“What is the secret, Mother?” begged Bunny.  “Please tell us!”

“Yes,” added Sue.  “We’ve guessed and guessed, but we can’t guess right.  Bunker said you might tell us.”

Mrs. Brown laughed, and, after she had put the platter of eggs on the table, she pointed to two large, round, tin boxes on a chair in the big tent.

“Can you read what it says on those boxes?” Mrs. Brown asked Bunny.

Bunny looked at the long word.

“It begins with a ’M’,” he said, “and the next letter is ‘A’ and then comes——­”

“Oh, I know what’s next!” cried Sue.  “It’s a ‘R.’  I can tell by the funny little tail that kicks up behind.  It’s just like the ‘B’ for Brown in our name, only the R has a kick-up tail at the end.  That letter is a ‘R’; isn’t it, Mother?”

“Yes,” answered Mrs. Brown.  “But what is the whole word, Bunny?  If you can tell what it is you’ll know the secret.”

Bunny could spell out each letter one after another and he did, until he had spelled this big word: 

          MARSHMALLOW

But he could not say it.  The word was too big for him.  So his mother said it for him.

“Those are marshmallow candies in the tin boxes,” said Mrs. Brown.  “Now can you guess the secret?”

“Oh, I know!” cried Sue.  “We’re going to have a marshmallow roast by the campfire to-night!  Is that it, Mother?  And the sharp sticks Bunker is making are to put the marshmallow candies on to hold over the fire and roast!  Isn’t that it?”

“Yes, Sue, you have guessed it.”

“Pooh!  I was just going to say that,” cried Bunny.

“Well, Sue said it first, dear,” went on Bunny’s mother.  “Now get ready for dinner.  After dinner we’ll take a nice walk, and this evening, when it gets dark, Uncle Tad is going to build a campfire and we’ll all roast marshmallows.”

“Oh, what fun!” cried Sue, clapping her hands.

“Jolly, jolly fun!” laughed Bunny.

And that was why Bunker Blue was making the pointed sticks.

“Now for our walk!” called Mother Brown, when the dinner things had been cleared away, and Tom Vine had washed and dried the dishes, Bunny and Sue helping.  “We’ll take a walk over near the waterfall.  I want to take a picture of it.”

But, when they were all ready to start—­Bunker Blue, Splash and all—­Tom Vine could not be found.

“Why, where is he?” asked Bunny.  “He was here a minute ago, for I saw him.”

“Maybe he’s losted,” said Sue.  She and Bunny got lost or “losted,” as they called it, so often, that Sue thought that trouble could very easily happen to anyone.

“No, he isn’t lost,” said Daddy Brown.  “Tom!  Tom!” he called.  “Where are you?”

“I’m here,” was the answer, and Tom stood up.  He had been sitting behind a thick bush, down near the edge of the lake.

“Oh, we were looking for you,” Mr. Brown said.  “Don’t you want to come for a walk with us?  We are going over toward the waterfall.  It is very nice there.”