you, Bunny?"

"Yes. Put your blankets right down here by mine, and we'll both go to
sleep. Won't daddy and mother be s'prised when they find we've camped
out all night?"

"I--I guess they will," Sue said. "It kinder s'prises me, too!"

Sue was dragging her blankets over toward the place when Bunny had his
spread out on the ground, and she was just going to lie down, when the
flaps of the tent were suddenly shoved to one side, and something came
in.

"Oh! oh!" cried Sue, as she threw herself down in her blankets, and
wrapped herself up in them, even covering her head. "Oh, Bunny! Bunny!
What is it? What's after us?"

"I--I don't know," said Bunny, and his voice trembled a little.

Then Sue raised her head and peeped out from under her blanket. She saw
something standing in the front door of the tent, half way in, and half
way out. The moon was still shining brightly, and Sue cried:

"Oh, Bunny! It's a bear! It's a bear!"

Just then there came a loud:

"Bow-wow-wow!"

Bunny and Sue both laughed then. Then were frightened no longer.

"Oh, it's our dog, Splash!" cried Sue. "It's only Splash!"

"Here, Splash!" called Bunny. Then with a joyous bark the dog sprang
inside the tent, and snuggled close up to his two little play-mates.

"Now I isn't afraid," said Sue, as she put her arms around the big
shaggy neck of her pet. "Now I isn't afraid any more. Splash can sleep
with us; can't he, Bunny?"

"Yes, Sue. Now go to sleep. Isn't this fun?"

"Yes, it is when Splash is here," Sue said.

Though Bunny did not say so, he, too, was glad their dog had come to
spend the rest of the night with them. Not that there was anything to be
afraid of, oh, dear no! There were no bears, or wolves, or anything like
that in Bellemere. There were big fish in the bay and in the ocean, but
of course they never came up on land.

"And, even if they did," said Sue sleepily to Bunny when they were
talking about this, as they lay close to the big dog in their blankets,
"even if any fish did flop up, Bunny, Splash would catch them; wouldn't
he?"

"Sure!" answered Bunny.

"You would; wouldn't you, Splash?" asked the little girl, her chubby arm
around the dog's neck.

Splash whined softly, and rubbed his cold nose first against the warm
cheek of Sue, and then against Bunny's. That was his way of kissing
them, I think.

And so, strange as it may seem, Bunny and Sue went to sleep in the
camping tent that night. They were well wrappe