Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, at first, did not know what the hired man meant. They did not see why they could not stay and play with the queer little boxes, which, as Sue said, were just like doll houses. She was even going back to the farmhouse and get one of her dolls, for she had brought three or four with her in the big automobile.
But now the hired man was running toward Bunny and Sue. He had stopped weeding the onions.
"Run away! Run away!" he cried again, waving his arms at the children. "Run away! Hurry!"
"What for?" asked Bunny.
Bunny was always good at asking questions.
"Why should we run?" Bunny asked.
Before the man could answer Sue cried out:
"Oh, Bunny! Look at the flies! They're buzzing all around me. I don't like them. Come on!"
At the same time a number of the "flies," as Sue called them, began buzzing around Bunny's head. He waved his hands to drive them off.
"Don't do that! Keep your arms still and come away!" cried the hired man. "If you don't run away you'll be badly stung!"
By this time he was close to Bunny and Sue. He caught the little boy up in one arm, and Sue in the other, and ran with them away from the little "play houses." Then, when they were some distance from the buzzing insects the man put the children down.
"Never go there again," he said.
"Why?" asked Bunny. "Why mustn't we go near the flies?"
"Because those are not flies, they are bees. They may sting you, and hurt you very much. You must keep away from them!"
"But don't bees give you honey?" asked Sue.
"Yes, little lady, they do, but if you go neartheir hives they think you are going to take their honey. They don't like that, so they sting folks to drive them away."
"We didn't know they was bee hives," said Sue, looking up to see if any of the bees were still buzzing around her.
"We thought they were play-houses," said Bunny, "and I was going to take the top off one, and look inside."
"It's a good thing you didn't," said the man. "Now remember—keep away from the bees."
"But how does grandpa get the honey out without being stung?" Bunny wanted to know.
"He blows smoke on them, from a smoking-machine," said the hired man. "The smoke quiets the bees, and then they don't sting. Of course your grandpa leaves the bees some honey for themselves. They have to have some to eat when it is winter, and when there are no flowers."
"Do flowers make honey?" asked Sue.
"The bees suck honey from the flowers," the hired man told the children. "Now run away, and don't ever again play in that part of the garden where the bees are."
"We won't," promised Bunny and Sue.
"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Grandpa Brown when Bunny and Sue told him what had happened. "I forgot to speak about the bees. You see I didn't have any when you were here before, and now I should have told you to keep away from them. I'm glad the hired man saw you in time, or you might have been badly stung."
"Does it hurt to be stung?" Bunny wanted to know.
"Indeed it does!" his father told him. "It's worse than fifty mosquito bites made into one. So keep away from the bees."
Bunny and Sue were sure they would. They told about having fed the horse, and how the old ram pulled Bunny by the coat.
The next day Bunny and Sue started in to have all sorts of good times on Grandpa Brown's farm. Early in the morning they got up and had breakfast. Then, wearing their old clothes, so they could romp and roll as they liked, they began the day.
First they went with Grandma Brown to feed the chickens. Mother Brown also wentwith them. And how the hens and roosters flocked about grandma when she scattered the feed!
"And now we'll gather the eggs," she said, as she tossed down the last grains of corn.
"Oh, I know how to hunt eggs!" cried Sue. "I hunted some once for Mrs. Gordon, who lives next door to us."
"She sat in the nest!" laughed Bunny.
"Well, I hope you don't do that here," said Sue's mother, smiling.
Sue had no such bad luck. Indeed it was easy to hunt the eggs on grandpa's farm, for the hens were all kept in houses and yards, with wire fences about them so they could not fly away and hide their nests. The eggs were all in cute little boxes, and all grandma had to do was to lift up the cover, and take the eggs out.
Bunny and Sue helped put the eggs in baskets, but they did not carry them for fear they would spill and break them—break the eggs, not the baskets, I mean. For if you break a basket you can fix it, but if you break an egg, no one can mend it—you have to eat it.
After the eggs were gathered they all went to pick strawberries. That is grandma and Mother Brown and Bunny and Sue did. Papa Brown, with grandpa and Bunker Blue, went over to look at some colts, or little horses, in a field, or pasture, far from the house.
"Oh, I wish I could see the ponies," said Sue. Bunny wished so too.
"The next time you may," his father said.
"We'll have fun getting strawberries," said Grandma Brown, and the children did.
They picked the big, red, sweet berries, putting them in baskets. They would have some of them for dinner, with cream and sugar.
"And for supper I'll make a strawberry short-cake," promised Grandma Brown.
Bunny and Sue thought it was great fun to pick the berries. Of course they ate almost as many as they put in the baskets, but that was all right, and just what grandma expected.
"Strawberries were made for children to eat," she said with a smile. "Now see, I'll show you how to string them on a piece of grass, to keep them from crushing."
With a little pointed stick Grandma Brown would make a tiny hole through a strawberry. Then through the hole she would put a long thin grass. In this way she strung the berries on the grass stem just as you string glass beads on a string. Then when Bunny and Sue had a string of strawberries, they could sit in the shade, and pull them off, eating them one by one.
"Oh, what fun this is!" said Sue, when she could eat no more. Her hands and face were red with the juice of the strawberries.
"Yes," said Bunny, "grandpa's farm is the nicest place in the whole world, I think."
And how good the strawberries tasted at the table, when sugar was sprinkled over them, and covered with rich, yellow cream, from one of grandpa's cows. And with some of grandma's bread, covered with the golden-yellow butter——
Oh dear! I'll just have to stop writing about it, I'll want to go to Grandpa Brown's farm myself, and have some strawberries. And if I do that I'll never get this book finished, I know.
Anyhow, I'll just say that Bunny and Sue thought they had never tasted anything so good as those strawberries. And then the short-cake at supper that night! There I go again!
Well, anyhow, it was the nicest cake you can imagine.
"Aren't you glad we came here, Sue?" asked Bunny, when he had been given a second, and very small, piece of the strawberry short-cake.
"Oh, aren't I just, though!" sighed Sue.
The sun was shining brightly when Bunny Brown and his sister Sue awakened the next morning, and went down to breakfast.
"What can we do to-day, Bunny?" asked Sue. She always waited to see what Bunny was going to do before she began her play.
"Oh, I think we'll go over by the brook," he said.
"Fishing?"
"No, Sue. Not fishing. Mother won't let me have a regular fish hook. She's afraid I'll get it stuck in my hands. And you can't catch any fish on a bent-pin hook. So we won't go fishing."
"I'm glad!" Sue exclaimed, "'cause worms, for bait, is so squiggily in your hands."
Over to the brook went the two children. Their mother had said they might play near it, if they did not get wet, and they had on their old clothes.
At first, after reaching the bank of the little brook, which rippled over green, mossy stones, Bunny and Sue had fun just tossing in bits of wood and bark, making believe they were boats. Then Bunny thought of something.
"Oh, Sue!" he cried. "I'm going to make a waterfall!"
"What's that?" asked his sister.
"Well, you put some mud and sticks and stones in the brook, all the way across. That makes a deep place, for the water can't run away. And, after a while, the water runs over the pile of mud and stones, and makes a waterfall. Will you help me build one?"
"Yes," said Sue.
"Then take off your shoes and stockings, 'cause we got to wade in the mud and water. And roll up your sleeves. We'll build a big waterfall."
Bunny Brown had seen some of the older boys, near his house, build a sort of wall across a brook, so that the water was held back, making a little pond. And then, when the pond was full, the water ran over the top of the mud wall, and down on the other side. That was why it was called a "waterfall."
"Now I'll put some stones down first," Bunny explained to Sue. "You get some pieces of grass, with the dirt on the roots, and put them on top of the stones. That's good to hold the water back."
"Shall I get wood, too?" asked Sue.
"No. Wood will only float away on top of the water," Bunny said. "We have to have something that will sink, like stones and dirt."
The two children were soon making the waterfall. They splashed about in the mud andwater, but they did not mind. For they had taken off their shoes and stockings, though their mother had not said they could do so.
"But she wouldn't want us to go into the water with our shoes and stockings on would she, Sue?" asked Bunny.
"No, I guess not."
"So we'll have to take them off."
That was all there was to do. The children rolled up their sleeves, for they had to reach down in the mud to get the stones and clumps of grass to make the waterfall.
Pretty soon Bunny and Sue had built such a high wall of stones, mud and grass across the little brook, that no more water ran down the little stream. The water had gathered into a sort of pond, that was getting larger all the while, as it rose behind the stones.
"Oh, now it's running over!" cried Sue.
"Yes, now it's a waterfall!"
The water was trickling over the edge of the top of the wall. In a moment it ran down in quite a stream on the other side.
"If I only had a water-wheel the water would make it go around," said Bunny.
"Can't you make one?" Sue wanted to know. She was always anxious to see something new and different.
"I guess water-wheels are hard to make," Bunny said. "But I'll ask Bunker Blue when we go home."
Bunker Blue had also stayed on grandpa's farm. He helped with the work, and he said he liked it almost as much as going out in boats, or helping catch fish.
But as they did not have a water-wheel, and as Bunny could not make one there, the children had what fun they could. They floated sticks, and bits of bark from the trees, on the little pond that was made at the waterfall, and they watched the tiny "boats," sucked over the edge of the fall by the current. The fall was about a foot high, about as far as from Bunny's knee down to his toes.
"If we had a real boat we could go for a ride on the pond," said Sue, for the water back of the fall looked like a little pond now, though of course it was not large enough for any boat bigger than a make-believe one.
"Maybe I could make a boat," Bunny answered. He began looking in the woods on either side of the brook for some boards, of which to make a boat, but of course he could not find any.
"I could make a raft, like Robinson Crusoe did, if I could get some big pieces of trees," Bunny said to his sister. He tried to pull down to the water's edge some big tree branches that had been broken off in a storm, but he was not strong enough.
"Maybe we could fish in our pond," suggested Sue, when she saw that her brother could not build a raft, on which to go sailing.
"We haven't anything to fish with," replied Bunny. "And, anyhow, I guess there wouldn't be any fish. They won't come where you play in the water. They're scared to come. But, oh, Sue! I know what we can do!"
"What?"
"We can go wading in the water. It's real nice and deep, now."
"Yes," said Sue, as she looked at the pond of water back of the fall. "It's deep, Bunny."
"Oh, come on!" cried Bunny. "I'll go in first, Sue, and show you how deep it is!"
Bunny rolled up his little trousers as far above his knees as they would go. Then, taking a stick, to poke in the water ahead of him, to make sure it was not too deep, he started to wade.
"Oh, Sue!" he cried. "This is fun! Come on in!"
"I'm afraid I'll get my dress wet, Bunny."
"Oh, come on!" Bunny cried. "This is fun! It's just like——"
Bunny suddenly stopped speaking, and a queer look came over his face.
"Oh, Sue! Sue!" he cried. "I'm sinking down in the mud! I—I can't pull my feet loose! Oh dear! Help me out, Sue!"
But Sue was not going to step into that deep-looking water. For if Bunny was stuck fast she would be stuck, too.
"I—I'm afraid, Bunny," she called to him.
"But I have to get out, Sue! I can't get out if you don't help me!"
Bunny tried to raise first one leg, and then the other. Both were held fast in the sticky mud under the water. He almost fell over, he tried so hard to pull loose his feet.
"Oh, look, out!" cried Sue, as she saw her brother nearly fall.
"Oh, Sue! Sue!" and Bunny was almost crying. "What am I going to do? Will I have to stay here forever?"
Sue didn't know just what to answer. But finally she said:
"Wait, Bunny. I'll get a long stick, and let you take hold of one end of it. I'll keep hold of the other end, and I'll stay here and pull you out."
"All right! But hurry up! I'm sinking down deeper all the while."
Sue looked about on the bank of the stream, until she found a long, thin branch from a tree, where it had blown to the ground. She held one end of this branch out to her brother, and he took hold of it.
"Now I'll pull you out!" cried Sue, as she held her end of the branch in both her hands.
But instead of Sue pulling Bunny, it was Bunny who pulled Sue, as he was stronger than she was.
"Oh, look out, Bunny! Look out!" cried the little girl. "I'll fall in!"
"Yes," said Bunny, as he stopped pulling on the stick Sue held, "I guess you will. But oh, Sue! You'll have to help me! I'm sinking down more and more."
And Bunny was. The water was nearly up to his trousers now. He was sinking down deeper in the mud.
"I'll go and tell papa and mamma!" Sue cried, as she threw down the tree branch, and ran through the woods. "They'll know how to get you out."
Away ran Sue, but she did not go far before she met Bunker Blue.
"Well!" he cried. "I was just wondering where you were. Your mother sent me to look for you. Where's Bunny, Sue?"
"Oh, he's sinking down in the mud!"
"Sinking down in the mud? Why, what do you mean?"
"Oh, hurry, Bunker Blue! Bunny made a waterfall, and then he went wading in it, and he can't get his feet out, and he 'most pulled me in and he's scared and so am I and—and——"
But poor Sue could say no more.
"Well, well!" cried Bunker. "I don't know what it's all about, but show me where Bunny is."
He took hold of Sue's hand, and hurried back with her, and pretty soon Bunker saw Bunny in the middle of the little pond. Bunker did not stop to take off his shoes and stockings.
Wading in, with his shoes on, Bunker reached Bunny, who was just about to cry. In his strong arms Bunker lifted Bunny up out of the mud and water and waded with him to dry land.
"There! Now you're all right," he said. "What did you do that for, Bunny?"
"Well, we—we wanted to make a waterfall, and then we couldn't go sailing on it in a boat, or on a raft, so I thought I'd go wading. I did wade, but I got stuck in the mud."
"I should say you did!" replied Bunker, looking at Bunny's bare, muddy feet and legs, and at his own dripping shoes and trousers. "You sure did get stuck in the mud! It is better to keep out of these ditches, and little brooks. The bottom is almost always soft mud, and you'll sink away down in it. Nowgo over there, where the bottom is sandy. You won't sink there. And you can wash the mud off your legs. I'll have to wash, too, I guess."
Bunker showed Bunny a shallow place in the brook where there was no danger of sinking in the mud, and soon the little fellow was quite clean. His trousers were wet on the bottoms, but the sun and wind would soon dry them.
Bunny and Sue were telling Bunker how they had built the waterfall, when they heard a rustling in the bushes, and a noise as if some one, or something, were coming nearer.
"I guess it's our dog, Splash," said Bunny.
"No, Splash was asleep in the barn when I came to look for you," said Bunker.
And then, through the trees, came a man.
"Hello, children!" he cried. "Oh, ho! So this is the trouble; eh?" he went on. "I wondered why no water was running down into my chicken yard, and I came to see what had stopped up my brook. It's your waterfall!"
"Ye—yes, I made it." Bunny said, wondering whether he had done something wrong.
"And he got stuck in the mud," added Sue. She always wanted to tell everything.
"Yes this mud is pretty sticky," remarked the man. "But if you are done playing waterfall I guess I'll just take it away. You see it stops the water from coming down the brook—that is, it stops nearly all of it. And I need the water."
With a long stick the man began poking away the mud and stones Bunny and Sue had piled up to make the waterfall.
"This little brook goes right through my chicken yard," the man explained, "and the chickens like to drink the water. When I saw, a while ago, that there was only a little coming down, not enough for the hens and roosters to drink, I thought something had happened. And it was you children who did it all," and the man smiled.
"Well, I know you want to have fun, but please don't stop up my brook any more; will you?" he asked.
"No, sir," answered Bunny. He had had enough of waterfalls, for a while at least. Then he and Sue went back to grandpa's.
"Oh, Bunny, Bunny!" was all his mother said when she heard what had happened. "What will you and Sue do next?"
"I don't know, Mother," Bunny answered.
Two days after that, Bunny and Sue, nicely washed and combed, with Sue wearing her new red dress, started for the next farmhouse to play with a little boy and girl who lived in it. They went across the fields. Sue stopped to pick some flowers, while Bunny went on ahead.
Pretty soon he heard his little sister calling:
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! Come quick! He's after me!"
Bunny turned, thinking it might be a goat running after his sister, as one had done, though it did not hurt Sue.
But this time it was no goat. Bunny saw a big bird, with his wings dragging along on the ground, his feathers all puffed up, and with what looked like a red tassel hanging dangling, dangling down over his beak, strutting toward Sue.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! What is it?" Sue cried. "Take him away!"
"It's a big turkey gobbler!" said Bunny. "I'll drive him away for you, Sue! Don't be afraid."
"Gobble—obble—obble!" cried the turkey, but of course Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know what the gobbler was saying.
"Oh, take him away, Bunny! Take him away!" cried the little girl, dancing up and down, her red dress fluttering in the wind.
Bunny Brown did not just know how he was going to drive the angry turkey gobbler away from his sister Sue. He did not stop to think of that, but, like the brave little fellow he was, he ran toward Sue, ready to do something. The gobbler was closer to Sue now.
"I've got to drive him away! I've got to drive him away!" said Bunny to himself, over and over again.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" cried Sue. "Take him away! Take him away!"
This would have been hard for Bunny to do, for the gobbler was a very big one, and Bunny could never in the world have lifted him.
"I wish my dog Splash were here!" thought Bunny. "He'd make that old gobbler run!"
But Splash was not there. He had run offdown the road with another dog, just before Bunny Brown and his sister Sue set off together.
"Gobble-obble-obble!" cried the turkey. He spread out his wings wider than ever, and the red thing that hung down over his "nose," as Sue called his beak, seemed to stand up straight, he was so angry.
"Oh, Bunny!" and Sue was screaming now. "Help me, Bunny!"
And then, all at once, Bunny thought of something.
In his hand he carried a tin pail, which he and Sue had hoped to fill with wild strawberries on their way back from playing with the children in the next house. Raising this pail over his head, Bunny threw it as straight as he could at the gobbler.
And, to Bunny's surprise, the pail went right over the turkey's head. It caught by the wire handle around the gobbler's neck, and hung in such a way that the gobbler could no longer see Sue and her red dress. And I think the little girl's red dress made the gobbler more angry than he would otherwise have been.Gobblers don't like red, for some reason or other.
"Gobble-obble-obble!" called the big turkey. Oh, but he must have been surprised! He did not know what to do. He just danced around and around, trying to shake the pail off his neck. If he had only lowered his head, as he did when picking up corn, the pail would have slid off. But the gobbler did not think of that.
Perhaps he still thought he could find Sue, and pick her legs with his sharp beak because she wore a red dress that he did not like. And it was such a pretty red dress, too, and Sue looked so nice in it.
"Gobble-obble-obble!" went the turkey, louder than ever.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" cried Sue, as she ran toward her brother. "What did you do to him?"
"I—I tried to hit him with the pail, to make him let you alone," said Bunny, "but the pail went on his neck. Wasn't I a good shot, Sue?"
"Yes," she said. "And now let's run before he comes after us again. Run, Bunny, run!"
"But I—I want my pail!" Bunny said, holding back. "The turkey has my pail, and we can't get any strawberries."
But though Sue was younger than Bunny she knew it would never do to try and take the pail away from the turkey now.
"You can't get it, Bunny," she said. "If you take it away from him he'll bite you. 'Sides, when he has it on him that way it's just like the blinkers on a horse. He can't see us. Come on."
What Sue said was true. The turkey could not see the children as long as the pail was on his neck in that way.
"When he drops it off we can come back and get it—maybe when he has gone to bed, Bunny," said Sue. "Turkeys go to bed early; don't they?"
"Maybe," answered her brother. He knew chickens went to bed, or to "roost" as it is called, quite early, and a turkey, after all, was like a big chicken, or rooster.
"Well, when he goes to bed we'll come and get the pail," said Sue. "Only we can't get any strawberries then, 'cause it'll be dark."
"All right," agreed Bunny, as he hurried across the field with Sue. "We'll let him have the pail for a while."
It seemed the only thing to do, as the turkey was waltzing, dancing and strutting about, with the pail still on his neck, making his funny noise.
"Gobble-obble-obble!"
He did not try to find Sue, and her red dress, or even Bunny now. Probably the gobbler was trying to get the pail off his head. And, just as Bunny and Sue reached the fence, and crawled through, to the road, where the gobbler could not get them, the big turkey did manage to get rid of the pail.
He put his head down, and the pail handle slipped over his neck. Then, with a loud gobble, he ran toward Bunny and Sue. But they were safe on the other side of the fence by this time.
"Oh, Bunny, I'm so glad!" said Sue. "It's a good thing you had that pail with you!"
"Well, if I couldn't throw that at him I could throw a stone," said Bunny.
But I think the pail was just the very bestthing the little boy could have thrown at the gobbler. Besides, it did not hurt him, as a stone might have done.
Looking back, to see where the pail lay, Bunny went on with Sue to the house where they were to spend the afternoon. They found their little friends waiting for them, and, after telling about the turkey, the children had fine fun.
"That was Mr. North's turkey," said Gladys Parker, one of the little girls. "He's real mean, that turkey is, and chases everybody."
"Well, he chased me," said Sue, "only Bunny made him stop."
"I'm glad you did," said Ethel Burke. "Maybe he'll be a better gobbler after this."
The children played many games, they had fun in the swing, and Mrs. Parker gave them all some milk and cookies for lunch.
When it came time for Bunny and Sue to go home they went past the field where the gobbler had been. He was not there now, as the children found, after looking carefully about. Maybe he had gone to bed, for it wasabout time for the chickens to go to roost. Turkeys like to roost in trees, you know, and not in a coop, as chickens do. And perhaps the big gobbler was, even then, perched up in some tree, with his head under his wing. And, for all I know, perhaps he was dreaming of a little girl in a red dress, and a boy who threw a pail over a turkey's head. That is if gobblers do dream.
"Oh, there's the pail!" cried Bunny, as he saw the shining tin in the middle of the field. "I'm going to get it, Sue."
And Bunny did. It was too late, then, to pick any of the wild strawberries, but Bunny and Sue knew they could come some other time.
They reached home safely, and told about the gobbler.
"My!" exclaimed Grandma Brown. "But that was quite an adventure, Bunny and Sue!"
"Oh, we have lots of them," said Bunny. "Don't we, Sue?"
"Yes, Bunny. But I don't like turkey adventures."
The next day the two children went afterwild strawberries. Grandpa Brown told them of a place, not far from the house, on a little hill, where many berries grew.
"And you won't have to go near the turkey to get there, either," he said. "Though I see you haven't your red dress on, Sue, so even if the gobbler did see you, I don't believe he would chase you this time."
"I only wear my red dress when I go visiting," said Sue. "But I'm not going to visit turkey gobblers any more."
Bunny and Sue found many berries on the hill their grandpa had told them about, and soon their pail was half full. A little way off were some woods, but before one came to the place where the trees grew thick, with green moss beneath them, there was a field, and in this field Bunny saw some bushes with deep, purple berries growing on them.
"Oh, Sue!" he cried. "Let's pick some raspberries! There's lots on those bushes, and grandma can make raspberry jam, and put it in tarts, like Aunt Lu did. Let's pick raspberries! We've got enough strawberries!"
"All right," answered Sue, for she was always ready to do what Bunny wanted her to.
The two children were soon in the field, picking the purple raspberries. They walked on and on, from one bush to another, and by the time their pail was full, with the raspberries on top of the strawberries, they were close to the woods.
"Let's go in and rest in the shade," Sue said. "I'm awful tired and hot, Bunny."
"All right, we'll go in," and in they went. It was nice and cool beneath the trees, and the children found a spring of water where they had a drink, for they were thirsty.
"And I'm hungry, too," said Sue, after a bit. "Bunny, do you s'pose we could eat some of the berries? We can pick more before we go home."
"Yes, we'll eat some, Sue."
Seated on the green moss, in the shade of a tree, Bunny and Sue ate the berries, getting their faces and hands stained red and purple.
"But we can wash in the spring before we go home," Sue said, "so it will be all right."
"Yes," agreed Bunny.
After resting a while the children washedat the spring, and took another drink. Then they saw a big frog hopping along. He must have been having a bath in the spring, which was almost as large as a washtub.
"Let's see if we can catch that frog!" cried Bunny. "We won't hurt him, though."
So he and Sue followed the frog. But the frog was a good jumper, and led the children quite a chase. And then, just when Bunny thought he was going to put his hands on him, the big green fellow found another spring, and into that he went with a splash, grunting as he did so:
"Ker-ugh! Ker-ung!"
"Oh, he's gone!" cried Sue, quite sadly.
"Never mind," replied Bunny. "We'll find another."
But they did not, though they waited around the second spring for some time.
"I guess we'd better go home," said Bunny.
"Yes," agreed Sue, looking around at the trees on every side of them. The children started, but going home was not as easy as it seemed. They walked on and on, and soon Sue began to get tired.
"Aren't we at the place where we picked the berries?" she asked, after a bit.
"Almost," answered Bunny. But though he looked and looked through the trees he could not see the field and the little hill that was not far from Grandpa Brown's house.
The children went on a little farther, until, all at once, Bunny stumbled over a stone and fell.
The pail flew from his hand, and the berries spilled all over the ground.
"Oh, dear!" cried Sue. Then she added quickly: "But I'll help you pick them up, Bunny."
Bunny sat up and rubbed his knee. He wrinkled up his nose in a funny way.
"Does it hurt?" asked Sue.
"My leg does, a little, but not my nose," Bunny said. And then he laughed.
The children picked up the scattered berries. Their pail was only half full now, for they could not find all the berries that had spilled.
"We'll have to pick a lot more," remarked Sue.
"Yes," said Bunny. "We will when we find the bushes."
On they went again. But it seemed that they would never get out of the woods. After a while Bunny stopped, sat down on a log and said:
"Sue, I know what's the matter!"
"What?" asked the little girl. "Does your leg hurt? Is that what's the matter?"
"No," answered Bunny. "The matter is—we're lost. That's why we can't find the berry-bushes. We're lost, Sue!"
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue had been lost before, several times. Maybe that is why Sue was not so frightened now, when Bunny spoke as he did. As for the little boy, he seemed more tired than worried.
"Yes, Sue," he said again. "I guess we're lost. I've looked all over, and I can't see the hill where we picked the strawberries, nor the field where we got the raspberries."
"I can't either," said Sue. "And I wish we had some berries, Bunny."
"Why?"
"'Cause I'm hungry right now again."
"Well, you can eat these, Sue. I don't want 'em."
Bunny Brown was hungry himself, and he did want some of the berries very much. But there were, now, only a few left in the pail,and Bunny remembered that his mother had said to him that he must always look after Sue when she went walking with him.
And the best way he could look after her, this time, he thought, like the brave little fellow he tried to be, was to give her all the berries.
"Are you sure you don't want 'em, Bunny?" asked his sister.
"Sure!" he said. "Anyhow, we'll find more when I get hungry."
"All right," and Sue began eating the berries. She was very hungry.
After a while Bunny said:
"Now I'm going to look for the field again. If we find the field we can find the hill, and then we'll be almost home."
"All right," replied Sue, putting the last of the berries into her mouth. "Do I have to wash again, Bunny?" she asked, as she looked at her stained hands. Her mouth was stained, too, but she could not see that.
"I don't know where the spring of water is," Bunny said, "so I don't see how you can wash."
"All right." Sue did not much mind. She was not very fond of washing in cold spring water, anyhow.
Once more the children went on. But though they followed many paths through the woods they did not get on the one that led out and to the field and hill.
"Oh, dear!" said Sue, in a sad little voice.
"What's the matter?" asked Bunny, stopping and turning around, for he had walked on ahead.
"I'm so tired, Bunny!"
"Well, we'll rest a while."
They sat down on a log, Bunny looking through the trees, here and there, thinking he might see some path that led out of the woods. But he saw none.
"Are you rested now, Sue?" he asked, after a while.
"A little," she answered. "I can walk some more."
So they went on again. It was getting late afternoon now, for the children had not started to pick berries until after dinner. The sun was going down, and of course it was darker inthe woods, with all the trees around, than it was out in the open fields.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were surely lost in the woods, and they did not know how to get home. As I have told you, this was not the first time this had happened to them, and they were not as frightened as they had been other times. But still it was no fun.
Through the woods were many paths. Some had been made by cows, or horses, perhaps, while others were those taken by persons who walked among the trees. But there were no persons now in the woods; that is Bunny and Sue could see none.
All at once Bunny gave a yell.
"Hoo-oo! Hoo-oo! Hoo-oo!" he cried, as loudly as he could.
"Oh!" cried Sue. "What's the matter, Bunny? Did a snake bite you; or a mud turtle?"
"Nope. I was just hollerin' so some one would hear me."
"What for?" Sue wanted to know.
"So they would come and take us out of the woods."
"Oh," and Sue laughed then. "I'll holler too," she said.
So she did. Then Bunny called again, and he and Sue called together, as loudly as they could.
But no one answered them.
All they could hear was an echo—the sound of their own voices coming back to them, "bouncing" like a rubber ball. They had heard that before, so they knew what an echo was. But an echo only repeats the same things that are said. It does not help to find the way out of the woods, and Bunny and Sue were still lost.
They went on farther, but they did not know whether they were going toward home, or away from it. Sue, in spite of brave little Bunny, was beginning to get frightened now. Tears came into her eyes, though they did not fall.
"I—I'm so tired, Bunny," she said. "I want to go home!"
"So do I, Sue. But we've got to get on the right path, and I can't find it."
"Let's try this one," said the little girl, asthey came to a place where there were two paths through the woods. One went off toward the left side, and the other to the right.
"I'll take one path," said Bunny, "and you can take the other, Sue."
"Oh, no!"
"Why not?"
"'Cause then we'd both be lost."
"Well, we're both lost now."
"Yes," said Sue, "I know. But now we're both lost together, but if we were lost all alone I'd be scareder than I am now. Don't go away, Bunny."
"I won't. But which path shall we take?"
Sue thought for a minute. Then she tried a little game that the children sometimes played.
Shutting her eyes, Sue pointed her fat little hand first at one path, and then the other, while she said:
"My-mother-told-me-to-take-this-one!"
And she moved her hand back and forth, pointing first at one path and then at the other. When she said the last word—"one"—her hand was pointing at the left hand path.
"We'll take this one, Bunny," she said.
"All right, Sue. Maybe this one will take us home."
So they walked on and on. But Sue's guess had not been a very good one, even though she had played her queer little game. She and Bunny were deeper in the woods than ever.
"Oh, dear!" cried the little girl. "I've just got to sit down, Bunny. My legs is so tired!"
"Mine is too," Bunny said, too weary to speak more properly. "We'll both rest, Sue, and then we'll holler some more."
"And what will we do if nobody comes to get us?"
"We'll go back and take the other path, Sue. Maybe we came on the wrong one."
"Maybe we did." Sue was glad to have the other path to think about. Perhaps that might be the one that would lead them home. She and Bunny sat on a log to rest, and then, once more, Bunny gave a loud shout.
"Hello! Hello!" he cried. "We're lost! Somebody come and find us!"
Sue joined in, crying in her shrill little voice. But, for a while, no one answered.
"Well, we'll go back and take the other path," said Bunny. He was getting very hungry, and he wished he would come to another place where strawberries or raspberries grew.
Before starting back, however, Bunny gave one more shout.
"Hello! Hello!" he cried.
To the surprise of himself and Sue there was an answer.
"Hello! Hello!"
Bunny and Sue looked at one another.
"Did—did you hear that?" asked Bunny in a whisper.
"Yes," answered Sue. "It was the echo!"
But, as they waited the call came again.
"Hello! Hello! Who are you? Where are you? What do you want?"
"That wasn't any echo," said Bunny, "'cause we didn't speak. It's somebody after us, Sue."
"Oh, I'm so glad!"
"So'm I!"
There was a crackling of the bushes, and through the trees came walking an old man, with long, white hair and a beard. He hada kind face, and Bunny and Sue liked him at once.
"Oh, did you come for us?" asked Bunny.
"Well, no, not exactly," the man answered with a smile. "I heard you calling, though. What is the matter?"
"We're lost," replied Sue. "Will you please take us home?"
"I would if I knew where your home was, little girl."
"Do you live in the woods?" Bunny asked. The man looked as though his home might be in some hollow tree, or woodland cave.
"Yes, boy, I live here."
"All alone?" asked Sue, looking around.
"All alone, yes, little girl. I'm a sort of hermit, I suppose. At least folks call me that, and hermits always live alone, you know." The man smiled very kindly at the children.
"Well, Mr. Hermit," said Sue, "please take us home, and give me and Bunny something to eat. We're awful hungry."
Once again the hermit smiled at the children.
"I can give you something to eat," he said, "for I have that, though I do live in the woods. But I do not know whether I can take you to your home. Where do you live?"
"We live in Bellemere, near the ocean," said Sue.
The hermit shook his gray head.
"That is very far from here," he said. "I do not believe I could find the place. I have not been out of these woods for many years, except to go to the village. But how did you get so far from home?"
"Oh, we came to see our grandpa," explained Bunny.
"And what is his name?"
"Grandpa Brown!" exclaimed Sue. "Andhe's awful nice. Grandma Brown is nice, too, and she gives us cookies and milk. Can you give us cookies and milk, Mr. Hermit?"
"Well, I can give you some milk," answered the old man of the woods. "But I have no cookies. I have bread, though."
"Bread and milk is good," said Bunny with a sigh. He was hungry enough to be glad of even some bread, without the milk. But he was glad the hermit had milk.
"Where is your house?" asked Sue.
"It isn't what you would call a house," said the old man. "It is a sort of log cabin. I built most of it myself. But it is over there through the trees," and he pointed behind him.
"I can't see it," said Sue, standing up and looking through the trees.
"It's there just the same," and the hermit smiled again.
"Please take us there, give us some bread and milk, and then take us to Grandpa Brown's house," said Sue. "We're staying there, and so is our papa and mamma."
"And so is Bunker Blue," put in Bunny. "Do you know Bunker Blue, Mr. Hermit?"
"No, I can't say that I do," and the old man shook his head. "But I know your grandfather, Mr. Brown. I can take you to his farm, though it is quite a way off. You must have wandered far."
"We were picking berries, and we got lost," Bunny explained. "But we don't mind now, if you'll give us some bread and milk, and take us to grandpa's."
"Well, I can do that for you," and the old man smiled again at the two children. "Come," he said, and he held out a hand to each of them.
Bunny and Sue toddled along. They were quite happy now. They did not stop to think that their parents and their grandparents might be worried, for it was quite late. Bunny and Sue did not often worry. They just let things happen the way they would.
"Here's my house," said the hermit, after he had gone along a winding path. He pointed to a log cabin amid the trees.
"Oh, that's nice!" exclaimed Bunny.
"It's like a play-house!" cried Sue. "Don't you wish we had that, Bunny?"
"Yes, I do. But we couldn't have it; could we?" and he looked up into the face of the hermit.
"No, I'm afraid not, little boy. I need it to live in, and to keep the rain and snow from me."
"Oh, do you stay here in the winter?" asked Sue, surprised.
"Yes."
"Isn't it cold?"
"Sometimes. But I have a fireplace, and I pile on logs, and make a hot fire. Then I am warm."
"I'd like it here in winter," said Bunny. "Do you slide down hill, Mr. Hermit?"
"No, I'm too old for that, little boy. But come in now, and I'll give you something to eat. Then I'll take you home. I'll try and get you there before dark, so your folks won't be worried. They may be out hunting for you now."
"They always look for us when we get lost," said Sue.
"But we didn't know we were going to get lost this time," added Bunny.
The hermit set out two plates, with some slices of bread on them. Then from down in his spring, where he kept it cool, he brought a pail of milk. Soon Bunny and Sue were eating a nice little supper. It was lighter in the log cabin than it had been in the woods, for the trees were cut down around the hermit's home.
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, as she drank the last of her milk. "Oh, Bunny, we forgot to look for them!"
"Look for what?" Bunny wanted to know, as he crumbled some more bread into his bowl of milk. "What did we forget to look for, Sue?"
"Grandpa's horses. The Gypsies took them and didn't bring them back," she explained, so the hermit would know what she and Bunny were talking about.
"The Gypsies took your grandpa's horses, little girl?"
"Yes. They borrowed them, grandpa says, but they didn't bring them back. I guess maybe the Gypsies got lost, Bunny, and that's why they didn't bring the horses back. But welooked all over, and we couldn't find them, Mr. Hermit."
"I almost found one," said Bunny. "It was a horse walking along the road. But it wasn't grandpa's."
"And a cow tickled Bunker Blue in the ribs, when he was sleeping under our automobile," Sue explained. "I mean Bunker was sleeping, not the cow. The cow was eating grass, she was, and her horns tickled Bunker."
The hermit shook his head.
"You are queer children," he said. "But tell me about your grandpa's horses."
Between them, one telling part, and the other helping, Bunny and Sue told the story of the Gypsies taking Grandpa Brown's best team of horses.
"And we've looked, and looked, but we can't find them," said Sue. "Once Bunny found Aunt Lu's diamond ring that was lost. It was in the lobster claw all the while, and we didn't know it."
"But we forgot to look for the horses to-day," said Bunny. "You didn't see them; did you, Mr. Hermit?"
"Well, now, I don't know about that," said the old man who lived all alone in the woods. "Come to think of it I did see a camp of Gypsies in the woods, not far from here, the other day. I was out taking a walk, as I often do, and, down in a little valley I saw something shining."
"Oh, I know what it was!" cried Bunny, his eyes bright with eagerness.
"What was it?" asked the hermit.
"You saw the looking glasses, on the Gypsy wagons, shining in the sun."
"That was it, little man. But how did you know?"
"'Cause Sue and I saw it too, once. It was when we came in the big automobile. We went to the Gypsy camp, and we 'most got lost then. But mamma and papa and our dog, Splash, found us."
"What a queer name for a dog," said the hermit.
"We called him that 'cause he splashed into the water and pulled me out when I fell in, the time Bunny and me were shipwrecked," said Sue. "We got shipwrecked on an island."
"Like Robinson Crusoe," added the little boy.
"But we couldn't find Mr. Friday," said Sue. "You could be Mr. Friday, if we ever played Robinson Crusoe; couldn't he, Bunny?" Sue asked. "You look like the pictures of Robinson in the book. You could be him, and Bunny could be Friday—that would be better. Would you like to, Mr. Hermit?"
"Well, I don't know, my dear. I guess my play-days and make-believe days are over."
"You are just like Robinson Crusoe," Sue went on. "It's better to be him, 'cause Mr. Friday is black. You'd have to black up. I did, with black mud, and I was washing it off when I fell in and Splash pulled me out."
"You can tell me about that another time," said the old man. "I think, now, I had better start home with you. And, on the way, we will look in the valley for the Gypsies. Perhaps they are there yet."
"And maybe they have grandpa's horses!" cried Bunny. "Oh, wouldn't that be good Sue, if we could find them?"
"It would be just lovely!"
"Well, it's possible these may be the same Gypsies," said the old man, "though they may not be, and they may not have your grandpa's horses. But we'll look, anyhow."
So they set out to look for the missing horses. Bunny and Sue were not lost any more, for they felt sure the hermit would take them home to grandpa's house.
"Say, Mr. Hermit," said Bunny, as he and his sister Sue walked along with the nice, but strange man, who lived in the log cabin in the woods, "is it far to where grandpa's horses are, Mr. Hermit?"
"Well, little man, I'm not sure we can find your grandfather's horses," said the aged man with a smile at the two children. "All I know is that I saw some Gypsies camped over in the valley. It may be that they are the ones your grandfather is looking for. Would you know the horses if you saw them?"
"I would!" exclaimed Sue. "One of 'em has an awful nice long tail."
The hermit laughed.
"I fear that wouldn't be a very good way of telling your grandfather's horses from any others," said the old man. "Many horses havelong tails. But if there are some Gypsies camping in the valley you can tell your folks, and your grandfather can come and see if they have his horses."
"Is it very far?" asked Bunny again. He was not as tired as before he had eaten the bread and milk, but still he did not want to walk any more than he had to. Sue, also, looked weary.
"Oh, no, it isn't far," the hermit said. "It's only a little way to the valley, but it is quite a long way to your grandfather's house. I don't know whether you can walk it or not."
"I'm tired," said Sue. "I want to ride."
"I'm sorry I haven't anything to give you a ride on," returned the old man. "I can carry you, though, little girl, if your brother can walk."
"I can walk!" said Bunny. His fat little legs were tired, but he was not going to say so.
"All right. Then I'll carry your sister."
"Piggy-back?" Sue asked. "Will you give me a piggy-back? That's the way my papa carries me."
"Yes, I'll take you pickaback," said the hermit, and he almost whispered. Bunny, who was looking at him, was sure he saw tears in the old man's eyes. Or was it a drop of rain? For there were clouds in the sky now, and it seemed as if it was going to storm.
The old man looked around. He saw a flat stump not far away, and up on this he lifted Sue.
"Now you can get up on my back from there," he said, "and I will carry you so you won't be tired any more, little girl."
"That's good," murmured Sue, rather sleepily, as she cuddled her head down on the hermit's shoulder. "You know how to make a nice piggy-back," she went on. "Did you ever ride your little girl this way?"
"Yes," said the old man. "Once I had a little girl, just like you, and I used to ride her this way."
"Where is your little girl?" Sue asked.
"She is up—there," and the old man pointed to the sky. This time Bunny was sure the hermit had tears in his eyes. But, a little later Bunny was not quite sure, for he felt a drop of something wet on his own cheek.
"Why, it's raining!" he exclaimed. "It's raining water!"
"So it is, I do believe!" said the hermit. He stopped, still holding Sue on his back, and lifted up his face. He felt several drops from the clouds, and then there came a pattering on the leaves of the trees. It was getting quite dark now. There were many clouds in the sky, and, every now and then, a flash of lightning could be seen. Off in the west there was a rumble of thunder.
"Oh!" cried Sue. "I want to go home. I don't want to be out in the storm."
"I like the rain," said Bunny, "but I don't like the thunder and lightning; do you, Mr. Hermit?"
"I don't mind them very much," answered the old man. "But if you are afraid I'll take you back to my cabin, and leave you there, while I go to your house and get them to come for you in a carriage."
"I like to ride in a carriage," said Sue, "though you gave me a nice piggy-back, too. But I like a carriage and horses."
"Well, then that's what I'll do. I think itis going to rain hard soon, and if I carried you through it you'd get wet. So we'll go back, and I'll see about the horse and carriage."
"But can't we go and get grandpa's horses from the Gypsies?" asked Bunny.
"I'm afraid not this time," answered the old man. "If the Gypsies are in the valley they will stay all night, anyhow, and we can look for the horses in the morning, when it has stopped raining. We'll go back to my house now."
By this time the rain was coming down quite hard. But, as they walked along under the trees, Bunny and Sue did not get very wet, nor did the hermit. Sue was almost asleep, she was so tired, and Bunny was glad they did not have to walk all the way back to grandpa's farm.
It was nearly night, and Bunny thought his father and mother, as well as the others, might be worrying about him and Sue. But then the hermit would soon go and tell them that the children were safe in his log cabin.
Back through the woods they went. Now it lightened very often, and it thundered soloudly that Sue awakened on the back of the hermit, and began to cry.
"I want to go home!" she sobbed. "I want my mamma!"
"I'll get her as soon as I can," said the old man. "Don't cry little girl. The thunder is only a big noise, like Fourth of July, and the lightning is only a great big firefly—that is make-believe you know."
"Oh, yes, let's pretend that way!" cried Bunny, for he was not as frightened at the storm as was Sue.
She stopped crying. Sue always liked anything make-believe, even if it had to do with thunder and lightning.
"And will you get a carriage and ride me and Bunny home?" she asked.
"Yes," answered the hermit.
"All right. Then I won't be 'fraid."
Once more she cuddled her head down on the hermit's shoulder. In a little while they were back at his cabin. The aged man went in, and lighted a lamp, for it was quite dark. It was now raining hard, and the stormy wind was blowing the tree branches all about.
"Now you stay right here until I come back with your father, or grandfather," said the hermit, as he put on an old coat to go out in the rain.
"Aren't you got an umbrella?" asked Sue.
"I don't need one, little girl. Umbrellas aren't much good in the woods. They catch on the trees. I'll be all right. I don't mind getting wet. Now don't you go away. I can't take you with me, or I would, but you'll be all right here."
"We're not afraid," said Bunny bravely. "Once we got locked in an empty house; didn't we, Sue?"
"Yep. And we slided down the banister rail. It was fun."
"Well, I haven't any banister here for you to slide down," said the hermit. "But you may go to sleep if you like."
He went out, shutting the door after him, first having put the lamp on a high shelf where it could not be knocked over, if Bunny and Sue happened to be playing about the cabin.
But Bunny and Sue did not feel much likeplaying. They were not so frightened by the storm just now, but they were tired and sleepy. Sue saw, in one corner of the room, a sort of bed, or bunk, with blankets and pillows spread out on it.
"Oh, Bunny!" cried the little girl. "There's a bed just like those in our automobile. I'm going to sleep!"
"All right," answered Bunny. "You go to sleep, and I'll sit up and be on guard like the soldiers do in camp. I'll pretend I'm a soldier."
"That will be fun!" exclaimed Sue.
She climbed up in the hermit's bed, and put her head down on the pillow. It was a nice, clean bunk, as clean as those her mother had made in the traveling automobile.
Bunny curled up in a chair near Sue. His eyes were wide open, and he tried to feel just as he thought a soldier on guard would feel. His mother had read him stories about soldiers staying awake all night.
Bunny was not sure he could do this.
"But I won't go to sleep until the hermit man comes back with papa, or GrandpaBrown," he thought. "Then Sue and I can go to sleep in the carriage."
The rain came pattering down on the log cabin roof. Bunny could not see the lightning now, because of the lamp which the hermit had lighted. But he could hear the thunder. It did not frighten him, though. Sometimes, when it sounded very loud, the little boy pretended it was a big circus wagon rumbling over a bridge—the tank-wagon, with water in it, where the big hippopotamus splashed about. That circus wagon, Bunny was sure, would make the most noise. So he "made-believe."
Sue was curled up on the bed. Once she roused up enough to say:
"Bunny!"
"Yes, Sue?" he answered. "What do you want?"
"Are you there, Bunny?" she asked, sleepily.
"Yes, Sue. I'm right here." He reached over and touched her hand. "What do you want, Sue?"
"I—I just wanted to know are you there,"and with that Sue turned over again, and soon was fast, fast asleep.
Several times Bunny felt himself nodding. His head would bob down and his eyes slowly go shut. Then he would rouse up, and say to himself:
"Soldiers mustn't sleep when they are guarding the camp! I'm a make-believe soldier, and I mustn't sleep!"
Then he would be wide awake for a little while. But soon his head would nod again. And finally Bunny slept, just as Sue was doing, only he was asleep in the chair, and she was in the hermit's bed.
Just how long he slept Bunny did not know. But, all at once, he was awakened by a noise at the door. At first he thought it was the hermit, who had come back with his papa or mamma.
But then, instead of a knock, a scratching sound was heard. Then Sue awoke, and heard it too.
"Scratch!" went something on the door.
"Oh, Bunny, what is it?" asked Sue, sitting up in bed. "What is it, Bunny?"