Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store"I'm not going to play ball," said Bunny. "But Sue and I might stay with
Mrs. Golden a little while and help her in the store if you weren't in
a hurry."
"No, I'm not in a hurry," Mrs. Brown said. "Help Mrs. Golden all you
can, poor old lady!"
Together Bunny and Sue went around the corner to the little grocery and
notion store. They were talking of what they might do to help the
storekeeper, and they were planning what fun they could have with the
little boat and doll when they reached home again. By this time they
were at the store, but, to their surprise, the front door was closed,
though this was summer, and it generally stood wide open.
And in one corner of the door was a piece of paper on which something
was written. Bunny and Sue saw this notice and they at once guessed that
something had happened.
"Maybe she's gone away with her son Philip to get the leg-legacy!"
exclaimed Bunny.
"Maybe," said Sue. "Go on, Bunny, you can read better'n I can. Read what
it says."
Slowly Bunny read the little notice on the front door. It said:
"_Please come to the side door._"
Wonderingly the children went along the path to the side door, for the
grocery of Mrs. Golden was in an old-fashioned house which had been
built over so she could sell things in it. The side door was almost
closed, but, though open a small crack, Bunny and Sue did not want to
push it open further and go in. Instead they knocked.
"Yes? What is it? Who's there?" called the voice of Mrs. Golden. It was
a weak, quavering old voice.
"We're here," answered the little boy. "Bunny Brown and his sister Sue!"
"Oh, my dears! I'm glad it's you and not Mr. Flynt!" said Mrs. Golden.
"Push the door open and come in. I have such a dreadful headache that I
couldn't keep the store open. I had to come to my room back here and lie
down. I just had to close the store!"
The children entered to see their friend lying on a sofa in the room
back of the store. She had her head tied in a rag.
"Are you very sick?" asked Sue.
"'Cause if you are I'll go for the doctor," offered Bunny.
"Oh, no, thank you, my dears, I'm not ill enough for that," answered
Mrs. Golden. "Just a bad sick-headache. I'll be better to-morrow. But I
couldn't keep the store open to-day."
"That's too bad," said Bunny. "We came to get some things," and he took
out the list his mother had written for him.
"Well, I want to sell things, but I am too ill to get up and wait on
you," said the storekeeper. "I put that sign in the front door so if any
wholesale wagons came to leave stuff they could find me. But, really, I
don't feel able to get up."
Then Bunny had an idea.
"Couldn't Sue and I wait on ourselves?" he asked eagerly. "We want to
get these things here, and if you told me where to find them--though I
know where to find some myself--and if you told me how much they were, I
could pay you, and it would be all right. I have the money."
"Yes, you might do that," said Mrs. Golden. "It would be fine if you
could. Now let me see what you want, and then see if you can get it from
the shelves."
"I can climb like anything!" said Bunny gleefully.
"Well, don't fall!" cautioned Mrs. Golden. Together, with the help of
their friend, Bunny and Sue picked out from the closed store the things
their mother had written on the list for them to get. Mrs. Golden told
them where certain groceries were kept, and the price.
"Why, you are regular little storekeepers!" declared Mrs. Golden, trying
not to think of her aching head. "You have waited on yourselves as well
as I could have done."
"I wish we could wait on some regular customers!" boldly exclaimed
Bunny.
"Wouldn't it be fun!" laughed Sue.
There came a knock on the side door, and a woman's voice called:
"Are you there, Mrs. Golden? I want a few things. May I come in?"
"Oh, yes, come in, Mrs. Clark," replied the storekeeper, as she
recognized the voice of one of her customers. "If I can't wait on you
you can help yourself, as Bunny and Sue did."
A woman came in the side door.
"Let us wait on you, please!" begged Bunny. "My sister and I can get
what you want."
"Why, yes, I guess you can!" agreed Mrs. Clark, with a laugh. "I want a
yeast cake and some sugar. It's too bad you two children couldn't stay
and help Mrs. Golden," she added, as Bunny and Sue brought what she
wanted and she was giving the money to the store owner.
"We'd love to stay!" cried Bunny.
"And we can, for a while," added Sue. "Mother said we didn't have to
hurry."
"Oh, could we open the front door and tend store for you really?" asked
Bunny, his eyes sparkling in delight.
CHAPTER XVII
TWO LETTERS
Mrs. Golden thought it over for a minute. Really, with her head aching
as it did, she was in almost too much pain to think, but she felt that
something must be done. She needed all the money she could take in, and
if customers were turned away from her store, because the door was
closed, she would lose trade. Not many would come around to the side as
Mrs. Clark had done.
"Couldn't we tend store for you--a little while?" asked Bunny again, as
he saw Mrs. Golden thinking, as his mother sometimes thought, when he or
Sue asked her if they might do something.
"We could ask you where things are that we don't know about," added Sue,
"and we wouldn't talk loud or make a noise."
"Bless your hearts, dearies!" sighed Mrs. Golden. "You are very kind;
but I'm sure I don't know what to say."
"Then let me say it," advised Mrs. Clark. "I say let the children tend
store for you, Mrs. Golden. Bunny and Sue are a lot smarter for their
age than most children. You let them tend store for you, and I'll run
over once in a while to see if everything is all right."
"Very well," said Mrs. Golden. "You may keep store for me, Bunny and
Sue."
"Goodie!" exclaimed Sue, clapping her hands. Then she happened to
remember that she must not make too much noise, and she grew quieter.
"I'll open the front door and take down the sign," said Bunny. "We'll
wait on the customers for you, Mrs. Golden."
Bunny felt quite like a grown man as he removed the card and turned the
lock in the front door, swinging it open. The shades had been pulled
down over the show windows, and Bunny and Sue now ran these up.
"I'll run along now," said Mrs. Clark, going out the front door and
nodding in friendly fashion at the children. "I guess you'll make out
all right, and I'll be back in a little while. If she gets any worse, or
anything happens, just come and tell me--you know where I live," she
said in a low voice, so Mrs. Golden, in the back room, would not hear.
Sue nodded and Bunny smiled. They were rather anxious for Mrs. Clark to
go, so they would be left in charge of the store. And when this
happened, when really, for the first time, Bunny Brown and his sister
Sue were truly storekeepers you can hardly imagine how pleased they
were.
"You go to sleep now, Mrs. Golden," said Sue, going on tiptoe to the
rear room, to look at the old woman lying on the couch. "You go to
sleep. Bunny and I will tend store."
Then she went back to Bunny, who sat on a stool behind the grocery
counter. He had decided he would sell things from that side of the
store, while Sue could wait on the dry-goods and notions side.
"All we want now is some customers," remarked the little boy.
"Yes," agreed Sue. "We want to sell things."
They waited some little time, for the corner store was not in a busy
part of town. Several times, as footsteps were heard outside, Bunny and
Sue hardly breathed, hoping some one would come in to buy. But each time
they were disappointed.
Finally, however, just when they were about to give up, thinking they
would have to go home, a woman came in and looked around, not at first
seeing any one.
"What can I do for you to-day, lady?" asked Bunny Brown, as he had often
heard Mr. Gordon say.
"Oh, are you tending store?" the lady asked. She was a stranger to Bunny
and Sue.
"Yes'm, I and my sister--I mean my sister and I--are keeping store for
Mrs. Golden. She's sick," said Bunny. "I can get you anything you want."
"All I want is a loaf of bread," the lady answered.
Bunny knew where to get this, and also the kind the lady wanted, as it
was the same sort of loaf his mother often sent him for. He put it in
a paper bag and took the money. The lady gave the right change, so Bunny
did not have to trouble Mrs. Golden.
All this while Sue stood on her side of the Store, rather anxiously
waiting. She wished the customer would buy of her.
"You are rather small to be in a store, aren't you?" asked the lady, as
she started to leave with the bread.
"Oh, we know lots about stores," said Bunny. "We often play keep one,
but this is the first time we ever did it regular."
"I know how to keep store, too," said Sue, unable to keep still any
longer. "Would you like some needles and thread?"
"Yes, now that you speak of it, I remember I do need some thread, my
dear," the lady answered, with a smile. "Can you get me the kind I
want?"
"I--I guess so," Sue answered, yet she was a bit doubtful, as there were
so many things among the notions.
"Well, perhaps I can help you," said the lady. "I see the tray of spools
of silk right behind you, and if you'll pull it out I'll pick the shade
I want. I have a sample of dress goods here."
[Illustration: SUE HELPED HER CUSTOMER MATCH HER SAMPLE.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store._ _Page_ 174]
Sue had often been with her mother when Mrs. Brown matched sewing silk
in this way, and the little girl pulled out the shallow drawer of small
spools. She saw the sample and knew the lady needed red sewing silk; so
she at once pulled out the right drawer. Then she helped the customer
match her sample until she had what she wanted.
"How much is it?" asked the lady, taking out her purse.
Here was Sue's trouble--she did not know exactly, and she did not want
to go ask Mrs. Golden, for the storekeeper might be sleeping. To call
her might make her head suddenly ache worse.
"I generally pay ten cents a spool," said the customer, "and I suppose
that's what it is here. If it's any more I can stop in the next time I
pass. That is, unless you can find out for sure."
"Oh, I guess ten cents is all right," said Sue, and she found out later
that it was.
Then the lady left with her bread and thread. The children had waited on
their first customer all alone.
In the next hour, during which the children remained in the store, they
waited on several customers, and did it very well, too, not having to
ask Mrs. Golden about anything, for which they were glad. Of course the
things they sold were simple articles, easy to find, and of such small
price that the men or women who bought them had the right change all
ready.
Once a boy came in, and you should have seen how surprised he was when
Bunny waited on him. He was Tommy Shadder, a boy Bunny knew slightly.
"Huh! you workin' here?" asked Tommy, as he took the sugar Bunny put in
a bag, not having spilled very much.
"Sure, I'm working here!" declared Bunny. "That is, for a while," he
added, for he knew he would soon have to go home.
"Huh!" said Tommy again, as he went out. "Huh!"
"Mail!" suddenly called a voice, and the postman entered the store.
"Where's Mrs. Golden?" he asked, as he saw Bunny and Sue, whom he knew.
"She's got a headache, and we're tending store," Sue answered proudly.
"Oh, all right. Here's a couple of letters for her. She's been asking me
for letters all week, and I didn't have any for her. Now here are two."
He tossed them on the counter and went out into the sunlit street. Bunny
looked at the two letters.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "One's from Mrs. Golden's son Philip. Maybe it's
about the legacy!" Bunny had seen the name Philip Golden in the corner
of the envelope.
"Who's the other from?" asked Sue.
"The Grocery Supply Company," read the little boy from the other
envelope.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue.
"What's the matter?" asked Bunny.
"Maybe that's a bill," Sue said, for she had often been in her father's
office on the dock when the mail came in, and when he received a thin
letter Mr. Brown would hold it up to the light, laugh, and say:
"I guess this is a bill."
Sue knew what bills were, all right, and she seemed to feel that bills
coming to Mrs. Golden, who had little money, would be worse than those
which came to her father's office, for Mr. Brown never seemed to worry
about the bills.
As the children looked at the letters on the counter, wondering whether
or not to take them in to Mrs. Golden, she herself came out of the back
room. She looked at the children and then at the letters.
"Oh, some mail!" she exclaimed. "I hope it's from Philip about the
legacy! If it is, I'm sure it will completely cure my headache, which is
much better."
Eagerly Bunny and Sue watched to see Mrs. Golden open the letters.
CHAPTER XVIII
BUNNY HAS AN IDEA
Mrs. Golden read first the letter from her son, sent to her from the
distant city. But if Bunny and Sue thought to see a look of joy spread
over the store owner's face they were disappointed.
"Did he--did your son send you the legacy?" asked Bunny, as the letter
was folded and put back in the envelope.
"Well, no, not exactly," was the answer. "It seems there is some trouble
about it. I hoped Philip could come home to help me, but he can't, and
it will be some time before we'll get any money from that legacy--if we
ever get it. Oh, dear! So many troubles!"
Mrs. Golden sighed and opened the other letter. Her troubles seemed to
be more now, for she sighed again as she laid this letter aside. Sue
could not help asking:
"Is it a bill?"
"Something like that, yes," answered the old lady. "It's from Mr.
Flynt's grocery company. It says if I don't pay soon I'll be sold out."
Mrs. Golden sighed again. The children did not know exactly what it was
all about, but they knew there was trouble of some kind and they wanted
to help. But they felt, too, that it was time they went home.
Mrs. Golden must have seen the worried looks on their faces, for she
tried to smile through the clouds of her own trouble as she said:
"Never mind, my dears! Run along now, for I'm sure your mother will be
getting anxious about you. You have been a great help to me. I guess
I'll find some way out of my troubles--I hope so, anyhow. Run along now!
It was good of you to help me."
So Bunny and Sue, taking the things they had bought, started out of the
store.
"If she could only sell more things she'd have more money and then she
could pay that grocery bill," said Bunny to his sister.
"Yes," agreed Sue. "We'll tell daddy about it and see what he says.
Daddy has lots of money."
"But maybe he needs it," suggested Bunny. And very likely Mr. Brown did.
However, children of the ages of Bunny and Sue are not unhappy for very
long at a time, and trouble seems to roll away from them like water off
a duck's back. On the way home they met some of their playmates, and in
talking over a picnic that was to be held in a few days Bunny and Sue
forgot about Mrs. Golden for a while.
"You stayed rather a long time," said Mrs. Brown, when Bunny and Sue
finally reached home with the groceries she had sent them for.
"You said we could stay," said Bunny.
"And we helped Mrs. Golden by tending store," added Sue.
"Did you really tend store?" Uncle Tad asked, and he was much surprised
when the children told what they had done.
"I guess she doesn't do much business," remarked Uncle Tad. "She has a
store on a corner, which is the best place for one, as people on two
streets pass it. But I'm afraid she isn't enough of a hustler."
"What's a hustler?" asked Bunny, wondering if Mrs. Golden might be made
into one.
"A hustler," said Uncle Tad, "is a person that does things in a hurry.
Some storekeepers are hustlers for business. If business doesn't come to
them they go after it. That's how they sell things."
"How could Mrs. Golden sell more things?" Bunny questioned. "She's got
lots of things in her store--heaps and packs of 'em--but she doesn't
sell much."
"That's the trouble!" said Uncle Tad. "She doesn't advertise, and she
doesn't make any window display."
"What's a window display?" Sue inquired.
"I saw you looking at one the other day," replied the old soldier. "Do
you remember when I passed you and Bunny while you were looking in the
drug store window on Main Street?"
"Oh, yes! Where the rubber bags were!" cried Bunny.
"A little doll was making believe swim in a rubber bag," said Sue, "and
there was a big crowd looking at it."
"That's it!" exclaimed Uncle Tad. "That drug store man got a big crowd
in front of his store by putting something in the window that made
people stop and look. That's advertising."
"Maybe Mrs. Golden could fix up her windows so a crowd would stop in
front!" exclaimed Sue.
"What good would that do?" Bunny asked. "She wants people to come inside
her store and buy things."
"That's it," agreed Uncle Tad. "But if you get a crowd _outside_ a
store, because there's something to look at in the windows, some of that
crowd will go _inside_ and buy something."
"Only Mrs. Golden hasn't any rubber bags," went on Bunny. "But I guess
Sue could lend her a doll if she wanted it to take a swim."
"Mrs. Golden doesn't need to put rubber bags in her window," said Uncle
Tad. "That wouldn't be the thing for a grocery and notion store. She
should put in something that people would stop to look at, or have a
special sale or something like that. And another thing I've noticed,
when I've been past her place is that the windows are very dirty. You
can hardly see what's inside. If her windows were cleaned and she had
something in them, a crowd would stop and more people would go in and
buy than go in now. Mrs. Golden needs to advertise in that way."
Uncle Tad went out. Mrs. Brown busied herself about the house, and Bunny
Brown motioned to his sister Sue to come to the side porch.
"What you want?" asked Sue.
Bunny put his finger over his lips.
"I've got an idea!" he said. "I know how we can help Mrs. Golden get a
crowd in front of her store."
CHAPTER XIX
THE WINDOW DISPLAY
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue spent much time during the next few days
out in their barn--that is when they were not going to the store for
their mother. Every chance they had, however, they bought things of Mrs.
Golden, to help her as much as they could by trading at her store.
"And we ought to get the other boys and girls to go there," Sue said.
"We will, after a while," agreed Bunny. "Just now we have to do
something else."
And the something else had to do with his idea and the time he and Sue
spent in the barn. With them, most of the time, was Splash, their dog,
and Charlie Star often came over with a covered basket.
"What do you think the children are doing?" asked Mrs. Brown of Mary,
the cook, one day.
"Oh, I guess they're getting up some kind of a show," Mary answered. "I
can hear Splash barking now and then, and there's a cat mewing."
"Cat!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "We haven't a cat!"
"I guess it's Charlie Star's," went on the cook. "He brings it over
every day in a basket and takes it home again. I guess they're getting
ready for a show."
"Bunny and Sue did have a show once," observed Mrs. Brown. "I hardly
believe they would get up another. I must see what they are up to."
However, as company came just then and Mrs. Brown had to entertain them,
she forgot all about her two children. Meanwhile things were happening
out in the barn.
But Bunny and Sue kept it a secret, in which only Charlie Star had a
share, and Charlie did not tell. When Mrs. Brown's company had left some
one telephoned to her and she forgot all about her plan to ask Bunny
what was going on.
It was a few days after this that Bunny and Sue were again sent to the
store for their mother, and you may easily guess to which store they
went--the little corner one, of course.
Mrs. Golden was sitting in her usual easy chair, and there were no other
customers in the place.
"How's business?" asked Bunny, as he had often heard men ask his father.
"It might be better and not hurt itself," was Mrs. Golden's answer.
"Customers are few and far between."
"Mrs. Golden," said Bunny, "my Uncle Tad says you ought to have a
special sale. Did you ever have one?"
"Oh, yes, years ago," she answered. "I had a sale of notions, and a
number of women came in to get things to make dresses with. But I
haven't had a special sale for a long while."
"Why don't you, then?" asked Bunny eagerly. "I think a special grocery
sale would be good. You could put a lot of things in your window and
mark the prices on them, and people would come in to buy."
"Yes, I suppose I could do that," agreed Mrs. Golden slowly. "I have a
big stock of a new kind of oatmeal on hand. Some new concern sold it to
me, but it didn't take very well. Lately I got a letter from them saying
I could sell it at a special price. I suppose that would bring in some
trade. I never thought of it. I'm getting too old, I guess, and worrying
too much. When my son Philip comes home I'll have a special sale."
"No, don't wait!" cried Bunny Brown eagerly. "Let's have it now! Where
are those oatmeal things?"
Mrs. Golden smiled at his eager, bustling air.
"They're in the storeroom," she said. "Some of the cases aren't open
yet."
"We'll open 'em for you!" cried Bunny. "Then we'll stack the oatmeal in
the window, and we'll make a sign saying it's awful cheap and you'll
sell a lot, Mrs. Golden."
"Well, maybe I will, dearie. I'm sure I hope so. And it's good of you to
help me. Let me see now, I'll put 'em in the left window, I guess. That
has less in it," and she looked toward the window she meant. So did
Bunny and Sue, and Sue's first idea was made plain when she said:
"Could I wash that window, Mrs. Golden?"
"Wash the window? Why, yes, I suppose so," answered the storekeeper. "It
is pretty dirty," she added. "I don't very often look at 'em, and that's
a fact. I declare! you can hardly see what I have in my windows, can
you? Dear me, I am getting old. If Philip was here he'd wash 'em for
me."
"I'll do it!" offered Sue. "I often wash the low windows for mother. She
lets me. Have you got any of that white stuff that makes 'em shine?"
"Oh, yes, I know what you mean," said Mrs. Golden. "Yes, you can take a
cake from the grocery shelf. My, I never thought of a special sale and
having windows washed. It may bring me trade!"
"Uncle Tad says it will!" exclaimed Bunny. In a measure it was Uncle
Tad's idea that Bunny and Sue were carrying out.
"You wash the window," he told his sister, "and I'll open the oatmeal."
Soon there was a busy time in Mrs. Golden's store. Bunny was hammering
and pounding away opening the oatmeal cases, and Sue was washing the
window, having first taken out the few things Mrs. Golden had on display
there--not that you could see them very well from the outside, however.
"Could I wash the other window, too?" asked Sue, when she had finished
the first.
"Are you going to put oatmeal in both windows?" asked Mrs. Golden.
"Seems to me that will be too much. Wash the other window if you want
to, dearie, but two of them filled with oatmeal----"
"Oh, we aren't going to put oatmeal in _both_!" exclaimed Bunny, with a
queer look at his sister. "We're going to fix up the second window to
make people come in and buy."
Mrs. Golden did not seem to understand exactly. She shook her head in a
puzzled way and murmured that she was getting old.
And as the postman came along just then with a letter from Philip, she
was soon so busy reading it that she paid little attention to what Bunny
and Sue were doing.
The children worked hard and faithfully all morning, and promised to
come back in the afternoon. When they left to go home to lunch, both
windows were brightly shining, though there were a few streaks here and
there where Sue had forgotten to wipe off the white, cleaning powder.
But they didn't matter.
"I'll pull the shades down," said Bunny, as he was leaving. "We don't
want people looking in the windows until we get 'em all fixed up, and
then we'll surprise 'em."
"Just as you like, dearie. Just as you like," said Mrs. Golden, in a
dreamy tone. She was thinking of what her son had said in his letter.
Hurrying through their lunch as quickly as their mother would let them,
Bunny and Sue hastened back to Mrs. Golden's store. They told something
of their plans at home, and Uncle Tad said:
"That's a fine idea! I'll stop down there later and see how it looks."
"Come on, Splash!" called Bunny to his dog, as he and his sister started
back. "We want you!"
"And we must stop at Charlie's house and tell him," said Sue.
"Yes, we will," Bunny agreed, and Charlie, when he heard the news, said:
"I'll be at the store in about half an hour."
Certainly things were getting ready to happen.
Bunny and Sue found Mrs. Golden lying down on her couch in the back room
when they reached the store again.
"I'm afraid I have another of my bad headaches coming on," she said.