CHAPTER XI

THE HERMIT AGAIN

Bunny Brown was a wise little lad, considering that he was only about seven years old.  But many of those years had been spent with his father going about in the woods, and while there Mr. Brown had told him much about the birds, bugs and animals they saw under the trees.  So that the woods were not exactly strange to Bunny.

Above all, he was not afraid in them, except maybe when he was all alone on a dark night.  And one thing had Mr. Brown especially impressed on Bunny.  This was: 

“Never get frightened when you think you are lost in the woods.  If you think you are lost, you may be sure you can either find your way out, or some one will find you in a little while.

“So the best thing to do when you fear you are lost is to sit quietly down on a log, think which way you believe your camp or home is, think where the sun gets up in the morning and where it goes to bed in the night.  And, whatever you do, don’t rush about, calling and yelling and forgetting even which way you came.  So, when you’re lost keep cool.”

Remembering what his father had told him, Bunny Brown, as soon as he heard Sue say they were lost, looked for a log and, finding one not far away, he went over and sat down on it.

“Why, Bunny Brown!” cried Sue, “what in the world are you doing?  Don’t you know we’re lost, and you’ve got to find the way back to our camp, for I never can.  Oh, dear!  I think it’s over this way.  No, it must be here.  Oh, Bunny, which is the right way to go?”

“That’s just what I’m trying to find out,” he said.

“You are not!” cried Sue.  “You’re just sitting there like a bump on a log, as Aunt Lu used to say.”

“Well, I’m doing what father told us to do,” said Bunny.  “I’m keeping cool and trying to think.  If you run around that way you’ll get all hot, and you can’t think.  And it may take both of us to think of the way home.”

“Well, of course, I want to help,” said Sue.  “I don’t want you to do it all.  But we’re awful much lost, Bunny.”

“Are you sure, Sue?” he asked.

“Of course I’m sure.  I was never in this part of the woods before and I can’t tell where it is.”

“Do you know where the sun rises?” asked Bunny, for it was, just then, behind some clouds.

“It rises in the east, of course,” said Sue.  “I learned that in our jogfry.”

“Yes, but which way is east from here?” Bunny wanted to know.  “If I could tell that, I might find our camp, ’cause the sun comes up every morning in front of our tent, and that faces the east.”

“But you can’t walk to the sun, Bunny Brown.  It’s millions and millions of miles away!  Our teacher said so.”

“I’m not going to walk to the sun,” said the little boy.  “I just want to walk toward it, but I’ve got to know which way it is first, so’s to know which way to walk.”