Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods Part 15

Then, turning to Mr. Brown and the children, the chief said:

"No have got lil' gal's play bear. n.o.body here have got. You look in all Indian houses and see for yourself."

"No. I'll take your word for it," said Mr. Brown. "I believe the Teddy bear is not here. It must have been taken by some one else. I will look farther."

But Eagle Feather insisted on some of the head men's huts being searched, and this was done. But no doll was found.

"Oh, dear! Where can Sallie Malinda be?" half sobbed Sue.

"Never mind," said her father. "If you can't find your bear, and Bunny's cars are still gone, in two weeks I'll get you new ones. But I think they will come back as mysteriously as they went away. Now, we must go home."

"But I thought you were going to look in the cabin of the hermit," said Bunny.

"We'll have to do that after dinner," answered Daddy Brown. But when dinner was half over there came a telegram for Mr. Brown telling him he was needed back at his business office at once, as something had gone wrong about the fish catch.

"Well, I'll have to go now," said the children's father; "but I'll help you look for the Teddy doll and the train of cars when I come back," he said.

It was a little sad in Camp Rest-a-While when Mr. Brown had gone, but Mother Brown let the children play store, with real things to eat and to sell, and they were soon happy again. Finally Sue said:

"Bunny, do you know where that hermit's hut is--the one where you got the milk the time the dog drank it?"

"Yes," slowly answered Bunny. "I do. But what about it?"

"Let's go there," answered Sue. "Maybe he has my Sallie Malinda. Daddy was going to take us there, but he had to go away so quickly he didn't have time. But you and I can go. I'm sure he'd give us my Teddy bear if he had her."

"I guess he would," agreed Bunny. "But what would he want with it?

Anyhow, we'll go and see."

So he and Sue, saying nothing to their mother, except that they were going off into the big woods back of the camp, left the tent and headed for the hermit's cabin.

On and on they went, leaving Splash behind, for, of late, their dog had not followed them as often as he had done before.

They had tramped through the woods for about an hour, looking in all sorts of places for the missing Teddy bear and the toy train, when Sue suddenly asked:

"Aren't we near his cabin now, Bunny? It seems as if we'd come an awful long way."

"I was beginning to think so myself," said the little boy. "Yet I was sure it was over this way."

The children walked on a little farther, but found themselves only deeper in the big woods. Finally Sue stopped and said:

"Bunny, do you know where we are?"

"No, I don't," he answered.

"Then we're lost," said Sue, shaking her head. "We're lost in the woods, Bunny Brown, and we'll never get home!"

CHAPTER XI

THE HERMIT AGAIN

Bunny Brown was a wise little lad, considering that he was only about seven years old. But many of those years had been spent with his father going about in the woods, and while there Mr. Brown had told him much about the birds, bugs and animals they saw under the trees. So that the woods were not exactly strange to Bunny.

Above all, he was not afraid in them, except maybe when he was all alone on a dark night. And one thing had Mr. Brown especially impressed on Bunny. This was:

"Never get frightened when you think you are lost in the woods. If you think you are lost, you may be sure you can either find your way out, or some one will find you in a little while.

"So the best thing to do when you fear you are lost is to sit quietly down on a log, think which way you believe your camp or home is, think where the sun gets up in the morning and where it goes to bed in the night. And, whatever you do, don't rush about, calling and yelling and forgetting even which way you came. So, when you're lost keep cool."

Remembering what his father had told him, Bunny Brown, as soon as he heard Sue say they were lost, looked for a log and, finding one not far away, he went over and sat down on it.

"Why, Bunny Brown!" cried Sue, "what in the world are you doing? Don't you know we're lost, and you've got to find the way back to our camp, for I never can. Oh, dear! I think it's over this way. No, it must be here. Oh, Bunny, which is the right way to go?"

"That's just what I'm trying to find out," he said.

"You are not!" cried Sue. "You're just sitting there like a b.u.mp on a log, as Aunt Lu used to say."

"Well, I'm doing what father told us to do," said Bunny. "I'm keeping cool and trying to think. If you run around that way you'll get all hot, and you can't think. And it may take both of us to think of the way home."

"Well, of course, I want to help," said Sue. "I don't want you to do it all. But we're awful much lost, Bunny."

"Are you sure, Sue?" he asked.

"Of course I'm sure. I was never in this part of the woods before and I can't tell where it is."

"Do you know where the sun rises?" asked Bunny, for it was, just then, behind some clouds.

"It rises in the east, of course," said Sue. "I learned that in our jogfry."

"Yes, but which way is east from here?" Bunny wanted to know. "If I could tell that, I might find our camp, 'cause the sun comes up every morning in front of our tent, and that faces the east."

"But you can't walk to the sun, Bunny Brown. It's millions and millions of miles away! Our teacher said so."

"I'm not going to walk to the sun," said the little boy. "I just want to walk toward it, but I've got to know which way it is first, so's to know which way to walk."

Sue looked about her, as did Bunny. Neither of them knew in what part of the big woods they were, for they had never been there before. They were both looking for some path that would lead them home. But they saw none.

Suddenly Sue cried:

"Oh, there's the sun! It's right overhead."

She pointed upward, and Bunny saw a light spot in the clouds. The clouds had not broken away, but they were thin enough for the sun to make a bright place in them.

"That must be the east," said Sue. "But how are we ever going to walk that way, Bunny, unless we climb trees? It's up in the air!"

"That isn't the east," said the little boy. "That's right overhead--I forget the name of it."