before
when the story of the lost ring had been told.

"Did you find Splash?" asked Sue, as she tripped along.

"No, I am sorry to say I did not," replied Mr. Brown. "I guess you will
have to give Splash up as lost. Though he may run back again some day as
suddenly as he ran off."

"And didn't you find the other dog--the one that took mother's ring in
the pocketbook?" asked Bunny.

His father shook his head.

"There was no sign of the other dog, either," Mr. Brown answered. "He
must have been a stray dog that just ran through the town. A sort of
tramp dog, I fancy."

"Then there isn't any good news," remarked Bunny, and he grew a little
sad and unhappy again.

"Yes, there is good news; though it isn't about mother's ring," said Mr.
Brown.

"Nor about a dog?" asked Sue.

"No, it isn't about a dog, either," her father said. "Come along, and
we'll tell mother. Perhaps it will cheer her up."

Mrs. Brown looked sharply at her husband when he entered the house with
the two children. She wanted to see if she could tell, by his face,
whether he had any better word than that which he had telephoned after
his visit to the carpenter shop.

"No," he said, in answer to her look, "we didn't find the pocketbook.
But Mr. Foswick is going to have a regular house-cleaning in his shop.
He is going to get the sawdust and shavings out of the way, and then we
can make a better search."

"I hope he will be careful when he takes them out," said Mrs. Brown. "My
pocketbook was not very large, and it might easily be thrown away in a
shovelful of shavings or sawdust."

"He will be very careful," her husband promised. "He is very sorry he
locked Bunny and Sue in his shop, very sorry indeed."

"Oh, we didn't mind!" exclaimed Bunny. "We were scared a little, at
first, but not much. Only I broke the window."

"Mr. Foswick didn't seem to mind that much," went on Mr. Brown. "The
'pesky' boys, as he calls them, certainly do bother him a lot by running
in the open front door when he is busy in the back of his shop. They
scatter the sawdust and shavings all about."

"Maybe some of those boys ran in and took my pocketbook and ring,"
suggested Mrs. Brown.

"Oh, no," explained Bunny. "We ran right in after the dog, and there
were no big boys around. We didn't see the dog run out, but Mr. Foswick
said there were holes in the back of his shop and he could get out that
way."

"Yes," agreed Mr. Brown, "he could. And he may have done so. W