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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 11. Where Is Bunny? |
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_ CHAPTER XI. WHERE IS BUNNY? Sue Brown did not know quite what to do. As she cuddled up in the little berth aboard the _Fairy_, she felt herself being tossed over toward the edge. At first she was afraid she would be thrown out on the cabin floor, but the strips of canvas her mother had fastened in place stopped the little girl from having a fall, just as they had stopped Bunny. Sue looked up at the tiny electric light, operated by a storage battery. Captain Ross had put it there so the children would not be in the dark if they awakened in the night and needed something. "Bunny! Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, "I don't like a storm on a boat at night!" Before Bunny could answer his sister the door of the little stateroom where they were was opened and Mother Brown looked in. She was dressed, and her head, face and hair were wet as though she had been out in the storm. And she really had, for a moment. "So you're awake, children," she said. "The storm is a bad one, and we are heading for a quiet cove where we will soon be sheltered and more quiet." "Can't I get up, Mother, and dress?" asked Bunny. "Maybe we'll have to get off the _Fairy_ and into the rowboat, and I want my clothes on." "Yes, you may get up and dress," said Mrs. Brown. "But there is no danger that we shall have to take to the small boat. It is just a severe summer storm, with much wind and rain, but not much else." "Does it thunder and lightning?" asked Sue. "No; or you would have heard it and seen it before this," her mother said. "Here, Sue, I'll take you over in my room and you may dress there. Bunny, can you manage by yourself?" "Yes, Mother," he answered. Mrs. Brown carried Sue in her arms to the room across the main cabin. It was not easy work with the boat pitching and tossing as it was, but finally the affair was managed, and Sue had her clothes put on. Bunny dressed himself, though not without some difficulty, for when he tried to stand on his right foot to put his left shoe on he slid across the little room and against the opposite wall. But he was not hurt. Soon all of them except Captain Ross were in the main cabin. In answer to a question about the sailor, Mr. Brown said: "He's out steering the boat. He wants to bring her safe into Clam Cove, he says, and then we'll anchor for the night. But he thought it best for us all to be dressed. The storm is worse than any of us thought it would be." After the first feeling had worn off of being suddenly awakened in the night, Bunny and Sue did not mind it much. They sat around, looking a little anxiously at their father or mother as the boat plunged and rolled, but when they saw how calm their father, mother, Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue were, the children took heart also. "Here are some cookies," said their mother, bringing out a bag from a locker. "I'd give you some milk to drink, only it would spill the way the boat is rocking." "Yes," said Mr. Brown, with a smile, "there'd be as much milk on the floor, I imagine, as the children would drink." The storm grew worse instead of less, but Captain Ross was a good seaman, and in about an hour he brought the _Fairy_ into a sheltered harbor known as Clam Cove, because of the number of clams that were dug there. "Now we'll ride easier," said Bunker Blue. "I'll go up and help get the anchor over," he added. Soon Bunny Brown and his sister Sue heard sounds on deck which told of the big anchor being put over the side, and then the boat came to rest. She still pitched and tossed a little, but not nearly as much as before. The wind still blew and the rain came down in pelting drops. But the craft was water-tight and it was, as Bunker Blue said, "as dry as a bone" inside. "You children can go back to your berths now," said Mother Brown, when the cookies had all been eaten. "I don't believe you'll be tossed out now." "All right," assented Bunny and Sue, for they were beginning to feel sleepy in spite of the excitement of having been awakened by the storm. And soon, save for the uneasy motion of the storm, which was not felt much in Clam Cove, there was once again calm aboard the _Fairy_. In the morning, though the wind was still high, the rain had stopped. The outer bay, though, was a mass of big waves, and after one look at them Captain Ross said: "I think we'd better stay here until it quiets down. We could navigate, but there's no special hurry." "No," agreed Mr. Brown, "there isn't. We are not due at Christmas Tree Cove at any special time, so we'll take it easy." "Then we can watch the clam boats," said Bunny. "I like to watch them." The clam boats were of two kinds, large rowing craft in which one or two men went out and with a long-handled rake pulled clams up from the bottom of the cove. The other boats were sailing craft. They would start at one side of Clam Cove, spread their sails in a certain way, and drift across the stretch of water. Over the side of the boat were tossed big rakes with long, iron teeth. These rakes, fastened to ropes attached to the boat, dragged over the bottom of the cove much as the fishermen in the small boats dragged their rakes. Of course the sailboats could use much larger rakes and cover a wider part of the cove. Now and then the men on board the sailboats would haul up the rakes, which were shaped something like a man's hand is when half closed and all the fingers and the thumb are spread out. The clams were dumped on deck, afterward to be washed and sorted. The sight was not new to any of the Browns, and of course Bunker, Uncle Tad, and Captain Ross had often taken part in clam raking. But Bunny and Sue never tired of watching it. Now they sat on deck, as much out of the wind as possible, and looked at the drifting boats and at the clammers in their dorries. The storm was passing. Gradually the wind was dying out and the waves were getting smaller. "I think we can start again by this afternoon," said Mr. Brown, coming up on deck following a short nap in the cabin. He had felt sleepy after dinner. "Yes, we can leave before evening if you say so," replied Captain Ross. "How are you enjoying it?" he asked Sue. "Let's see, I know a riddle about a clam, if I can think of it. Let me see now, I wonder----" "Where's Bunny?" asked Mrs. Brown, coming up on the deck at that moment. "Wasn't he with you?" asked her husband. "No, he didn't come down. I asked Bunker some time ago about him, and Bunker said he was on deck with Sue. But he isn't. Where is Bunny?" _ |
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