Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Camp Rest-A-While | Page 7

Bunny Brown was that kind of boy. And Sue would have helped him.
But, as it was, they waited for Bunker and some of the strong fishermen
to come up from Mr. Brown's boat dock. In a little while the tent was
put up on the lawn, and Bunny and Sue were allowed to play in it.
"The dining room tent will come in a few days," said Mr. Brown, "and
also the cooking tent. I bought them in New York."
Then he told Bunny and Sue how they would go camping. The tents
and cots, with bed clothes, and dishes, pots, pans, an oil stove and good
things to eat, would all be put in the big moving van automobile, in
which they had traveled to Grandpa Brown's farm in the country.
"We'll ride in that up to Lake Wanda," said Daddy Brown. "When we
get to the woods, on the shore of the beautiful lake, we'll put up the tent,
and make our camp. Then we'll have good times."
"Oh, I can hardly wait; can you?" asked Sue, speaking to her wax doll.
"I wish the time would hurry up," said Bunny. "But who is going to
help you put up the tents, Daddy? You can't do them all alone."
"Oh, Bunker Blue is going camping with us."
"Goodie!" cried Bunny.
"And we'll also take Uncle Tad along," went on Daddy Brown.
"That's nice!" exclaimed Sue, clapping her hands. She and Bunny loved
Uncle Tad. He was an old soldier, who had fought in the war. He was
really Mr. Brown's uncle, but the children called him uncle too, and
Uncle Tad loved Bunny Brown and his sister Sue very much.
The tent was not very wet from the rain, and Bunny and Sue had fun
playing in it that day. Splash, their dog, played in the tent too. Splash
asked nothing better than to be with Bunny and Sue.

"Bunny, are we going to sleep on the ground when we go camping?"
Sue wanted to know, as she and her brother sat in the tent that
afternoon.
"Well, maybe we will," the little boy said. "But I think I heard daddy
say we would take some cot beds with us. You can sleep on the ground,
though. Mother read me a story about some hunters who cut off some
branches from an evergreen tree, and put their blankets over them to
sleep on. They slept fine, too."
"Could we do that?" asked Sue.
"Yes," answered Bunny. And then a queer look came on the face of
Bunny Brown. Sue saw it and asked:
"Oh, Bunny, is you got an idea?"
"Yes," Bunny answered slowly, "I has got an idea."
"Oh, goodie!" cried Sue. "Tell me about it, Bunny, and we'll do it!"
Bunny often had ideas. That is, he thought of things to do, and nothing
pleased Sue more than to do things with her brother. They were not
always the right things to do, but then the children couldn't be expected
to do right all the while; could they?
So, whenever Bunny said he had an idea, which meant he was going to
do something to have fun, Sue was anxious to know what his idea was.
"Tell me, Bunny!" she begged.
Bunny went over closer to his sister, looked all around the tent, as if to
make sure no one was listening, and when he saw only Splash, the big
dog, he whispered:
"Sue, how would you like to practice sleeping out?"
"Sleeping out?" said Sue. She did not just know what Bunny meant.

"Yes, sleeping out," said the little boy again. "Sleeping out in this tent,
I mean. We'll have to do it, if we go to camp, and we might as well
have some practice, you know."
Bunny and Sue knew what "practice" meant, for a girl whom they knew
took music lessons, and she had to go in and practice playing on the
piano every day.
Bunny thought that if you had to practice, or try over and over again,
before you could play the piano, you might have to practice, or try,
sleeping out of doors in a tent.
"How can we do it?" asked Sue.
"It's easy," Bunny answered. "We'll bring our blankets out here and
sleep in the tent to-night."
"Maybe daddy and mother won't let us, Bunny."
"They won't care," said the little boy. "'Sides, they won't know it. We
won't tell 'em. We'll just come out at night, when they've gone to sleep.
We can slip down, out of our rooms, with our blankets, and sleep in the
tent on the ground, just as we'll have to do in camp. 'Cause we mayn't
always have cot beds there. Will you do it, Sue?"
"Course I will, Bunny Brown!"
Sue