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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 8. "Where Has Sallie Gone?" |
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_ CHAPTER VIII. "WHERE HAS SALLIE GONE?" "What's the matter, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad, who, as usual, had gotten up early to make the fire in the kitchen stove. It had gone out during the night, though a late fire had been built to make warmth for Bunny's train. "What's the matter?" asked Uncle Tad again. "Have you found some more lost cows?" "No. I've lost something instead of finding it this time," said the little boy. "What have you lost?" asked Uncle Tad, as he began to shake the ashes out of the cook stove, getting ready to make a new fire in it. The stove pipe went right out through the tent, with an asbestos collar around it so the canvas would not catch fire. "I've lost my electric train," cried Bunny Brown, looking around the kitchen tent to make sure his toy was not stuck in some corner. "I was playing with it yesterday, and I had one of the cars when I went with Sue and Indian Eagle Feather to find his lost cow. Then I brought it back to camp and I put it here so the water would dry out. Now it's gone!" "Yes, it seems to be gone," said Uncle Tad, looking carefully around the tent, after he had put a match to the wood kindlings. "And I know you left it here because I saw it the last thing when I came in to make sure the fire was all right before going to bed." "Then who could have taken it?" asked Bunny. "Well, as to that I couldn't say," answered Uncle Tad slowly. "It might have run off by itself, I suppose?" "It couldn't have!" declared Bunny. "Of course it runs by itself when the batteries are connected, but they weren't this time. And the train wasn't even on the track, though the rails were piled up near it, and so were the batteries. Yet everything is gone!" "What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, coming into the kitchen tent to start the breakfast. "My train is gone!" said Bunny sadly. "And I didn't hear anybody around camp during the night," he added, and told of finding out about his loss. "Do you suppose you could have got up in the night, walked in your sleep, and hidden the train somewhere else yourself?" asked Uncle Tad. "Well, about a year ago that might have happened," said Mother Brown. "But Bunny is cured of his sleep-walking habits now. He hasn't gotten up for several months, unless, as happened the other night when the cow poked her head in the tent, he woke up and cried out." "But no cow came into the tent last night, Mother," said Bunny. "Anyhow a cow wouldn't like to eat a train of cars." "A cow eat a train of cars!" cried Daddy Brown, coming into the tent just in time to hear what Bunny said. "Say, is that a riddle?" "No. But it's a riddle to guess who or what took Bunny's train of cars," said Mrs. Brown. "He says he left them here, in front of the stove to dry out the water as you told him to, but they are gone now." "That's queer," said Mr. Brown, looking about. "Is Bunny's train the only thing that is missing?" "It seems to be, as far as we can tell by a hasty look around. But we'll have to see," said Mother Brown. Uncle Tad, Mr. Brown and Bunny and Sue looked carefully about the tent while Mrs. Brown got breakfast. They saw several footprints, for the children, as well as the grown folks, had been about the tents all day, and Eagle Feather, the Indian, had also been there. "Who knew that you had a train of cars?" asked Mr. Brown of his son when a long search had failed to find the toy. "Well, I told the boy who brings the milk, the butter and egg man, and I guess that's all," said Bunny. "You told Eagle Feather," put in Sue. "Yes, but he wouldn't take them," said Bunny. "He thinks they are big medicine for finding his lost cow. He wouldn't take them." "I'm not so sure of that," said Uncle Tad. "Indians like bright and pretty things and that electrical train must have been a great wonder to them; especially to Eagle Feather, who is a smart Indian." "Then why didn't he take my Teddy bear, Sallie Malinda?" asked Sue. "My bear, with the blinking eyes, helped find the lost cow as well as Bunny's train did." "Of course it did," agreed Mother Brown. "I don't believe Eagle Feather had a thing to do with it. If the train was stolen by tramps we'd better get another dog, Daddy Brown, to keep them away." "Oh, don't get a dog!" cried Bunny and Sue together. "Splash is the best dog that ever was!" "Yes. But he is so friendly with everybody that he would just as soon a tramp came up to the tent as some of the farm peddlers," said Mrs. Brown. "He hardly ever barks unless he is playing with you children, and he is so good-natured." "Oh, we never could give up Splash," said Bunny, and Sue nodded her head to show that she felt the same way about it. "Maybe you can get another dog, who will bark, Mother. Then we could hitch Splash and him up together and have a team," went on Bunny. "Splash would never pull the way the other dog wanted to go," said Uncle Tad. "I guess, before we think of more dogs we'll just go over to the Indian village and find out what they know about the missing toy train." "Yes, that would be a good plan," said Mr. Brown. "Suppose we go together, Uncle Tad." So, after breakfast, when another search had been made about the camp to make sure the train was not hidden behind something, the two men started off. Bunny kept on searching about the tents for his missing toy, and Sue played with her Teddy Bear, tying her on the back of Splash, the dog, to make believe Sallie Malinda was having a pony ride. When Father Brown and Uncle Tad came back the children ran eagerly to them. Mr. Brown shook his head. "No," he said, slowly, "there is no trace of the toy train in the Indians' village, and Eagle Feather and his men say they know nothing about it. They say they were not away from their camp all night. They even let us search their tents and cabins, and were very good-natured about it." "That doesn't prove anything," said Uncle Tad. "If they had hidden the toy train it would be in a place where we could never find it. I guess we'll have to let it go." "Could any one else have taken it?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Yes, of course. But one of the Indians seems most likely. They probably heard what Eagle Feather told about how the train ran and one of their men crawled up in the night and took it from the tent while we were all asleep." "Well, maybe so, but I don't believe Eagle Feather did any such thing as that," said Mother Brown. "Nor I," said Bunny, and Sue nodded her head. "It was a tramp." Mr. Brown promised Bunny a new train as soon as he should go back to the city, but that would not be for a few days. "Oh dear!" cried Bunny. "How can I wait that long?" "You can play with my Teddy bear sometimes," said Sue kindly. Bunny thanked her, but it was easy to see he did not care much for such a girl's toy. "My Sallie Malinda Teddy bear is as good as your toy train," said Sue. "She's better--for I _have_ her and you _haven't_ your train of cars." "Well, I'm glad you like her," said Bunny. "But maybe your Teddy will go away in the night just as my train did." "My Teddy can't run, even if her eyes can light up," said Sue, making the bear's eyes blink. "My train didn't run away, it was tooken," said Bunny. "And some day I'm going to find the one that tooked it." Bunny did not speak as his school teacher would have had him, but he meant the same thing as if he had spoken correctly. "Well, they sha'n't touch my Teddy bear!" said Sue. "I'll take her to bed with me every night." And she did, two or three times. Then, one night Sue forgot and left her wonderful Teddy bear out in the kitchen. And in the morning what do you suppose had happened? In the morning Sue awakened early, and, missing her toy, which she thought she had taken to bed with her, she happened to remember that Sallie was left out in the kitchen. "I'll bring her to bed with me and tell her a story," said the little girl. Eagerly she ran out to the kitchen. She looked in the chair where the Teddy bear had been left. Then Sue's eyes filled with tears as she cried: "Where has Sallie gone? Oh, where has Sallie Malinda gone? Some one has tooken my Teddy bear!" Bunny Brown heard his sister's cry, and up from his cot he jumped. _ |
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