water, of that I'm sure," said Captain Ross. "We'd better take a look. We're near shore, anyhow, and it won't take long to row over if we have to," he added. "But we surely did hit something."

"Maybe it was a whale," suggested Sue.

"Whales don't come up in the bay. They're too big and fat," declared Bunny.

"Well, maybe then it was a shark," the little girl went on. "They're not so fat."

Captain Ross and Mr. Brown hurried below deck again, but presently came up, and the seaman said:

"We can't find anything wrong below—no leak or anything. We may have hit a big, submerged log or piece of a wreck. Start the motor again, Bunker, and we'll see if that's all right."

The gasolene engine was not damaged, but something else was wrong. As soon as the machinery started there was a trembling and throbbing throughout the whole boat, but she did not move ahead.

"I see what the matter is!" said Captain Ross. "The propeller is broken. It hit something."

"Oh, can't we go to Christmas Tree Cove?" asked Sue.

"We'll get there somehow," answered Captain Ross. "But the propeller is surely broken."

And so it proved. The propeller, you know, is something like an electric fan. It whirls around underwater and pushes the boat ahead. The propeller on the Fairy had struck a floating log and had been broken, as they found out later.

"If we can't go by means of the engine we can sail," remarked Captain Ross, when it was found that the boat would not move an inch, no matter how fast the motor whirled around. "Hoist the sail, Bunker. We'll get Bunny Brown and his sister Sue to Christmas Tree Cove yet! Hoist the sail!"

"Oh, it's lots of fun to sail!" cried Bunny.

"I like it better than motoring!" added Sue, who was no longer yelling.

Soon the white sail was hoisted, and, as the wind blew, the Fairy slipped easily along through the water. There was no "jiggle" now, as Bunny called it, for the motor was not running like a sewing machine down in the hold of the boat.

Nearer and nearer the boat approached the shore. The clumps of green trees became more plain. Soon little houses and bungalows could be seen. Then the children saw a long dock extending out into the water.

"That's where we tie up," said Captain Ross. "I think the wind will hold until we get there."

"It's too bad you had such bad luck bringing us here," said Mrs. Brown. "I'm sorry, Captain, that your boat is broken."

"Oh, a smashed propeller isn't anything," he answered, with a laugh. "I was going to get a new one, anyhow. I'll just land you folks and then I'll sail back to Bellemere and have my boat fixed."

"And then you can come back and get us," said Sue; "but not for a long, long time, 'cause Bunny and I are going to stay at Christmas Tree Cove and have fun."

"That's what we are!" said Bunny Brown.

Slowly the boat swept up to the dock. Then the sail was lowered, and she was tied fast. Next began the work of unloading the things the Browns had brought with them to keep house all summer in the little bungalow, which was not far from the dock.

Mr. Brown, Uncle Tad, Captain Ross and Bunker Blue unloaded the things, and Mr. Brown hired a man to cart them to the bungalow. Bunny and Sue said good-bye to Captain Ross, who, with the help of a man whom he could hire at Christmas Tree Cove, would sail his boat back later that day. Then the children, with their mother, walked up a little hill to the little house where they hoped to spend many happy days.

"Oh, isn't it pretty!" exclaimed Sue, as she strolled up the path, bordered with clam shells. "It's awful nice here."

"I hope you will like it," said Mrs. Madden, the woman who had been engaged by Mr. Brown to open the bungalow and sweep it out in readiness for the family. "I live near here, and we like it very much," she added, as she held the door open for Mrs. Brown and the children.

"Can you catch any fish?" asked Bunny, looking down toward the water and the dock where his father and the others were lifting things out from the boat.

"Oh, yes, there's fine fishing and clamming and crabbing," said Mrs. Madden. "My boy and girl will show you the best places."

"That will be nice," said Mrs. Brown. "Now we'll have a look at the place." Neither Mother Brown nor the children had yet seen the bungalow which Mr. Brown had engaged for them.

They went inside, and while Mrs. Madden was showing Mrs. Brown about the house Bunny and Sue ran off by themselves to see what they could find.

Mrs. Madden was just pointing out to Mrs. Brown what a pleasant place the dining-room was, giving a view of the bay, when suddenly a great crash sounded throughout the house. It was followed by silence, and then Sue's voice rang out, saying:

"Oh, Mother! Come quick! Bunny's in! Bunny's in!"



CHAPTER XIV

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.



CHAPTER XV

BUNNY'S TOE

For some little time Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood among the Christmas trees, as they called the evergreens that lined the shore of the cove. The night seemed to get darker and darker. It was really only dusk, and it was much lighter out on the open beach than it was under the trees. But the trouble was that Bunny and Sue were in among the evergreens and they thought it later than it really was.

"Oh, Bunny, what are we going to do?" asked his sister after a while, during which she had held tightly to his hand and looked about.

Bunny was looking around also, trying to think what was the best thing to do. He was older than his sister, and he felt that he must take care of her and not frighten her.

"I—I guess we'd better walk along, Sue," said Bunny at last.

"But maybe then we'll get lost more," Sue suggested.

"We can't be lost any more than we are," declared Bunny. "We can't see our bungalow and we don't know where it is and—and, well, we'd better walk on."

Bunny looked at his sister. He saw her lips beginning to tremble, dark as it was under the trees. And when Sue's lips quivered in that way Bunny knew what it meant.

"Sue, are you going to cry?" he asked, coming to a stop after they had walked on a little way. "Are you going to cry—real?"

"I—I was, Bunny," she answered. "Don't you want me to?"

"No, I don't!" he said, very decidedly. "It's of no use to cry, 'cause you can't find your house that way, and it makes your nose hurt. Don't cry, Sue."

"All right, I won't," bravely agreed the little girl. "I won't cry real, I'll just cry make-believe."

And then and there some tears rolled out of her eyes, down her cheeks, and dropped on the ground. Sue also "sniffled" a little, and she seemed to be holding back gasping, choking sounds in her throat.

Bunny looked at her in some surprise. He saw the salty tears on her cheeks.

"That's awful like real crying, Sue," he said.

"Well, it isn't. It's only make-believe, like—like the crying we saw the lady do in the mov-movin' pictures!" exclaimed Sue, choking back what was really a real sob. "I'm only making believe," she went on. "But if we don't stop being lost pretty soon, Bunny, maybe I'll have to cry real."

"Well," answered the little boy, with a sigh, as he took a firmer hold of Sue's hand, "maybe you will."



Then the children walked on together, making their way through the dark Christmas woods. They really did not know where they were going. It was some time since Bunny had glimpsed a sight of the bungalow.

All at once, as they walked along, they heard the distant bark of a dog. At once Sue stood still and pulled her brother to a stop also.

"Bunny! did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, "I did. It's nothing but a dog, and he's a good way off, 'cause his bark was real little."

"But, Bunny! maybe it's the dog that took mother's pocketbook and ring," Sue went on. "If it is we ought to chase him!" She was forgetting her fear of being lost now in the excitement over hearing the dog bark and in thinking he might be the one that had caused the loss of the diamond ring.

"Listen!" whispered Bunny.

He and Sue stood in the fast-darkening woods and to their ears the bark of the dog sounded fainter now.

"He's going away," announced Bunny. "Anyhow, I don't s'pose he was the same dog. That dog never could get away up here. It must be some other one."

"Well, maybe it is," agreed Sue. "Oh, Bunny, when are we going to get home?" she asked, and this time it sounded very much as though she were going to cry in earnest.

"I guess we'll be home pretty soon now," said Bunny hopefully. "Let's walk over this way;" and he pointed to a new path that crossed the one they had been walking along for some time.

Sue was very willing to leave it to Bunny, and she walked along beside her brother, never once letting go his hand. All at once the children heard a rustling in the leaves of the bushes that grew amid the trees. They could hear little sticks being broken, as though some one were stepping on them.

"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, shrinking close to her brother, "maybe it is the dog coming after us!"

"It couldn't be," said Bunny quickly. "If it was the dog he'd bark, wouldn't he?"

"I guess he would," Sue answered. "But we—we'd, better look out, Bunny."

"I'll get a stick," offered the little boy, "and if it's a bad dog I'll——"

He was interrupted by a cry from Sue—a joyful cry.

"Oh, Bunny," shouted the little girl, "it isn't a dog at all! It's Bunker Blue! Here he is! Did you come for us, Bunker?" she asked, as Mr. Brown's boat boy came brushing his way through the shrubbery.

"Yes, I've been looking for you," answered Bunker. "Your mother was getting worried, but Rose and Jimmie Madden said they'd seen you come up into these woods, and I thought I'd find you here."

"Oh, I'm so glad you did, Bunker!" cried Sue, catching hold of one of his hands. "We were lost—Bunny and I were—and we heard a dog bark; and maybe he was the one that took my mother's pocketbook. Did you hear him, Bunker?"

"Yes, I heard him, Sue," he said, with a smile at the children who were no longer lost. "But it isn't the same dog, I'm pretty sure. That pocketbook and ring are gone forever, I guess. Now come on home."

"Do you know the way?" asked Sue, as Bunny took hold of Bunker's other hand.

"Oh, yes. And it isn't far to the bungalow," answered the fish boy. "You couldn't see it on account of the thick trees."

And, surely enough, in a little while he led them out on the path to the beach and they were soon at the bungalow again.

"You must not go off into these woods alone again," said Mrs. Brown. "They are thicker and darker than the woods at home, Bunny, and it is easier for you to get lost in them. Don't go to them alone again."

"No'm, I won't," promised the little fellow. "But wouldn't it have been fine, Mother, if we could have found the dog that took your diamond ring?"

"Yes, Bunny, it would be lovely," said Mrs. Brown. "But I'm afraid that will never happen."

There were so many things to do to have fun at Christmas Tree Cove that Bunny Brown and his sister Sue hardly knew what to play at first. Each day brought new joys. They could build houses on the sand, paddle or bathe in the cool, shallow water, sail tiny boats which Uncle Tad made for them, or take walks with their mother.

Daddy Brown stayed for several days at the cove, and then he had to go back to Bellemere to his dock and boat business. But he said he would come to the cove again as soon as he could.

Uncle Tad and Bunker stayed at the bungalow to help Mrs. Brown, and Bunker often took Bunny and Sue out in a rowboat on the quiet waters of the cove.

One day Mrs. Brown took some sewing, packed a small basket of lunch, and said to the children:

"Now, Bunny and Sue, we will have a little picnic all by ourselves. Bunker and Uncle Tad are going fishing, so we will go down to the beach and stay all the afternoon. We will eat our lunch there, and while I sit and sew you children can play around."

Bunny and Sue thought this would be fun, and soon they started off. It was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot, and soon Mrs. Brown was busy with her needle while Sue and her brother played on the sand.

Mother Brown was trying to thread a very fine needle, which seemed to have closed its eye and gone to sleep, when suddenly Sue came running up to her so fast that she almost overturned the sun umbrella which Mrs. Brown had raised to make a shade.

"Oh, Mother! Mother!" gasped Sue, so out of breath that she could hardly speak. "Oh, Mother! Come quick!"

"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, getting quickly to her feet.

"Oh, it's Bunny's toe! It's Bunny's toe!" was all Sue said, and, catching hold of her mother's hand, she pulled her down toward the water.



CHAPTER XVI

OVERBOARD

Mrs. Brown was used to seeing things happen to Bunny and Sue. They were lively children, getting into mischief fully as often as other tots of their same age did, and it was not unusual to have one of them hurt slightly.

So when Sue ran up to her mother and began to cry out about Bunny's toe, Mrs. Brown looked down the beach where she had left the two children playing. There she saw Bunny dancing around on one foot in a shallow pool of water, left there when the tide went out. And as he danced on one foot Bunny held the other up in the air, and he was crying something which his mother could not hear.

"Sue," asked Mrs. Brown, as she hurried down the slope leading to the beach proper, "did Bunny step on a broken bottle and cut his toe?"

"No, Mother, it isn't that," answered the little girl. "I don't know just what it is. I was making a little house on the sand, and Bunny was wading in the water. All of a sudden he yelled, and told me to go and get you 'cause there was something the matter with his toe."

"He probably cut himself," said Mrs. Brown, and she began to search in her pocket for an extra handkerchief. It would not be the first time Bunny or Sue had suffered a cut foot because of stepping on a sharp shell or a piece of glass while in wading.

But when Mrs. Brown and Sue reached the edge of the little pool in which Bunny was hopping about on one foot, holding himself up by leaning on a piece of driftwood he had picked up and was using as a crutch, his mother saw what the matter was.

"Take it off my toe! Take it off my toe!" cried Bunny.

"It's a big, pinching crab," said Mrs. Brown. "Oh, Bunny, I'm so sorry! Come out of the water and I'll make it let go of you. Come out!"

By this time Sue, also, had seen the cause of the trouble. A big crab had been caught when the tide went down, and was in the pool of water, which, surrounded by sand, was like a little lake. Bunny must have stepped on the creature when wading. It had nipped the big toe of his left foot, and was holding on, though Bunny had raised his foot out of the water as far as he could.

"Come here, Bunny. I'll get him off for you," his mother called.

"I can't come! How am I going to walk on one foot?" and Bunny howled, for the crab was pinching hard.

"Can't you skip, as we do when we play hopscotch?" asked Sue.

"Maybe," her brother answered.

He was about to try it, and his mother was just going to tell him that a better way would be to dip his foot back in the water when the crab might swim away, when the pinching creature decided to let go anyhow. It loosened its claws and dropped with a splash into the puddle of water.

"Oh, he's gone! He let go my toe!" cried Bunny, and then he ran up the sandy shore as fast as he could go.

"Let me see where he pinched you," said Mrs. Brown, when Bunny had reached her side. "Is it bleeding?"

"Yes, I guess it is! And maybe he pinched my whole toe off," said Bunny, almost ready to cry.

He held up his bare foot, and his mother looked at the toe. It was quite red, but the skin was not broken and there was no blood.

"Is it—is it off?" asked Bunny, his voice trembling.

"No, you silly boy, it isn't even bleeding," laughed his mother.

"Well, it—it felt as if it was off," said Bunny. "I don't like crabs."

"No, they aren't very pleasant when they nip you," agreed his mother. "But this one took such a big pinch and his claw was so much over your toe nail that he really did very little damage. You'd better not wade in that pool any more."

"I won't," decided Bunny.

He sat down and softly rubbed his toe where the crab had pinched him. As Mrs. Brown had said, there was no blood, though it does not take much of a nip from even a small crab to break the skin and cause a bleeding. And sometimes the pinch of a crab, where it does draw blood, becomes very sore.

However, Bunny was well out of this adventure, and when he had got over his fright his mother took him and Sue up under the shady umbrella and gave them some lunch.

"But I don't want any more crabs to bite me," said Bunny.

The remainder of the day was spent in happy fashion, though Bunny waded in no more pools.

"I'm glad the crab didn't pinch me," said Sue, as she wiggled her toes in the soft sand. "'Cause my foot's littler than Bunny's," she went on, holding it near his, "and maybe that crab would have taken hold of two of my toes, and bitten them all off."

"Oh, I think that wouldn't have happened," said Mrs. Brown. "A crab doesn't really want to nip children just for fun. They'll get away from you if they can; but if they think you are going to hurt them they'll open their claws and pinch. Bunny must have stepped on the one that took hold of his toe."

"Maybe I did," said Bunny. "I stepped on something, and I thought it was a clam shell, but it wiggled out from under my foot and then my toe was grabbed."

When Bunny and Sue went back to the bungalow that night they saw Bunker Blue busy at work on a small boat at the dock, which was at the end of the walk leading down from "Bark Lodge," as their place was named, for it was made of logs with the bark on.

"What are you doing, Bunker?" Sue called to him.

"I got bit by a crab!" announced Bunny, not giving the fish boy time to answer. "He held on to my toe and I lifted him right out of the water, same as we catch crabs on a string and fishhead."

"Is that so?" asked Bunker, and he went on hammering away at the boat. It was another craft than the one Mr. Brown had hired for the use of his family.

"What are you making?" Bunny wanted to know, satisfied, now that he had told the story of the crab.

"Oh, I'm making a little sailboat," answered Bunker. "A man on the other side of the cove, where your Uncle Tad and I were fishing to-day, sold me this boat cheap, and I'm going to rig up a sail for it. I don't want to row around all summer, so I'm going to sail."

"Oh, can we go with you?" asked Sue.

"I can help you sail, can't I, Bunker?" questioned Bunny.

"Yes, if your mother lets you," was the answer.

After supper Uncle Tad helped Bunker put the sail on the boat. It was not a very large boat nor did it have a very large sail, but the fish boy said it would do for cruising about the cove.

"May we sail with him, Mother?" asked Bunny the next day, when Bunker announced that the boat was ready for a trial.

"Is it safe?" asked Mrs. Brown of the tall lad.

"I think so," he answered. "I'll give it a tryout by myself first, though."

Bunny and Sue watched Bunker Blue sailing to and fro in Christmas Tree Cove, and finally he headed back for the dock.

"I'll take Bunny and Sue out now if you'll let them come with me," said Bunker to Mrs. Brown, who, with the children, was watching the trial of the new sailboat.

"Very well. But be careful and don't go too far!" cautioned the children's mother.

Delighted by the prospect of a ride before the wind around the cove, Bunny and Sue got into the boat. There was just about room enough for three. Bunker had rigged up a rudder on the boat and there was a small centerboard in the middle to keep the craft from tipping over in a hard blow.

"All aboard!" cried Bunny, pretending to help Sue to her place.

"All aboard!" answered Bunker, as he pulled over the tiller and let the boat swing out from the dock. Then for some time the children sailed about the cove, while Mrs. Brown watched them from the bank. Mr. Brown was to come up to the cove that night on the evening train, to stay for several days.

As Mrs. Brown was watching, she saw something dark slide suddenly over the side of the sailboat, and at the same time she heard Sue's screams and saw Bunker let go the sail and make a grab for an object in the water.

"Bunny has fallen overboard!" cried his mother, springing to her feet and running down to the dock. "Uncle Tad, come quickly! Bunny has fallen overboard!"



CHAPTER XVII

THE NEW BOY

Uncle Tad, who was mending a broken fishing rod just outside the bungalow, heard Mrs. Brown's cry and saw her running down to the dock. He also looked across the cove and saw the sailboat in which he knew Bunny and Sue had gone for a ride with Bunker Blue. And then Uncle Tad guessed what had happened.

"Man overboard!" he cried, though of course Bunny was only a little boy. But that is what is always said when anybody—man, woman, or child—falls into the water.

"Man overboard!"

Uncle Tad raced down to the dock and saw Mrs. Brown trying to loosen the rope that held to the pier the boat Mr. Brown had hired for the summer.

"Let me do it," said Uncle Tad, who knew considerable about boats from having lived so long with the Browns.

Just then a voice behind Mrs. Brown cried:

"He's got him out! Bunker Blue has got him out!" And there, on the pier, stood Jimmie Madden with his sister Rose. He pointed across to the now motionless sailboat.

Uncle Tad and Mrs. Brown had not looked at it for the last few seconds, as they were busy trying to get ready the other boat to go to the rescue. But, looking now, they saw Bunker Blue lift Bunny Brown from the water. And a moment later Bunker's voice rang out as he called:

"You don't need to come! Bunny is all right! I'll soon bring him to shore!"

"Oh, I'm so glad!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, and she dropped the rope she had been trying to loosen, while Uncle Tad, who had knelt down on the pier to do the same thing, stood up.

As Jimmie had said and Uncle Tad and Mother Brown had seen, Bunker had pulled Bunny from the water, and a little later the sail was filled with wind and was bringing the boat to the dock. Bunny and Sue could be seen sitting safely in it, and Bunny did not appear much the worse from having fallen overboard, though, of course, he was soaking wet.

"I saw him fall in," explained Jimmie Madden. "Then I ran over here."

"And I ran over, too," said his sister Rose.

"I could 'a' jumped in and got him out if he'd been near shore. I can swim," went on Jimmie, who was a regular seashore boy and quite at home in the water.

"I can swim, too," went on Rose.

"I'm glad neither of you had to jump in after Bunny," said Mrs. Brown, as the boat neared the dock. "I wonder how Bunny happened to fall overboard."

This was explained when the wet, dripping little chap was helped out of the boat to which Bunker had fitted a sail.

"He saw something floating in the water," said Bunker, "and he reached for it, though I told him not to, as I was going about. But he did, and he lost his balance, and in he went."

"But Bunker got him right out again!" Sue made haste to say.

"It wasn't Bunker's fault," added Bunny. "He told me not to lean over."

"Then you should have minded," said his mother. "It was very wrong of you, Bunny, to do that. I told you to mind Bunker when you went out with him. Now, as a punishment, you may not go sailing again this week."

And though Bunny cried and said he would never disobey again, he was punished just as his mother said he must be. Sue was allowed to go for a sail, while Bunny had to stay on shore.

"You must be made to understand that you have done wrong," his mother said.

There was really very little danger, for the water in the cove was not deep, and Bunker was such a good swimmer that he, very likely, could have managed to get out both Bunny Brown and his sister Sue if they had fallen in together.

After his days of punishment, however, Bunny was allowed to go sailing again, and Bunker even let him steer a little, which made Bunny very happy.

"Some day I am going to learn all about steering," declared Bunny to Sue, "and then I'll be able to take out a boat all alone."

"You be careful, Bunny Brown, or maybe the boat will sail off with you," warned Sue, earnestly. "And it might sail 'way off to—to Boston, or—or China—or—or Mexico."

"It couldn't sail that far. I wouldn't let it."

"It might run away with you."

"Boats can't run—they sail. You ought to know that."

"It could sail away ever so far, if it wanted to, Bunny Brown. An' if it sailed 'way off to—to China, how ever would you get back?"

"I'd sail back."

"How could you if you didn't know the way?"

"I'd ask some—some Chinaman. I know how to talk to 'em. I can talk to that Chinaman who has the laundry near the school."

"Huh! He ain't a real Chinaman—he's an American Chinaman. I mean a real Chinaman Chinaman—that can't talk like we do."

"I'd find a way—just you wait and see," said Bunny confidently.

The summer days passed pleasantly at Christmas Tree Cove. Mr. Brown found it possible to come up more often than he had expected, and he and his wife, with the children, Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue, went on excursions on land and water.

Often when her husband would arrive at the bungalow, coming up from his dock office at Bellemere, Mrs. Brown would ask:

"Did you hear anything about the strange dog or my lost pocketbook and ring?"

And her husband would shake his head and answer:

"There is no news. I saw Mr. Foswick, the carpenter. He said he keeps looking around his shop, thinking he may find the things the dog dropped, but they have not been discovered yet."

Then Mrs. Brown would be sad for a little while as she thought of her lovely diamond engagement ring, but she did not let Bunny or Sue see that she was unhappy.

One afternoon it was very hot at Christmas Tree Cove. The sun's rays beat down and there was scarcely any breeze.

"Come on, kiddies!" called Mother Brown to Bunny and Sue. "We will put on our bathing suits and go down to the water. If there is any cool place this hot day it is there."

Of course Bunny and Sue were delighted with this. They never tired of bathing, and soon they were splashing about in the cove. They were not the only ones, for many of the neighboring cottagers and bungalow residents took advantage of the water to cool off.

"Be careful and don't go out too far!" called Mrs. Brown to Bunny and Sue, as she went up on the beach to talk to some friends, leaving the children in the water. "The tide is coming in."

"We'll be careful!" promised Bunny. "Here, Sue, give me your hand and we'll wade out to the float."

The float was made of some planks fastened to empty barrels, and it was a fine place to play. As Sue and Bunny were wading out they noticed a boy whom they had not seen before wading beside them.

"Hello!" said Bunny, in friendly spirit. "Did you just come?"

"Yes. We came to the hotel last night," was the answer. "I never was at the ocean before. We're going to stay all through August."

"This isn't the ocean," said Bunny. "It's just Christmas Tree Cove. The ocean is lots bigger."

"I'd like to see it," said the new boy.

"Look out!" suddenly called Sue. "Here comes a big wave!"

She had just time to take a tighter hold of Bunny and turn, but the new boy did not seem to know much about bathing or waves. He stood waiting, and, an instant later he was knocked down and his head went under water.



CHAPTER XVIII

HELD FAST

The first that Mrs. Brown knew of what was happening was when a woman near her screamed. Then this woman hurried down the sands to the edge of the water in which Bunny, Sue, and a number of other children were bathing.

Mrs. Brown had been talking to several women of the summer bungalow colony near Bark Lodge, and one of these ladies had just remarked that a new family had come to the hotel.

"It is Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Slater," Mrs. Brown was told. "They have a little boy named Harry, about as old as your Bunny."

And just as Mrs. Blaney, who was telling this to Mrs. Brown, finished, Mrs. Brown heard a woman scream and saw her run down to the water.

"That's Mrs. Slater now," said Mrs. Blaney. "I wonder what the matter is."

"Her little boy was just knocked down by a big wave," said another woman who had been sitting on the sand talking to Mrs. Brown. "Perhaps we had better go and help her."

It was Harry Slater, the new boy to whom Bunny had been talking, who had been knocked down and rolled over by the big wave. His mother, sitting on the beach, had seen what had taken place. Then she had screamed and had hurried down the sands.

But, as it happened, Bunny Brown was nearer at hand to give the needed help. He and Sue were used to the big waves, which came in Christmas Tree Cove only when one of the large excursion steamers stopped at a nearby dock. The propeller of the steamer sent the waves rushing inshore almost like the surf of the larger ocean outside.

"Oh, the wave knocked him down!" cried Sue, who had seen the mass of water coming, and had held to Bunny while they turned a little and jumped so they did not fall. "Look, Bunny, he's down in the water!"

"I know!" exclaimed Bunny! "I see him! I'll get him up!"

Bunny and Sue had lived so long in Bellemere near the water that, young as they were, they knew the thing to do when people fall into or down in the water is to get them out as soon as possible, in order that they may not be smothered.

So, as soon as he had made sure that Sue was all right, Bunny leaned down, and, catching hold of Harry Slater, the new boy, who was floundering around under water, lifted him up. It was easy for Bunny to do this, as a body in water weighs less than outside.

Thus Bunny easily lifted Harry up and held him on his feet, while the new boy choked and gasped to get his breath. By this time his mother was at the edge of the water, where the waves broke on the sand, and she was just going to go in, all dressed as she was, for she did not wear a bathing suit.

"Harry," cried Mrs. Slater, "mother is coming!"

"There isn't any need, lady!" said Duncan Porter, the life-saver who was always on duty during the bathing hour. "I'll bring him in to you. But, anyhow, Bunny has him safe."

The guard, who had been on another part of the beach, had run up when he heard Mrs. Slater scream, and now he waded out and brought Harry to shore in his arms. The new boy was more frightened than hurt, and was soon all right again, though he coughed a little because of the water he had swallowed.

"Oh, Harry Slater, you were nearly drowned!" cried some of the other children.

"Oh, he wasn't in much danger," said the life guard. "I'd have had him out in another second or two. But, as it was, Bunny Brown got him out of the water all right."

"How can I thank you?" said Harry's mother, as she gave Bunny a hug, all wet as he was, for he and Sue, with many other children, had followed the life-saver to shore when he carried the choking, gasping new boy.

"Oh, it wasn't anything much!" protested Bunny, who did not like a fuss being made over him. "The big wave just knocked him down, and I picked him up."

"He's a brave and clever little boy!" said several ladies on the beach, and if Bunny had not been so tanned and sunburned he might have blushed.

"It was a big wave knocked him down," said Sue. "One of the steamer waves. You have to look out for 'em! I saw him go down and I yelled."

"You were both very watchful of Harry," said Mrs. Slater. "Your mother should be proud of you children."

"There's my mother now," said Bunny, pointing to Mrs. Brown, who had come down with a number of other women.

Thus it was that Bunny, Sue and the new boy became acquainted and Mrs. Slater also formed a friendship for Mrs. Brown. Soon the excitement had passed and the children were in bathing again, while their mothers either bathed, too, or sat on the beach and talked. Bunny and Sue liked Harry, and you may be sure the new boy was very thankful to Bunny Brown for pulling him up out of the water.

"Do they have bigger waves in the ocean than the one that knocked me down?" asked Harry, when the three children were once more having a good time in the bathing pool.

"Oh, I guess they do!" cried Sue. "He should see some of the big waves, shouldn't he, Bunny?"

"Well, I'd like to see 'em," said Harry, with a laugh. "But I wouldn't want to be knocked down by 'em—not if they were bigger than the wave that hit me."

"The waves in the ocean are ever so much bigger," went on Bunny. "And in a storm they're twice as big."

"We were in a storm coming here," explained Sue. "We were on a boat and it rocked like anything, didn't it, Bunny?"

"Yes, it rocked a lot," he agreed. "Come on," he called to his sister. "Let's go over and dig clams."

"Where can you dig clams?" asked Harry eagerly. Anything about the seashore interested him, as it was his first summer at the beach.

"They get hard clams away out in the cove," explained Bunny. "But soft clams grow over there where the tide is out."

"Clams don't grow," declared Sue. "They aren't like apples."

"Yes, clams do grow," declared Bunny. "Else how could a little clam get to be a big one. They grow over there, in that place where there isn't any water," went on Bunny. "And when the tide is out we dig for 'em."

"I was up on my grandpa's farm once, and I helped dig for potatoes in the ground," said Harry. "But I never dug for clams. I'd like to."

"We'll show you how," offered Bunny. "Mother lets us dig soft clams, and she makes chowder of 'em. Come on, we'll go over and dig clams."

Harry was very glad of this chance for fun, and when Mrs. Brown had said her two children might go, and when Mrs. Slater had also consented to let her boy accompany his two new playmates, they set off.

"There isn't any water on the flats when the tide is out," said Mrs. Brown. "Bunny and Sue often go there to dig clams, and we can see them from here."

Soft clams are not like hard clams. The shell is a sort of bluish black and is quite thin, so it is easily crushed. The soft clam is long and thin, instead of being almost round, like a hard clam.

A soft clam lives down in the mud or sand under water. Within his shell the soft clam has a long tube, which seems as if made of rubber, for it can be stretched out greatly, or made so small as to fit inside the shell.

When the tide covered the low flats at one part of Christmas Tree Cove the soft clams could not be found. But when the tide went out it left bare a large space of sand and sticky mud, or muck. Then was the time to dig soft clams.

Bunny and Sue knew how to do it. They used a little shovel, though a regular clammer uses a short-handled hoe, digging the wet earth away much as a farmer digs away the earth from a hill of potatoes. Down under the surface the clams are found.

"Here's a good place to dig," said Bunny, as he led Sue and Harry through little pools of water to the clam flats. "Sue, you hold the basket and Harry and I will dig."

"Well, this time I will, 'cause Harry's new," answered Sue. "But after this I'll dig, too."

Bunny had brought two shovels, and, giving the new boy one, Sue's brother used the other. He dug a hole in the mucky, black sand, and Harry did likewise.

"When you see something that looks like a black stone pick it up," advised Bunny. "'Cause that's a clam."

The two boys dug away for some time, and at last Harry cried:

"I got one!"

"Yes, that's a soft clam, and a nice big one," declared Bunny. "And I've got one myself!"

Soon the two little boys had found a number of clams, which they put in the basket Sue held. Bunny was just digging out an extra large one when, all of a sudden, Sue cried:

"Bunny, I'm stuck! I can't get my feet up! Oh, Oh!"

"Maybe a big clam has hold of her," said Harry. "What'll we do, Bunny?"



CHAPTER XIX

ANOTHER STORM

The two boys stopped their clam-digging and stood staring at Sue, who was holding the basket of shellfish and looking at her brother and Harry.

"I'm stuck fast!" cried Sue again. "I can't lift up either of my legs, Bunny! What shall I do?"

"Is it a clam that has hold of you?" asked Harry.

"Clams don't grab hold of you like crabs," declared Bunny. "Once a crab got hold of my toe, and it pinched like anything."

"Maybe it's a crab, then," said Harry.

"This isn't a crab or a clam," said Sue. "But my feet are all tight in the mud, and I can't lift 'em out! Look!"

She struggled hard, trying first to lift one foot and then the other. But she only swayed in a little pool of water that collected around her bare legs.

"Oh, I know what the matter is!" exclaimed Bunny, as he looked again at his sister. "It's like getting into a muck hole in the swamp. There's a lot of soft sand and muck here on the flats, and you've stepped into one of the holes, Sue."

"Shall I—shall I sink down through the hole all the way to—to China?" asked the little girl, and it looked as if she might be going to cry, as she had the time she and Bunny were lost in the Christmas Tree woods.

"We'll get you up," said Bunny. "Come on, Harry. You take hold of Sue on one side and I'll take hold of her on the other. Then maybe she can lift up her own legs."

The boys went toward her.

"Take the basket of clams," directed Sue. "I don't want to spill 'em!"

She handed Bunny the basket of soft clams which the two boys had dug, and Bunny set it on top of the pile of dirt that had been piled up as he and Harry dug holes to get at the shellfish. Then the two boys stood, one on either side of Sue, so she could put her hands on their shoulders.

"Maybe we'll get stuck in the mud, too," suggested Harry.

"Oh, I guess not," said Bunny. "Anyhow, if we do, it'll be fun."

Seeing Bunny and Harry about to help her, Sue felt better. She gave up the notion of crying, and began to pull up, first on one foot and then on the other.

At first it seemed that neither one would move, so sticky was the mud and muck. But at last Sue felt one giving, and she cried:

"Oh, I'm getting loose! I'm getting loose, Bunny!"

"Pull harder!" directed her brother. "Pull as hard as you can!"

Just about this time Mrs. Brown, who was sitting on the sand under the sun umbrella talking to Mrs. Slater, happened to look over toward the children who had gone clam-digging. She saw Bunny and Harry standing close to Sue, and she knew, by the way the children were acting, that something had happened.

Then Mrs. Slater, too, looked toward the three children.

"Is Harry in trouble again?" asked his mother.

"No, this time it seems to be Sue," said Mrs. Brown. "I think she is stuck in the mud."

"Is that serious?" asked Mrs. Slater, for she had not been to the seashore enough to know anything about clam-digging.

"Oh, there is no danger," said Mrs. Brown. "They may get very muddy. But they have on their bathing suits, and can easily wash. However, we might walk over as near as we can go, so they may see us."

"Very well," agreed Mrs. Slater. "I don't want Harry frightened again to-day."

But she need not have worried. The children were laughing as Sue used the two boys like a pair of crutches to help her lift her feet from the muck. Soon she had pulled loose, and she held one foot out so she could see it.

"Oh, look!" cried the little girl. "There's so much mud on my foot I can't see my toes wiggle!"

And this was really so.

"It looks as if you had a black shoe on," added Bunny. "Come on now, you'd better step away from here if you don't want to get stuck again, Sue."

"And I'm getting stuck myself!" exclaimed Harry, as he felt one foot sinking. "Is it all like this on the clam flats?"

"No," answered Bunny, "only in some places. It was all right where you and I stood."

By this time Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Slater had reached the edge of the clam flats, and they saw that the three children were all right. Harry and Bunny again started to dig for the shellfish and Sue held the basket for them. But she took care to stand on a big flat stone, so there was no more danger of sinking down.

"Mother!" cried Harry, when he saw Mrs. Slater with Mrs. Brown, "digging clams is lots of fun, and Sue got stuck in the mud."

"So we saw," his mother answered. "The seashore is a funny place. You don't seem to know what will happen on land or in the water."

"Oh, it is all right when you get used to it," said Mrs. Brown, laughing. "Have you enough clams, Bunny?"

"Not quite," he answered. "I like lots of 'em in my chowder."

"Well, you may dig a few more. We'll sit here and wait for you," said his mother, and, finding a place on shore where a clump of trees gave a little shade, she and Mrs. Slater sat down.

Bunny, Sue, and Harry kept on digging, Sue finally insisting on taking a turn with the shovel.

"I'm coming to the seashore every year," declared Harry, as he dug out an extra large clam. "I guess my dog would like it here, too. He's fond of water."

"Where is your dog?" asked Bunny. "I didn't see you have any."

"We didn't bring him with us 'cause he's lost," said Harry, leaning on his shovel. "He's an awful nice dog, too. We were going to bring him here with us, but one day, when we were out in the automobile, he jumped out and ran away and we never saw him again."

"We had a dog Splash, and he ran away, too," said Sue.

"My dog would carry things in his mouth," went on Harry. "He used to carry our paper, and sometimes he would take things you didn't want him to, and carry them away."

"Oh, Bunny!" suddenly exclaimed Sue, "that's just what the big yellow dog did. He took mother's pocketbook when we didn't want him to and carried it away. Maybe this is the same dog!"

"What kind of a dog was yours?" asked Bunny of his new friend.

"He was a big yellow one," was the answer. "But he was never here in this place, 'cause we were never here ourselves before this summer. So he couldn't have taken your mother's pocketbook."

"But the pocketbook wasn't taken from here," said Bunny. "It was where we live—in Bellemere. And it was a big, yellow dog! Could your dog run fast?" he asked Harry.

"Oh, yes, terribly fast. But what's that about your mother's pocketbook?"

Bunny and Sue told the story by turns, how they had seen the dog running away with the pocketbook containing the five-dollar bill and their mother's diamond ring.

"And he ran into a carpenter shop, and we ran in after him, and Mr. Foswick locked us in, and Bunny broke a window, and we had a terrible time!" explained Sue.

"I don't believe that was my dog," said Harry. "But Sandy—that was my dog's name—would carry away lots of things in his mouth. I wish I had him back. My father said he'd give a lot of money to find him—a reward, you know."

"And I guess my father would give a reward if he could get back my mother's diamond ring," added Sue. "But he can't. Bunker Blue says it's gone forever."

"Children! Children!" called Mrs. Brown from the shore. "I think we had better go now. It is getting late and it looks as if we might have another storm. Come along. You have clams enough."

"Yes, I guess we have," said Bunny, looking in the basket.

The children started for the mainland, stopping in a little pool to wash the mud off themselves and also to cleanse their shovels.

Bunny "sozzled" the basket of clams in the water to wash them, and when Mrs. Brown explained how she made them into chowder Mrs. Slater remarked:

"I wish they served that at the hotel."

"Won't you and Harry come over and have supper with us this evening?" asked Mrs. Brown. "We'll give you some of the chowder then."

"Oh, yes, Mother, please do!" begged Harry, and Mrs. Slater consented.

"I'll tell you more about my lost dog when I come over to-night," called Harry to Bunny and Sue, as they parted.

That evening Mrs. Slater and her son Harry were guests of the Browns at supper, at which was served the chowder made from the clams dug by the children that afternoon.

"It is delicious!" said Mrs. Slater, as she was helped to a second plateful.

"I like it lots!" declared Harry. "I guess Sandy would, too, if he was here."

"What's this about your dog being lost?" asked Mr. Brown, for he had heard the children talking about it.

"We did lose a very valuable animal," explained Mrs. Slater. "We were out automobiling one day, and in driving through a place called Bellemere, on Sandport Bay——"

"Bellemere!" cried Bunny Brown. "Why, that's where we live!"

"That's where our dog was lost," said Mrs. Slater, smiling at him. "For some reason he leaped out of the auto and went bounding away down the street. My husband stopped and tried to get him back, but he would not come. And he has been lost ever since. Harry misses him very much."

"What day was it that your dog ran away?" asked Mr. Brown, with a look at his wife.

"Why, it was—let me see," answered Mrs. Slater slowly. "It was on——"

Her words were interrupted by a loud crash of thunder that shook the bungalow, and all the electric lights suddenly went out.

"Oh!" cried Bunny, Sue, and Harry, all at the same time.

"I presume we're in for another storm," said Mr. Brown. "Sit still until I light some candles. Often the electric lights go out in a severe thunderstorm."

As Mr. Brown arose to strike a match another loud clap of thunder pealed out.



CHAPTER XX

THE FLOATING BOX

The electric light service in Christmas Tree Cove was uncertain in storms, and Mr. Brown always kept a supply of candles on hand, as well as some kerosene lamps. Soon there was plenty of light in the room, and as supper was about over when the storm broke the family and their two visitors went into the sitting-room of the bungalow.

"I don't like storms," said Harry, and he kept close to his mother.

"There isn't any danger," remarked Mr. Brown. "The lightning hardly ever strikes near the ocean or the bay. I think it may hit out far from shore. But no houses have ever been struck up here."

"I guess the Christmas trees keep it away," said Bunny.

"Perhaps," laughed his mother. "It isn't bad, now that the worst outburst is over. Come, Harry, tell us about your lost dog. We have lost one, too."

So, while the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed, Mrs. Slater and Harry told about their dog Sandy.

"And so he left us in Bellemere, and we haven't seen him since," finished Harry's mother.

"How strange!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "He left you the same day the strange dog ran into our yard, where Bunny and Sue were playing seesaw, and grabbed up my pocketbook. I wonder if, by any chance, it could be the same animal in both cases."

"This dog was a big, yellow one," said Bunny, and he described the animal that had caused him and Sue so much trouble.

"Sandy was yellow in color," remarked Mrs. Slater. "But I would not call him a very large dog."

"Perhaps the dog that took my wife's pocketbook and diamond ring seemed larger to Bunny and Sue than he really was," said Mr. Brown. "He rushed into the yard and out again so quickly that he may have looked extra big."

"It would be very strange if it should turn out to be our dog who made so much trouble over your pocketbook," went on Harry's mother. "Sandy did have a bad habit of running off with things. We tried to break him of it. And, now that I recall it, he took one of my gloves when he leaped out of the auto that day."

"The big, yellow dog that came into our yard and took my mother's pocketbook didn't have any gloves on," explained Sue.

"No, he wouldn't be likely to have any on," agreed Mrs. Slater. "But he might have carried one in his mouth."

"I didn't see it," said Bunny, shaking his head. "But he took the pocketbook in his mouth and ran away."

They talked over the dog matter for some time, and then, as the storm seemed to be growing worse again, Mrs. Slater began to think it was time for her and Harry to go back to the hotel. A closed automobile was called from the village, and in that the lady and her son prepared to go to their hotel. It was then about eight o'clock in the evening.

"Mr. Slater has advertised for our lost dog," his wife said, as she was departing. "If we ever find him, Bunny and Sue can look at Sandy and make sure whether or not he is the dog that ran into their yard. Though, of course, that will not bring back your ring, I am sorry to say," she added.

The storm kept up all night and part of the next day. It rained hard and the wind blew, though the thunder and lightning were soon over. It settled into what the cove dwellers called a "nor'easter," and it was not at all pleasant.

Bunny and Sue could not go out to play, but Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue amused the children indoors. Mr. Brown had to go back to Bellemere, but he went on the train, as the bay was so rough the boat did not run, and Captain Ross had not returned with the Fairy.

"I wish Harry could come over and play with us," said Bunny on the second day of the storm, as he stood with his nose pressed against the window.

"It will be clear to-morrow," said Bunker Blue, who had come in from a trip to the store. "The wind is working around and the sun will be out to-morrow."

Bunny and Sue certainly hoped so, and when they arose the next morning the first thing they did was to run to the window and look out anxiously.

Bunker's prophecy had come true. The sun was shining and the wind was no longer blowing, though the water in the bay was still rough.

"Let's go down to the beach!" cried Bunny, as soon as breakfast was over. "Maybe we'll find a lot of things washed up on shore."

This was not unusual, for the storms along the coast, even in summer, sometimes caused wrecks, and parts of them were often washed up on the beach.

"Yes, let's," agreed Sue.

A little later Bunny and Sue were running down to the sandy shore, and there they saw their new friend Harry, who was walking along with his mother.

"Wasn't it a terrible storm?" called Mrs. Slater, when she saw the two Brown children. "I never remember a worse one!"

"Yes, it was bad," agreed Bunny. "It was worse than when we were on the Fairy. Did you see anything washed up?" he asked.

"Not yet," replied Harry. "What do you find after a storm?"

"Oh, lots of things," answered Bunny. "Once I saw a whale washed up on shore. He was awful big."

"I wish I could see a whale washed up," said Harry longingly.

He looked across the tumbling waters of Christmas Tree Cove, as though he might catch sight of some monster of the sea. But there was nothing in view just then.

The three children, with Mrs. Slater, walked along a little farther. Suddenly Sue, who was a short distance ahead, gave a delighted cry.

"What is it?" asked Bunny. "A cocoanut?" Once a ship laden with cocoanuts had been wrecked and the shore strewn with the nuts.

"Is it a whale?" asked Harry.

"It's a big box," answered Sue, pointing. "Look, it's floating out there, and I guess it's coming to shore right here."

The others looked toward the object at which Sue pointed and saw, bobbing up and down in the waves, what appeared to be a large chest. The wind and tide were fast bringing it up to where they stood on the beach.



CHAPTER XXI

MR. RAVENWOOD

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood with Harry Slater and his mother on the beach and watched the wind and the tide bringing nearer and nearer to shore the floating box. As it came into plainer view, the children could see that it was no ordinary refuse of the sea, like a broken orange or lemon box, some of which floated ashore at Bellemere.

"That's a nice, good box," said Bunny, as he watched it bobbing up and down on the waves. "It's a box just like Mr. Foswick, the carpenter, makes."

"And it isn't broken, either," added Sue. Usually the boxes she and her brother found on the beach were empty and smashed.

"Maybe it has something in it," suggested Harry. "Oh, wouldn't it be funny if my dog was in it!" he cried.

"How could your dog be in it, dear?" asked his mother. "Sandy was lost on shore. How could he be out in the ocean?"

"Well, maybe, after he jumped out of our auto he went on a boat and maybe the boat sank and he got in this box, like a little boat, and now he's coming back to me," explained Harry.

"Oh, no, you mustn't hope for any such good luck as that," said his mother, with a smile. "If Sandy were in that box you would hear him barking. And, besides, that box seems to be tightly nailed or screwed shut. We'll soon see what's in it, for it is coming ashore," she added.

"Maybe it's Sandy," insisted Harry.

"I don't think there's any dog in it," Sue remarked. "But maybe there's pirates' gold."

"Maybe," assented Bunny.

"What's pirates' gold?" asked Harry.

"It's gold the robber pirates take off ships," explained Bunny. "And they put it in boxes, and then they bring it on shore and bury it in the sand, and then they make a map in red ink so they won't forget where they buried the box, and then they go off and get more gold, the pirates do."

"What makes 'em bury the gold they already have?" asked Harry.

"So nobody can find it," explained Bunny.

Bunny and Sue liked to hear tales of the sea. Bunker Blue had told them some, and I am afraid they were not altogether true, however interesting they were.

"But that can't be a pirates' box," said Sue, "'cause I don't see any pirates, and they wouldn't send a box to shore all by itself."

"No," agreed Bunny, "I guess they wouldn't, 'cause a box couldn't bury itself in the sand. But I think there's something in this box."

"It does seem so," said Mrs. Slater, who was now quite as interested as were the children. "Look," she went on. "It is going to come ashore at that little point. Let's walk out on it, and we can pull it up on the sand."

A little tongue of land extended out into the water near the spot where they were standing, and soon Bunny, his sister, and Harry and Mrs. Slater were out on the very tip of it, waiting for the box to be washed ashore. The tide was rising, and the waves were still rather high on account of the storm.

Nearer and nearer the box came, but when it was almost at the point of land it seemed about to be washed away, farther up the coast.

"Oh, it is going past us!" exclaimed Mrs. Slater.

"I can wade in and get it!" said Bunny. "I'll take off my shoes and stockings and get it," and, sitting down, he began to do this.

"I don't want to take off my shoes. You can get it without me, Bunny," remarked Sue.

"May I wade in, Mother?" asked Harry.

"It isn't deep," said Bunny, as Mrs. Slater hesitated. "And we won't have to wade out very far."

"All right," agreed Harry's mother, with a smile. "You two boys may wade in, and Sue and I will watch you. But maybe the box will be too heavy for you."

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny, as Harry began taking off his shoes and stockings. "Things in the water move easy. I can push or pull a big boat all alone, if it's in the water, but I can't if it's on land. And the box isn't very big."

"I wonder what's in it," said Sue, as her brother and Harry prepared to wade out. "Maybe it's a lot of dolls from China."

"What makes you think it might be that?" asked Mrs. Slater, as she put the boys' shoes and stockings up on the sand.

"Once some Chinese dolls came ashore at Bellemere," said Sue. "I got one, but her eyes were washed out. I always had to make believe she was asleep."

"How did they happen to come ashore?" asked Mrs. Slater.

"A ship that was coming from China got wrecked," explained Sue, "and the boxes with the dolls in washed up on shore. But I guess this isn't a doll box," she added.

"It doesn't look so," said Harry's mother. "It seems to be a very heavy case, such as machinery comes in, but of course there can't be machinery in it, or it would sink."

"And there can't be a dog in it, or he'd smother," added Sue, "'cause the cover is nailed on tight."

The box was near the point of land now, and Bunny and Harry were wading out to get it. Mrs. Slater and Sue could see that the box was a square one, about three feet long, and as many high and wide. And there was a cover on it.

"Catch hold now!" cried Bunny to Harry, and the two boys took hold of the sides of the box and easily guided it up to the beach. It soon grounded in the shallow water, but it was so heavy that when Bunny and Harry had got it to the shore of the point of land they could move it no farther.

"It's nailed tight shut all around," Bunny said, as he looked on all four sides.

"Ain't there a cover that you can put back like on a trunk?" Sue wanted to know.

"No, there ain't," answered Harry, "for if there was the hinges would show—they always do."

"Oh, what do you think can really be in it?" cried Sue, dancing around in excitement.

"Maybe it's a boat chest of some sort," suggested Bunny, who had heard Captain Ross speak of such things.

"From China?"

"Oh, I guess it couldn't come from as far away as that."

"Course it couldn't," declared Harry.

"Children, I think we have made quite a find," said Mrs. Slater, as she looked carefully at the box. "I wonder to whom it belongs."

"There's a name printed on it over here," said Bunny, pointing to the side of the box turned away from shore.

"What does it say?" asked Mrs. Slater, for she could not look without stepping into the water.

"There's an F and an R and an A and an N and a K," said Bunny slowly.

"That spells Frank," said Mrs. Slater. "What else is there?"

Bunny spelled out the rest of the name, and also an address.

"Well, then it would seem this box belongs to a Mr. Frank Ravenwood of Sea Gate," said Harry's mother. "Is there anything else on that side, Bunny?"

"No'm," he answered.

"Frank Ravenwood, of Sea Gate," went on Mrs. Slater. "Where is Sea Gate, Bunny?"

"It's on the coast, just down below where we live," was the answer.

"Then we can write and tell Mr. Ravenwood of Sea Gate that we have his box that was washed ashore," went on Harry's mother. "But we must get it higher up on the beach or it will wash away again. I wonder——"

But she suddenly stopped, for Sue gave a cry of alarm and pointed toward shore.

"Oh, look!" exclaimed the little girl. "Look!"



CHAPTER XXII

THE SURPRISING LETTER

Mrs. Slater was so interested in looking at the strange box which had been washed up on shore, and was thinking so deeply about the name of Frank Ravenwood which Bunny spelled for her that, for the moment, she did not quite understand what Sue meant.

"What is it, Sue?" she asked the little girl, for Sue kept on pointing toward something behind Mrs. Slater.

"The tide!" exclaimed Bunny's sister. "The tide's coming up and it's washing over the sand and we're on an island! We can't get back lessen we wade!"