“Yes,” answered his father.  “Splash must have seen the muskrat swimming in the water, and tried to get it.  The muskrat didn’t want to be caught, so it fought back.  But I’m glad it got away without being hurt, and I’m glad Splash wasn’t bitten.”

“What’s a muskrat?” Sue wanted to know.

“Well, it’s a big rat that lives in the water,” said Daddy Brown.  “It is much larger than the kind of rat that is around houses and barns, and it has fine, soft fur which trappers sell, to make fur-lined overcoats, and cloaks, for men and women.  The fur is very good, and some persons say the muskrat is good to eat, but I would not like to try eating it.  But this muskrat was a big one, and as they have sharp teeth, and can bite hard when they are angry, it is a good thing we drove it away.”

Bunny and Sue looked out over the lake.  They could see the muskrat no longer, though there was a little ripple in the water where it had dived down to get away.

“Now we must finish putting up the tents,” said Daddy Brown.  “It will be night before we know it, and we want a good place to sleep in at Camp Rest-a-While.”

“And are we going to have a fire, where we can cook something?” asked Bunny.

“Yes, we’ll have the oil stove set up.”

“I thought we would have a campfire,” said the little boy.

“So we shall!” exclaimed Uncle Tad.  “I’ll make a campfire for you, children, and we’ll bake some potatoes in it.  We’ll have them for supper, with whatever else mother cooks on the oil stove.”

“I’ll get some sticks of wood for the fire!” cried Sue.

“So will I!” added Bunny.

And while the older folk were finishing putting up the tents, and while Mother Brown was getting out the bed clothes, Bunny and Sue made a pile of sticks and twigs for the fire their uncle had promised to make.

Soon the big sleeping tent was put up, and divided into two parts, one for Sue and her mother, and the other for Bunny and the men folk.  Cot-beds were put up in the tent, and blankets, sheets and pillows put on them, so the tent was really like a big bedroom.

“It will be nicer sleeping here than on the ground, like we did in the tent at home that night,” said Bunny to Sue.

“Yes, I guess it will,” she answered.  “My dollie won’t catch cold in a nice bed.”

“Did she catch cold before?” Bunny wanted to know.

“Well, she had the sniffle-snuffles, and that’s almost like a cold,” Sue answered.

In the second-sized tent the dining table had been set up, and the chairs put around ready for the first meal, which would be supper.  Mother Brown got the dishes out of the box, and called: 

“Now, Bunny and Sue, let me see you set the table.”

She had taught them at home how to put on the plates, knives, forks, spoons, cups, saucers and whatever was needed, and now Bunny and Sue did this, as their share of the work, while Bunker Blue, and the older folk, were busy doing different things.