Bunny, Sue and the other children were just as much surprised as was Miss Bradley when that strange, harsh voice called out. And it needed but a look at the faces of her pupils to show the teacher that none of them had broken one of the rules of the classroom.
Bunny still held his mouth open, for he was half way through the spelling of the word "cracker." He was about to keep on, when once more the voice called:
"Cracker! Cracker! Polly wants a cracker!"
The sound came from the cloak closet on one side of the classroom.
"It's a parrot!" cried Charlie Star. "A poll parrot!"
"Yes, I believe it is," said Miss Bradley.
"You didn't bring a parrot to school to-day, did you, Bunny?" she asked.
"Oh, no, Ma'am!" he exclaimed, so earnestly that of course Miss Bradley believed him.
"But I know whose parrot it is," said Sue, eagerly.
"Whose?" asked the teacher.
"Mr. Winkler's! He's got a parrot and a monkey. They're always getting loose. Maybe the monkey's in the cloakroom, too, only the monkey can't talk like Polly," went on Sue.
"Keep your seats, children!" said Miss Bradley. "I'll look in the cloakroom. There is no need to be excited. A parrot will hurt no one, nor a monkey, either. Keep your seats!"
As she opened the cloakroom door the harsh voice again sounded more loudly than before.
"Bow! Wow! Wow!" it barked. "Cracker! Cracker! Polly wants a cracker! Let's have a song! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Then it began what I suppose the bird thought was singing.
The children laughed, and so did the teacher.
Out of the cloakroom flew the parrot, fluttering up on the teacher's desk. There it perched, preening its feathers with its big beak and thick, black tongue, now and then uttering harsh squawks and making remarks, some of which could not be understood.
"Is this the parrot you meant, Sue?" asked Miss Bradley.
"Yes'm, that's Mr. Winkler's," answered Sue. "I can take it back to him if you want me to. Polly knows me."
"And he knows me, too!" exclaimed Bunny.
"And me!" eagerly added Charlie Star. "Let me and Bunny take him home, please?" he begged.
"Is that the way to say it?" remarked the teacher, for the room was more quiet now. "What should you have said, Charlie?"
"Let Bunny and me," corrected Charlie.
"That's right. Always speak of yourself last. It is more polite. Well, I think you and Bunny may take the parrot back to Mr. Winkler," went on the teacher. "Certainly we don't want him in our class, though he seems a bright bird."
"You ought to see Wango, the monkey, climb!" cried fat Bobbie Boomer, and all the other children laughed. "He's great!"
"Well, I think a parrot is enough for one day," remarked Miss Bradley, with a smile. "Take Polly home, Bunny and Charlie."
"Just see, Teacher, he's tame and he knows me," Bunny said, stroking Polly's head, a caress the parrot seemed to like. Polly perched herself on Bunny's shoulder, and then he and Charlie went out, envied by the other pupils.
"Oh that bird! Out again!" cried Miss Winkler, when Polly was restored to her. "I declare, I'll make Jed get rid of her and Wango! They're more bother than they're worth!"
"I'll take 'em if you don't want 'em!" offered Charlie Star.
"So will I!" said Bunny.
But as Miss Winkler usually made this threat three or four times a week (or every time the monkey or parrot got loose), and as Mr. Winkler had never yet given them away, it did not seem likely that he would do so now.So Bunny and Charlie had small hopes of owning either pet.
The boys went back to school, passing, on their way, the store of Mrs. Golden.
"Let's go in," suggested Charlie. "I want to buy a top!"
"All right," agreedBunny.
"Well, boys, what can I sell you to-day?" asked Mrs. Golden, coming out from the little back room where she generally sat when there were no customers to wait on.
"Got any tops?" asked Charlie.
"A few," Mrs. Golden answered, "but not many. I'm going to have a new lot in next week. Good day, Bunny," she went on. "Did your mother like that baking powder?"
"I guess so," Bunny answered. Then he and Charlie began looking at the tops. But the kind Charlie wanted was not in the case, and after looking at several Charlie decided not to buy any.
"Here's a tin automobile I'm selling cheap," said Mrs. Golden, taking a red toy out from another case. "It's the last one I have, and I'll sell it to you for what it cost me—twenty-fivecents. The regular price would be fifty cents. See, I'll wind it up for you."
This she did, setting it down on the floor. With a whizz and a buzz the auto darted across the store, bringing up with a bang against the low part of the opposite counter.
"Say, that's a dandy!" exclaimed Charlie. "I'd like to own that!"
"So would I!" agreed Bunny. "Only I haven't twenty-five cents."
"I have!" Charlie said. "I was going to spend only ten cents for a top, but I guess I'll buy this buzzer auto for a quarter."
"It's in good order," said Mrs. Golden. "I'm not going to keep such expensive toys after this. I'm getting too old to run a toy store as well as groceries and notions. I'm giving up most of my toys. But this is a good auto, Charlie."
"Yes'm, I'll take it," said the little boy, and he bought the auto.
"You can't take it to school with you," said Bunny, as he and his chum left Mrs. Golden's store.
"Yes, I can," answered Charlie.
"If teacher sees it she'll take it away."
"Well, she won't see it. I can put it in my coat pocket." This Charlie did, after a struggle, for the pocket was rather small and the toy auto rather large.
"It sticks out and shows," Bunny said, after the toy had been crowded in.
"I'll stuff my handkerchief over it," Charlie decided, and this was done.
Then the two boys went on to school, arriving just as it was time for recess, so they did not have to go back to their lessons right away.
"And I didn't have to spell!" laughed Bunny. "Though I did know how to spell cracker."
"Come on!" called Charlie. "We'll have some fun with my new auto! I'll let it run around the yard."
This he did to the delight of the other boys. As for the girls, they gathered on the other side of the school yard for their own particular recess fun.
Sue, Mary Watson, Sadie West, Helen Newton and some others raced about, playing tag and jumping rope.
"Oh, I know what we can do!" suddenly cried Helen, when they were all tired from having romped about playing tag.
"What?" asked Sue.
"Let's go down to the end of the yard where the men are digging, and see how big the hole is," suggested Helen.
"Oh, teacher said we mustn't!" exclaimed Sadie.
"Well, we won't go very close," went on Helen. "She just told us to be careful not to fall in. But if we don't go too close we can't fall in."
This seemed a safe way of looking at it, and the girls were curious to see what the workmen had done at the far end of the school yard. The laborers had been digging for some days, fixing water pipes, and had made a deep trench, so deep that when a man stood down in it only his head showed above.
Just now none of the men was near the hole, all having gone away to get other tools, and as the boys were busy playing at the other end of the yard, or watching Charlie's auto, the girls could explore the digging by themselves.
"It's nothing but a hole!" said Sue, in some disappointment, as they approached as near as they dared and looked in.
"I'd like to go down in it!" exclaimed Helen, who was rather daring.
"Oh!" cried Sue. "Come back! Don't go too close!"
But Helen did not heed. She went up to the very edge of the long, deep trench, and was looking in when suddenly her feet slipped out from under her, and down she went, sliding right into the hole!
"Oh! Oh!" she cried.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed the other girls, and in such excited voices that Miss Bradley came running out of the classroom and the boys crowded down to the end of the yard.
"What has happened?" asked the teacher.
"Helen Newton fell into the big hole!" cried Sadie West.
"Did the dirt cave in on her?" asked Miss Bradley.
Fortunately, it had not. The walls of the trench were firm and solid, and the only thing that had happened was that Helen was downin the deep trench, and could not get up by herself. She was crying now.
"Don't cry," said Miss Bradley. "You're all right. We'll soon get you out. Now you other boys and girls keep back from the edges, or you'll cause the sides to cave in and they'll cover Helen! Keep back, Bunny, Sue, every one!"
This was good advice, and as the other children moved back away from the trench there was less danger. Miss Bradley was just going to send one of the boys to call the janitor when two workmen came back. They broke into a run as they saw the crowd about their digging place, for they had told the teacher to keep the children away from it.
"There's been an accident!" said one man.
But it was not so bad as he feared, and he and his companion soon lifted Helen out on solid ground again, a rather frightened little girl, but not in the least hurt.
"I told you to stay away from that hole!" said Miss Bradley, rather severely. "I was afraid something like this might happen. It is fortunate it was no worse. Who started it?"
There was a moment's pause, and then Helen raised her hand. She had been crying.
"If—if you please, Teacher, I went there first," she stammered.
"Well, I think your fright has been punishment enough for you," said Miss Bradley kindly, "and we will say nothing more about it. But if any of you go near that hole again he or she will be kept in after school. It isn't that I mind your seeing what the workmen are doing, it is just that it would be dangerous for even grown folks to go too near the edge of the trench, and much more so for you little folk. So keep away from the hole. I hope the pipes will be in this week, and the hole closed up. Now do you all promise to keep away?" she asked. "Raise your hands!"
Every hand went up, for the boys and girls were fond of their teacher and did not want to cause her worry.
It was a solemn moment, for they all felt that something dreadful might have happened to Helen had the dirt caved in on her.
"Hands down," said Miss Bradley, and down they went.
Just then the bell rang. Recess was over, and the lines of boys and girls marched into the schoolhouse once again.
Charlie Star reached for his handkerchief, which he had again stuffed over his toy automobile after he had crowded that toy into his pocket when going back into school after recess. As he pulled out his handkerchief the auto came with it and fell to the floor.
Suddenly there was a strange buzzing sound in the room. Neither the teacher nor the girls knew what it was, but Bunny and the boys knew it was Charlie Star's new toy automobile which he had bought from Mrs. Golden.
With a buzz the busy auto ran from Charlie's desk straight down the aisle toward Miss Bradley, who was standing in front of her platform.
For a second or two Miss Bradley seemed to pay no attention to the buzzing sound which Bunny, Charlie, and some of the other pupils heard only too plainly. The teacher was busy thinking whether she had done enough talking to make sure her boys and girls would not again go near the deep hole in the school yard.
"I wouldn't want any of them to get hurt," thought Miss Bradley. "I had better scare them a little now than have any of them harmed the least bit."
She was thinking what else she might say, to impress on the pupils the danger of the hole, when she seemed to hear, for the first time, the buzzing of Charlie's auto.
"What's that?" asked Miss Bradley.
No one answered, except that, here and there in the room, a boy or girl snickered.
There was one queer thing about Charlie's new toy auto. It made a great deal of buzzing as the wheels whirred around when the wound-up spring made them do this, but the machine itself did not go very fast. It seemed to make a great fuss about getting anywhere, but it took its own time in doing it.
This was the reason why the auto, though it had been pulled out of Charlie's pocket with his handkerchief and had fallen into the aisle down which it ran, did not very soon get where Miss Bradley could see it. She could hear the buzzing sound, but she did not know what it was.
"Who is making that noise?" she asked again.
No one answered, for, truth to tell, neither a boy nor a girl in the room was causing the noise; though of course Charlie was to blame, in a way.
Miss Bradley was looking over the room, into the faces of her pupils. The buzzing sound kept up. It seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. The windows were open, and she thought a bee or a wasp might have flown in.But it would be a very large wasp or bee, indeed, which would make so loud a buzzing sound as this.
"Children——" began Miss Bradley, and then she suddenly stopped, for something struck her on the foot. And it was right near her foot that the buzzing noise sounded. But as she had walked a little way down from her platform, and her foot was partly under the first desk—that of fat Bobbie Boomer—Miss Bradley could not see what had struck her.
"Oh!" she cried, as she jumped back, rather startled.
Charlie Star and Bunny Brown could not help laughing right out loud. They knew what had caused all this excitement.
A moment later Miss Bradley knew also. For Charlie's buzzing auto, having struck her foot, turned aside and rolled out on the floor in front of her teaching platform, in plain sight. There the little red toy came to a stop, for its spring was fully unwound.
Charlie and Bunny stopped their laughing suddenly as the teacher looked down at them.
"Whose is this?" asked Miss Bradley, in avoice she hardly ever used in the classroom, for her pupils were generally very orderly. "Who owns this automobile?" she asked, sternly.
Timidly Charlie Star raised his hand.
"If you please, Teacher, it's mine," he said. And such a weak little voice as it was! Not at all like the loud, hearty tones Charlie used when he called to Bunny, "first shot agates!"
Miss Bradley stooped over and picked up the toy. She placed it on her desk, and then, turning to face the children, she said:
"I am very sorry about this. I thought, after what had happened to Helen, that you were going to settle down and study your lessons. Why did you bring this auto to school, Charlie? And why did you take it out?"
Charlie was silent a moment, and then he answered, saying:
"I—I didn't exactly take it out, Miss Bradley. It came out when I took out my handkerchief. I—I didn't mean to do it."
"Very well then, you didn't," the teacher agreed, with a little smile, for she knewCharlie was telling the truth. "But why did you bring the auto to school at all?"
Then Charlie told of having bought the toy that morning, on his way to school with Bunny Brown.
"I didn't have time to go home with it after I bought it," he said, "so I put it in my pocket. We played with it at recess, and I forgot and wound it up and stuck it in my pocket. I didn't mean to let it get out and run down the aisle."
Miss Bradley wanted to smile, but she knew it would not be just the thing to do. So she said:
"Well, Charlie, I will excuse you this time. But please don't bring any more toys into the schoolroom. And now, as we have lost much time from our lessons, we must study extra hard to make it up. Come to me after school, Charlie, and I'll give you back your auto."
Miss Bradley put the toy in her desk for safe keeping, and went on with the lessons. But it was rather hard for the pupils to get their minds back on their studies, because so much had happened that day from the timethe parrot had screeched "Cracker! Cracker!" in the cloakroom until Charlie's auto fell out of his pocket and went buzzing down the aisle to bang into the teacher's foot.
However, the day came to an end at last, and then, talking and laughing, the boys and girls ran out of doors. Charlie stayed after the others, and walked shyly up to the desk at which Miss Bradley sat, looking over some examination papers. The room was very still and quiet after the noise and excitement of the children's outgoing.
"Yes, Charlie. What is it?" asked Miss Bradley, as she saw him standing near her desk.
"If you please—my auto——"
"Oh, yes," and she opened her desk and handed it to him. "It is a cute little toy," and she smiled at Charlie.
"You ought to see it go!" he exclaimed eagerly, for Miss Bradley was really a friend to her pupils, and she knew how to make kites and spin tops almost as good as a boy.
"Here! I'll show you!" Charlie went on. "It's a dandy!"
Quickly he wound up the auto and set it down on the floor. The wheels buzzed and the little red car spun across the schoolroom floor.
Bunny Brown and George Watson, waiting outside for Charlie, wondered what was keeping their chum. They knew he had stayed in to get his plaything.
"Maybe she's going to make him stay in half an hour," suggested George.
"She didn't say she was," replied Bunny. "But maybe she's giving him a—a leshure." What Bunny meant was lecture.
"Let's look in," suggested George.
On tiptoes they went to a window whence they could see into the room. There they saw Miss Bradley winding up Charlie's auto, and they heard Charlie saying:
"You try it now, Miss Bradley! See how nice it runs!"
And as the surprised watchers looked on, their teacher started the toy across the floor as Charlie had done. For, following the first showing of his plaything, Charlie had offered to let his teacher wind it, and she had agreed.
"Yes, it is a cute toy," said the teacher, as the auto banged into a side wall and stopped. "But we mustn't play with it in school hours."
"Oh, no'm!" agreed Charlie, and then he hurried outside, where Bunny and George were waiting for him.
"Say, you ought to see!" exclaimed Charlie, half breathless. "She ran the auto herself!"
"We saw her," said Bunny.
"She's a dandy teacher all right!" declared George.
One Saturday morning Bunny and Sue came downstairs to breakfast at the same hour as on other days. Usually this did not happen, for on Saturdays they were allowed to remain in bed a little longer than on days when they had to go to school.
"Well, what does this mean?" asked Uncle Tad, who was finishing his meal and reading the paper at the same time. "This is Saturday, isn't it? Unless I have on the wrong glasses!" he added, as he looked at the calendar on the wall.
"Yes, it's Saturday," said Bunny.
"Then why are you up so early?" asked Uncle Tad.
"'Cause a lot of the boys and girls are coming over, and we're going to play store out in our barn," explained Sue. "You can come and buy something if you want to, Uncle Tad."
"Thanks! Maybe I will!" chuckled the old soldier. "Are you going to sell any inside outside cocoanuts flavored with saltmint?" he asked.
"What are those?" Bunny inquired.
"Oh, he's only joking!" declared Sue, as she saw a twinkle in the eyes of Uncle Tad. And of course he was joking.
"Well, maybe I'll look in and see what you do have to sell in your barn store," he said, as he left the table.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were not long in finishing their breakfast, and then they hurried out to the barn where they were to keep store. Bunny and Sue had found some boards and boxes out there which would make fine shelves for a pretend store.
"We'll put the shelves up before the others get here," said Bunny.
"Yes," she agreed. "But what kind of store are you going to play? Are you going to have washboilers and tin pans?"
"No, I guess not," said Bunny, after thinking about it a moment. "We'll keep a store like Mrs. Golden's."
"Yes, that will be nice," agreed Sue. "Here, Splash!" she cried. "Get out of there! That box isn't for you to sleep in!" For the big dog had crawled into one of the boxes that were to form the store shelves. Splash was curling up most comfortably.
"We'll use him for a delivery dog," said Bunny. "We'll tie a basket on his neck and he can take the groceries and things to different places."
"Oh, that will be fun!" laughed Sue, clapping her hands. "Here comes Helen!" she cried a moment later, and then, with joyous shouts and laughter, a number of children camerunninginto the Brown yard, ready to play barn store.
"What things are you going to sell?"
"Who's going to tend store?"
"I want to be cashier!"
These were some of the things the boys and girls shouted as they ran into the barn where Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were waiting for them to play store. Charlie Star, Helen Newton, fat Bobbie Boomer, Harry Bentley, George and Mary Watson and Sadie West were among the boys and girls who came crowding into the barn, for the day before Bunny and his sister had invited them to spend Saturday in having fun.
"We'll take turns tending store," explained Bunny, after he had shown his playmates the shelves and boxes that were to be used for shelves.
"And we're going to have our dog Splashdeliver things with a basket on his neck," explained Sue.
"I should think it would be more fun to hitch up your pony Toby to the basket cart and have him to deliver things," remarked Helen.
"We thought of that," replied Bunny. "But Bunker Blue has taken Toby down to the boat dock. He has to do some errands for my father, so we can't have Toby."
As Bunny and his sister had played this game more than the others, they were allowed to lay out the plans. Bunny showed the boys how the boards were to be put across the boxes to make shelves, and Sue took the girls down to the brook to gather little pebbles and the shells of fresh water mussels which were to be used for money, as there were going to be so many "customers" for the barn store that Mrs. Brown's buttons would not be enough to make change.
"What things are we going to sell?" asked Charlie, as he began pulling something from his pocket.
"Oh, we'll get stones, sand, gravel, someleaves, pieces of bark, twigs, and things like that," Bunny explained. "But what you got in your pocket, Charlie?"
"My wind-up auto. I thought maybe we could use it in the store."
"How?"
"Well, it could be like a cash register. You see," Charlie went on, "somebody's got to be the cashier just as in a big store. We'll have different clerks, and when anybody buys anything they must pay the money to whoever is clerk."
"Yes," agreed Bunny, who understood thus far.
"Then," went on Charlie, "the clerk must put the money the customer pays into my auto, and send it on a plank up to the cashier's desk. The cashier will make change and send it back in the auto."
"Oh, that'll be great!" cried Bunny. "And I guess you ought to be the cashier for thinking it up, Charlie."
"Well, maybe I ought, 'cause it's my auto," Charlie said. He had been hoping for this all along. "Now I'll make myself a place tobe cashier," he went on, "and I'll fix up a long plank for the auto to run back and forth on. One winding will bring it up to me and back to the clerk."
When the other children heard this plan they were much delighted. Soon the store was ready for business. Boards had been placed across the boxes and a tier of shelves made, the top one so high that a long box had to be used like astepladderto reach it. On the shelves were placed different things picked up around the barn, in the yard, and in the patch of woods not far away, or brought from the shore of the brook.
Then the boys and girls divided themselves up, some were to be customers to buy things in the store, while others were to be clerks to wait on the customers. Charlie took his place at the end of the tier of shelves to act as cashier. From the end of the shelves to his box ran a long narrow plank on which the auto change-carrier was to run.
Finally everything was ready, even to torn pieces of newspaper in which the things bought were to be wrapped. Splash was onhand with a basket tied to his neck to deliver the goods. And each customer had picked out a certain part of the barn as his or her "home" where the things were to be delivered.
"All ready!" called Bunny Brown. He and Sue were to be clerks in the store at first; afterward they would take a turn at being customers.
"I want a pound of sugar!" ordered Sadie West, coming up to Bunny, standing behind his part of the front counter.
"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 overagain. 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 runalong, 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 Charlieto 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!"
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 ispleasant 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 sitdown 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 feelingmost 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?"
"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 ofthe 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 getinto 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 pineand 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'twant 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'dreach 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 overwhat 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.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed Sue. "Look out, Bunny!"