So the children went away from the window.

“Say, Sue,” said Bunny, after a bit, “we can play we are camping out here.  That would be fun, and we can make a bed of the pieces of bags that I fell on off the banister, and—­”

“But I’m hungry, and there’s nothing to eat!” Sue exclaimed.  “When we camp out, or go on a picnic, there are things to eat.”

“That’s so,” agreed Bunny.  “This isn’t as much fun as I thought it was.  I wish I hadn’t tried to get any red paint.”

“So do I,” Sue said, but she was not blaming her brother.  She had been just as anxious to go into the vacant house as he had been.

The children did not know what to do.  They were both ready to cry, but neither Wanted to.  It was getting dark now.

“Let’s holler!” exclaimed Sue.  “Maybe somebody will hear us and come and let us out.”

“All right,” said Bunny.  They both called together.  But the vacant house was not near any other, and none of the neighbors heard the childish voices.

“I—­I guess I’d better get the bags and make a bed, for we’ll have to stay here all night,” said Bunny, when they were quite tired from calling aloud.

“Then make my bed near yours, Bunny,” said Sue.  “I—­I don’t want to be alone.”

“I’ll take care of you,” promised the little blue-eyed chap, as he remembered what his mother had told him.

Bunny went to the front hall to get the cloth bags.  Sue went with him, for she did not want to be left alone in the room that was now getting quite dark.

But Bunny and Sue did not have to stay all night in the empty house.  Just as they were picking up the bags, they heard a noise at the front door and a voice called: 

“Bunny!  Sue!  Are you in there?”

For a moment they did not answer, they were so surprised with joy.  Then Bunny cried: 

“Oh, it’s Uncle Tad!  It’s Uncle Tad!”

While Sue exclaimed: 

“We’re here!  Yes, we’re here, Uncle Tad!  Oh, please let us out!”

There was a squeaking noise and the front door was pushed open.  In came the old soldier, and Bunny and Sue made a jump for his arms.  He caught them up and kissed them.

“Well, little ones, I’ve found you!” he cried.  “I thought maybe you were in here.  My, but what a fright you’ve given your mother and all of us!”

“We came in for some red paint,” explained Bunny, “and we got locked in.”

“No, the door wasn’t locked,” Uncle Tad explained.  “It was just stuck real hard.  You weren’t strong enough to pull it open, I suppose.  But don’t ever do anything like this again.”

“We won’t,” promised Bunny.  He was always pretty good at making promises, was Bunny Brown.  “We just wanted to get some red paint so I could play Mr. Punch with the lobster claw,” he went on.

“And we slid down the banister,” added Sue, “and I bumped Bunny off the post.”

“But she didn’t hurt me,” Bunny said.