Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove Part 7

"What is going on at Christmas Tree Cove that you should want to take us there?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she pa.s.sed her husband some sliced peaches.

"I have been trying to think of a nice place where you and the children might spend the summer," he answered, "and when I heard that Captain Ross had his motor boat _Fairy_ to hire for trips, I thought it would be just the chance for us.

"There is a bungalow at Christmas Tree Cove I can hire for the summer, and, if you want to go, we can all pile on board the _Fairy_ and make the trip."

"Would you come, too?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, I would be with you part of the time," said Mr. Brown. "Of course I should also have to be at my dock down here in Bellemere part of the time to look after business, but I could come up and down. Christmas Tree Cove is not far away, and there are boats going up and down the river and the bay each week. So, if you think you will like it, we will spend the summer in a bungalow at Christmas Tree Cove."

"Oh, we'll just love it!" cried Sue, dancing around and clapping her fat hands.

"Will you like it, Mother?" asked Bunny. "Even if you don't find your diamond ring?"

"Yes, my dear, I think I shall like it there," said Mrs. Brown, with a smile. "Though, of course, I want to find my diamond ring that the dog carried away. I hope Bunker Blue finds it in the shavings or the sawdust of Mr. Foswick's shop before we go."

"I hope so, too," said Bunny.

"Then it's decided. We shall go to Christmas Tree Cove," said Mr.

Brown. "I am sure you will have a nice summer. I'll tell Captain Ross that we will hire his boat for the trip and the voyage back."

"Is he the funny Captain Ross who is always cracking jokes or asking riddles?" Mrs. Brown asked.

"Yes, that's Captain d.i.c.k Ross," her husband replied. "He's very jolly, and I'm sure the children will like him. In fact, they may see him and his boat this afternoon if they wish."

"How?" asked Bunny eagerly. And Sue waited for the answer.

"He is down at my dock, with his boat _Fairy_," was the answer. "He is having some repairs made to it. The boat is a sailing boat with a motor in it, so it can travel both ways. If you like, Bunny and Sue, you may come down to the dock with me and see Cap'n d.i.c.k!"

"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed the children in delight, and they hurried through their meal that they might go with their father.

On the way to the boat and the fish dock, where Mr. Brown carried on his business, the children and their father stopped at Mr. Foswick's carpenter shop to ask if anything had been found.

"No, not yet," answered the old man, looking at Bunny and Sue through his spectacles all dim and dusty with wood dust. "But I haven't got all the sawdust and shavings out yet. I hope to find your wife's ring."

"So do I," said Mr. Brown. "She feels quite bad over the loss, and I'm afraid she will not have a happy summer even at Christmas Tree Cove."

"It is too bad," agreed Mr. Foswick. "Well, when Bunker Blue comes this afternoon, he and I will go all over the place. You haven't seen anything of the dog since, have you?" he asked.

"No," answered Bunny, while Sue shook her head.

"I'll send Bunker Blue back as soon as I get to the dock," promised Mr.

Brown, and then he and the children went on.

Tied up at the end of the wharf was the boat _Fairy_, of which jolly Mr.

Ross was captain.

"May we go on board?" asked Bunny, as they ran down the pier while their father was telling Bunker Blue to make a good search in the sawdust and shavings for the pocketbook containing the diamond ring.

"Yes," answered Mr. Brown. "I think Captain Ross is on board himself, puttering away in the cabin."

But he was not, though that did not matter to Bunny and Sue. They knew a great deal about boats, having lived near water all their lives and their father having been in the boat business for years.

"Come on!" called Bunny to his sister, and they easily jumped from the dock to the deck of the _Fairy_. No one was on board, it seemed, and Bunny and Sue enjoyed themselves by running about. They thought what fun it would be to make the trip to Christmas Tree Cove in such a craft.

"Let's make-believe I'm the captain and you're the cook," said Bunny to his sister after a while. "I'll go down in the cabin, and you must bring me my dinner, and we'll pretend there's a storm."

"All right," agreed Sue, and then began this little game, one of many with which the children amused themselves.

"Now, you know, I'm a reg'lar captain," said Bunny, putting on his most important manner. "So you must serve me real nice."

"Real captains have uniforms," said Sue. "You ought to have a uniform--and if I am to be the cook I ought to have a big white ap.r.o.n."

"I'll look for a uniform," said Bunny, and after hunting around a bit found a storm coat and a rubber hat. "I'll put these on."

The coat was much too big for him and so was the hat. But he did not mind this. Then Sue hunted around and at last found a white ap.r.o.n a good deal soiled.

"Oh, I don't like that," she pouted. "It's not a bit clean. Good cooks always have real clean ap.r.o.ns."

"There is a clean towel--you pin that on for an ap.r.o.n," suggested Bunny.

And then he did the pinning himself.

They were both down in the cabin, and Bunny was making believe he was very hungry and he was asking Sue to bring him some more "plum duff"

when the little girl gave a sudden cry.

"What's the matter?" asked Bunny, as he sat at Captain Ross's cabin table.

"We're moving!" cried Sue. "The _Fairy_ is moving away! She isn't fast to the wharf any more!"

With a cry, Bunny scrambled up on deck.

Surely enough, the boat was adrift and he and Sue were alone on board!

CHAPTER VI

THE STRANGE DOG

Sue followed her brother Bunny up on the deck of the _Fairy_. They were quite a distance out from the dock now, and were drifting farther and farther each minute, for the tide was running out. Sandport Bay connected with the ocean, and twice every day there is a great movement of the water in the ocean, called the tide. The tides make the water high twice each twenty-four hours, and then the tides get low, or run out. The moon and sun are thought to cause the tides, as you will learn when you get a little older and have to study about such things.

And the tide, after having run up into Sandport Bay, was now running out, or ebbing, and in some way it was taking the _Fairy_ with it, floating the boat along as the rain water in the gutter floats chips along.

"How do you s'pose we got loose?" asked Sue.

"I don't know, lessen the rope came unhitched," Bunny answered. "But if Cap'n Ross tied his boat to the dock, I don't see how it could come unhitched."

Bunny was enough of a sailor to know that no boat captain ever tied such a knot as could easily come loose. And yet this is what seemed to have happened. For when Bunny and Sue ran to the side of the _Fairy_ to look over, they saw, trailing in the water, the long rope, or cable, by which the boat had been made fast to the dock. As Bunny had said, it had come "unhitched." The children did not know how this had happened.