Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue | Page 7

on the end of it, where the claw curves downward. Bunny and
Sue often played with empty lobster claws.
The children went out in the yard while Mrs. Brown cooked the lobster.
Then, when it was cool, Aunt Lu helped pick out the meat which was to
be mixed up into a salad.
"Is my big lobster claw ready now?" asked Bunny, coming up just
before the supper bell was to ring.
"Yes, here it is," his aunt told him. "I cleaned it out nicely for you."
Bunny held it over his own nose and went toward the mirror to see how
he would look.
"Oh, you're just exactly like Mr. Punch!" Sue cried, clapping her hands.
"Isn't he!" agreed Aunt Lu. And then she gave a sudden cry.
"Oh dear!" she gasped. "Oh dear! It's gone! I've lost it!"
"What?" asked Bunny.

"My ring! My beautiful diamond ring is lost!" And Aunt Lu's cheeks
turned pale.
CHAPTER III
WANGO, THE MONKEY
Aunt Lu hurried over to the kitchen table, at which she had been
helping Mrs. Brown make the lobster salad. She looked among the
dishes, and knives and forks, but shook her head.
"No, it isn't there," she said, quite sadly.
"What isn't? What is the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, who came in from
the dining room just then. "Can't you find the big lobster claw that
Bunny wanted? I laid it----"
"Oh, I have it, Mother, thank you," the little boy said. "But Aunt Lu has
lost----"
"It's my diamond ring--Jack's engagement ring," said Mrs. Brown's
sister. "It must have slipped off my finger, and----"
"Oh dear! That's too bad!" said Mrs. Brown. "But it must be around
here somewhere. We'll find it!"
Bunny and Sue hardly knew what to make of it all. They had never
seen their Aunt Lu so worried.
"Mother, what's an engagement ring?" asked Sue, in a whisper, as Aunt
Lu kept on looking among the things on the table, hoping her diamond
might have dropped off there. Then she looked on the floor.
"An engagement ring, my dear," said Sue's mother, "is a ring that
means a promise. A very dear friend of Aunt Lu's has promised to
marry her, and he gave her the diamond ring to be a sort of reminder--a
most beautiful present. Now we must help her find it."

"It can't be far away," Mrs. Brown said to her sister. "You were not out
of this room, were you?"
"No, I've been here ever since I began to pick the meat out of the
lobster, and I had my ring on then."
"Oh, then we'll find it," said Bunny's mother.
But it was not so easy to do that as it was to say it. They looked all over
the kitchen--on the floor, under the table, among the dishes, the pots
and pans--but no diamond ring could be found. Papa Brown came in
from the front porch, where he had been reading the evening paper, and
he helped search, but it seemed of no use.
"Oh, where can my beautiful ring have dropped?" asked Aunt Lu, and
Sue thought she saw signs of tears in her aunt's eyes.
"Perhaps it fell into the lobster salad," suggested Mr. Brown.
"Then you can find it when you eat," called Bunny. "Only don't bite on
the diamond. It might break."
"We'll look in the salad now," Mrs. Brown said.
They did so, looking in the dish that held the chopped-up bits of lobster
meat, but no diamond ring was to be found. Then the floor was looked
over again, most carefully, the empty dishes were turned upside down
in the hope that the ring might drop out of one of them. But it did not.
Aunt Lu looked sad and worried, and so did Mr. and Mrs. Brown. The
cook, who had been out for the afternoon, came in and she helped
search for the diamond ring, but it could not be found.
"I'm sure I had it, when I began making the lobster salad," said Aunt Lu,
"but when I handed Bunny the empty claw I looked on my finger, and
the ring was gone."
"Perhaps it dropped out of doors," suggested Papa Brown.

They looked near the side porch where Bunny had been standing when
his aunt gave him the claw with which he was going to play Punch, but
the ring was not found there.
"Oh dear! I feel so sorry!" Aunt Lu said, "If only I could find my lovely
ring. Bunny--Sue, you must help me. To whomever finds it I'll give a
nice present---anything he wants. That will be a reward, children."
"Yes, you must help Aunt Lu look for her ring," said Mrs. Brown.
"Come now, we will have supper, and look afterward. We may find it