"When is a boat not a boat?" asked the Captain again. "When she's a drift, of course, like this one of mine was! Ho! Ho!" and he laughed heartily. "You see a boat's not a boat when she's adrift—a sort of snow drift! Ha! Ha! That's a riddle," and he laughed so heartily that Sue slipped from his lap.
Bunny and Sue laughed also, and they liked Captain Ross.
"Here we are now, all shipshape and Bristol fashion!" went on the captain as the motor boat towed the Fairy back to the wharf. This time Captain Ross tied the rope himself to make sure it would not come loose again.
"May we stay on the boat?" asked Bunny, as his father started back up to his office with Captain Ross.
"Yes, you may play on board until it's time to go home to supper," promised Mr. Brown. "But don't fall overboard and don't go adrift again."
"No, we won't!" said Bunny.
"If you do I'll never tell you any more riddles," laughed Captain Ross.
"Oh, what fun we'll have when the boat goes to Christmas Tree Cove and takes us there!" shouted Sue, as she and Bunny played about the deck.
The children had almost forgotten about their mother's lost ring and pocketbook, to say nothing of the five-dollar bill. But that afternoon, when they were going home with their father, they saw something that brought the loss back to their minds.
They were walking along the street with Daddy Brown when, all of a sudden, Bunny cried: