Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods Part 7

Bunny and Sue heard him tramping up from his tent to theirs and then he led the crumpled-horn cow away, the animal now and then giving voice to:

"Moo! Moo!"

"Isn't it too bad she couldn't sleep here?" asked Sue.

"She's too big," declared Bunny. "But Sue, did you see two of her horns crumpled or only one?"

"Why, Bunny, I--I guess it was two, but I'm not sure. What makes you ask me that?"

Before Bunny could answer his mother called:

"Come now, you children have been up long enough. Get back to bed or you'll want to sleep so late in the morning that it will be dinner time before you get up. The elephant-cow has gone away. Uncle Tad will lead her to the foot of the hill, near the brook, where she can get a drink of water and she won't bother you any more. So go back to your cots."

Bunny and Sue went. They could hear Uncle Tad leading the elephant cow, as they called her, through the bushes, and hear him talking to her.

"Come bossy! Come on now. That's a good cow!"

The cow seemed to lead along easily enough, and pretty soon no more noises could be heard in camp except the chirping of the crickets or the songs of the katydids and katydidn'ts.

Bunny and Sue covered themselves up in their cots, for it was cool getting up in the middle of the night. They both tried to go to sleep, but found it not so easy as they had hoped.

"Sue! Sue!" whispered Bunny, after a while.

"Yes. What is it?"

"Are you asleep?"

"No, 'course not. How could I answer you if I was?"

"That's so. You couldn't. Well, I just wanted to know."

There was silence for a few seconds and then Sue whispered:

"Are you asleep, Bunny?"

"No, 'course not. If I was how could I talk to you?"

"Well, I thought maybe you might have gone to sleep. Say, Bunny!"

"Well, what is it?"

"I--I'm not quite sure about that cow havin' two crumpled horns or one."

"Neither'm I," said Bunny. "That's what I woke you up to find out about."

"You didn't wake me up 'cause I wasn't asleep. But I _think_ the cow had two crumpled, twisted horns."

"That's what I thought," said Bunny. "And, if she did, then she didn't belong to the raggedy man, for his cow had only one."

"That's so," admitted Sue. "But maybe she twisted the other horn pus.h.i.+ng her way through the bushes to our tent."

"Bushes aren't strong enough to twist a cow's horn!" replied Bunny, trying to set his little sister right.

"Yes they are too, Bunny Brown! 'Specially a wild grape vine that's strong enough to make a swing!" Sue was growing sleepy and a little cross.

"Well, maybe----"

But now the voice of Mrs. Brown broke in on the talk of the two children.

"Stop talking right away, both of you, my dears," she ordered, and Bunny and Sue knew she meant it.

"All right, Mother," they said, while Sue whispered, just before she closed her eyes: "We'll find out whose cow it is in the morning."

But they did not, at least right away, for when they ran down to the brook before breakfast, to wash their hands and faces as they always did, they saw nothing of the cow.

"Where did you tie her, Uncle Tad?" they asked.

"Right by the big willow tree," he answered. "Maybe she broke away in the night and tried to get back to the tent."

The cow certainly had broken away, for there was one end of the rope still tied to the tree, while the other end was broken and frazzled, showing it had not been cut.

"Well, I guess whoever owns her will find her," said Mr. Brown as he sat down to a breakfast of bacon and eggs. He had to go back to the city that day, and the children were sorry, for they counted on having good times with him.

"But I'll come back Friday night," he promised, "and I'll stay until Monday morning. That will give us two whole days together."

"Oh, then we'll have fun!" cried Bunny.

"And will you help me play with my 'lectri_city_ Teddy Bear?" asked Sue.

"I surely will!" answered Mr. Brown, with a smile.

"And may I play with my e-lec-tric train while you're away?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, but be very careful of it," said his father. "It is strong, but it can be broken or put out of order. So if you play with it take it to some level place in the woods, and be careful how you set up the track.

Don't make too big a one."

Bunny promised that he would not, and soon after Mr. Brown had gone away in his automobile, the children, Sue taking her Teddy bear and Bunny his toy train, started into the woods to play.

"Don't go too far," called their mother. "You must hear me when I call you to dinner. These woods are very big, you know."

The children wandered off on a woodland path until, after trying, they found they could just hear their mother's voice.

"And here will be a fine place to play," said Bunny, when they reached a shady level place on top of a little hill that led down to the lake that was near Camp Rest-a-While.

"It will be all right if we don't fall down the hill," said Sue.

"Oh, we'll keep away back from the edge," decided Bunny.