This set the children into a wild guessing game as to what their father had got, and they amused themselves until nearly bed time.

They did not notice that Mr. Brown left camp, nor that he wandered down the road, in the direction of the home of the ragged man.  When Mr. Brown came back, after the children were in their cots, his wife asked him: 

“Did you find anything?”

“No, I can’t say I did.  I made a search around Bixby’s cabin and went over into the Indian village to talk to Eagle Feather.  But I didn’t find out anything about the missing toys.  I guess wandering tramps must have taken them.  I’ll get the kiddies new ones.”

By this time Bunny and Sue were fast asleep, dreaming of the new playthings they were to have.

CHAPTER XIV

THE RAGGED BOY

“Ding-dong!  Ding-ding!  Ding-dong!” rang the breakfast bell in Camp Rest-a-While.  Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, snug in their cots, heard it, stirred a bit, turned over, and shut their eyes.

“It’s too early to get up,” murmured Bunny.

“Yes,” muttered Sue.  “Much too early.  I can sleep more.”

And off to sleep she promptly went, Bunny doing the same thing.

“What’s the matter with those children?” asked Uncle Tad, who was ringing the bell.  He waved it through the air all the faster so that it seemed to sing out: 

“Ding-ding-dong!  Ding-dong-ding!  Ding-ding—­dingity-ding-dong ding!”

“Maybe that’s a fire,” said Bunny, wide-awake now.

“Oh, maybe it is!” agreed Sue.

“What’s the matter?  Aren’t you ever going to get up?” asked Uncle Tad, looking into that part of the tent where Bunny and Sue had their cots.

“Where’s the fire?” asked Bunny, though, now that he was wide-awake, he knew there was no fire.

“And will you take us to it?” asked Sue, making a grab for her clothes which were on a chair near her cot, and still believing in the fire.

“There isn’t any fire,” said Uncle Tad, “except the one out in the stove, and that’s getting breakfast.  Come on!  What makes you so slow?” asked Uncle Tad.

“Oh, but they were so tired yesterday, from getting lost, that I let them sleep a little longer this morning,” said Mrs. Brown.

“It’s long past getting up time,” went on Uncle Tad.  “If Bunny is going to be a soldier, and Sue a trained nurse they’ll find they will have to get up much earlier than this.”

“That’s so!” cried Bunny.  “I forgot I was going to be a soldier.  And as you’re to go to nurse me, Sue, you’d better get up, too.”

“All right, I will, Bunny.  But I’m dreadful sleepy.”

However, now that the two were awake, from the ringing of Uncle Tad’s bell and his talk about soldiers and nurses, Bunny and Sue found it was not so very hard to get dressed.

Then they fairly danced to the breakfast table, which was set out of doors, as it was a fine day.