Part 15 (1/2)

”We may as well keep on. It may blow over, and if we tie up over night it will take us just so much longer to get there. I'd better keep on, don't you think?”

”Yes,” said Mr. Brown, ”keep on.”

So the _Fairy_ kept on through the waters of the bay. Bunny and Sue, after being allowed out on deck to watch the distant twinkling lights of other vessels, were put to bed in their bunks, and Mrs. Brown fastened some broad canvas straps up in front of their berths.

”What are they for?” asked Sue, as she kissed her mother good night.

”So you won't fall out if the boat rolls and rocks too much in the storm,” was the answer.

”Oh, I like to be out in a storm!” exclaimed Bunny.

”I do if it's not too hard a storm,” said Sue.

”I think this will be only a small one,” replied Mrs. Brown, but as she went out on deck and felt the strong wind and noticed how high the waves were she felt a trifle uneasy.

Some hours later Bunny and Sue were each awakened about the same time by feeling themselves being tossed about in their berths. Bunny was flung up against the canvas straps his mother had fastened, and at first he did not know what was happening. Then he heard Sue ask:

”What's the matter?”

”Don't be afraid,” said Bunny. ”It's only the storm, I guess. Oh, feel that!” he cried, and as he spoke the _Fairy_ seemed to be trying to stand on her ”head.”

CHAPTER XI

WHERE IS BUNNY?

Sue Brown did not know quite what to do. As she cuddled up in the little berth aboard the _Fairy_, she felt herself being tossed over toward the edge. At first she was afraid she would be thrown out on the cabin floor, but the strips of canvas her mother had fastened in place stopped the little girl from having a fall, just as they had stopped Bunny.

Sue looked up at the tiny electric light, operated by a storage battery.

Captain Ross had put it there so the children would not be in the dark if they awakened in the night and needed something.

”Bunny! Bunny!” exclaimed Sue, ”I don't like a storm on a boat at night!”

Before Bunny could answer his sister the door of the little stateroom where they were was opened and Mother Brown looked in. She was dressed, and her head, face and hair were wet as though she had been out in the storm. And she really had, for a moment.

”So you're awake, children,” she said. ”The storm is a bad one, and we are heading for a quiet cove where we will soon be sheltered and more quiet.”

”Can't I get up, Mother, and dress?” asked Bunny. ”Maybe we'll have to get off the _Fairy_ and into the rowboat, and I want my clothes on.”

”Yes, you may get up and dress,” said Mrs. Brown. ”But there is no danger that we shall have to take to the small boat. It is just a severe summer storm, with much wind and rain, but not much else.”

”Does it thunder and lightning?” asked Sue.

”No; or you would have heard it and seen it before this,” her mother said. ”Here, Sue, I'll take you over in my room and you may dress there.

Bunny, can you manage by yourself?”

”Yes, Mother,” he answered.

Mrs. Brown carried Sue in her arms to the room across the main cabin. It was not easy work with the boat pitching and tossing as it was, but finally the affair was managed, and Sue had her clothes put on. Bunny dressed himself, though not without some difficulty, for when he tried to stand on his right foot to put his left shoe on he slid across the little room and against the opposite wall. But he was not hurt.