Just then there came a loud: 

“Bow-wow-wow!”

Bunny and Sue both laughed then.  Then were frightened no longer.

“Oh, it’s our dog, Splash!” cried Sue.  “It’s only Splash!”

“Here, Splash!” called Bunny.  Then with a joyous bark the dog sprang inside the tent, and snuggled close up to his two little play-mates.

“Now I isn’t afraid,” said Sue, as she put her arms around the big shaggy neck of her pet.  “Now I isn’t afraid any more.  Splash can sleep with us; can’t he, Bunny?”

“Yes, Sue.  Now go to sleep.  Isn’t this fun?”

“Yes, it is when Splash is here,” Sue said.

Though Bunny did not say so, he, too, was glad their dog had come to spend the rest of the night with them.  Not that there was anything to be afraid of, oh, dear no!  There were no bears, or wolves, or anything like that in Bellemere.  There were big fish in the bay and in the ocean, but of course they never came up on land.

“And, even if they did,” said Sue sleepily to Bunny when they were talking about this, as they lay close to the big dog in their blankets, “even if any fish did flop up, Bunny, Splash would catch them; wouldn’t he?”

“Sure!” answered Bunny.

“You would; wouldn’t you, Splash?” asked the little girl, her chubby arm around the dog’s neck.

Splash whined softly, and rubbed his cold nose first against the warm cheek of Sue, and then against Bunny’s.  That was his way of kissing them, I think.

And so, strange as it may seem, Bunny and Sue went to sleep in the camping tent that night.  They were well wrapped up in the warm blankets they had brought from their beds, and after the first few shivers they were not cold.  And so they slept, and Splash slept with them.  All this while Daddy Brown and Mother Brown knew nothing about their children having gone out in the night.

But Mother Brown soon found it out.  I’ll tell you about it.

About two o’clock every morning (when it was still quite dark, and when it was yet night, though you could call it morning), Mrs. Brown used to get up, and slip into the rooms of the children to see if they were covered up.  For little folk often kick off the bed clothes in the night, and so get cold.  Mother Brown did not want this to happen to Bunny and Sue.

This time, though, when Mother Brown went softly into Sue’s room, to see if her little girl was all right, she did not find Sue in her bed.

“Why, this is queer,” thought Mrs. Brown.  “Where can Sue have gone?  Perhaps she slipped out and went in with Bunny.”

Sometimes Sue used to do this, when she would awaken and become a little frightened.  But when Mother Brown went into Bunny’s room Sue was not there, nor was Bunny.  Mrs. Brown felt all over the bed, but there was not a sign of either of the children.

“Why—­why!” exclaimed Mother Brown.  “What can have happened to them?  Where can they be?  Bunny!  Sue!” she called, and she spoke out loudly now.