Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove | Page 6

can't get out through that crack," protested Sue, pouting. "Nobody

could. Oh, dear! I don't see why this old carpenter shop has got to have
all the doors locked."
"Hum, that's funny!" said Bunny Brown.
"How do you s'pose that dog got out with both doors locked?" asked
Sue of her brother.
Bunny paused to think. Then an idea came to him.
"He must have jumped out a window, that dog did," he said. "There
must be a window open, and he got out that way. And that's how we
can get out, Sue. We'll crawl out a window just like that dog jumped
out. Now we're all right. Mr. Foswick locked us in his carpenter shop
by mistake, but we can get out a window."
"Oh, yes!" agreed Sue, and she felt happier now.
But again came disappointment. When the children made the rounds of
the shop, looking on both sides, they not only saw that not a window
was open, but when Bunny tried to raise one he could not.
"Are they stuck?" asked Sue.
"No," replied Bunny. "They're nailed shut! Every window in this shop
is nailed shut, Sue, and the doors are both locked!"
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue in a faint voice, and she looked at her brother in a
way he felt sure meant she was going to cry.
CHAPTER III
THE DIAMOND RING
Whistling as cheerfully as he could, Bunny Brown glanced all around
the carpenter shop.
"Are you whistling for the dog?" asked Sue.

"No, not zactly," Bunny answered. "I'm just whistlin' for myself. I'm
going to do something."
"What?" asked Sue.
She knew that whenever Bunny was making anything, such as a boat
out of a piece of wood or a sidewalk scooter from an old roller skate, he
always whistled. The more he worked the louder he whistled.
"What are you going to make now?" asked Sue.
"Oh, I'm not going zactly to make anything," Bunny explained. "I'm
just going to do something. I'm going to open one of these windows so
we can get out, same as the dog did."
"But he didn't get out of a window," objected Sue. "How could he, if
they were nailed shut before we came in? And they must 'a' been,
'cause we didn't hear Mr. Foswick hammering."
"Yes, I guess the windows have been nailed shut maybe a long time,"
agreed Bunny. "But, anyhow, the dog got out and we can get out."
"But how could he get out if both doors are locked and the windows
nailed shut?" Sue wanted to know.
Bunny could not answer that. Besides, he had other things to look after.
He wanted to get himself and his sister out of the carpenter shop before
Sue began to cry. Bunny didn't like crying girls, even his sister, though
he felt sorry for them.
"I can take a hammer and pull the nails out of a window where it's
nailed shut, and then I can raise it and we can crawl out," explained
Bunny to his sister. "There's sure to be a hammer in a carpenter shop."
There were, several of them, lying around on the benches and
sawhorses that seemed to fill the place. There were other tools, also;
sharp chisels and planes, but Bunny and Sue knew enough not to touch
these. The children might have been cut if they had handled the sharp

tools. Mr. Brown kept sharp tools at his dock for mending old boats
and making new ones, so Bunny and his sister knew something about
carpentry.
"I guess this hammer will be a good one," said Bunny, picking up one
with a claw on the end for pulling out nails. He had often seen Bunker
Blue at the boat dock use just such a hammer as this.
Bunny climbed up on a workbench near a window which, as he could
look out and see, was only a short distance from the ground. If that
window could be opened, the little boy and his sister could easily drop
out and not be hurt in the least.
"Can you get it open?" asked Sue anxiously, as she watched Bunny
climb upon the dusty carpenter bench.
"Oh, sure!" he answered. "We'll be out in a little while now; and then
we can go and hunt that big dog that has our mother's pocketbook."
"And the money, too," added Sue. "We've got to get the money and go
to the store, Bunny."
"Yes, that's right," he agreed.
With the hammer in his hand, he began looking over the window. He
wanted to see where the heads of the nails were sticking out, so he
could slip the claw of the hammer under them and pull them out by
prying on the handle. Bunny had not only pulled out nails himself
before