CHAPTER XIV
TOM IS GONE
"Daddy! Daddy!" cried Sue, from behind the curtain, in the part of thetent where she slept with her mother. "Daddy, do you think we'll blowaway?"
"Oh, no," answered Mr. Brown. "Don't be afraid. Bunker and I fasteneddown the tent good and strong. It can't blow over."
"But I'm getting all wet!" cried Bunny. "The water's leaking all over mybed, Daddy!"
"Yes, I didn't know there was a hole in the tent. I'll fix itto-morrow," said Bunny's father. "You get in my bed, Bunny!"
"Oh, goodie!" Bunny cried. He always liked to get in his father's bed.
But as Bunny jumped out of his own little cot, and pattered in his barefeet across to his father's, he saw Daddy Brown getting up. Mr. Brownwas putting on a pair of rubber boots, and a rubber coat over his bathrobe, which he had put on when the storm began.
"Where you going, Daddy?" asked Bunny, as he crawled into the dry bed,and pulled the covers up over him, for the wind was blowing in the tentnow. "Where you going?"
"I'm going out to see that the tent ropes are all right," said Mr.Brown.
"Going out? What for?" called Mrs. Brown. "You musn't go out in thisstorm. It's terrible!"
"Oh, but I must go!" answered Daddy Brown with a laugh. "I don't mindthe thunder, lightning and rain. If some of the tent pegs come loose,the ropes will slip off, and the tent will blow over. Bunker Blue and Iwill go out and make sure everything is all right."
"I could go with you," said Uncle Tad from his cot. "Shall I?"
"No, you stay where you are," Daddy Brown said. "You might get therheumatism if you got wet."
"I used to get wet enough when I was in the army," returned the oldsoldier. "Many a time, when it stormed, I used to get up to fix thetent."
"Well, Bunker and I will do it now, thank you," Mr. Brown went on. Bythis time Bunker Blue had on his rubber boots and coat. Then, taking alantern with them, Mr. Brown and Bunker went outside.
"Fasten the tent door after us, Tom," called Mr. Brown to the city boy,"or everything will blow away inside. Tie the tent flaps shut with theropes, and you can open them for us when we want to come in again."
Out in the storm went Daddy Brown and Bunker Blue. As they opened theflaps, or front door of the tent, a big gust of wind came in, and dashedrain in Bunny's face, so that he covered his head with the bed clothes.He had one look at a bright flash of lightning, and he could see theground outside all covered with water.
"I'm glad I don't have to go out in the storm," he thought, and he feltsorry for his father and Bunker Blue.
But Mr. Brown had often been out on the ocean in worse storms than this,and so had Bunker, so they did not mind. With their lantern they walkedall around the sleeping-tent, making sure that all the ropes were fastto the pegs, which were driven into the ground. Some of the wooden pegswere coming loose, and these Mr. Brown and Bunker hammered farther intothe dirt.
All the while the wind blew, and the rain pelted down, while thelightning flashed brighter, and the thunder rumbled so loudly that itscared Sue.
"I--I don't like it!" she sobbed, and she crept into bed with hermother. "Please make it stop, Mother!"
"No one can make the thunder stop, Sue, dear," said Mrs. Brown. "But thethunder won't hurt you, and the storm is almost over."
Just then there came a very loud clap.
"Oh, dear!" cried Sue. "I'se afraid!"
Bunny heard his sister, and called out:
"That sounded just like Fourth of July; didn't it, Sue? When the bigboys fired the cannon on top of the hill."
"Isn't you afraid, Bunny?" asked Sue.
"No, I--I like it," Bunny answered.
He tried to make himself believe he did, so Sue would not be sofrightened.
"Well, if you isn't afraid I isn't goin' to be, either," said Sue, aftera moment. And she stopped crying at once, and lay quietly in hermother's cot-bed. And then the storm seemed to go away. It still rainedvery hard, but the wind did not howl so loudly, and the lightning wasnot so scary, nor the thunder so rumbly.
The rain still leaked in through the hole in the tent, but Tom Vinemoved Bunny's cot out of the way, and set a pail under the leak.
All at once there sounded a banging noise, as if a whole store full ofpots and pans and kettles had been turned upside down.
"Oh, what's that?" cried Mother Brown.
"Sounded as if something blew away," said Uncle Tad. "I'll get up andlook."
But he did not have to, for, just then, in came Daddy Brown and BunkerBlue, their rubber coats all shining wet in the lantern light.
"What made that noise?" asked Mother Brown.
"The cook-tent blew over," said Daddy Brown, "and all the pots, pans andkettles fell in a heap. But we'll let them go until morning, I guess, asthe worst of the storm is over. Now we'll all go to bed again."
"This tent won't blow over; will it, Daddy?" asked Bunny.
"No, it's all safe now. Go to sleep."
But it was some little time before they were all asleep again. Nothingmore happened that night, and Bunny and Sue were up very early the nextmorning to see what the storm had done.
Camp Rest-a-While was not a pretty sight.
Besides the cook-tent having been blown over, there were broken branchesof trees scattered about. The tents were covered with leaves blown fromthe trees, and there were many mud puddles.
The oil stove, and the pots, pans and other things, with which MotherBrown cooked, were piled in a heap under the fallen cook-tent. The tentitself was soaking wet, and one of the poles that had held it up wasbroken.
"Oh, we can't ever have anything to eat!" said Sue sadly, as she lookedat the fallen tent.
"We can build a campfire," said Bunny. "Uncle Tad used to cook breakfastover one; didn't you?" and he turned to the old soldier.
"Yes, Bunny, I did. But I guess we won't have to this time. We'll soonhave the oil stove working."
Then he and Daddy Brown, with Bunker Blue and Tom Vine, set to work. Theblown-down tent was pulled to one side, and it was seen that thougheverything under it was in a heap, still nothing was broken.
Soon some milk was being warmed for the children, and coffee made forthe older folk. Then Mother Brown even made pancakes on the oil stove,which was set up on a box at one side of the dining-tent. The day was afine one, and there was not enough wind to make the stove smoke.
So they had breakfast after all, and then began the work of making CampRest-a-While look as it had before the storm. A new tent pole was cut,and the tent put up again, stronger than before. Bunny and Sue helped bypicking up the scattered pieces of tree branches, and piling them in aheap. Then they swept up the torn-off leaves, and by this time the sunhad dried up some of the puddles of water. By noon time the camp lookedas well as it had before the storm.
"And don't forget to fix the hole over my cot," cried Bunny. "I don'twant to be rained on any more, Daddy."
"I'll fix it," said Mr. Brown, and he did.
"I didn't hear any fire engines last night," said Tom Vine as they satat supper that evening, after coming in from a little sail around thelake, Bunker having fixed a sail onto the rowboat.
"Fire engines!" exclaimed Bunny. "Why should you hear fire engines,Tom?"
"Why, in the city, where I lived, before I went with that farmer, thefire engines used to come out after every storm. Places would be struckby lightning, you know. I've seen lots of fires. But I didn't hear anyengines last night."
"There aren't any engines in these woods," said Daddy Brown. "Of coursetrees are often struck by lightning, and lightning often sets fire tohouses in the country, but there aren't any engines out in the woods."
"And no policeman, either," added Tom. "It seems funny not to see apoliceman, and have him yell at you to move on, or keep off the grass."
"Do you like it better here than in the city?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, heaps better, yes'm! I love it here. I hope I don't ever have to goback to the city--or to that mean
farmer."
Nothing had been seen of the man who wanted to get Tom back, since thatday when he had called at the camp. Bunny and Sue had almost forgottenhim, but it seemed that Tom had not. He was always a little bit afraid,thinking that the cross man might come back.
One morning, two days after the big storm, when Bunny, Sue and all theothers were gathered around the breakfast table, Daddy Brown asked:
"Where is Tom Vine?"
"He was here a minute ago," Bunny said.
"I think he went to the spring to get a pail of water," put in UncleTad.
"Yes, that's where he went," said Mrs. Brown. "I said we would need somefresh water, and he went after it."
"Well, we won't wait for him," said Daddy Brown. "We'll eat, and he canhave his breakfast when he comes."
But the others had finished breakfast, and Tom Vine had not come backfrom the spring, though they waited for some time.
"I wonder what's keeping him," said Mrs. Brown.
"He couldn't have fallen in; could he?" asked Uncle Tad.
"No, the spring isn't large enough," Bunker Blue answered. "I'll go tolook for him."
Bunker ran off along the path that led to the spring. In a little whilehe came hurrying back. He carried a pail full of water, and he said:
"I found the empty pail by the spring, but Tom was gone!"