wait.

Bunny and Sue, with tears in their eyes, looked again in the barn and
all around the house.

"But where can Toby be?" asked Sue, over and over again.

"Maybe he ran away," said Tressa, the maid.

"He couldn't run away, 'cause the barn was locked," declared Bunny.

"Well, maybe he could open the lock, being a trick pony," went on
Tressa, who wanted to say something so the children would not feel so
bad.

"No, he couldn't do that," said Bunny. "Toby could do lots of tricks,
but there wasn't any hole in the barn door so he could reach out and
open the lock. Besides, the key was hanging in your kitchen all night,
Tressa."

"Yes, that's so. Well, maybe he jumped out of a window," went on the
kind-hearted maid. "I see one of the barn windows is open, and it is
near Toby's stall."

"Oh, maybe he did get out that way, and he's off playing in the woods!"
exclaimed Sue, who felt very sad about the pet pony's being gone.

"Oh, but he couldn't," said Bunny, after thinking it over a bit.
"There's a mosquito wire screen over the window, and if Toby had jumped
out the screen would be broken."

"Yes, that's so," admitted Tressa. "Well, I guess you'll find him
somewhere. Maybe he'll come home, wagging his tail behind him, as
Bo-Peep's sheep did."

Bunny shook his head.

"I guess somebody took our pony," he said.

"But how could they when the door was locked?" asked Sue.

Bunny did not know how to answer.

Mr. Brown came up from the fish and boat dock, and with him was Bunker
Blue.

"Did you find him?" asked Mr. Brown, meaning Toby, of course.

"No, he isn't to be found around here," answered Mrs. Brown. "We have
looked everywhere, but there is no Toby!"

"Oh, Daddy! do you think you can find him?" asked Sue, and there were
tears in her eyes.

"Of course I'll find him!" said Daddy Brown, and, somehow, it did the
children good just to hear their father say that. "Now, we'll begin at
the beginning," went on the fish merchant, "and have a look at the barn
door. You know there's an old saying not to lock the stable door after
the horse is stolen, but this time the door was locked before Toby was
taken away. We are sure of that. Now, I'll have a look at the lock and
key."

Mr. Brown looked carefully at these and also at the door of the stable.
There was nothing to show that any one had gotten in, and yet the lock
must have been opened or the door could not have been swung back to let
Toby out. And Toby was s