“I guess he ran away from you the same as he did from me,” said Mr. Trimble as Mr. Brown turned away.

Bunny’s father shook his head.

“Tom Vine isn’t that kind of boy,” he said.  “He may have run away from you because you didn’t treat him well, but he would not run away from us.  He liked it at Camp Rest-a-While.”

“That’s all you know about boys!” laughed the farmer.  “I treated him as well as he needed to be treated.  Boys are all lazy.  They’d rather play than work.  And you’ll find out that Tom Vine has run away from you.  He didn’t want to work.”

“He didn’t work very hard at our camp,” said Mr. Brown.  “All he had to do was to wash the dishes and help with little things.  He liked it.  I’m sure something has happened to him, and I’m sorry, for I intended doing something for him.”

“Well, I haven’t got him, though I wish I had,” grumbled Mr. Trimble.  “If I catch him, I’ll make him work hard!”

“Then I hope you don’t catch him,” Mr. Brown said.

He went down to the boat with the children and Bunker Blue, and they were soon back at camp.

“Did you see anything of him?” asked Mrs. Brown, coming down to the edge of the lake, as she saw the boat nearing the shore.

“No,” answered Mr. Brown.  “Mr. Trimble said he isn’t at the farm, and I don’t believe he is.  You didn’t see anything of him while we were gone, did you?”

Mrs. Brown shook her head.

“Uncle Tad has been looking up around the spring again,” she said, “but he couldn’t find him.”

“Oh dear!” sighed Bunny.  “Poor Tom is lost!”

“He must have been frightened by something at the spring,” said Mr. Brown, “and have run off.”

“Well, there’s one thing we don’t have to worry about,” said Mrs. Brown.  “There aren’t any wild animals in these woods.  None of them could get Tom.”

She said that so Bunny and Sue would not be thinking about it.

Two days and nights passed, and there was no sign of Tom.  One afternoon Mrs. Brown baked some pies in the oven of the oil stove.  She was all alone in camp, for Mr. Brown, the children, and Bunker Blue had gone fishing.  Uncle Tad had gone for a walk in the woods.

Mrs. Brown put the pies on a table in the cooking-tent to cool, while she went to the spring for a fresh pail of water.  When she came back she looked at the pies.  Then she rubbed her eyes and counted them.

“Why!” she cried.  “One of the pies is gone!  I baked four, and there are only three here.  Who took the pie?”

She looked under the table, in boxes and on chairs, thinking perhaps a fox or a big muskrat might have come along and tried to drag the pie, tin and all, away.  But the pie was not to be found.

“Who could have taken my pie?” asked Mrs. Brown.

CHAPTER XVII

A NOISE AT NIGHT

When Mr. Brown, Bunny, Sue and Bunker Blue came back from their little fishing trip, they saw Mother Brown walking about the camp, in and out among the tents, looking here and there.