Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove | Page 7

this, but he had watched his father and Bunker Blue do it.
Bunny Brown also knew how windows were nailed shut. Once the
Browns owned a little cottage on an island in the river. They sometimes
spent their summer vacations in the cottage, and in the fall, when
winter was approaching and the cottage was to be closed, the windows
were nailed shut from the inside.
Once Bunny had helped his father nail the windows shut, and once he
had helped pull the nails out the next summer when the cottage was to

be opened. So Bunny was now looking for the heads of nails in the
window of Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop.
The first window he looked at was so tightly nailed, with all the heads
driven so far into the wood, that Bunny could get the claw of the
hammer under none of them. He made his way along the bench to the
next window. This window was nearer the street.
"Can you open that one?" asked Sue.
"Yes, I guess so!" exclaimed Bunny.
The little boy saw a nail head sticking out. He slipped the claw of the
hammer under it and pressed hard on the handle.
Whether Bunny had not put the claw far enough under the nail, or
whether the head was so small that the claw slipped off, neither of the
children knew. But what happened was that Bunny's hand slipped, the
hammer also slipped away from his grasp, and the next moment, with a
crash and tinkle of glass, the hammer broke through the window and
fell outside.
"Oh, Bunny! are you hurt?" cried Sue, for once she had seen her mother
cut her hand trying to open a window that stuck.
"No, I'm not hurt," answered her brother. "But the hammer's gone out."
"You can get another. There's lots here," said Sue.
"But I can't fix the window," said Bunny, rather sadly. "It's all busted!"
"It wasn't your fault!" said Sue stormily. "Mr. Foswick ought never to
have locked us in, and then you wouldn't have to try to unnail a
window to get out! It's his fault!"
"Maybe it is," said Bunny, leaning forward to look out of the broken
window.
"Don't try to crawl out!" exclaimed Sue. "You might get cut!"

"I'm not going to," said Bunny. "I was just seeing how far it was and
where the hammer went. It's on the grass, and it isn't far out of the
window at all. If we could only crawl out----"
"And get all cut on the glass? I guess not!" cried Sue. "Oh, Bunny!" she
suddenly exclaimed. "Look! There goes Mr. Reinberg, who keeps the
drygoods store. Call to him through the broken window, and he'll get us
out!"
Through the window, which he had broken with the hammer, Bunny
had a glimpse of the street. As Sue had said, the drygoods merchant
was just then passing.
"Hi!" suddenly called Bunny. "Let us out, please! Help us out, Mr.
Reinberg!"
The merchant looked up, down, and sideways. He could not at first tell
where the voice was coming from.
"Who are you and where are you?" he demanded.
"I'm Bunny Brown, and my sister Sue is with me," came the answer
from the little boy. "And we're locked in Mr. Foswick's carpenter
shop."
"Oh, now I see you!" said the drygoods store man, glancing toward
Bunny, who could be seen through the window. "So you're locked in,
are you? How did it happen?"
"Mr. Foswick locked us in," said Bunny.
"He did! What for?"
"Oh, I guess he thought we were bad boys. But Sue isn't a boy; she's a
girl," explained Bunny. "If you could only open a door, or pull the nails
out of one of the windows, we could get out. I was trying to pull out a
nail and I broke the glass."
"Well, I don't believe I can get you out either way," said Mr. Reinberg,

and Bunny and Sue felt much disappointed. "I haven't a key to the door,
and I can't reach in and pull out the nails," went on the drygoods
merchant, as he came down the side alley and talked to Bunny through
the hole in the glass.
"But I'll go over to Mr. Foswick's house, which isn't far away, and get
him to come and let you out," went on Mr. Reinberg. "I'll go right away,
Bunny. Don't be afraid."
"Thank you; we're not," Bunny answered, as cheerfully as he could.
After the man had gone away it seemed more lonely in the old
carpenter shop than ever to Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. They
walked away from the window and Sue sat down on a bench.
"Do you suppose he'll be long?" she asked.
"Maybe not--Mr. Foswick doesn't live far."
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