Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove | Page 9

your folks. They may be
worried about you. And tell 'em I'm sorry for locking you in."
Bunny and Sue hurried home. They found Mrs. Brown looking up and
down the street for them. The other children had gone away.
"Where have you been?" asked Mother Brown. "It is very late for little
people to be out alone. And where is my pocketbook and the groceries I
sent you for? Where is my pocketbook?" She looked at Bunny and then
at his sister, noting their empty hands.
"A big dog ran off with your pocketbook, Mother," explained Bunny.
"He jumped into the yard and picked it up off the bench when Sue was
teeter-tautering with me. Then he ran into Mr. Foswick's shop, and we
ran after him, and we got locked in, and I broke a window, and we
couldn't find the dog nor your pocketbook."
"Nor the money, either," added Sue. "There was money in the
pocketbook, wasn't there, Mother?"
Mrs. Brown did not answer that question at once.
"Do you mean to say a strange dog ran off with the pocketbook and
everything in it?" she asked Bunny.
"Yes, Mother," he answered.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown in a faint voice, and she sank with
white face into a chair. Mr. Brown, who had just come in, sprang to his
wife's side.
"Oh, don't take on so!" he exclaimed. "The loss of the pocketbook isn't
much. Was there a great amount of money in it?"
"A five-dollar bill," his wife answered.

"Oh, well, we shall not worry over that if we never find it," he went on.
"And you can get another purse." Daddy Brown was smiling.
"But you don't understand!" cried Mother Brown. "Just before I sent the
children to the store I was doing something in the kitchen. I took off the
beautiful diamond engagement ring you gave me, and put it in the
pocketbook. I meant to take it out in a moment, but Mrs. Newton came
over, and I forgot it. Then I slipped a five-dollar bill in the purse and
gave it to the children to go to the store. Oh, dear! what shall I do?"
Mr. Brown looked serious.
"Are you sure the diamond ring was in the pocketbook?" he asked.
"Yes," replied his wife, and there were tears in her eyes. "The dog ran
away with the five-dollar bill, the pocketbook and my beautiful
diamond ring! Oh, what shall I do? What a terrible loss!"
CHAPTER IV
DADDY BRINGS NEWS
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know what to do or what to say
when they saw how bad their mother felt. There were tears in her eyes
as she looked at the finger which had held the diamond ring.
The little boy and girl well knew the "sparkler," as they sometimes
called it. Daddy had given it to mother before their wedding, and Mrs.
Brown prized it very much.
"It was very careless of me to put my lovely ring in the pocketbook,
and then to forget all about it and let you children take it to the store,"
said Mother Brown.
"But are you sure you did put it in the pocketbook?" asked Mr. Brown
again. "You may have done that, my dear, and then have taken it out
again and carried the diamond ring into the house before Bunny and
Sue went to the store. Try to think." And he sat down beside his wife

while the little boy and his sister looked on wonderingly.
"I know I left the ring in the pocketbook," replied Mrs. Brown, wiping
her eyes on her handkerchief. "I didn't think of it until a little while ago,
and then I thought Bunny and Sue would bring it back with the change
from the five-dollar bill. The ring was inside the middle part of the
pocketbook, and they wouldn't have to open that to get at the money.
Oh, children, did a dog really run away with the pocketbook?"
"Yes, he really did," said Bunny.
"And he run into the carpenter shop, and we ran after him, and Mr.
Foswick locked us in, and he was sorry, and Bunny broke a window,
and he was sorry, too," explained Sue, almost in one long breath.
"Well, that's quite a story," said Mr. Brown. "Let's hear it all over
again."
So Bunny and Sue told all that had happened, from the time they had
been teetering until they were let out of the carpenter shop after Mr.
Reinberg had heard them calling through the broken window.
"Oh, what shall I do?" asked Mrs. Brown once more, when the story
was finished.
"There is only one thing to do," said Mr. Brown. "I'll go back to the
carpenter shop, and Mr. Foswick and I will