Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove | Page 5

maybe we can open it."
But, alas! when Bunny and Sue tried the door they found it locked tight.
Bunny had been afraid of that, for he thought he had heard a key turned
in the lock. But he had not wanted to say anything to Sue until he made
sure.
Rattle and pull at the door as the children did, and turn the knob, which
they also did several times, the door remained shut.
"We--we're locked in!" said Sue in a sort of gasping voice, looking at
Bunny.
"Yes," agreed her brother, and he tried to speak cheerfully, for he was a
year older than Sue, and, besides, boys oughtn't to be frightened as
easily as girls, Bunny thought. "But I guess we can get out," Bunny
went on. "Mr. Foswick thinks we're some of the bad boys that bother
him. We'll just yell and tell him we aren't."
"All right--you yell," suggested Sue.
So Bunny shouted as loudly as he could:
"Mr. Foswick! We didn't do anything! We didn't scatter your sawdust!
You locked us in by mistake! Let us out, please!"
Then he waited and listened, and so did Sue. There was no answer.
"I guess you didn't yell loud enough," said Sue. "Try again, Bunny."
Bunny did so. Once more he shouted through the closed door, or at
least at the closed door. He shouted loudly, hoping the carpenter would
hear him and open the door.
"Mr. Foswick! We didn't do anything!" yelled Bunny Brown.

Still there was silence. No one came to let the children out.
"I guess we'd better both yell," suggested Sue. "You can shout louder
than I can, Bunny, but it isn't loud enough. We've both got to yell."
"Yes, I better guess we had," agreed the small boy.
Standing close to one another near the door, they lifted their voices in a
shout, saying:
"Mr. Foswick! Mr. Foswick! We--didn't--do--anything!"
They called this several times, but no answer came to them.
"I guess he's gone away," said Sue, after a bit.
"Yes, I guess so," agreed Bunny. "Well, we've got to get out by
ourselves, then."
"How can we?" his sister wanted to know. "The door's locked, and we
can't break it down. It's a big door, Bunny."
"Yes, I know it is," he answered. "But there's windows. I'll open a
window and we can get out of one of them. They aren't high from the
ground. We got out of a window once when Bunker Blue, by mistake,
locked us in the shed on the dock, and we can get out a window now."
"Oh, I hope we can!" cried Sue. "And can we get the dog out of the
window, too, Bunny?"
"The dog!" exclaimed Bunny, forgetting for the moment about the
animal. "Oh, I guess we won't have to get him out. He isn't here."
"But he ran in here," insisted Sue. "We saw him come into this
carpenter shop."
"Yes," agreed Bunny. "But he isn't here now. If he was we'd see him or
hear him."

"Maybe he's hiding," suggested Sue. "Maybe he's afraid 'cause he took
mother's pocketbook and the money in it, and he's hiding in the sawdust
or shavings."
"Maybe," Bunny admitted. "Well, I'll call to him to come out. He only
took the pocketbook in fun, I guess. Here, Splash, come on out! We
won't hurt you!" he cried, moving back toward the center of the shop
and away from the locked front door. "Come on, Splash!"
"His name isn't Splash!" objected Sue. "This isn't our nice dog Splash
that ran away, and I wish he'd come back."
"I know he isn't Splash," agreed Bunny. "But it might be. And Splash is
a dog's name, and if this dog hears me call it he may come out. Come
on, old fellow!" he called again coaxingly. But no dog crawled out
from under the shavings, sawdust, or piles of boards.
"Where can he be?" asked Sue.
"I guess he ran out the back door," suggested Bunny.
"Then maybe we can get out there, too!" cried the little girl, and she
and her brother, with the same thought, ran to the rear of the shop.
"Here is the door," said Bunny, as he pointed it out.
It was a large affair that slid back from the middle of the wall to one
corner. It was tight shut.
"And it's locked, too," cried Sue, pointing to a big padlock.
To make sure, her brother tried the padlock. Sure enough, it was locked,
and the key was nowhere in sight.
"I can slide the door a little bit," said Bunny, and by hard work he
managed to move it about an inch. This allowed a little of the breeze to
come into the carpenter shop but that was all.
"We