Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove | Page 8

amuse himself and his sister Bunny picked up a handful of nails and
laid out a long railroad track. Then he got a big bolt and pretended that
was a locomotive and shoved it along the track.
"Where does the train run to?" asked the little girl.
"New York, Chicago and--and Camp Rest-A-While," said Bunny--the
last name being that of a place where they had once had a delightful
vacation.
He and Sue did not have long to wait. Soon along came the old
carpenter and Mr. Reinberg.
"Dear me! I didn't know I'd locked Bunny and Sue in," said Mr.
Foswick, as he opened the front door, unlocking it with a big key. "I
thought it was some of those pesky boys. They run in when I have the
door open, and when I'm away in the back part of the shop, and busy,
they scatter the shavings and sawdust all about.
"They came in once this afternoon," said Mr. Foswick, "and I made up

my mind if they did it again I'd teach 'em a lesson. So I locked my back
door, and I went into the alley near my front door. I knew all the
windows were nailed shut.
"Then, when I was in the alley, I heard somebody run into my shop,
and, quick as I could, I ran out, pulled the door shut, and locked 'em in.
I supposed it was some of those pesky boys, and I was going to keep
'em locked up until I could go get their fathers and tell 'em how they
pester me. I didn't have a notion, Bunny, that it was you and Sue, or I'd
never have done such a thing--never!"
Mr. Brown often hired Mr. Foswick to do carpentry, and the rather
crabbed and cross old man did not want to offend a good customer.
"I'm very sorry about this thing I did, Bunny and Sue," went on Mr.
Foswick. "I'd no idea it was you I'd locked up. I supposed it was those
pesky boys. Both doors were locked--I made sure of that--and the
windows were nailed shut. I keep 'em shut so nobody can get in at
night."
"Bunny tried to open one of the windows with a hammer," said Sue.
"And I--I guess I broke it--I mean the window," said Bunny. "I didn't
mean to."
"Oh, broke a window, did you?" exclaimed Mr. Foswick, and he
seemed surprised.
"If they hadn't broken the glass I might not have heard them calling,"
said the drygoods merchant.
"Oh, well, I guess you couldn't help it; and a broken window won't cost
much to fix," said the old carpenter. "I'm sorry you had all that trouble,
and I'm glad you're neither of you cut. Tell your pa and ma I'm real
sorry."
"We will," promised Bunny.

And then, after Bunny and Sue had started home on the run, for it was
getting late and toward supper time, Sue suddenly thought of
something. She turned back.
"Oh, Bunny!" she cried. "We forgot to ask Mr. Foswick about the dog!"
"So we did! The dog that has mother's pocketbook. Maybe he saw him
run out of the carpenter shop, and noticed which way he went. Let's go
back and ask him."
Back they turned, to find Mr. Foswick nailing a board over the broken
pane of glass.
"Well, you haven't come back to stay the rest of the night, have you?"
asked the old carpenter, smiling at them over his dusty spectacles.
"No, sir. We came back about the dog," said Bunny. "We were chasing
a strange dog that had mother's pocketbook, and he ran in here. That's
why we came in," the boy explained, and he told how they had been
playing with the seesaw when the strange animal jumped into the
Brown yard.
"Did you see him come out of your shop?" asked Sue. "'Cause he
wasn't in there when we were."
"No, I didn't see any dog," said Mr. Foswick. "But there are some holes
at the back where he could have crawled out. That's what he must have
done. He didn't come out the front door. But we'll take a look."
It did not take the carpenter and the children long to search through the
shop and make sure there was no dog there. As Mr. Foswick had said,
there were several holes in the back wall of his shop, out of which a
dog might have crawled.
"What can we do?" asked Sue, looking at her brother after the
unsuccessful search.
"We've got to go home and tell mother," said Bunny. "Then we can

maybe find the dog and the pocketbook somewhere else. It isn't here."
"No, I don't see anything of it," remarked Mr. Foswick, looking around
his little shop. "You'd better go and tell