"Say, Sue," said Bunny, after a bit, "we can play we are camping out here. That would be fun, and we can make a bed of the pieces of bags that I fell on off the banister, and--"

"But I'm hungry, and there's nothing to eat!" Sue exclaimed. "When we camp out, or go on a picnic, there are things to eat."

"That's so," agreed Bunny. "This isn't as much fun as I thought it was.

I wish I hadn't tried to get any red paint."

"So do I," Sue said, but she was not blaming her brother. She had been just as anxious to go into the vacant house as he had been.

The children did not know what to do. They were both ready to cry, but neither Wanted to. It was getting dark now.

"Let's holler!" exclaimed Sue. "Maybe somebody will hear us and come and let us out."

"All right," said Bunny. They both called together. But the vacant house was not near any other, and none of the neighbors heard the childish voices.

"I--I guess I'd better get the bags and make a bed, for we'll have to stay here all night," said Bunny, when they were quite tired from calling aloud.

"Then make my bed near yours, Bunny," said Sue. "I--I don't want to be alone."

"I'll take care of you," promised the little blue-eyed chap, as he remembered what his mother had told him.

Bunny went to the front hall to get the cloth bags. Sue went with him, for she did not want to be left alone in the room that was now getting quite dark.

But Bunny and Sue did not have to stay all night in the empty house.

Just as they were picking up the bags, they heard a noise at the front door and a voice called:

"Bunny! Sue! Are you in there?"

For a moment they did not answer, they were so surprised with joy. Then Bunny cried:

"Oh, it's Uncle Tad! It's Uncle Tad!"

While Sue exclaimed:

"We're here! Yes, we're here, Uncle Tad! Oh, please let us out!"

There was a squeaking noise and the front door was pushed open. In came the old soldier, and Bunny and Sue made a jump for his arms. He caught them up and kissed them.

"Well, little ones, I've found you!" he cried. "I thought maybe you were in here. My, but what a fright you've given your mother and all of us!"

"We came in for some red paint," explained Bunny, "and we got locked in."

"No, the door wasn't locked," Uncle Tad explained. "It was just stuck real hard. You weren't strong enough to pull it open, I suppose. But don't ever do anything like this again."

"We won't," promised Bunny. He was always pretty good at making promises, was Bunny Brown. "We just wanted to get some red paint so I could play Mr. Punch with the lobster claw," he went on.

"And we slid down the banister," added Sue, "and I b.u.mped Bunny off the post."

"But she didn't hurt me," Bunny said.

"How did you find us, Uncle Tad?" asked Sue, as their uncle led them along the now almost dark street toward their home.

"Why, when you didn't come back your mother was worried," the old soldier said. "So your Aunt Lu started out one way after you, and I went the other. As I pa.s.sed this old house I saw a blue ribbon down by the gate and I thought it looked like yours, Sue. So I thought you might have come in here."

"Oh, did I lose my hair ribbon?" Sue asked, putting her hand to her head. The big, pretty bow was gone, but Uncle Tad had found it.

"It's a good thing you lost it," said Bunny. "If you hadn't, Uncle Tad wouldn't have known where to look for us."

"Oh, I guess I should have found you after a bit," Uncle Tad said, with a smile. "But now we must hurry home, so the folks will know you are all right."

And my, how Bunny and Sue were kissed and cuddled by their mother and Aunt Lu when Uncle Tad brought them back! "I was beginning to be afraid," said Mrs. Brown, "that you had gone down to the boat-dock, after I told you not to, and I was going to have your father and Bunker Blue look for you."

"We didn't mean to get locked in. Mother," explained Bunny. "It was the wind."

"Well, don't go in empty houses again," Aunt Lu said.

"Nope--never!" promised Sue, "But we were looking for your ring, Aunt Lu, though we didn't find it."

"No, I'm afraid it's gone forever," said Miss Baker with a sigh, and a sad look. "But it was very good of you to try to find it for me."

The children sat down to supper, telling the big folks all about the adventure, and how they had become fastened in, and were afraid they would have to make a bed on the bags and stay all night.

"And if we had I'd have taken good care of Sue," Bunny remarked.

"I know you would, my dear," his mother answered, as she kissed him and his sister, before putting them to bed.

For a few days after this Bunny and Sue did nothing to make any trouble.

They went on little trips with Aunt Lu, showing her the many wonderful sights at the seaside. With her they watched the fish boats come in, and once they went sailing with her and their mother, Bunker Blue taking charge of the boat. They gathered pretty sh.e.l.ls and pebbles on the beach and had many good times.

One day Bunny and Sue played Punch and Judy, Bunny wearing the big red lobster claw on his nose. Aunt Lu laughed at the funny tricks of the children.

"Some day we'll get up a real show, and charge money," said Bunny, as he put away the lobster claw to use another time.

Not far from the Brown's house was a small river that flowed into the bay. Part of the Brown land was right on the edge of this river and at a small dock Mr. Brown kept, tied up, a rowboat which he sometimes used to go fishing in, or to go after crabs, which are something like lobsters, only smaller. They are just as good to eat when they are cooked, and they turn red when you boil them.

One day Bunny and Sue went down to the edge of the river. They asked Aunt Lu to go with them, but she said she had a headache, and wanted to lie down.

"Don't go far away, children," called Mrs. Brown after the two tots, as they wandered down near the little stream.

"We won't," promised Bunny, and he really meant it. But neither he nor Sue knew what was going to happen.

It was quite warm that day, and, as Bunny and Sue sat in the shade of a tree on the bank of the river, the little boy said:

"Oh, Sue, wouldn't it be nice if we could go on the river in the boat?"

"Yes," said his sister, "but mother said we weren't to."

"I guess she meant we weren't to go ROWING in a boat--I mean a loose boat--one that isn't tied fast," said Bunny. "I guess it would be all right if we sat in the boat while it was tied fast to sh.o.r.e."

"Maybe," said Sue. She wanted, as much as did Bunny, to sit in the boat, for it was cooler down there.