"Better look out!" was Bunker's warning, seeing what George was doing.

"He'll nip you!"

"I'm not afraid!" boasted George. "I can----"

And just then something happened. George got his finger too near the lobster's claw and was at once caught.

"Ouch!" cried George. "Oh dear! He's got me! Make him let go, Bunker!

Oh, dear!"

Bunker did not stop to say: "I told you so!" He took out his big knife, and put the blade between the teeth of the lobster's claw, forcing it open so George could pull out his finger. Then, with a howl of pain and fright, the boy ran home. He was not much hurt, as a lobster can not shut his claws very tightly when out of water. Just as does a fish, a lobster soon dies when taken from the ocean.

"What's the matter?" cried Mr. Brown, running up when he heard George's cries. "Are you hurt, Bunny--Sue?"

"No, it was George," Bunker explained. "He thought he could fool the lobster, but the lobster fooled him."

"I guess I'd better take it home and have mother cook it," said the children's father, and home they started, Mr. Brown carrying the big lobster in the basket.

"Oh, what a fine large one!" Aunt Lu cried, when she saw it. "And what a fine salad it will make."

"May I have one of the claws--the big one?" begged Bunny.

"What for?" asked his mother.

"I want to put a string in it and tie it on my face, over my own nose,"

the little boy explained. "Then I'll look just like Mr. Punch, in Punch and Judy. May I have the claw?"

"I guess so," replied Mrs. Brown.

"And when you clean it out, and put it on your nose, I'll be Mrs. Judy,"

said Sue. "We'll have fun."

A lobster's claw, I might say, is filled with meat that is very good to eat. When the lobster is boiled and the meat picked out with a fork, the claw is hollow. It is shaped just like the nose of Mr. Punch, with a sort of hook 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

w.a.n.gO, 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."