Part 5 (1/2)

”It was very careless of me to put my lovely ring in the pocketbook, and then to forget all about it and let you children take it to the store,”

said Mother Brown.

”But are you sure you did put it in the pocketbook?” asked Mr. Brown again. ”You may have done that, my dear, and then have taken it out again and carried the diamond ring into the house before Bunny and Sue went to the store. Try to think.” And he sat down beside his wife while the little boy and his sister looked on wonderingly.

”I know I left the ring in the pocketbook,” replied Mrs. Brown, wiping her eyes on her handkerchief. ”I didn't think of it until a little while ago, and then I thought Bunny and Sue would bring it back with the change from the five-dollar bill. The ring was inside the middle part of the pocketbook, and they wouldn't have to open that to get at the money.

Oh, children, did a dog really run away with the pocketbook?”

”Yes, he really did,” said Bunny.

”And he run into the carpenter shop, and we ran after him, and Mr.

Foswick locked us in, and he was sorry, and Bunny broke a window, and he was sorry, too,” explained Sue, almost in one long breath.

”Well, that's quite a story,” said Mr. Brown. ”Let's hear it all over again.”

So Bunny and Sue told all that had happened, from the time they had been teetering until they were let out of the carpenter shop after Mr.

Reinberg had heard them calling through the broken window.

”Oh, what shall I do?” asked Mrs. Brown once more, when the story was finished.

”There is only one thing to do,” said Mr. Brown. ”I'll go back to the carpenter shop, and Mr. Foswick and I will look for the pocketbook. The dog probably dropped it among the shavings.”

”Let us come, too,” said Bunny. ”We can show you where the dog ran in the front door that was open.”

”I think I can see that place all right myself,” answered Mr. Brown.

”You children get your supper. I'll be back in a little while.”

It was not a very joyful supper for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.

Every once in a while they would see tears in their mother's eyes, and they could not help but feel it was partly their fault that the diamond ring was lost.

For if Bunny and Sue had gone to the store as soon as their mother had told them to go, and had not stopped to play on the seesaw, and had not put the pocketbook down on the bench where the dog so easily reached it, all this trouble would not have come upon their mother.

Mrs. Brown must have known that Bunny and Sue were thinking this, for she very kindly said to them:

”Now, don't worry, my dears. Perhaps daddy will find the pocketbook, and the money and ring safely in it. I know you wanted to play, and that is why you did not go to the store at once. But never mind. Mother should not have left the ring in the pocketbook. It is largely mother's own fault. Anyway, daddy will come back with the ring.”

But Daddy Brown did not. Bunny and Sue had finished their supper, Mrs.

Brown taking only a cup of tea, when their father came in. It needed only a look at his face to show that he had found nothing.

”Wasn't it there?” his wife asked, as he sat up to the table, though, to tell the truth, he did not feel much like eating. He felt bad because his wife was so unhappy about her lost diamond ring.

”Mr. Foswick and I searched the carpenter shop as well as we could,”

said Mr. Brown. ”It was rather dark in there, and we could not see much.

But we found no pocketbook.”

”Did you find the dog?” asked Sue eagerly.