wn, but Mr. Brown was a
good sailor, and Bunker Blue had lived most of his life on and about
salt-water, so he did not mind it. Nor did Bunny, for he, too, had often
been on fishing trips with his father, and he did not get seasick even
in rough weather.
"Like it, Bunny?" asked his father, as the little boy stood beside him
in the cabin, while Mr. Brown turned the steering wheel this way and
that.
"Lots, Daddy!" was the answer. "Shall we get there pretty soon?"
"Yes, if the storm doesn't hold us back."
But that is just what the storm seemed going to do. The wind began to
blow harder and harder, and the waves, even in the sheltered bay, were
quite high. But the _Spray_ was a fairly large boat, and stout; able to
meet any weather except the very worst out on the open ocean.
On and on she chugged across the bay toward Springdale, and as they got
farther and farther out in the middle, the storm grew much worse.
"I don't know about this, Bunker!" called Mr. Brown to the fish boy,
who was looking after the motor. "I don't know whether we can get across
or whether we hadn't better turn back for our dock."
"Oh, Daddy! don't go back! You're not going back before you get Toby,
are you?" Bunny asked.
CHAPTER XXI
THE GYPSY CAMP
Anxiously Bunny Brown waited for his father's answer. The little boy
looked out of the cabin windows at the storm which was roughing-up the
waters of Sandport Bay. But Bunny was very much concerned about losing
Toby, or not going on to find the pony.
"Well, I guess as long as we have come this far," said Mr. Brown, "we
might as well keep on. You're not afraid, are you, Bunny?"
"Not a bit, Daddy! I like it!"
"You're a regular old sea-dog!" cried the fish merchant.
"And maybe we'll find our dog, Splash, at the gypsy camp, too," Bunny
added.
"Maybe," agreed Mr. Brown. Then he asked Bunker Blue:
"What do you think of it?"
"Oh, I've seen it blow worse and rain harder," answered the boy who was
attending to the motor. "I guess we can keep on."
It was raining very hard now, and the big drops, mixed with the salty
spray blown up from the water of the bay, were being driven against the
glass windows of the cabin.
"It's a good thing we brought the big boat," said Bunker Blue, as he put
some oil on the motor.
"Yes," said Mr. Brown. "I'm glad we didn't try to come in the small one.
We surely would have had to turn back."
Bunny Brown did not say anything for quite
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