“What are you doing, Daddy?” Bunny asked.

“I think there’s going to be a storm,” answered Mr. Brown, “and I want to be sure the tents won’t blow away.  I’m making the ropes tight.”

Pretty soon everyone at Camp Rest-a-While was in bed.  It was not long before the wind began to blow and then, all at once, there came a bright flash of lightning, and a loud clap of thunder.

“Oh, what’s that?” cried Bunny, sitting up in his cot, for the noise had awakened him.  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

“It’s a thunder storm,” replied his father.  “Go to sleep, for it can’t hurt you.”

But Bunny could not go to sleep, nor could Sue.  She, too, was awakened by the bright lightning, and the loud thunder.  The wind, too, blew very hard, and it shook the sleeping tent as if it would tear it loose from the ropes.

“Do you think it is safe?” asked Mother Brown.

“Oh, I think so,” answered her husband.  “Bunker and I put on some extra ropes before we came in.  I guess the tent won’t blow away.”

Everyone was wide awake now.  The storm was a very heavy one.  The wind howled through the trees in the wood, and, now and then, a loud crash could be heard, as some tree branch broke off and fell to the ground.

Then, suddenly, it began to rain very hard.  My! how the big drops did pelt down on the tent, sounding like dried corn falling on a tin pan!

“Oh, the rain is coming in on me!” cried Bunny.  “I’m getting all wet, Daddy!”

Surely enough, there was a little hole in the tent, right over Bunny’s cot, and the rain was coming in there.

“Swish!” went the lightning.

“Bang!” went the thunder.

“Whoo-ee!” blew the wind.

It was certainly a bad storm at Camp Rest-a-While.

CHAPTER XIV

TOM IS GONE

“Daddy!  Daddy!” cried Sue, from behind the curtain, in the part of the tent where she slept with her mother.  “Daddy, do you think we’ll blow away?”

“Oh, no,” answered Mr. Brown.  “Don’t be afraid.  Bunker and I fastened down the tent good and strong.  It can’t blow over.”

“But I’m getting all wet!” cried Bunny.  “The water’s leaking all over my bed, Daddy!”

“Yes, I didn’t know there was a hole in the tent.  I’ll fix it to-morrow,” said Bunny’s father.  “You get in my bed, Bunny!”

“Oh, goodie!” Bunny cried.  He always liked to get in his father’s bed.

But as Bunny jumped out of his own little cot, and pattered in his bare feet across to his father’s, he saw Daddy Brown getting up.  Mr. Brown was putting on a pair of rubber boots, and a rubber coat over his bath robe, which he had put on when the storm began.

“Where you going, Daddy?” asked Bunny, as he crawled into the dry bed, and pulled the covers up over him, for the wind was blowing in the tent now.  “Where you going?”