t. For if it gets rusty it won't run."

Bunny did not want this to happen, so he left his toy railroad out in
the kitchen tent that night, near the stove in which a little fire was
kindled.

No cows stuck their heads into the bedrooms of the tent houses that
night, and Bunny and Sue slept soundly. So did Mr. and Mrs. Brown and
Uncle Tad, but some one must have been around the camp with very soft
feet in the darkness. For when Bunny awakened early, and went out to
have a look at his toy railroad, he set up a cry:

"It's gone! It's gone! Some one has taken it!"

"Taken what?" asked his father.

"My toy locomotive, my cars, the tracks, batteries and everything! Oh,
dear! My toy train is gone!"

CHAPTER VIII

"WHERE HAS SALLIE GONE?"

"What's the matter, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad, who, as usual, had gotten
up early to make the fire in the kitchen stove. It had gone out during
the night, though a late fire had been built to make warmth for Bunny's
train.

"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Tad again. "Have you found some more
lost cows?"

"No. I've lost something instead of finding it this time," said the
little boy.

"What have you lost?" asked Uncle Tad, as he began to shake the ashes
out of the cook stove, getting ready to make a new fire in it. The stove
pipe went right out through the tent, with an asbestos collar around it
so the canvas would not catch fire.

"I've lost my electric train," cried Bunny Brown, looking around the
kitchen tent to make sure his toy was not stuck in some corner. "I was
playing with it yesterday, and I had one of the cars when I went with
Sue and Indian Eagle Feather to find his lost cow. Then I brought it
back to camp and I put it here so the water would dry out. Now it's
gone!"

"Yes, it seems to be gone," said Uncle Tad, looking carefully around the
tent, after he had put a match to the wood kindlings. "And I know you
left it here because I saw it the last thing when I came in to make sure
the fire was all right before going to bed."

"Then who could have taken it?" asked Bunny.

"Well, as to that I couldn't say," answered Uncle Tad slowly. "It might
have run off by itself, I suppose?"

"It couldn't have!" declared Bunny. "Of course it runs by itself when
the batteries are connected, but they weren't this time. And the train
wasn't even on the track, though the rails were piled up near it, and so
were the batteries. Yet everything is gone!"

"What's the matter?"