Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store"Yes, Ma'am. A pound of sugar!" repeated Bunny, scooping up some sand in
a clam shell. "Nice day, isn't it--Mrs. er--Mrs.----"
"Snyder is my name," said Sadie. "I'm Mrs. Snyder and I live at 756
Oatbin Avenue," she added, as she looked toward the part of the barn she
had picked out for her "house." It was near Toby's oat bin.
"Yes, Ma'am," answered Bunny. "I'll send it right over to Oatbin
Avenue."
He wrapped up the sand-sugar in a piece of paper and took the black
mussel shell which Sadie handed him as her "five-dollar bill." Bunny
placed the shell in the automobile, and started it up the plank to where
Charlie waited. Taking out the large shell, Charlie put in two smaller
ones and a white stone. This was "change."
Back whizzed the auto down the plank until it reached Bunny, who took
out the "change" and handed it to "Mrs. Snyder."
"Please send my sugar right over," she ordered.
"Yes, Ma'am, it will go on the first delivery," Bunny answered, as he
had heard Mr. Gordon, the real grocer, often say.
"Here, Splash!" called Bunny, and his dog, with the basket on his neck,
came running up, wagging his tail.
"Oh, look out!" cried Sue, who was acting as a clerk next to Bunny.
"What's the matter?" Bunny asked.
"Splash is wagging his tail so hard that he'll knock down my eggs!"
complained Sue.
Of course the "eggs" were only pine cones from the woods near by, but
when you are playing store you must pretend everything is real, or else
it isn't any fun.
"Keep your tail still, Splash!" cried Bunny. But the dog seemed only to
wag it the harder.
Splash might have knocked down all the "eggs" and done other damage in
the store had not Bunny placed Mrs. Snyder's sugar in the basket and
sent his pet to deliver the make-believe sweet stuff.
And Splash delivered it very carefully, too. Sadie had gone back to her
home at "756 Oatbin Avenue" to wait for her sugar, and when it came she
took it from the basket on Splash's neck. Then the dog went back to the
barn store to run on more delivery errands.
This was a sample of the way Bunny, Sue, and their friends played that
Saturday morning. Now and then they would change about, some who had
been clerks becoming customers and the customers clerks.
Of course accidents happened. Splash wagged his tail so hard that he
knocked over a box of prunes, scattering them on the barn floor. Even if
the prunes were only little black stones it wasn't just the thing for
Splash to do, and Sue scolded him for it. But Splash didn't seem to
mind.
Another time, when the dog had been sent to deliver some ice-cream
(which was really some white sand from the brook) to Mrs. Leland Sayre,
who lived at 1056 Straw Terrace (Mrs. Sayre being Mary Watson), an
accident happened. Splash was on his way to Mrs. Sayre's home when he
heard another dog barking outside the barn.
With a bark of greeting Splash dashed out, spilling the "ice-cream" all
over the barn floor.
"Oh, dear! And I wanted it for a party!" said Mrs. Sayre.
But of course it was all in fun.
More than once the change auto ran off the plank, either on its way to
the cashier or coming back, and spilled the money all over the barn
floor. But that could not be helped.
"Only it isn't good for my auto," said Charlie.
"We'll put some straw down on the floor so when it falls it won't get
bent," said Bunny, and this was done.
All morning the children played store in the barn, selling the things
over and over again. Splash got tired of being a delivery dog after a
while, and Bobbie Boomer said he'd take his place. Bobbie was more to be
depended on than Splash, who, try as he did, would sometimes deliver
things to the wrong houses.
When noon came the neighboring children were talking of going home to
lunch, but Mrs. Brown gave them all a pleasant surprise, including Bunny
and Sue, by asking all the boys and girls to remain and have something
to eat, served in the barn.
"Oh, what fun!" cried Sadie West.
"The best ever!" declared Charlie Star. "I'm glad I came!"
Lunch over, the playing of store went on again, until first one and then
another began to tire, and it was given up. Then they put away the
planks and boxes and played tag and hide and seek until it was time for
supper, when the boys and girls went home.
"We've had a lovely time!" they said to Bunny and Sue.
Just before supper Mrs. Brown needed something from the store.
"I'll go get it," offered Bunny. "I'll get it at Mrs. Golden's."
"I'll go with you," said Sue, and soon they were at the little corner
grocery.
"How are you to-day, Mrs. Golden?" asked Bunny, as the old woman was
getting the yeast cake he had been sent for.
"Oh, pretty well," she answered, with a cheery smile on her kind but
wrinkled face. "I'd like it if I wasn't so stiff, but then we can't have
all we want in this world."
"We played store in our barn to-day," said Sue, looking around at the
various shelves filled with many articles.
"Did you, dearie? That was nice. I guess it's easier to play store than
it is to keep one really," said Mrs. Golden.
"Oh, I'd like to keep store!" declared Bunny Brown. "Only, how do you
remember where everything is?" he asked. "There's such a lot of stuff!"
"Yes, there is," agreed Mrs. Golden. "And sometimes I forget. But I'm
getting old, I reckon. There's your yeast cake. Now run along, and be
careful when you cross the street."
"Yes'm, we will!" promised Bunny, as he took Sue's hand.
"Maybe, when vacation comes, Mrs. Golden will let us help her in her
store," said Bunny to his sister, as they neared their home.
"Oh, maybe!" Sue agreed. "And it soon will be vacation, won't it?"
"Yes," said Bunny. "I wonder where we'll go this summer."
"I wonder, too," mused Sue. "If we could stay at home and have a real
store it would be fun!"
Bunny agreed to this.
Several days passed. The hole in the school yard was filled up so there
was no further danger of any of the boys or girls falling in. Charlie
did not again bring his toy auto to school.
But something else happened.
One afternoon Charlie Star walked home with Bunny and Sue from school.
Bunny had made a new sailboat, and he wanted Charlie to see it make the
first voyage down the brook which ran back of the Brown home.
"May I come, too?" asked Sue, as Bunny carried his little vessel down to
the stream.
"Sure, let her come," advised Charlie.
"All right," called Bunny, and Sue ran along after the boys.
But Bunny and Charlie were so interested in sailing the new boat that
they did not pay much attention to Sue after reaching the brook. They
watched the wind puff out the sails and Charlie was just going to ask
Bunny if he would trade the boat for the toy auto when there came a loud
scream from Sue, who had wandered off by herself.
"Oh, Bunny! I've falled in! I've falled in!" cried Sue.
"Oh, she is in!" exclaimed Charlie, glancing upstream.
"And there's a deep hole there!" shouted Bunny, darting away. "Come on,
Charlie! Help me pull Sue out of the hole!"
CHAPTER IX
UP A LADDER
Charlie Star needed no second urging. Bunny had forgotten all about his
toy ship, but Charlie gave one look and saw that it had safely blown on
shore. Then Charlie sped after his chum.
"We're coming, Sue! We're coming!" cried Bunny. "Don't be afraid!"
"We'll get you out!" added Charlie.
The brook that ran back of the Brown house was rather deep in places,
and some of these places were near shore where the bank went steeply
down into the water. It was at one of these places that Sue had fallen
in.
The little girl had been looking for "sweet-flag." This is the root of a
plant something like the cat-tail in looks--that is, it has the same
kind of long, narrow ribbon-like leaves.
But while the root of the sweet-flag is pleasant to gnaw, though a
trifle smarty, the root of the cat-tail is of no use--that is, as far as
Sue could tell. She wanted some sweet-flag, but not cat-tail root, and
to find out which was right she had to pull up many of the long, green
streamers. If Sue had known how to tell the difference otherwise it
would have been easier.
It was in bending over to pull up some of the flag roots that she had
leaned too far, and suddenly she found herself in the water. She had
slipped off the muddy bank at a place where it was steep and the water
was deep.
Luckily Sue had slipped in feet first, and now she was standing in water
over her waist, yelling for Bunny to come and help her.
Breathless, the two boys reached the little girl. They could see then,
that she was in no special danger, since the water was not over her
head. If Sue had fallen in head first instead of feet first that would
have been sadly different.
"Come on out! Come on out!" cried Bunny, reaching his hand toward his
sister.
"I--I can't!" she answered.
"Why not?" Charlie asked.
"'Cause I'm stuck. I'm stuck in the mud!" Sue answered.
"Oh!" exclaimed Bunny. "Then we have to pull you out!"
"That's right!" said Charlie Star. "I'll help!"
"Look out you don't fall in yourselves!" warned Sue, as they held out
their hands to her. "It's awful slippery!"
And the bank was, as Charlie and Bunny soon found, for Charlie nearly
slid in as Sue had done and Bunny almost followed. But by digging their
heels in the slippery mud they held on and soon they had pulled Sue out
of the hole.
But, oh, in what a sad plight was the little girl!
She was soaking wet to a line above her waist, and she was splashed with
water above that, some mud spots being on her face, one on the end of
her nose making her appear rather odd. Her shoes and stockings were
covered with black, mucky mud.
"Oh! Oh, dear!" exclaimed Sue, looking down at her legs, and began to
cry.
"Don't cry!" advised Charlie.
"I--I can't help it!" wailed Sue. "And there's something on my nose,
too!"
"It's only a blob of mud," said Bunny. "I'll wipe it off," and he did,
very kindly.
"Look--look at my shoo-shooes!" sobbed Sue.
"Splash 'em in the water," advised Charlie. "Sit down on the bank, Sue,
and splash your feet in the water."
"What'll I do that for?" she asked, through her tears. "I'm wet enough
now!"
"Yes, I know," said Charlie. "And you can't get any wetter by dabbling
your feet and legs in the water. But it will wash off the mud. You might
as well wash it off."
"That's right," agreed Bunny. "Your legs will dry better if they are
just wet, instead of being wet and muddy, Sue. Dabble 'em in the brook."
Sue thought this must be good advice, since it came from both boys. She
was about to sit down near the place where she had slid into the brook,
but Charlie said:
"No, not there! That water's all muddy. Come on down to a clean place."
This Sue did, sitting on the grassy bank and thrusting her feet and legs
into the water up to her knees, splashing them up and down until most of
the mud was washed from her stockings and shoes.
"Now we'll take you home," said Charlie.
"No!" exclaimed Sue. "I don't want to go home!"
"You don't want to go home?" repeated Bunny. "Why not? You have to get
dry things on, Sue! Mother won't scold you for falling into the brook
when it wasn't your fault!"
"I know she won't," Sue said. "But--but--I'm not going in the house
looking all soaking wet! There's company--some ladies came to call on
mother before we went out to play--and they'll see me if I go in the
front door. I'm not going to have them laugh at me!"
"We'll take you in the side door then," offered Bunny.
"That'll be just as bad," whimpered Sue. "They can see me from the
window."
"Well, then we'll go in the back way," Charlie proposed.
"No!" sobbed Sue. "If I go in the back way Mary'll see me, and she'll
say, 'bless an' save us!' and make such a fuss that mother'll come out
and it will be as bad as the front or side door!" complained the little
girl. "I don't want to go home all wet!"
"But you'll have to!" insisted Bunny. "You can't stay out here till you
get dry. You must go to the house, Sue!"
"Not the front way nor the side way nor the back way!" Sue declared.
"Then how are you going to get in?" asked Bunny. "Do you want to go in
through the cellar?"
"I'd have to come up in the kitchen," objected Sue, "and Mary would see
me just the same and she'd say, 'bless an' save us!'"
"Well, but how are you going to get in?" Bunny demanded. "There isn't
any other way."
"Yes, there is!" suddenly exclaimed Charlie.
"How?" asked Bunny Brown.
"Up the painter's ladder," went on Charlie. "They're painting the roof
of your sun parlor. And the ladder's right there. We can get Sue up the
ladder to the roof of the sun parlor, and there's a second-story window
she can get in so nobody can see her, and change her things."
"Oh! A ladder!" gasped Sue, when she heard how Charlie and her brother
planned to get her into the house unseen by company. "A ladder!"
"Sure!" cried Bunny. "That's the best way! Charlie and I'll help you
up."
"You won't let me fall?" asked Sue.
"Course not!" declared Charlie. "I've climbed lots of ladders!"
"So have I!" boasted Bunny Brown. "And so have you, Sue Brown!"
"And can't anybody see me if I go up the painter's ladder?" asked Sue,
who was feeling most uncomfortable, being clammy and wet.
"Nobody'll see you!" declared Charlie. "The ladder's away off on one
side of the sun parlor. Mary can't see you from the kitchen, and your
mother and the company can't see you."
"Is the painter there?" Sue went on. She was asking a good many
questions and making a number of objections, I think.
"No, the painter isn't there," Charlie said. "I saw him going back to
the shop after more paint when we came down here."
"All right then!" sighed Sue. "Help me up the ladder!"
Cautiously the children approached it. There the ladder stood, a big
one, on a long slant leading from the ground to the roof of the
one-story sun parlor. From the roof of this extension were several
windows Sue could climb into, one opening from her own room.
No one was in sight, and the painter had not come back. Sue was just
starting up the ladder, with Bunny going before her and Charlie
following her, when the little girl happened to think of something
else.
"S'posin' the roof's just been painted?" she asked. "How can I walk on
it?"
This was a poser for a moment until Charlie exclaimed:
"If it is I'll get some boards and we can lay them down to walk on."
Sue had no further excuse for not going up the ladder, and she began to
climb. She reached the top, and it was found that the painter had spread
his red mixture on only part of the roof. There was room enough to walk
on the unpainted part to her room window.
She was just climbing in, with the help of the boys, when she suddenly
noticed something that made her exclaim:
"Oh, look! How did that happen?"
CHAPTER X
THE LEGACY
"What's the matter? What's happened?" asked Bunny Brown. "Are you going
to fall, Sue?"
He was helping his sister on one side to climb in the window, and
Charlie was on the other side of the little girl.
"No, I'm not going to fall," Sue answered. "But look at my dress! It's
all red paint!"
And so it was! In addition to being wet and muddy her skirt was now
covered with big blotches of red paint--the same kind of paint that was
being put on the roof.
"How did it happen?" went on Sue, almost ready to cry again. "I didn't
step in any paint, did I?"
"Even if you did I don't see how it got on your dress," said Charlie
Star.
"There's some on me, too!" cried Bunny Brown. "There's some on my
pants!"
"And I'm daubed just like you!" cried Charlie. "We're all three
painted!"
And they were, only Sue had more of it on her dress than the boys had on
their clothes.
"It must have been on the ladder," decided Charlie. "The painter man got
some of his red stuff on the ladder and we got it on us."
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue. "Now after my dress is dry and I brush the mud
off mother will see the red paint. Course I'd tell her, anyhow, but I
wish she wouldn't see it first!"
However, there seemed no help for it. All three of the children had red
paint on their clothes, and paint, you know, can't be brushed off. When
it's on it stays, unless turpentine, or something like that, is used to
take it off.
Sue, and the boys, too, had hoped that Mrs. Brown would not know what
had happened. It wasn't that they wanted to deceive, or fool, her, but
Sue wanted to tell of the accident at the brook in her own way and time.
She really did not want to cause her mother worry when Mrs. Brown had
company. And Mrs. Brown would certainly begin to ask questions when she
saw those red spots on Sue's dress.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue again, and she seemed about to burst into tears.
Neither Bunny nor Charlie knew what to do.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue for the third time.
Suddenly the three children saw the upper end of the ladder--the part
that was raised up over the roof of the sun parlor. They saw this part
of the ladder moving.
"Oh, somebody's coming up!" exclaimed Charlie.
"Maybe it's mother!" wailed Sue. "Oh, help me get in the window! I don't
want her to see me this way!"
"Mother wouldn't be coming up the ladder!" declared Bunny. "What would
she be coming up the ladder for?"
"That's so!" agreed Charlie. "I guess she wouldn't."
"But somebody's coming up!" declared Sue, and this was very plain to be
seen. The ladder shook more and more.
Wonderingly the children watched it, and then there came into sight,
above the roof of the sun parlor, the head and shoulders of the
painter. He looked surprised as he saw the children, and then a cheerful
smile spread over his face as he said:
"Well, you've been getting daubed up, I see!"
"Ye-yes," faltered Bunny. "We got some of your paint on us!"
"'Tisn't my paint!" laughed the painter. "It's your father's, Bunny. I
got this paint down at his boat dock to paint the roof of this sun
parlor. I don't mind how much of it you daub on yourselves. 'Tisn't my
paint, you know!"
"But we don't want it on us!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, I fell in the brook
and I got all muddy and now I'm all covered with paint! Oh, dear!"
Sue was almost crying again, and the painter who at first had thought
the children were merely playing, now began to understand that something
was wrong.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Then the story was told, of why the boys had helped Sue climb up the
ladder to get into her room so her mother and the company would not see
her in her soiled dress.
"But now we're all paint!" wailed Sue.
"Well, never mind!" said the good-natured painter. "I can take those
paint spots out for you, if that's all you're worrying about."
"Oh, can you?" eagerly cried Sue.
"How?" asked Charlie Star, who was a rather curious little chap.
"Will you?" asked Bunny Brown, which was more to the point.
"I can and will!" said the painter. "Wait until I get some clean rags
and my turpentine."
He want back down the ladder, but soon came up again, with a can of
something with a strong, but not unpleasant smell. Bunny remembered that
smell. Once when he was little, and had a bad cold, his mother had
rubbed lard and turpentine on his chest.
"This turpentine will take the paint out when it's fresh," said the
painter. "Stand still now."
He wet the rag in some turpentine, which, as you know, is the juice, or
sap, of the pine and other trees. It is used to mix with paint, which
it will dissolve, or melt away after a fashion. It also helps the paint
to dry more quickly when spread on a house or bridge.
With the turpentine rag the painter rubbed at the red spots on Sue's
dress, and then, having taken those out, he began on Bunny and Charlie.
But the boys wanted to take out their own paint spots, and the painter
let them do it.
"There you are," he finally said. "I guess they won't show now."
"And my dress is nearly dry!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, I'm so glad. Mother
won't know until I tell her. And of course I'll tell her," she quickly
added.
Sue was as good as her word. After she got into her room and the boys
had climbed down the ladder to go back and play with Bunny's little
ship, Sue changed into dry clothes.
Then, after the company had gone, she told her mother all that had
happened.
"I suppose it couldn't be helped," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "I mean
about falling into the brook. But it would have been just as well to
come and tell me at once, Sue, instead of climbing the ladder. You
might have fallen."
"I didn't want the company to know about it, Mother!"
"That was thoughtful of you. But if you had fallen off the ladder the
company would have known about that, and it would have been much worse
than just being seen in a wet and muddy dress."
"Oh, I couldn't fall with Bunny and Charlie to help me!" declared Sue.
That evening, just before supper, after Charlie Star had gone home and
Bunny and Sue were playing out in the side yard, Mary called to them,
asking:
"Do you children want to run to the store for me?"
"Yes," answered Bunny, and Sue inquired:
"What do you want?"
"A little pepper," was the answer. "I forgot that we were out and didn't
order any when the grocery boy called to-day."
"We'll get it at Mrs. Golden's corner store!" said Bunny. "She keeps
pepper."
"All right," Mary agreed. "Wait and I'll get you the money. We don't
charge things at her store."
A little later Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, hand in hand, entered
Mrs. Golden's little store.
"Well, my dears, what is it to-day?" asked the old lady, with a smile.
"Some pepper, if you please," answered Sue.
"Red or black?" asked Mrs. Golden.
Bunny and Sue looked at one another. This was something they had not
thought about. Which did Mary want--red or black?
Seeing that the children were puzzled, Mrs. Golden said:
"What is your mother going to use it for, my dears?"
"Mother didn't tell us to get it," replied Bunny. "It was Mary, our
cook, who sent us after it, 'cause she forgot to get any for supper."
"Oh, then it's black pepper she wants, I suppose," said Mrs. Golden.
"She wouldn't want red pepper unless she were putting up pickles or
something like that. I'll give you black pepper."
She started to rise from her chair, for she had been seated near the
back of the store, but seemed so old and feeble that Bunny and Sue felt
very sorry for her. When ladies got as old as Mrs. Golden seemed to be
they ought always to rest in easy chairs, Bunny thought, and not have to
get up to wait on a store.
Mrs. Golden grunted and groaned a little as she pushed herself up from
the arms of the big chair.
"Are you terrible old?" asked Sue.
"I'm pretty old, yes, my dear," said Mrs. Golden. "But I don't mind
that. It's the stiffness and the rheumatism. It's hard for me to get
about, and the black pepper's on a high shelf, too. If my son Philip was
only here he'd reach it down for me."
"Where is Philip?" asked Sue.
"Oh, he's gone to the city on business. He hopes to get a little
legacy."
"What's a leg-legacy?" asked Bunny. "Is it something to sell in the
store?"
"Bless your heart, no!" laughed Mrs. Golden. "A legacy is money, or
property, or something like that which is left to you. If some of your
rich relations die they leave money in the bank, or a house and lot, and
it comes to you. That's a legacy."
"Did some of your rich relations die?" asked Sue.
"Well, an old man, who wasn't a very close relation, died," said the
storekeeper. "There was some talk that he might leave me something, and
Philip went to the city to see about it.
"But, dear, me! things are so uncertain in this world that I don't
believe I'll get anything. There's no use thinking about it. I don't
want to be disappointed, but I would like to get some money!"
Poor old lady! She seemed very sad and feeble, and the children felt
sorry for her.
"Let me see now," went on Mrs. Golden. "Was it salt you said you wanted,
Bunny?"
"No'm, pepper--black pepper."
"Oh, yes, black pepper! And it's on a high shelf, too. I wish Philip was
back. He'd reach it down for me. I don't believe he'll get that legacy
after all. Let me see now--pepper--black pepper----"
"Let me get it!" begged Bunny. "I can climb up on a high shelf!"
"So can I!" cried Sue. "I went up on a ladder, after I fell in the
brook, and I got red paint on my dress!"
"My, what a lot of things to happen!" murmured Mrs. Golden, as slowly
and feebly she made her way around the store to the side where she kept
the groceries.
"Let me get the pepper!" begged Bunny, as he saw the old woman looking
toward a top shelf. "I can climb up."
"Well, my dear, if you're sure you won't fall, you may get it," said
Mrs. Golden. "I've got some sort of a thing to reach down packages and
boxes from the high shelf. My boy Philip got it for me. But I can hardly
ever find it when I want it. Be careful now, Bunny."
"I will," said the little fellow, as he began to climb.
Sue watched her brother, thinking over what Mrs. Golden had told them
about a legacy.
"If she got a lot of money," mused Sue, "she could get a big store, all
spread out flat and she wouldn't have to have any high shelves. I hope
she gets her legacy."
Bunny was just reaching for the box of pepper when there was a sudden
barking of dogs outside the store and something black and furry, with a
long tail, rushed in, leaped up on the counter, and thence to the top
shelf, knocking down a lot of boxes and cans.