Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods | Page 3

when they said they wanted to have a
little picnic in the woods. Instead Bunny and Sue had played Indian and
soldier, as they often did. First Bunny was a white soldier, and then an
Indian, and at last he made believe he was shot so he could be ill. Sue
was very fond of playing nurse, and she liked to cover Bunny up, feel
his pulse and feed him bread pills rolled in sugar. Bunny liked these
pills, too.
"Well, now we've got everything eaten up," said Bunny, as he gathered
up the last crumbs of the pie his mother had baked in the oil stove

which they had brought to camp. "Let's go and see what the surprise
is."
"I'm not so sure it is a surprise," returned Sue slowly. "Mother didn't
say so. She just said she wouldn't tell us until you got all make-believe
well again. So I suppose it's a surprise. Don't you think so, too?"
"I guess I do," answered Bunny. "But come on, we'll soon find out."
As the children came out from under the bush where they had been
playing, there was a crashing in the brush and Sue cried:
"Oh, maybe that's some more of those Indians."
"Pooh! We're not playing Indians now," said Bunny. "That game's all
over. I guess it's Splash."
"Oh, that's nice!" cried Sue. "I was wondering where he'd gone."
A big, happy-looking and friendly dog came bursting through the
bushes. He wagged his tail, and his big red tongue dangled out of his
mouth, for it was a warm day.
"Oh, Splash; you came just too late!" cried Sue. "We've eaten up
everything!"
"All except the crumbs," said Bunny.
Splash saw the crumbs almost as soon as Bunny spoke, and with his red
tongue the dog licked them up from the top of the box which the
children had used for a table under the bushes.
"Come on," called Bunny after a bit. "Let's go and find out what mother
wants. Maybe she's baked some cookies for us."
"Didn't you have enough with the cake, pie and milk?" Sue asked.
"Oh, I could eat more," replied Bunny Brown. In fact, he seemed
always to be hungry, his mother said, though she did not let him eat

enough to make himself ill.
"Well, come on," called Sue. "We'll go and see what mother has for
us."
Through the woods ran the children, toward the lake and the white tents
gleaming among the green trees. Mr. Brown went to the city twice a
week, making the trip in a small automobile he ran himself. Sometimes
he would stay in the city over night, and Mother Brown and Uncle Tad
and the children would stay in the tents in the big woods where they
were not far from a farmhouse.
Splash, the happy-go-lucky dog, bounded on ahead of Bunny Brown
and his sister Sue. The children followed as fast as they could. Now
and then Splash would stop and look back as though calling:
"Come on! Hurry up and see the surprise!"
"We're coming!" Bunny would call. "What do you s'pose it is?" he
would ask Sue.
"I can't even guess," Sue would answer. "But I know it must be
something nice, for she smiled when I told her I was your nurse and
you had an Indian fever."
"It wasn't an Indian fever," protested Bunny.
"Well, I mean a make-believe Indian fever," said the little girl.
"No, it was a make-believe arrow fever," said Bunny. "I got shot with
an Indian arrow you know."
"Oh yes," Sue answered. "But, anyhow, you're all well now. Oh, look
out, Splash!" she cried as the big dog ran into a puddle of water and
splashed it so that some got on Sue's dress. That is how Splash got his
name--from splashing into so many puddles.
But this time the water was from a clean brook that ran over green,
mossy stones, and it did Sue's dress no harm, for she had on one that

Mrs. Brown had made purposely for wearing in the woods.
"Here we are, Momsie!" called Sue, as she and Bunny came running up
to the camp where the tents were.
"What's the surprise?" asked Bunny.
Just then they heard the Honk! Honk! of an automobile, and as a car
came on through the woods and up to the white tents, Bunny and Sue
cried together:
"Oh, it's daddy! Daddy has come home!"
"Yes, and he's brought us something!" added Bunny. "Look at the two
big bundles, Sue!"
"Oh, Daddy! Daddy Brown! What have you brought?" cried the two
children.
"Just a minute now, and I'll show you," said Mr. Brown, as he got out
of the automobile and started for a tent, a big bundle under each arm.
The children