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 makeout 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 putit 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 rightbehind you, and if you'll pull it out I'll pick the shade I want. I have a sample of dress goods here."
SUE HELPED HER CUSTOMER MATCH HER SAMPLE.
SUE HELPED HER CUSTOMER MATCH HER SAMPLE.Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store.Page174
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 thepostman 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 receiveda 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.
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 acorner, 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 crowdoutsidea store, because there's something to look at in the windows, some of that crowd will goinsideand 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. "Thatwouldn'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."
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 andSue 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 shelooked 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 inboth!" 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.
"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 whereto 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.
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 ofwhat 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 themen 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 thanthey 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.
SPLASH AND THE KITTEN DID THEIR SHARE IN DRAWING TRADE.
SPLASH AND THE KITTEN DID THEIR SHARE IN DRAWING TRADE.Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store.Page199
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 thanoatmeal 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 specialsale 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 CONSTITUTIONWITH 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 boughtsome 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 salemade 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 Suewere 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.
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 pullhim 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! Imustn'tcomplain. 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 motherto 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 whenSue 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.
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 outfor 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 abother 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 toldby 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.
"Yes, I suppose it will be as well for me to do that, too," said the storekeeper. "But since you like to help me tend store there are many other things you can do."
Bunny and Sue found them, for it was afternoon now, and many families in the neighborhood sent children to buy things for supper.
"Hello, Sue!" called George Watson as he came into the store, whistling. "I told my mother about that special sale of oatmeal you had here last week. Got any more?"
"Yes, a few boxes left," said Mrs. Golden, who was behind the grocery counter with Sue.Bunny was out in the storeroom opening a new box of prunes. "They're up on a high shelf, I'll get one down for you, Sue."
But as she was going to do this a man entered the store. He was Mr. Flynt, and Sue heard Mrs. Golden sigh when she saw him.
"You'll have to wait a minute about that oatmeal," said the storekeeper to George. "I'll get it down for you in a little while. I have to see this gentleman first."
George was willing to wait, but Sue was anxious to help in the store, and as she saw that Mrs. Golden was going to be busy talking to Mr. Flynt, the little girl decided she could get down the box of oatmeal herself. She felt sure that Mrs. Golden would have trouble with Mr. Flynt who would want money, and Mrs. Golden had very little to pay.
"I'll get the box of oatmeal for you, George," said Sue. "I know where it is."
She climbed up on the counter by means of a box, and stretched up her little hands and arms to the shelf on which the cereal was stacked. Sue reached for a box, managing toget hold of it by stretching as far as she could and standing on her tiptoes. But as she pulled the one box out it caught on several others standing in line on the shelf.
"Look out!" cried George, as he saw what was going to happen.
But it was too late. Sue could not get out of the way, and a moment later a shower of pasteboard boxes of oatmeal and other things fell all around her.
"What is happening?" cried Mrs. Golden, hearing the clattering sound. She came hurrying from the back of the store where she had gone to talk quietly to Mr. Flynt.
"Everything is going to fall!" cried George.
But it was not quite so bad as this. Sue kept her hands raised above her so nothing would hit her head, though one or two boxes did bump her a little.
Box after box slipped from the shelf, falling on the floor, on the counter, and all around poor little Sue!
Bunny Brown ran out of the storeroom, in his hand a hammer with which he had been opening the box of prunes. Mrs. Golden gave a cry of alarm as she heard the clatter of the boxes falling around Sue. Mr. Flynt joined Bunny in a rush to help the little girl. As for George, he was so frightened by the sudden toppling of things from the shelf that a tune he had started to whistle died away and he got ready to run out of the store.
"Mercy sakes! what is going on in here?" cried Mrs. Clark, entering the store as the boxes ceased falling. "Is anybody hurt?"
No one knew for a moment, as Sue had uttered no cry save the first frightened one. But by the time Bunny and Mr. Flynt reached her the shower of boxes was over and the little girl took down her hands from over her head.
"Did anything break?" asked Sue, looking about her. "Oh, dear, what a terrible mess!" she cried.
"Don't worry about that, child!" exclaimed Mrs. Golden. "What if a few boxes are broken open? It's you I'm thinking of."
"Oh, I'm all right!" Sue said, and she laughed a little.
And when they came to look her over nothing worse had happened than that she had a few bumps and bruises. And they were not very hard ones, for the boxes were of pasteboard and not wood.
And only one or two of the oatmeal packages were split open, so that not much was lost in that way. So, take it all in all, the accident was a very little one, though it made a great deal of excitement for the time being.
"You oughtn't to reach up for such high things, little girl," said Mr. Flynt, when he had helped pick up the packages.
"No, sir, I guess I oughtn't," agreed Sue. "But George wanted one and I thought I could get it."
"You call me when you want things from ahigh shelf," said Bunny, going back to the task of opening the box of prunes. "I'm a good climber."
"I wasn't climbing, I was reaching," answered Sue, as if that made a lot of difference. "Here's your oatmeal, George," she added, and the whistling boy came back to the counter and got it.
Bunny and Sue stayed in the store for an hour or more after the fall of the oatmeal boxes. Bunny finished opening the box of prunes, and he and Sue waited on several customers, for Mrs. Golden seemed to be quite busy talking to Mr. Flynt in the back room. And it was not a pleasant talk, either, as Bunny and Sue guessed when they caught glimpses now and then of Mrs. Golden wiping tears from her eyes.
Finally the grocery man came out of the back room with Mrs. Golden. He was saying, so that the children could hear:
"Now you'd better take my advice, Mrs. Golden, and sell out your store here. You'll never make it pay, and you keep on owing us more money all the while. I know you'retrying to do your best, but you must either pay us or we'll have to take our things back and sell you out besides for the rest that you owe us.
"Take my advice and sell out before you're sold out. It will be better that way. We can't wait any longer. This is a good little store, but you don't make it pay."
"Maybe I could if my son Philip were to come back," sadly said the old lady. "He's gone after a legacy, and when he comes back——"
"There there, Mrs. Golden! It's of no use to talk that way!" exclaimed Mr. Flynt. "You've been telling me about that legacy a long time. Why doesn't it come?"
"I don't know, Sir."
"No. And I don't believe it ever will come. We've waited as long as we ought, but I'll give you a little more time, and that will be the last. If you don't pay we'll have to close your store. Think it over and sell out before you're sold out."
And then Mr. Flynt went out.
Bunny and Sue, who had been about to gohome, looked at Mrs. Golden and felt sorry for her. They could see that she was feeling bad, and that she had been crying.
"What's the matter?" asked Bunny.
"Not enough money—that's the trouble," was her answer. "Oh, dear, I don't want to sell my store!" she said. "I want to keep it."
"Have you got to sell?" asked Sue.
"Mr. Flynt says so," came the reply, "because I owe him a lot of money I can't pay. If business was only better I might keep my store going until Philip comes back with the legacy. Once we get that we'll be all right! But if we don't——"
Mrs. Golden put her handkerchief to her eyes. Then, seeing that she was making Bunny and Sue sad, she added:
"There now! Run along. Maybe I can get the money somehow. At any rate you children have been most kind to me. Run along now, and don't mind a poor old woman."
But Bunny and Sue did mind. They talked matters over on their way home and decided that something must be done. They wanted to help more than they had been doing, andBunny thought of a way. As usual Sue agreed with him, for she was willing to do anything her brother did.
That evening after supper Bunny brought his little tin savings bank from a shelf in his room, and Sue brought hers. There was a great rattling as the pennies, dimes and nickels in the tin boxes clattered against the sides.
"My goodness! what's going on?" cried Daddy Brown, looking up from the paper he was reading. "Are you two going to buy an automobile with all that money?"
"Will you please open my bank, Daddy, and see how much is in it?" asked Bunny.
His father, wondering what was "in the wind," as old Jed Winkler would say, did so. With Bunny's help the cash was counted. There was eight dollars and fifteen cents.
"I have more than that!" exclaimed Sue, and indeed she had, for Bunny had taken some of his money the week before to buy a top and a set of kite sticks. Sue had ten dollars and forty-six cents in her bank.
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Mrs. Brown, for she knew the children wouldnot have gotten down their banks unless they had some plan in their heads.
"We're going to give it to Mrs. Golden," said Bunny.
"Mrs. Golden?" cried their father.
"You mean you're going to buy something at her store?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"No, we're going to give it to her," said Bunny gravely. "She owes money and Mr. Flynt will close up her store if she doesn't pay. So we're going to give her our money so she can pay Mr. Flynt and then the store will stay open."
"'Cause if it's closed," added Sue, "we can't have any more fun helping keep it."
"Oh, ho! I see!" laughed Mr. Brown. "Well, I must admit I forgot all about Mrs. Golden. I promised to see if I couldn't help her when you told me about Mr. Flynt before, but I forgot. Now, children, it wouldn't be right for you to take your bank money to help Mrs. Golden. She wouldn't want you to do that. Put away your pennies, and I'll see what I can do to help."
This made Bunny and Sue feel happier, and they went to bed more satisfied, for they felt sure their father could make everything right. But the next day, when they went in to see Mrs. Golden, to help keep store, they found her looking very sad and unhappy.
"What's the matter?" asked Sue.
"Oh, just the same old trouble," Mrs. Golden answered. "I need money to pay bills."
"Mr. Flynt's?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, his and another man's. I'm afraid, children, you won't be able to come here much longer and help keep store."
"Why not?" Bunny wanted to know.
"Because there won't be any store—at least I won't have it. I'm afraid I'm going to lose it. If I could only get some more customers and do more business I might manage to pull through until Philip gets back. But I don't know—I don't know!" and she shook her head sadly.
That afternoon, going home with Sue, Bunny had another idea.
"Sue!" he exclaimed, "if we can't give our money to Mrs. Golden maybe we can get her more customers."
"How?" asked the little girl.
"We can ask everybody we know to come and trade there," said Bunny. "I remember when the Italian shoemaker started down at the end of our street and I took my rubber boots there to have him fix a hole, he said for me to tell all the boys I knew to bring their boots and shoes to him to be mended."
"Did you?" Sue inquired.
"Yes. And the shoeman said I brought him good trade and he gave me a piece of beeswax. So maybe we could get customers for Mrs. Golden."
"Maybe we could!" cried Sue. "Let's tell the other boys and girls to get their fathers and mothers to let them buy things at Mrs. Golden's, and then she'll have a lot of customers!"
"Oh, let's!" cried Bunny Brown.
And they did. The next day, when Bunny and Sue were playing with Charlie, George,Mary, Sadie, Helen, Harry and Bobbie, the idea was spoken of again.
"Fellows and girls!" exclaimed Bunny, who got up to make a speech, "we have to help Mrs. Golden."
"You should speak of the girls first," said Sadie, who was a little older than the others.
"Well, anyhow, we ought to help Mrs. Golden," went on Bunny. "She needs customers. Now, if all of you would buy everything you could of her, like Sue and I do, maybe she wouldn't lose her store."
"My mother says she'd trade there if Mrs. Golden would deliver stuff," remarked Helen Newton. "But she says she can't cart heavy things from any store."
"My mother said the same thing," added Mary Watson.