"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.

"Have you lost something, Mother?" asked Bunny.

"Well, yes, I have--sort of," she said, smiling. "I've lost a pie!"

"Oh, a pie!" cried Sue. "Did you drop it, Mother, and did it fall down a
crack in the board walk, like my penny did once?"

"No!" laughed Mrs. Brown. "It wasn't that way."

Then she told of having made four pies, setting them on the table to
coo