Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store"I'm glad you are so kind about it," said Mrs. Brown. "Bunny generally
is careful when he waters the garden. If you will come in and get
dry----"
"Oh, no, thank you! I'll dry better in the sun. Clean water will hurt
no one, and I might just as well have been caught in a shower.
Good-bye!" he called, and hurried away.
"After this, Bunny," advised his mother, as he kept on wetting the
garden, "it will be best to turn off the water if you leave the hose."
"Yes, Mother, I will," he promised.
So that little happening passed off all right, and later Bunny and the
gentleman--who was a newcomer in town, Mr. Halsted by name--became good
friends.
One day, about a week after vacation had started, during which time
Bunny and Sue had had much fun, the two children went to the little
corner store kept by Mrs. Golden. Bunny and Sue each had two cents to
spend, and they were allowed to get some candy.
As they entered the store they saw Mrs. Golden trying to sweep, but the
way in which the old woman used the broom showed that she was in pain.
As the children entered she stopped, held her hand to her side, and
tried to stand up.
"Oh!" she murmured, in a low voice.
"Is it your rheumatism?" asked Bunny.
"That, or something worse," replied the old lady, with a sigh. "I get a
pain in my side every time I sweep."
"Let me do it!" begged Sue. "I love to sweep, and I'd like to help you."
"So would I!" exclaimed Bunny. "I can sweep, too. Please let me!"
Almost before she realized it, Mrs. Golden had given up the broom to
Sue, and the little girl was sweeping the store, while Bunny waited for
his turn.
Suddenly the doorway was darkened, and a big man with a bushy black
beard came stalking in.
"Where's Mrs. Golden?" he asked, looking at some papers in his hand. "I
want to see Mrs. Golden," and his voice was cross.
"I'm Mrs. Golden," answered the old lady. "What can I do for you?"
"The best thing you can do is to pay that money!" snapped the man.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CROSS MAN
Bunny and Sue had at first paid no attention to the big man with the
black beard who entered the little corner grocery store so suddenly. The
children thought he was a customer come to buy some groceries.
But when the man, in that cross voice, said Mrs. Golden had better pay
him some money, Bunny and Sue looked sharply at him, Sue holding on to
the broom.
"'Cause I thought maybe he was a robber coming after Mrs. Golden's
money," she explained later.
"What would you have done if he had been a robber?" asked Uncle Tad.
"I'd 'a' hit him with the broom," Sue replied.
"And I'd have helped her!" exclaimed Bunny.
But this was afterward. The man, however, as the children looked at
him, did not appear to be a robber. He was big, and not very pleasant to
look at, and his black beard was as bristling as some of those worn by
moving-picture pirates. But he did not seem to be going to take any
money from the cash drawer.
From the way poor Mrs. Golden looked, though, the children were sure the
man had frightened her. She sank down in a chair, and stared silently at
the man.
"Well!" exclaimed the cross man more crossly than at first, "I'm Mr.
Flynt of the Grocery Supply Company. If you're Mrs. Golden, I want to
know why you don't pay me that money?"
"I--I wish I could, Mr. Flynt," murmured the old lady store keeper. "I
really thought I'd have it for you last week."
"But you didn't!" snapped out the man. "You told our agent who called
two weeks ago that you'd have it last week. But you didn't pay it. Then
you said you'd send it this week, and you didn't. Now I've come for it.
You can't fool me!"
Truly, thought Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, no one could fool this
man, nor play with him nor do anything with him except dislike him.
"Come, come, Mrs. Golden!" went on Mr. Flynt. "You owe us this money,
you know, and you'll have to pay it!"
"If you'll only wait until my son Philip comes back," murmured the old
lady, "he'll pay you some, I'm sure. He's gone away to get a little
legacy, and if he gets it I'll have enough to pay you all I owe and
more!"
"Yes, _if_ he gets it!" sneered the cross man. "I've heard those stories
before. But if your son doesn't get that legacy what then?"
"Oh, I'm sure he'll get it!" said Mrs. Golden, trying to smile. "But
if--if he doesn't, why, I'll just have to owe you the money, that's
all!"
"That isn't all!" exclaimed Mr. Flynt. "We've got to have money. We've
been as easy on you as we could be. We've let your bill run a good deal
longer than we do most folks' bills. You've got to pay your debts, just
as we have to pay ours. Come now, I want some money!"
Bunny and Sue looked at each other. Both had the same thought. Sue
dropped the broom and began feeling in her pocket beneath her
handkerchief. Sue had only one pocket, and she was lucky, being a girl,
to have that. Bunny had any number of pockets, and he was going through
first one and then the other, finding different things in each--a top,
pieces of string, his knife, odd bits of stone, a very black piece of
licorice, and some nails. Bunny never knew when he might want some of
these things.
"Here, Mrs. Golden!" exclaimed Sue, she being the first to get what she
was after in her pocket. "Here's two cents I was going to spend for
candy. You can have it to give to the man!"
"Bless your heart, dearie!" murmured Mrs. Golden, "I can't take your
money."
"And here's my two cents!" exclaimed Bunny. "You can keep it. And you
don't need to give us any candy either."
"No!" added Sue, though she had a catch in her breath as she said it,
for she really wanted a bit of sweet stuff that day.
"No, no, my dear," said Mrs. Golden, trying to smile, though there were
tears in her eyes. "Keep your money. I'll sell you some candy if you
want it, but you mustn't give your pennies away. Anyhow, I must pay Mr.
Flynt a great deal more than that."
"I should say so!" exclaimed the black-bearded man, though, somehow or
other, his voice was not quite so cross as before. "Four cents wouldn't
pay postage on the bills we have sent you!
"But now, Mrs. Golden," he went on, "I don't want to be any harder on
you than I have to. If you're going to get some money in, or your son
is, and you can pay us what you owe we won't sell you out."
"Sell me out!" cried the old lady. "Were you thinking of doing that?"
"We'll have to if you don't pay," was the answer. "You bought a lot of
goods of us, and you must pay for them. If you don't we'll have to take
these things away," and he looked around at the shelves of the store.
"If you take things away from her how can she sell them?" asked Bunny
Brown.
"She can't," said Mr. Flynt. "But she must pay. Everybody must pay what
they owe or be sold out. Now I'll give you a little more time," he went
on. "I'll tell them, back at the office, that you expect a legacy, and
when that comes you must pay."
"Yes, yes! I'll pay!" promised Mrs. Golden. "Only give me a little more
time and I'll pay."
"Well, see that you do!" grumbled the black-bearded man, who appeared to
be crosser than ever now. "When I come again I want money!"
He stalked out of the store with a scowl on his face, and Bunny and Sue
looked first at each other and then at poor Mrs. Golden.
"I don't like that man!" declared Sue, as she picked up the broom.
"I don't, either!" said Bunny. "What makes him so cross, Mrs. Golden?"
"Maybe he can't help it, dearie. Going around making people pay up is a
cross sort of work, I guess."
"But what makes him want you to give him money?" asked Sue. "I thought a
store was a place where people paid you money. I didn't think you had to
pay money out. Bunny's going to keep a store when he grows up. Will he
have to pay out money?"
"No, I'm not going to!" cried the little boy. "People have got to pay me
money, but I don't pay any."
"You have lots to learn about a store, little man!" said Mrs. Golden.
"It isn't all fun, as you and Sue suppose. Do you see all these things
on my shelves?" she asked.
The children looked around at them and nodded their heads.
"To get them I have to buy them from other people--from the wholesalers,
as they are called," explained Mrs. Golden. "The Grocery Supply Company
is one of them. I buy barrels of sugar, barrels of flour, big boxes of
prunes, and so on, from this company. Then I sell a few pounds of sugar,
flour or prunes at a time and make a little money each time I sell. You
see I don't pay as much for the flour and sugar as I sell it for. The
difference in price comes to me, and is what I live on, and sometimes
it's little enough.
"And now the trouble is I have bought a great many things from this Mr.
Flynt's company, and I haven't the money to pay for them. That's why
he's cross. He has a right to his money, but I haven't it to give him."
"Why not?" Bunny asked.
"Well, because I don't sell very much in my little store. If I sold more
I'd have the money to pay my bills."
"Oh, Bunny, I know what we can do!" cried Sue. "We can tell mother to
buy everything here--all her groceries and things--and then Mrs. Golden
will have money to pay the cross man."
"Your mother is very kind as it is," said the old lady. "I'd like to
have her trade here, but of course I don't keep the best of everything.
I have to sell cheap goods. But of course if I sold more of them I'd
have more money and then I could pay my bills.
"But there, my dears, this isn't any fun for you. You came to get your
pennies' worth of candy, and I'll pick it out for you. An old woman's
troubles aren't for little ones like you."
"My father had troubles once," said Bunny, "and we hugged him and kissed
him; didn't we, Sue? That was when there was a fire on his boat dock."
"Yes, we were sorry a lot," Sue replied. "And we're sorry for you now,
Mrs. Golden, and I'm going to tell mother to buy all her things here."
"That's very kind of you," said the woman. "But if Philip only gets that
legacy I'll have money enough to pay all my debts and a little left
over. Now don't worry about me. Try to have a good time. I'll get your
candy!"
"And I'll finish this sweeping," laughed Sue.
"I'll help," said Bunny Brown, and then, in spite of the cross man,
there seemed to be a little bit of sunshine in Mrs. Golden's store.
CHAPTER XV
THE BROKEN WINDOW
"Daddy," said Bunny Brown that night, as the family were in the pleasant
living room, "have you much money in the bank?"
"I have a little, Bunny, yes. But why do you ask?" Mr. Brown wanted to
know.
"I have some in my bank!" cried Sue, before her brother could answer. "I
guess maybe I have a hundred and seventy dollars!"
"Pennies you mean, dear! Pennies! Not dollars!" laughed her mother, for
the children each had a penny bank.
"Well, pennies, then," agreed Sue. "But aren't a hundred and seventy
pennies 'most the same as a hundred dollars?"
"Pooh! No!" said Bunny. "It takes a hundred pennies to make even one
dollar!"
"Oh--o--o--! Does it?" exclaimed Sue. "What a terrible lot of money!"
"Yes, it does seem a lot," laughed Mr. Brown. "But why are you talking
about money?" and he looked at his little son. "Why did you ask if I had
any money in the bank?"
"I was wondering if Mrs. Golden had any in her bank," said Bunny.
"I don't believe she has very much," said Mr. Brown. "I was past her
store to-day. It's a very small one. I don't see how she makes a living
there."
"We were in there to-day," went on Bunny, "and a man came in and wanted
a lot of money. He said Mrs. Golden owed him. He was from the grocery
company."
"Yes, the wholesale house, I presume," remarked Mr. Brown. "Well, Bunny,
did Mrs. Golden pay her bills?"
"No," said Bunny, a bit sadly, "she didn't. And Mr. Flynt was cross. I
was thinking maybe if you had a lot of money in the bank you could take
some out and give it to Mrs. Golden, and then she wouldn't have to cry
when cross men came in. And she could pay you back when she got her
leg--her legacy!" and Bunny brought the last word out with a jerk, for
it was rather hard for him to remember.
"What's all this about?" asked Mr. Brown, looking at his wife in some
surprise.
"I don't know," answered the children's mother. "It's the first I've
heard of it. Bunny and Sue often go to the little corner store. It's
handy when Mary wants something in a hurry."
"Tell me more about Mrs. Golden, Bunny," asked his father.
Thereupon the story of the cross man and the money the old lady owed to
the grocery company was told as well as the children could tell it.
"It's too bad!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "I want you children to be as kind
as you possibly can to Mrs. Golden. Help her all you can, Bunny and
Sue."
"And will you buy things there?" asked Sue.
"Why, yes," agreed her mother. "We will trade there all we can. Mr.
Gordon, the big grocer, can afford to lose a little of our custom."
"Do you think you could give her any money out of your bank, Daddy?"
asked Bunny. "And she could give it back after she got her legacy."
"I'll see about it," was the smiling answer. "I know some of the men in
the Grocery Supply Company," went on Mr. Brown, "and I'll ask them to be
a bit easy with the old lady. But you didn't tell us about this legacy,
Bunny. You told us about the cross man, but not about the legacy."
"The children have spoken of it to me several times," said Mrs. Brown.
"It seems some relative of Mrs. Golden has died, and her son has gone to
see about some money or property that may come to his mother."
"She'll have plenty of money when she gets her legacy," remarked Bunny.
"She told me so."
"Then let us hope that she gets it," said Mr. Brown. "And now don't you
children worry any more about it," he told Bunny and Sue. "I'll help
Mrs. Golden if she really needs it."
"And we'll help her, too," said Bunny to his sister, as they went to bed
that night.
"Hey, Bunny! Hi, Bunny Brown!" called a voice under Bunny's window
early the next morning.
"Hello! Who's down there?" Bunny asked, jumping out of bed.
"Come on down!" cried Charlie Star. "We're going to have a ball game!
We're waiting for you! Bobbie Boomer, Harry Bentley, George Watson, and
all the fellows are over in the lots waiting. Come on have a ball game!"
"I didn't know it was so late!" murmured Bunny, rubbing his eyes. "I'll
be right down!"
He had, indeed, slept later than usual, and as this was vacation time,
his mother had not called him, though Sue had got up and had gone off to
play with some of the girls.
Bunny had his breakfast and then he ran over to the big lots with
Charlie. A number of boys were tossing and batting balls, and when Bunny
arrived there were enough to make up two "sides" and have a game. Bunny
was captain of one team and Charlie Star of the other.
"Now, fellows, we want to beat!" cried Bunny, as he took his place to
pitch the first ball of the game.
"Yes! Ho! Ho! I'd like to see your side win!" laughed Charlie. "We won't
let you get a single run!"
It was all jolly good fun, and though each side tried to win it was in
good-nature, which is how all games should be played. First Bunny's team
was ahead, and then Charlie's, until it came close to noon, when the
boys knew they would have to stop playing and go home to dinner.
"Now, fellows," said Bunny Brown, as it was his turn to bat, "I'm going
to knock a home run and that will win the game for us!"
"Pooh! You can't knock a home run!" laughed Charlie, who was pitching
for his side.
Bunny swung hard at the ball which Charlie pitched to him. And Bunny
himself was a little surprised when his bat struck it squarely and the
ball sailed away, much farther than he had ever knocked a ball before.
"Run, everybody! Run!" cried Bunny Brown, dropping the bat and starting
for first base himself. Two of his side were on the other bases, and if
they could all get in on his home run it would mean that his side would
win.
Higher and higher and farther and farther sailed the ball Bunny had
knocked, away over the head of fat Bobbie Boomer, who was playing out in
center field. It surely was going to be a home run.
"Oh, look where that ball's going!" cried Charlie Star, turning to watch
it. "Oh, it's going to break one of Mr. Morrison's windows!" Mr.
Morrison was a rather crabbed, cross old man who had a house on the edge
of the vacant lots where the boys played ball.
Bunny was too excited over his home run to pay much attention to where
the ball went, and Tom Case and Jerry Bond, who were running "home,"
thought only of how fast they could run. But the others watched the
ball, and a moment later saw it crash through one of Mr. Morrison's
windows.
By this time Bunny was at third base. He did not stop there, but ran on
in, touched home plate, and sank down to rest, very tired but happy
because he was sure his side would now win the ball game.
Out in the field, near the fence that was around Mr. Morrison's house,
Bobbie Boomer was calling:
"I can't get the ball! I can't get the ball! It's in Mr. Morrison's
house!"
And, surely enough, that's where it was--right in the house. It had gone
through the window.
"I--I made the home run all right!" panted Bunny Brown. "I told you I
would, Charlie Star!"
Bunny had run so fast that he had not heard the tinkle of the breaking
glass, nor had he seen where his ball went.
"Yes, you made a home run all right!" yelled Charlie. "And now we'd
better all _run home_ or Old Morrison will be after us for busting his
window. Come on, fellows! Let's run home!"
The game was practically over, and a number of the boys, fearing the
anger of Mr. Morrison, started after Charlie, running away from the
lots. But this was not Bunny Brown's way.
"Did I--did the ball I batted break a window?" he asked.
"You ought to 'a' heard the crash!" panted Bobbie Boomer, running in
from center field. "Old Morrison will be here in a minute! You'd better
run, Bunny!"
Surely enough, a moment or two later Mr. Morrison came out on his back
porch, from which he could look into the lots. He saw the boys, some of
them running away. In his hand he held the baseball that had crashed
through his window.
"Hi, there!" he cried. "Who did this?"
One or two boys, seeing that Bunny was not going to run, had stayed with
him.
"Who did this?" cried Mr. Morrison again.
Up spoke Bunny Brown, walking toward the angry man.
"I--I knocked the ball," he said.
"Well, you broke my window, young man, and you've got to pay for it!"
"I--I will!" faltered Bunny. "I have some money in my bank, and if you
come home with me I'll take it out and pay you."
Mr. Morrison seemed surprised at this. In times past when his windows
were broken the boys had run away, or, if they had not, they had been
saucy to him and had refused to pay for any glass. This was something
new.
"What's your name?" asked Mr. Morrison.
"Bunny Brown," was the answer.
"Does your father keep the boat dock where Bunker Blue works?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Oh," said Mr. Morrison, not so angry now. "Well, of course this window
has to be paid for, but I know your father, Bunny Brown. He and I do
business together. And Bunker Blue does me favors once in a while. I
guess there won't be any hurry about paying for this glass. You can pay
me five cents a week if you want to. And I should think the other boys
ought to chip in and help you pay for it. That's what we used to do when
I played ball. If a window was broken we all helped pay for it."
"I'll help," offered one boy.
"So will I!" said another.
By this time Charlie Star and the boys who had started to run away began
straggling back. They wondered why Bunny and his companions were not
being chased by Mr. Morrison. And when Charlie and his chums heard about
the offer to pay shares for the broken glass Charlie said:
"I'll pay my part, too!"
"So will I!" cried his players.
"That's more like it," chuckled Mr. Morrison, and, somehow or other, the
boys began wondering why they had ever called him cross. Certainly he
seemed quite different now. Perhaps it was the way Bunny had acted, so
bravely, that made the change.
"Now look here, boys," went on the uncross Mr. Morrison. "I know you
have to play ball, and this isn't the first time you have broken my
windows. But it's the first time any of you have had the nerve to stay
here and offer to pay. I like that. And now that you all offer to chip
in and pay for it, it'll not be too hard for any one boy. It's the right
spirit. And I want to say that if you always do that there'll not be
any trouble.
"Not that I want any more windows broken," he added, with a laugh. "But
if they are smashed, chip in and pay for them. And now I'll have the
pane of glass put in and you can take up a collection among yourselves
and pay me later on. I'm in no hurry as long as you act fair.
"And now if you'll come in here I think maybe I can find something that
you boys would like to have," he added. "Don't be afraid, come on in,"
he invited, opening a gate in his side fence.
The boys hesitated a moment, and then, led by Bunny Brown, they entered.
What could Mr. Morrison have in mind?
They soon found out. He led them down into the cellar and showed them
some old baseballs, some bats, some gloves, and, best of all, a good
catcher's mask.
"Here are some old baseball things," said Mr. Morrison. "I got them in a
lot of junk I bought a year ago, and I've been wondering what to do with
them. I like the way you boys acted--especially some of you," and he
looked at Bunny. "I'm going to let you have these things for your team,"
he said. "But try not to break any more of my windows!" he laughed.
"We won't!" promised Bunny Brown. "Or, if we do, we'll pay for 'em!"
"Crackie! What dandy stuff!" cried Bobbie Boomer.
"Now we can have regular league games!" exclaimed Charlie Star, who was
perhaps the best player of all the boys.
"And a real mask, like the Pirates have!" cried Harry Bentley.
"Take 'em along," said Mr. Morrison. "They're only cluttering up my
cellar. I'm glad to get rid of 'em, and especially to good boys."
"We--we were afraid of you at first," said Charlie.
"Well, you needn't be any more," chuckled Mr. Morrison. "Just pay for my
window, when you get the money together, and we'll call it square!"
Talking, laughing gleefully, and wondering at their good fortune, the
boys hurried from the cellar. And they had another game that same
afternoon, with the balls, bats, gloves and mask that Mr. Morrison had
given them. Only Bunny knocked no more home runs, and Charlie's team
won, which was, perhaps, as it ought to be. And, best of all, no more
windows were broken.
It was quite an adventure for Bunny Brown, but it was not the last he
and his sister Sue were to have, for many good times were ahead of them
for the long vacation.
CHAPTER XVI
LITTLE STOREKEEPERS
"Here, Bunny! Here, Sue!" called Mrs. Brown, one bright, sunny morning.
"Where are you?"
"We're coming, Mother!" answered Bunny.
He and his sister were playing in the yard down near the brook. Bunny
had carried to the brook a little boat, and Sue had with her one of her
very small dolls which was having a voyage on the small vessel. She had
picked out a celluloid doll.
"'Cause then if she falls off into the water it won't hurt if she gets
wet," said Sue.
"That's right!" agreed Bunny.
But now the children left their play and ran to see what their mother
wanted.
Before doing so, however, Bunny made fast the little boat to a tree on
the bank of the brook, tying it by a long string. And Sue took the
celluloid doll off the deck and laid her on the grass in the shade.
"'Cause she might go off sailing by herself," Sue explained.
"Pooh! She couldn't sail my boat!" laughed Bunny.
"Well, she might," said Sue.
Then they ran to their mother--who was waiting for them on the back
steps.
"What do you want, Mother?" asked Sue.
"Is it time to eat?" is what Bunny Brown asked. Bunny, like many
children, was always ready for this.
"No, it isn't time for lunch," laughed Mrs. Brown. "But I want you to
bring some things from the store so Mary can get lunch ready. And this
is a chance for you to help your friend Mrs. Golden."
"What do you mean--help her?" asked Bunny. "Is daddy going to give her
some money out of his bank so she can pay the cross man?"
"I don't know about that," replied Mrs. Brown. "But I mean you can help
her now by getting some groceries from her. The more we buy and the
more other families buy, the more money she will make, and then she can
pay her bills."
"That's so!" exclaimed Bunny. "I'm going to ask all the fellows to buy
their things of Mrs. Golden instead of going to Gordon's."
"And I'll ask the girls!" exclaimed Sue.
"We mustn't desert Mr. Gordon altogether," said Mrs. Brown. "He wants to
do business, too. But Mrs. Golden needs our trade most, I guess, so get
these things of her. I've written them down on a paper so you'll not
forget, and as there are a number of them you had better take a basket,
Bunny."
"I will," he said. "Do we have to hurry back, Mother?" he asked.
"Oh, there is no special hurry," his mother answered. "But what did you
want to do? Play another game of ball and break another window?" and she
smiled at Bunny, for she had heard the story. Mr. Morrison's window had
been paid for by all the boys "chipping in," or clubbing together.