“Come on in, Bunny Brown!”

Thus called Helen, Sue and the others who were playing the game of hide-and-go-to-seek.  For Bunny had not been found, and he had not run up to touch “home,” and be “in free.”

Helen had not been able to find the little fellow, so well was he hidden.

“I can’t think where he is,” she said.  “I looked all over.”

“But you didn’t find me!” cried Sue, clapping her hands in fun.

“No, you were so close to me, back of the lilac bush, that I never thought of looking there,” said Helen.  Sue had run “in free,” as soon as Helen’s back was turned.

“But where is Bunny?” everyone asked.

“Come on in!” they called.

But Bunny did not come.

“Let’s all look for him,” suggested Charlie Star.  “Maybe he went away off down the street, or maybe he is out in the barn.”

There was a barn back of the Brown house, in which Bunny’s father kept some horses used in his business.  The children often played in the barn, especially on rainy days, when they did not go up to the attic.

“Let’s look in the barn,” Charlie went on.

“It wasn’t fair to hide out there,” Helen said.  “That is too far away.”

“Maybe Bunny didn’t,” suggested Sue.

“Well, we’ll look, anyhow,” went on Sadie.

Out to the barn trooped the children, but though they looked in the haymow, and in the empty stalls (for most of the horses were out at work) no Bunny could be found.

Then they went back to look around the house, in some of the nooks and corners near which the others had hidden.

“Bunny!  Bunny!” they called.  “Why don’t you come in, so we can have another game?  You won’t have to blind.”

But Bunny did not answer.

Pretty soon Sue began to get a little frightened, and her playmates, too, thought it queer that they could not find Bunny, and that he did not answer.

“Maybe we’d better tell your mother, Sue,” Sadie said.

“Yes, for maybe he fell down a hole, and can’t get up,” suggested Helen.

They called once more, and looked in many other places, but Bunny was not to be found.  Then into the house they went.

“Oh, Mother!” cried Sue, her eyes opening wide, “we can’t find Bunny anywhere, and he won’t answer us.”

“Can’t find him!”

“Won’t answer you!”

Mother Brown and Aunt Lu spoke thus, one after the other.

“We were playing hide-and-go-to-seek,” explained Helen, “and Bunny hid himself in such a queer place that we can’t find him.”

“Maybe it’s just one of his tricks,” said Aunt Lu.

“No, it can’t be a trick,” Charlie Star explained, “because Bunny likes to play the game, and he doesn’t have to blind this time.  We’ve hollered that at him, but he won’t come in.”

Seeing that the children were really worried, Mrs. Brown and Aunt Lu said they would come out and help search.  They looked in all the places they could think of, and called Bunny’s name, as did the others, but the little fellow was not found.