Part 2 (1/2)

”That's good,” remarked Mrs. Brown. ”We're digging you out, Bunny,” she called.

”I don't guess he can hear you,” said Helen, when no answer came from beneath the snow.

”I couldn't hear when I was in the snow house,” said Charlie. ”My ears were all stopped up.”

”We'll soon have him out,” declared Uncle Tad, tossing aside big shovelfuls of the damp snow. ”It's a deep pile, though.”

There were now three of them digging away at the pile of snow which hid Bunny Brown from sight. Of course Uncle Tad was doing the most work, as his shovel was so large. Pile after pile he tossed aside, and he was fast getting to the bottom, when, all of a sudden there was a cracking sound, and the handle of Uncle Tad's shovel broke in the middle.

”Oh, dear!” cried the old soldier. ”This is too bad!”

”And we haven't another large shovel!” said Mrs. Brown. ”Walter took our second one down to the dock with him this morning!”

”Well, perhaps I can make this do,” said Uncle Tad. ”Though I can't work as fast as I could if the handle wasn't broken.”

”Sue, and Helen, run next door and see if you can borrow a large snow shovel,” called Mrs. Brown. ”Don't stop to tell them what it's for, or Bunny may smother.”

”Oh, no'm, I guess he won't,” Charlie said, as he dug away with the little shovel that Sue had been using. ”When I was under the snow I could breathe all I wanted to.”

Mrs. Brown said she was glad to hear this, but, for all that, she dug as fast as she could with the other small shovel, and Uncle Tad, using the one with the broken handle, did the best he could.

Helen and Sue hurried next door to see if they could borrow a broad wooden shovel, but before they returned Uncle Tad had managed to dig down through the pile of snow until he reached the ground and the side of the house foundation--the upper part of the cellar wall.

”Why, Bunny isn't here!” cried Uncle Tad, in great surprise.

”Isn't he?” asked the little boy's mother, looking over Uncle Tad's shoulder down into the hole in the snow pile.

”There isn't a sign of him,” went on the soldier. ”Are you sure you saw him get covered from sight here?” he asked Charlie.

”It was right here,” answered Bunny's chum. ”He was rolling a s...o...b..ll to make a hat for the man when down the snow slid off the roof. It covered Bunny and the s...o...b..ll he was rolling.”

”Oh, we must hurry!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown, now growing very anxious. ”He surely will be smothered, under the snow all this while!”

She began to dig again with the small shovel, and Uncle Tad was doing his best with the broken one when Sue and Helen, coming around the corner with a large shovel which they had borrowed next door, gave a sudden cry.

”What is it?” asked Mrs. Brown.

”There's Bunny now!” exclaimed Sue. ”Look!”

They all looked, and, surely enough, Bunny was coming up the outside steps of the cellar. He walked up as if nothing had happened.

”Bunny Brown! what trick is this?” exclaimed his mother. ”What made you pretend to be buried under all that snow and give us such a fright for, when you weren't there at all?”

”But I was there, Mother,” Bunny said. ”I was under the snow.”

”Then how did you get out?” Uncle Tad asked. ”It surely looks like a trick, Bunny Brown.”

CHAPTER III