“No, I don’t; but my doll does,” declared Sue. “She’s different! She used to close her eyes when she went to sleep, but something broke in her and now she doesn’t close them. She sleeps with her eyes open.”
“Well, it’s a funny way to sleep,” remarked Bunny. “Anyhow, if she is asleep, let’s play ring-toss.”
“All right,” agreed Sue.
This is a game often played on shipboard. On the deck is set up a short wooden pin, or pole. Each player is given several rings of rope, some large and some small.
Standing a short distance away from the pin, each player tries to toss all his or her rope rings over the little pole. The one who tosses the largest number of rings over the pin wins the game.
Some of the men and women passengers played this game, but just now the rings were not in use, and Bunny and Sue took them. They placed the pin, set in its wooden base, on the deck near a companionway and began to toss the rings.
Whether Sue was more skillful or more lucky than Bunny may be guessed at, but she certainly tossed more rings over the pin than did her brother. This made Bunny try all the harder.
“Here goes one over!” he cried, tossing a ring as hard as he could.
He did not throw it straight and it went too high. In fact, it went toward the stairway instead of toward the pin. And just then his father came up the stairs.
As if Bunny had aimed it, the rope ring, one of the largest, shot straight for Mr. Brown and settled down over his head and around his neck.