tomobile.

Bunny curled up in a chair near Sue. His eyes were wide open, and he
tried to feel just as he thought a soldier on guard would feel. His
mother had read him stories about soldiers staying awake all night.

Bunny was not sure he could do this.

"But I won't go to sleep until the hermit man comes back with papa, or
Grandpa Brown," he thought. "Then Sue and I can go to sleep in the
carriage."

The rain came pattering down on the log cabin roof. Bunny could not see
the lightning now, because of the lamp which the hermit had lighted. But
he could hear the thunder. It did not frighten him, though. Sometimes,
when it sounded very loud, the little boy pretended it was a big circus
wagon rumbling over a bridge--the tank-wagon, with water in it, where
the big hippopotamus splashed about. That circus wagon, Bunny was sure,
would make the most noise. So he "made-believe."

Sue was curled up on the bed. Once she roused up enough to say:

"Bunny!"

"Yes, Sue?" he answered. "What do you want?"

"Are you there, Bunny?" she asked, sleepily.

"Yes, Sue. I'm right here." He reached over and touched her hand. "What
do you want, Sue?"

"I--I just wanted to know are you there," and with that Sue turned over
again, and soon was fast, fast asleep.

Several times Bunny felt himself nodding. His head would bob down and
his eyes slowly go shut. Then he would rouse up, and say to himself:

"Soldiers mustn't sleep when they are guarding the camp! I'm a
make-believe soldier, and I mustn't sleep!"

Then he would be wide awake for a little while. But soon his head would
nod again. And finally Bunny slept, just as Sue was doing, only he was
asleep in the chair, and she was in the hermit's bed.

Just how long he slept Bunny did not know. But, all at once, he was
awakened by a noise at the door. At first he thought it was the hermit,
who had come back with his papa or mamma.

But then, instead of a knock, a scratching sound was heard. Then Sue
awoke, and heard it too.

"Scratch!" went something on the door.

"Oh, Bunny, what is it?" asked Sue, sitting up in bed. "What is it,
Bunny?"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE PICNIC

Bunny Brown did not answer his sister Sue right away. He was listening
to the queer scratching sound. He wanted to try and think what it was.

"Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!" it went.

"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, rolling over in the bunk, so she could easily
slip over the edge, and be nearer to her brother.