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"Come on," she invited, holding out her hands to Bunny and Sue. "I'll show you the other ponies, and the dogs, too. Maybe you can find your dog."
"Oh, I hope we can!" cried Sue. "Come on, Bunny!"
"But I'm sure this is Toby," said the little boy. "We'll go and look at the other ponies," he agreed, "but we'll come back to this one, for he's Toby."
"All right -- you can come back," said the woman, and she made a sign with her head at the gypsy man, who turned away.
"Come," urged the woman, and Bunny and Sue walked with her.
"We'll come back to you, Toby!" promised Bunny.
The pony looked after them as the children walked away, as though wondering why they left him. Through the woods, under the trees of which were tents and wagons, the gypsy woman led the children. Other gypsies came out to look at them, and none seemed very friendly.
"Where are the other ponies?" asked Bunny. "I don't see any."
"Oh, just over here," answered the woman. "Here, come through this tent with me. They're just beyond here!"
Before Bunny and Sue knew what was happening they had followed the dark-faced woman inside a tent. It was like the ones at Jaki Kezar's camp.
"There! Sit down!" said the woman, and she suddenly pushed Bunny and Sue into some chairs. "Sit down here awhile!"
"Where are the ponies?" asked Bunny. "We don't want to sit down. We want to see the other ponies, but I'm sure the first one was Toby."
"Never mind about the other ponies!" growled the woman, and her voice suddenly changed and was ugly and harsh again. "You'll just stay here for a while!"
Bunny and Sue did not know what to make of it. They had felt so sure they could take Toby and go home with their pony. And now to be all alone in a tent with a gypsy woman! It was too bad!
"I -- I don't want to stay here!" said Sue, almost ready to cry.
"Well, you've got to stay whether you want to or not!" snapped the gypsy woman. "We can't let you go to bring the police after us. You'll have to stay here! We'll just keep you prisoners awhile until we can pack up and move! Now don't be afraid, for I won't hurt you! You'll just have to stay until we can get away, that...
What was going to happen to Bunny and his Sister Sue?
Chapter XXIV
The Red-And-Yellow Box
The gypsy woman sat down in a chair in front of the two children and looked at them. And Bunny and Sue, their hearts beating fast, and not knowing what was going to happen to them, looked at the woman. They did not like her at all. She did not smile as Jaki Kezar had done, and her teeth, instead of being white and shin...
"If you don't cry nothing will happen to you," she said.
"We -- we're not going to cry!" said Bunny, as bravely as he could. "We -- we're not afraid and we want our pony!"
To tell the truth, Bunny had been on the point of crying, and there were tears in Sue's eyes. But when the little girl heard her brother say that, she just squeezed the tears back again where they belonged -- that is all except two, and they "leaked out," as she said afterward.
As for Bunny, the gypsy woman had hurt him a little when she shoved him down into the chair, and he had been going to cry a bit for that, but, when she told him not to, he just made up his mind that he would not.
"We -- we want to go home and take our pony," said Sue, and she gave a twist as though she was going to get up. "And we want our dog, too," she added.
"Now, you just sit still where you are!" exclaimed the woman. "If you're good maybe you can have your dog -- that is, if I can find him."
"And our pony, too? Can we have Toby?" asked Bunny eagerly.
"I don't know anything about your pony," said the woman, in a sort of growling voice. "That wasn't your pony you saw -- he belongs to me and my husband. We bought him!"
"But he is our pony!" said Bunny. "He knows us and we know him, and he's got white spots on, just like Toby."
"Lots of ponies have white spots," answered the gypsy woman. "That one isn't yours, I tell you."
"But he knows us," went on Bunny, "and he did the handkerchief trick. We want our pony and we want to go home!" and, for just a moment, Bunny felt very much like crying.
"You can go home after a bit," said the woman, as she looked out of the tent. "Now be good and don't make a fuss. If you're good you can have a dog. And then I'll let you look at some other ponies, and you can tell which is yours -- maybe. Just keep still!"
There was nothing else for Bunny and Sue to do. The gypsy woman looked so big and tall and so fierce that they were afraid of her. And she sat in front of them so they could not run past her to get out of the tent.
Something strange seemed to be going on in the gypsy camp. There was the sound of men's voices shouting, and the rattle of wagons and carts could be heard. There was also the sound of pans and dishes being packed up, for all the world, as Bunny said afterward, as though the camp was moving -- and it really was.
For perhaps an hour the woman sat in front of the children in the tent, and then she got up and looked out.
"I'm going to leave you here awhile," she said. "If you'll promise to be good, and not make a fuss, I won't tie you to your chairs. But if you act bad, I'll tie you up. Now will you be good?"
Bunny and Sue were nearly always good, and it did not take this threat to make them promise now. They just nodded their heads at the woman. She started out of the tent, but turned to shake her finger at them and say:
"Now, I'm going to tie the tent flaps shut, and don't you try to come out. If you do I'll see you, or some of us gypsies will, and if we don't the dogs will. So you'd better stay right here. You needn't be afraid, nobody is going to hurt you, and we're only going to keep you here until we can get away. We don't want th...
With that she slipped out, and Bunny and Sue could see her shadow in front. She was tying the flaps as they had often seen their father or mother tie the tent at night in Camp-Rest-a-While.
Then Bunny and Sue were left to themselves. They looked at one another for a moment and then Bunny said:
"That is our pony Toby!"
"I know it is!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, Bunny, how are we going to take him home?"
"I -- I'll think of a way -- maybe," said Bunny. The little boy felt that he must be brave and not let Sue know he was afraid. Really he was not as much afraid as some other boys of his age might have been, because he was thinking so much about Toby. He was so anxious to get his pony and take the pet home that he did n...
"Can we get out of here without her seeing us -- or the dogs?" asked Sue, after a while.
"I don't know," answered Bunny, and he whispered, as his sister had done. "I -- I'll take a look," he went on.
Slipping softly from his chair he peeped out through a little crack between the tent flaps.
"Is she there?" Sue asked.
"No, but that man is -- the one that wouldn't let us take Toby. He's lying on the grass right in front of the tent."
"Can you see Toby?" asked Sue.