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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 20. Fun In The Attic |
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_ CHAPTER XX. FUN IN THE ATTIC Bunny Brown looked at his sister Sue, and she looked at him. What could it mean--so many things being taken away? First Bunny's train of cars, then Sue's electric-eyed Teddy bear. Now Eagle Feather's horse was missing and he had come to Camp Rest-a-While to look for it, though why the children could not understand. Tom was kept busy roasting the ears of corn, and passing them around. Eagle Feather ate three without saying anything more, and would probably have taken another, which Tom had ready for him, when Mr. Brown asked: "Well, Eagle Feather, what is your trouble? Is your horse really gone? And if it is, why do you think it is here? We don't have any horses here. All our machines go by gasolene." "Me know all such," replied the Indian. "Little wagon make much puff-puff like boy's heap big medicine train. No horse push or pull 'um. Eagle Feather hab good horse, him run fast and stop quick, sometimes, byemby, like squaw, Eagle Feather fall off. But horse good--now somebody take. Somebody take Eagle Feather's horse." "Maybe he wandered away," said Mr. Brown. "Horses often do that you know, when you tie them in the woods where flies bite them." "Yes, Eagle Feather know that. But how you say--him rope broke or cut?" and the Indian held out a halter made of rope, with a piece of rope dangling from it. Mr. Brown looked closely at it. "Why, that's been cut!" exclaimed the children's father, for the end of the rope by which the horse had been tied was smooth, and not broken and rough, as it would have been had it been pulled apart. If you will cut a rope and then break another piece, you can easily see the difference. "Sure, cut!" exclaimed Eagle Feather. "Done last night when all dark. Indians at corn dance and maybe sleepy. No hear some one come up soft to Eagle Feather's barn and take out horse. Have to cut rope 'cause Indian tie knot white man find too much hard to make loose." "So you think a white man took your horse, and that's why you come to us?" asked Mr. Brown. "Yes. You know much white man. Maybe so like one ask you hide my horse in your tent." "Indeed not!" cried Mr. Brown. "I haven't any friends who would steal a man's horse." "Maybe not," went on the Indian. "But night of green corn dance him come to see it and your boy too," and Eagle Feather pointed first at Tom and then at Bunny. "We didn't see Eagle Feather's horse!" cried out Bunny Brown. "Easy, my boy," said his father. "Let's get at what Eagle Feather means." Before he could ask a question the Indian pointed a finger at Tom and asked sharply: "You see my horse night you come green corn dance?" "Not a sign of him did I see," answered Tom quickly. "And I wasn't nearer the middle of the village, where the campfire was, than half a mile. We didn't take your horse, Eagle Feather." "Maybe so not. Eagle Feather thought maybe you might see," went on the red man. "Me know you good boy, Tom--good to Indians. These little Brown boy an' gal--they good too. "But we walk along path horse took, and marks of him feet come right to this camp." "Is that so?" asked Mr. Brown. "We'll have to look into this. Perhaps the thief did pass among our tents to hide the direction he really took. We'll have a look in the morning. It's too dark now." Indeed it was very dark, the campfire throwing out but fitful gleams, for enough of the roasted ears had been cooked to suit every one. Eagle Feather bade his friends good-bye, remarking again how sorry he was over losing his horse, and he said he would see them all in the morning. With the children and Tom safely in bed Uncle Tad and Mr. and Mrs. Brown talked the matter over. "Eagle Feather seems to think his horse was brought to this camp," said Mrs. Brown. "Perhaps he does," agreed her husband. "But that doesn't matter." "I don't like it though," went on his wife. "The idea of thinking Bunny might have had a hand in the trick!" "I don't believe Eagle Feather ever had such an idea," laughed Mr. Brown. "He might have thought Tom, from having watched the corn dance, had taken the horse in fun, but I don't believe he has any such idea now." "I should hope not!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. Early the next morning Eagle Feather and another Indian came to the camp. They looked for the marks of horses' hoofs and found some they said were those of Eagle Feather's animal in the soft dirt. But though the marks came to the edge of the camp, they did not go through the spaces between the tents. "They must have led the horse _around_ our camp," said Uncle Tad, and this proved to be a correct guess, for on the other side of the camp the footprints of a horse, with the same shaped hoof as that of Eagle Feather's, were seen. "Now we find horse easy," said the Indian, as he and his companion hurried on through the big woods. "Well, I hope you find him, and I'm glad you don't think any one around here had anything to do with it," said Uncle Tad. "I hope you find your horse soon." But it was a vain hope, for in a little while it began to rain and the rain, Mr. Brown said, would wash away all hoofprints of the Indian's horse, so they could no longer be seen. But Eagle Feather and his friend did not come back. "Oh, I wish we had something to do!" cried Sue, as the rain kept on pelting down on the roof of the tent, and she and Bunny could not go out. "It would be fun if we had your electric train now and my Sallie Malinda," said Sue. "That's right!" exclaimed Bunny. "But I don't s'pose we'll ever get 'em." "No, I s'pose not," sighed Sue. The children were trying to think of a rainy-day game to play and wishing they could go out, when there came a knock on the main tent pole, which was the nearest thing to a front door in the camp. "Oh, it's Mrs. Preston, the egg lady," said Sue, who, out of a celluloid tent window, had watched the visitor coming to the camp. "She can't be coming with eggs," said Mrs. Brown, "for I bought some only yesterday." Mrs. Preston quickly told what she wanted. "I've come for your two children, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I know how hard it is to keep them cooped up and amused on a rainy day. "Now over at our house we have a lovely big attic, filled with all sorts of old-fashioned things that the children of our neighbors play with. They can't harm them, and they can't harm themselves. Don't you want to let Bunny and Sue come over to my attic to play?" "Oh, yes, Mother, please do!" begged Bunny. "And it's only such a little way that we won't get wet at all," said Sue. "We can wear rubbers and take umbrellas." "Well, if you're sure it won't be any bother, Mrs. Preston," said Mrs. Brown. "No bother at all! Glad to have them," answered Mrs. Preston. "Get ready, my dears!" And Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were soon on their way to have rainy-day fun in an attic. _ |
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