Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store"You lie down," said Sue kindly. "Bunny and I will tend store again, and
we'll start the special sale."
The windows were now dry and clean. All the old goods had been taken
out, and Bunny and his sister were ready to put in the special display
of oatmeal which was to be sold at a low price. Mrs. Golden told Bunny
where to find some price cards to put in the window telling of the
special sale. These cards were of a sort that most grocers keep on hand.
With the help of Sue, Bunny piled the boxes of oatmeal in the window.
They were stacked up as nearly like a fort as he could make them, and he
knew how to do this, for he had often helped the boys build forts of
snow. Here and there he left holes in the piled-up wall of oatmeal
boxes.
"Oh, if you only had something like little cannons to put in the holes
it would look more like a real fort!" said Sue.
Bunny thought this was a good idea, and looked around for something to
use. He saw some round pasteboard boxes, the top covers of which were a
dull black.
"They'll look just like cannons," he said, as he fitted them in the
holes of the oatmeal box fort. The window shades being down, no one
could see from the street what was going on. Splash, the big dog, was
content to sleep in the store while the children were there.
"Now for the other window," said Bunny to Sue, when the oatmeal was all
in place, with the low price plainly marked on cards stuck here and
there.
"We have to wait for Charlie," Sue said.
"He's coming now," observed Bunny, looking from the door. No customers
had come in while the children were busy fixing the window, and they
were just as well satisfied. They hoped for a rush of trade when the
shades were raised.
Charlie came in with the covered basket, and the next fifteen minutes
were busy ones for the children. Mrs. Golden had fallen asleep and did
not come out of the back room to see what they were doing.
"Well, we're all ready now," said Bunny, at last. "Pull up the shades!"
He and Charlie did this. The sun shone in through the newly cleaned
windows and lit up such a display as never before had been seen in Mrs.
Golden's store.
CHAPTER XX
IN THE FLOUR BARREL
Slowly the heavy green shades, which hid what was in the cleaned windows
from the sight of persons in the street, rolled up. Bunny Brown, his
sister Sue, and Charlie Star waited for what was to happen next. They
looked first at one of the windows in which they had made a display, and
then at the other.
In one was the pile of oatmeal packages built up like a small fort, with
holes here and there through which stuck round boxes, with black covers
so that they seemed to be small cannon.
In the other window--but I can best tell you what was in that by telling
you what happened.
The curtains had not been up very long, and the children were feeling
rather proud of what they had done, especially Sue in making the glass
so clean, when a boy who was passing along the street stopped to look in
one of the windows.
And the window he looked at was not the one where the oatmeal boxes were
piled. It was at the other. This boy was soon joined by a second. Then a
girl who had been running, as if in a hurry, came to a stop, and she
stood near the two boys, looking in.
"The crowd is beginning to come!" remarked Charlie Star.
"But they aren't buying any of the oatmeal," objected Sue.
"Never mind," Charlie went on. "These kids wouldn't buy anything anyhow;
they haven't any money. Wait till the big folks come." Charlie spoke of
the "kids" as if he were about twenty years old himself. He seemed to
have become much bigger and more important since helping Bunny and Sue
fix up Mrs. Golden's windows.
And, surely enough, a few minutes later men and women began to stop to
look at the windows of the little corner store. And the men and women
at first looked not at the oatmeal but at the other window.
"It's making a big hit!" said Bunny Brown. He had learned this saying at
the time when he and his sister Sue gave a show.
By this time quite a crowd had gathered in the street outside, and there
was some talk and laughter which was heard inside the store. It was even
heard in the back room where Mrs. Golden had gone to lie down, and it
aroused her from her doze.
"Well, children," she said, as she came slowly out, "have you got the
windows washed, and the special sale of oatmeal started?"
"Yes, everything is all ready," answered Bunny, with a sly look at his
sister and Charlie.
Then Mrs. Golden saw the crowd outside.
"My goodness!" she exclaimed. "I never knew oatmeal to be so popular. I
can sell it all, maybe!" Then she noticed that the crowd was mostly
looking at the other window.
"What have you in there, Bunny Brown?" she asked.
"Take a look and see," invited Sue.
Mrs. Golden peered over the wooden partition that fenced the show window
off from the remainder of the store. And in the window she saw--what do
you think? Well, I imagine you must have guessed by this time.
Yes, it was Splash, the big dog, and asleep on his back was Charlie
Star's little white kitten! It made the cutest picture you can imagine,
for Splash kept very still, as if he did not want to wake up the
sleeping puss, and the little cat was curled up just as if on a silken
cushion.
It was this that Bunny and Charlie had been planning in the barn for
several days. At first Splash would have nothing to do with the white
kitten, and the kitten fluffed up her tail and made funny noises at
Splash.
But finally the boys and Sue had trained the two to be friends, so that
Splash would lie down and allow the kitten to go to sleep on his back.
And it was this that Bunny and Sue, together with Charlie Star, had
planned to attract attention to Mrs. Golden's poor little store.
The children had succeeded better than they had dared dream. Outside
the crowd was getting larger and larger all the while, and men were
saying:
"That's a pretty good dog!"
The women said:
"What a pretty picture!"
Little girls said:
"I wish I had that pussy!"
The boys wished they owned Splash. Many of them knew him, for they had
often seen the dog with Bunny Brown. But the kitten was new, and few
knew that Charlie Star owned it.
And then happened just what Uncle Tad had told the children would take
place if they could draw a crowd outside the store. Some began to look
at the special display of oatmeal in the other window, and a few came in
to buy. Some bought not only oatmeal but other things as well, happening
to remember that they were needed at home.
Mrs. Golden, who felt much better after her sleep, was kept very busy
waiting on customers, and Bunny and Sue helped her, as did Charlie.
[Illustration: SPLASH AND THE KITTEN DID THEIR SHARE IN DRAWING TRADE.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store._ _Page_ 199]
Splash and the kitten did their share, too, in drawing trade. For soon
the kitten awakened and began playing with a spool which Charlie had
hung up on a string in the window. The little white cat struck at the
spool with her paws as she stood up on the back of the big dog. Splash
did not seem to mind it in the least. In fact, he looked as if he
enjoyed it, and this amused the crowd all the more.
"Well, I do declare! You children beat anything I ever saw!" exclaimed
Mrs. Golden, when she had time to look and see what was going on in the
special display window. "You've made my store into a regular circus!"
"But it's good for business, isn't it?" asked Bunny.
"Indeed it is!" said the old lady, with a smile. "I never was so busy.
That oatmeal is selling fine. I wish I'd had a special sale of it
before."
Besides the boxes in the window there were packages of oatmeal piled on
shelves ready to be sold. And as the price was lower than oatmeal could
be bought for at other stores, Mrs. Golden did a good trade.
After a while things became a little quieter in the store, after the
first surprise had worn off. But now people were constantly passing in
the street, and many of them stopped to look at the dog and cat, which
were now playing together, Splash gently pawing at the white kitten
which climbed all over him.
Bunny had just finished selling a man a package of oatmeal, and Sue was
getting out a paper of pins for a lady when Uncle Tad came into the
store.
"Hello, children!" he cried in his jolly way. "I see you took some of my
advice and advertised by your show windows," he added to Mrs. Golden.
"Bunny and Sue did it for me," she said, "with the help of Charlie Star.
It is wonderful."
"If you'll get me a white piece of cardboard and a pen and some ink I'll
make you a sign to put in that oatmeal window," offered the old soldier.
"Those signs are all right, Bunny," said Uncle Tad. "But for a special
sale you want a special sign. Let me see now," he went on, as Mrs.
Golden got him what he had asked for. "You have made those oatmeal boxes
into the shape of a fort with guns. Now I must make a sign to go with
it. Let me see. Ah, I have it!"
He was busy with the ink for several minutes, and then he held up a sign
which read:
FORT-IFY YOUR CONSTITUTION
WITH THIS OATMEAL
"There!" exclaimed Uncle Tad, "this ought to bring more customers!"
"Ha! Ha!" laughed Mrs. Golden. "That's a pretty good joke!"
Bunny, Sue, and Charlie could not see anything funny, or like a joke, in
the sign. But then it was not intended for children, so it did not
matter.
But men and women passing in the street and pausing to read what Uncle
Tad had printed, seemed to think it was odd, for they stopped, read it,
laughed or chuckled, and then either passed on or came in and bought
some oatmeal. And quite a few came in, so that by night Mrs. Golden had
sold nearly all of the cereal.
"My goodness!" she said, when it was time for Bunny, Sue, and Charlie to
go home. "This has been a wonderful day. Could you come over to-morrow?"
she asked. "I don't mean to work," she added quickly. "For I'm afraid
your mothers will think you're doing too much for me. But I mean could
you come over and bring your dog and cat to put in the window. They
certainly brought the crowd."
"Yes, we'll bring Splash," said Bunny.
"And I'll bring my kitten," offered Charlie.
"And we'll come and help you sell things!" laughed Sue. "We like it,
don't we?" she asked the boys, and of course they said they did.
The first attempt of Bunny and Sue to advertise Mrs. Golden's store had
been very successful. Of course Uncle Tad had told them how to do it,
and Charlie Star had helped by bringing his kitten and training her with
Bunny and Sue. So the special oatmeal sale made quite a bit of talk in
that section of Bellemere near the little corner store.
Of course Mrs. Golden did not make a great deal of money, for the profit
on each thing she sold, even the many boxes of oatmeal, was small. But
it brought new customers to her store, and she was well pleased with
what had happened.
"And if Philip can only get that legacy," she murmured to herself that
night, "things will be easier for me. But I owe a lot of money to Mr.
Flynt, and I don't know where I'm going to get it to pay--not even if
those dear children help me with a lot more special sales, bless their
hearts! Well, I'll do the best I can."
The next day Bunny, Sue, and Charlie again came to Mrs. Golden's store.
Charlie could not stay, however, as he had to rake up the leaves around
his home, but he brought his kitten, and again the dog and the white
pussy drew crowds to the store window.
Besides oatmeal Mrs. Golden also had a special sale on notions, and she
did a fairly good business in them, so that she and Sue were kept busy
behind the counter. Not that Sue could do as much as Mrs. Golden, but
she did all she could.
Bunny waited on some customers who came in to buy groceries, and when
one lady wanted some flour an accident happened. Bunny was leaning over
to scoop the white stuff out of the barrel, and as it was near the
bottom he had to stand up on a box to reach it.
Suddenly the lady on whom he was waiting, and who was watching him, gave
a startled cry.
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Golden.
"That little boy has fallen into the flour barrel!" was the answer.
CHAPTER XXI
SUE COULDN'T STOP IT
There was a banging, kicking sound and several cries of "Oh, dear!" The
cries were faint and muffled, as if they came from the cellar. Then the
lady who had ordered three pounds of flour, which Bunny was trying to
scoop out for her, ran behind the counter.
Sue followed. So did Mrs. Golden. All they saw were Bunny's heels
sticking out of the barrel, waving in the air, and now and then banging
against a low shelf near which the flour barrel stood.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Bunny, from inside the barrel.
For that is where he was. He had fallen into the flour barrel!
"Pull him out!" begged Sue.
"I can't. I'm not strong enough to pull him up!" panted the customer,
but doing her best.
"We must all pull!" exclaimed Sue. "Bunny pulled me out of the brook,
and I'll pull him out of the flour barrel!"
"Yes, we must all pull!" said Mrs. Golden.
Together they all grasped Bunny by the heels and lifted him out of the
flour barrel.
Oh, but he was a queer sight! Luckily he had stuck out his two hands
when he felt himself falling head first into the nearly empty barrel,
and had landed on his outstretched palms. And as there was not much
flour in the barrel his head had not gone into the fluffy white stuff,
or he might nearly have smothered. As it was his face was completely
covered with the white particles.
And when Mrs. Golden, the customer and Sue had pulled the little boy
from the barrel, and set him on his feet, Sue could not help laughing.
"Oh, Bunny!" she cried, giggling. "You look--you look just like the
clown in the circus!"
And truly Bunny did, for his face was plastered as white as the face of
any funny man that ever made jokes beneath the canvas.
"You poor boy," said the customer.
"Oh, Bunny, I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Mrs. Golden.
"I--I'm all right," declared Bunny, blowing out a white cloud of flour
as he talked. "I--I didn't spill any!"
"No, you spilled yourself more than anything else," said Mrs. Golden. "I
guess I'd better get the flour, Bunny, after we brush you off. It's too
low in the barrel for you to reach. I don't want you falling in again."
"All right," agreed Bunny. "I guess I'm not quite big enough for flour
barrels."
He was dusted off out in the side yard, so no great harm resulted from
his accidental dive into the barrel, and Mrs. Golden waited on the flour
customer.
"What did you think, Bunny, when you were falling into the flour
barrel?" asked Sue, when the excitement was over and business was going
on as before in the little corner store.
"What did I think?" he repeated. "Why, I guess I didn't have time to
think anything. I just felt myself slipping, and then I fell in. I stuck
out my hands, and I'm glad the flour wasn't deep in the barrel."
"It was like the time when I fell into the brook!" said Sue, with a
little laugh. "Only I fell in feet first and you went in head first."
"Yes," laughed Bunny, "I went in head first all right!"
Mrs. Golden told the children they must not try to do things that were
too hard for them, even though they meant to be kind and help her.
The second day of the special sale of oatmeal and notions was not quite
as busy as the first. The novelty of the cat and dog in the window wore
off and Bunny brought some of the little pet alligators to show. Still
quite a number of people came in to buy, and Mrs. Golden was well
pleased, thanking Bunny, Sue, and Charlie many times. She also wanted to
thank Splash and the white kitten and the best way to do this was to
feed them, which she did, as well as the alligators.
"We'll come and help you tend store to-morrow," said Bunny as he and
Sue went home that night, Sue carrying Charlie's kitten in a basket and
Splash following at Bunny's heels. The alligators were left till next
day.
"I'm afraid your mother will think you are doing too much for me," said
the old lady, as she said good-bye.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny. "She told us to help you all we could."
"And we like it!" Sue exclaimed. "It's fun."
"Except when you fall into flour barrels!" added Bunny Brown, with a
laugh at some white spots that still clung to his jacket.
Mrs. Brown did not mind how much Bunny and his sister helped Mrs.
Golden, but she told the children they must not stay in the store too
much.
"Your long vacation from school is given you so you may play out in the
sunshine and fresh air," said Mother Brown. "And though it is all right
for you to help Mrs. Golden in her store, I want you to have some fun
also."
"It's fun in the store," said Bunny.
"Well, I mean other kinds of fun," added Mrs. Brown.
So there were days when Bunny and Sue only went to Mrs. Golden's grocery
on some errand for their mother or Mary, but even on these short trips
they often were able to help the storekeeper, sometimes making little
sales, if she was busy in another part of the house, or by arranging
goods on the shelves.
Having learned that she could do more business by having her windows
clean and with things nicely piled in them, Mrs. Golden kept this plan
up, Bunny and Charlie and Sue often stacking goods where they would show
well.
But with all this even the children could see that Mrs. Golden was
worried. Bunny often saw her adding up figures on bits of paper, and she
would look at the sum and sigh.
"What's the matter?" Bunny once asked.
"Oh, I owe so much money I'm afraid I'll never be able to pay," she
said. "And it seems to be getting worse, even with all the help you
children give me. If only Philip would get that legacy!"
"Hasn't he got it yet?" asked Bunny.
"No, not yet," was the answer. "And I'm afraid he never will. I miss him
so, too. If he were here to help me things might go easier. But there! I
mustn't complain. I'm much better off than lots of folks!" she added,
trying to be cheerful.
"If more people would come to buy here you'd have more money," said the
little boy. And that gave him an idea that he did not speak about just
then, but turned over and over in his busy little head.
Heeding their mother's advice, Bunny and Sue played out of doors with
their boy and girl chums, sometimes going on picnics and excursions or
on walks through the woods and over the fields. Bunny and Charlie often
played at boats in the brook, and more than once they fell in. Sue and
her friends often waded in the water of the brook.
Bunny did not again, though, topple into any flour barrels. It was Sue
who had the next accident at the corner grocery, and this is the way it
happened.
The little girl had been sent by her mother to get a yeast cake at Mrs.
Golden's, and when Sue reached the store she found the old lady busy
with two women who were matching sewing silk. At the same time a little
boy had come in for some molasses.
"I'll get the molasses for you," Sue offered, for she knew where the
barrel was kept, and once Mrs. Golden had allowed her to raise the
handle of the spigot and let the thick, sticky stuff run out into the
quart measure. Sue was sure she could do this again. So, taking the
boy's pail, she went to the molasses barrel.
It was kept in the back part of the store, and perhaps if Mrs. Golden
had seen what Sue was about to do she would have stopped the little
girl. But the two customers were very particular about the sewing silk
they wanted, and kept Mrs. Golden busy pulling out different trays.
Sue reached the molasses barrel, set the quart measure under the spout,
as she had seen Mrs. Golden do, and raised the handle. The next thing
the storekeeper knew was when Sue came running up to her in great alarm
crying:
"I can't stop it! I can't stop it!"
"Can't stop what, my dear?" asked Mrs. Golden.
"I can't stop the molasses from running out!" cried Sue. "I got it
turned on, but I can't turn it off, and it's running all over the
floor!"
"Oh, my goodness!" cried Mrs. Golden, hurrying to the back of the
store.
CHAPTER XXII
A SHOWER OF BOXES
Sister Sue, as soon as she had told Mrs. Golden what had happened also
started to run back to the molasses barrel. In fact she ran ahead of the
storekeeper, and Sue's hurry was the cause of another accident.
For the molasses, running out of the spigot which Sue had not been able
to close, had overflowed the quart measure, and was now spreading itself
out in a sticky pool on the floor.
It was a slippery puddle, as well as a sticky one, and Sue's feet,
landing in it as she ran, slid out from under her.
Bang! she came to the floor with a thud.
"Oh, my dear little girl!" cried one of the customers, who had been
buying the sewing silk. "Are you hurt, child?"
Sue, sitting in the molasses puddle--yes, she was actually sitting in
it now--looked up, thought about the matter for a moment, and then
answered, saying:
"No, thank you, I'm not hurt. But I'm stuck fast. I can't get up."
It was very sticky molasses.
Mrs. Golden, thinking more about the waste of her precious molasses than
about Sue for the moment, reached over and shut off the spigot. It had
caught and was hard to close, which was why Sue could not do it.
Fortunately, however, the little girl had nearly closed it before the
quart measure was quite full, and not so much of the molasses had run
out on the floor as might have if the spigot had been wide open all the
while. But, as it was, there was enough to make Sue fall, and to hold
her there in the sticky mess after she had sat down so hard.
"Dear me, what a mess!" exclaimed one of the customers.
"Isn't it!" said the other.
"I--I'm awful sorry," faltered Sue. "My father will pay for the molasses
I let run out, Mrs. Golden!"
"Oh, don't worry about that," said the old lady, though she was a bit
worried over the loss, for nearly a pint of the sweet stuff had run
away. "It's you I'm thinking of," she said. "Are you sure you aren't
hurt?"
"No," answered Sue. "But my dress is. Oh, how am I going to get home?"
she went on, as she pulled up the edge of her skirt and saw how dirty
and sticky it was.
"You'll have to get into the bath tub, clothes and all," said one of the
customers.
"It's like when I fell in the brook," half sobbed Sue.
"There, never mind!" said Mrs. Golden kindly. "Here, little boy," she
said, reaching over and lifting up the brimming measure of sweet stuff,
"take your molasses and run along. Then I'll clean up here."
Leaning over, to keep her feet out of the puddle, Mrs. Golden helped Sue
to rise, though it was a bit hard on account of the sticky molasses.
Then the little girl's dress was taken off and she was sent into Mrs.
Golden's bedroom.
"I'll wash this dress and your petticoat out for you, Sue," said Mrs.
Golden, when her thread customers were gone. "But it will hardly be dry
for you to wear home before dark."
"If you should see Bunny, you could send him home to get another dress
for me," Sue suggested.
"Yes, I could do that," agreed Mrs. Golden. "I'll see if Bunny is coming
after I put your clothes to soak."
But Bunny was off playing ball that day, and did not come to the corner
store. However, fat Bobbie Boomer happened to pass, and Mrs. Golden sent
him to Sue's house.
He rather frightened Mrs. Brown at first, for Bobbie twisted the message
and said Sue had fallen into a barrel of molasses, instead of just into
a puddle on the floor, so that Mrs. Brown came hurrying to the store,
imagining all sorts of things had happened.
She had to laugh when she heard the real story, and then she went back
to get a clean dress for Sue, leaving the other to be washed and dried
by Mrs. Golden.
"I'm afraid the children are more of a bother to you than a help," said
Mrs. Brown, as she started home with Sue.
"Oh, bless their hearts, I don't know what I'd do without them!" said
the storekeeper. "They are a great help. My store business is much
better than before they began coming here. That special oatmeal sale
brought me new customers, and Bunny and Sue are a great help."
As it would be rather hard work for Mrs. Golden to clean up the sticky
puddle, Mrs. Brown sent Bunker Blue up from the boat dock to help. For
this Mrs. Golden was very glad, as she could hardly have handled the
broom and pails of water as well as Bunker did.
"This is easier than cleaning out boats," declared the fish boy as he
"swabbed" the floor, as he called it.
Soon the store was scrubbed nice and clean and ready for more customers
the next day. As Bunny and Sue had nothing special to do they went to
the corner grocery to see if they could do anything to help. And Sue was
told by her mother to bring home the washed dress and petticoat.
"We've come to help," Sue announced, as she entered the store. "But I'm
not to draw any more molasses! Mother said I wasn't to!"
"Well, perhaps it will be as well for me to do that," said Mrs. Golden,
with a smile. "That spigot is sometimes hard to close."
"And I'm not to dip up any more flour," added Bunny.