uld be glad they had come to
pay money to help the Home for the Blind.

Mr. Clayton sent word from the Home that he would surely be on hand at
the performance Christmas afternoon. He also said he had not yet
received any word from the other uncle and aunt of the two vaudeville
children.

"Oh, dear," sighed Lucile on Christmas eve, as she and her brother sat
in the Brown home, "I do hope we can find Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie!"

"So do I hope you do," said Sue. "But, oh, won't we have fun to-morrow
at the play! And to-morrow is Christmas. I'm going to hang up my
stocking. Are you going to hang up your stocking?" she asked Mart and
Lucile.

"Well, I don't know," answered the boy slowly. "I guess, seeing that we
haven't heard from Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie yet, that maybe it
wouldn't be any use for us to hang up our stockings, Sue."

"Oh, I think it would," said Mrs. Brown, with a funny little smile. "You
tell Mart and Lucile to hang them up, Sue. I don't believe Santa Claus
will forget them."

"There!" cried Sue. "You must do as mother says. Come on, Bunny!" she
added. "Let's get our stockings ready, and we'll go to bed early.
Christmas will come sooner then. Why, where's Bunny?" she asked, as she
looked out in the kitchen where she had last seen her brother. "Bunny!"
she called. "Come on, hang up our stockings!"

But Bunny Brown did not answer.

"Bunny isn't here!" said Sue. "Where is Bunny?"

CHAPTER XXII

ACT I

"What's that? Isn't Bunny here?" asked Mr. Brown, who was busy talking
to Mr. Treadwell about the play.

"This is the first I knew he wasn't here," answered Mrs. Brown. "Did any
one see him go out?"

No one had.

"Perhaps he is upstairs," said Lucile.

"No, he wouldn't go up to bed without telling me," said Mrs. Brown.
"Besides, he's been teasing me all evening to get his stockings ready to
hang up, and he wouldn't go without them. Where can he be?"

"He isn't in the kitchen," said Sue, for she had gone out to look, and
had come back again.

"Perhaps he is hiding away from you, just for fun," said Mart.

"He sometimes does play tricks," remarked Mr. Brown. "I'll take a look."

They all looked, and they called, but Bunny could not be found. He did
not seem to be in the house. Mr. Brown even opened the back door and
shouted, thinking perhaps Bunny had gone out to see that the Shetland
pony was all right, as he sometimes did.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, "where can he be?