"Where is that basket of groceries for the Jones house? Where can it have gone to?" asked Tommie aloud, as he looked back into his wagon. "I'm sure I put it in, and now—"
He turned around on his seat, and stepped over into the back part of the wagon, among the boxes and baskets. He looked at them carefully, and finally he raised the horse blanket that was over Bunny and Sue.
"Why—why—what—what in the world are you doing here?" cried Tommie, much surprised to see the two children hiding there.
"We—we're having a ride," said Sue.
"Where did you get in?" asked Tommie.
"When you stopped at our house," answered Bunny. "And we've been riding with you ever since."
"Well, well!" cried Tommie. "And tothink I never knew it! You riding in with me all the while, and I never knew a thing about it! Well, well!"
He laughed, and Bunny and Sue laughed also. It was quite a joke.
"You don't mind, do you, Tommie?" asked Bunny.
"No, not a bit. I'm glad to have you."
"And will you ride us home?" asked Sue.
"Sure, yes, of course I will. But I've got to deliver the rest of my groceries first. And that makes me think—I've lost a big basket full that ought to go to Mr. Jones. I'm sure I put 'em in the wagon, but they're not here. You didn't see a big basket of groceries—butter, bread, tea, coffee and sugar—fall out, while you were riding in there, did you?"
Bunny and Sue looked at one another. They were both thinking of the same thing.
"That must have been the basket," said Bunny slowly.
"Yes," agreed Sue.
"What basket?" asked Tommie.
"We—we gave a basket of groceries to old Miss Hollyhock," said Bunny slowly. "Itwas while you were in Mr. Thompson's house. You know old Miss Hollyhock is awful poor, and we gave her the things to eat. We left 'em on her doorstep."
"For a Hallowe'en surprise," added Sue, "or a Valentine, though it isn't Valentine's Day yet, either."
"So that's what happened; eh?" cried the grocery boy. "Old Miss Hollyhock has the things I ought to leave for Mrs. Jones! Well, well!"
"Is you mad?" asked Sue, for there was a queer look on Tommie's face.
"No, not exactly mad, Sue," said Tommie slowly. "But I don't know what to do. I know you meant to be kind, and good to old Miss Hollyhock; but what am I to do about the things for Mrs. Jones? I can't very well go and take them away from old Miss Hollyhock, for she must think that some of her friends sent them, as they often do. It wouldn't do to take them away."
"Oh, no! You musn't take 'em away from her, after we gave 'em to her," said Bunny. "That would make her feel bad."
"And she feels bad now, 'cause she's poor," put in Sue. "She's hungry, too, maybe."
"Yes, I guess she is," agreed Tommie. "Well, I don't know what to do. If I go back to the store to get more things for Mrs. Jones, Mr. Gordon will want to know what became of the basketful I had. And old Miss Hollyhock has them. Well—"
"Oh, I know what to do!" cried Bunny.
"What?" asked Tommie.
"You go to my house," said the little boy, "and my mamma will give you money to buy more groceries for Mrs. Jones. Then old Miss Hollyhock can keep the ones Sue and me give her. Won't that be all right?"
"Yes, I s'pose it will if your mother gives me the money," answered Tommie slowly.
"She won't have to give you the money," said Sue. "We don't pay money for groceries anyhow; we charge 'em."
"Well, it's the same thing in the end," said Tommie with a laugh. "But I guess the best I can do is to take you two youngsters home, and see what happens then. I'll tell Mrs. Jones I'll come later with her groceries."
Tommie ran up to the Jones house, and was soon back on the wagon again. He drove quite fast to the home of Bunny and Sue.
"Oh, you children!" cried Mrs. Brown, when she heard what had happened—about Bunny and Sue riding in the grocery wagon, and giving the things away to old Miss Hollyhock that Mrs. Jones ought to have had.
"You'll pay for the groceries, won't you, Mother?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, dear, I suppose so. I know you meant to be kind, but you should ask me before you do things like that. However, the food will be a great help to old Miss Hollyhock. I was going to send her some anyhow.
"Here, Tommie, you give this note to Mr. Gordon, the grocer, and he will charge the things to me, and give you more for Mrs. Jones. I'm sorry you had all this trouble."
"Oh, I don't mind," and Tommie was smiling now. "I'm glad Bunny and Sue had a nice ride."
"And it makes you feel good to give things to people," said Bunny. "I mean it makes you feel good inside."
"Like eating bread and jam when you're hungry," observed Sue.
"No, it isn't like that," said Bunny. "'Cause when your hungry, and you eat bread and jam it makes you feel good here," and he put his hand on his stomach. "But when you make somebody, like old Miss Hollyhock, a present it makes you feel good higher up," and he patted his little heart.
"Well, I'm glad to know you like to be kind," said Mother Brown. "But please don't run away and ride in any more grocery wagons, or something may happen so that you can't go on a visit to Aunt Lu's city home."
"Oh dear!" cried Sue. "We wouldn't want that to happen! Are we soon going, Mother?"
"Pretty soon, I guess. I have some sewing to do first. I must make you some new dresses."
The next week was a busy one in the Brown house. There were clothes to get ready for Bunny and Sue, and as they had just come back from a long visit to grandpa's, in the country, some of their things needed muchmending. For Bunny and Sue had played in the hay; they had romped around in the barn, and had run through the woods, and across the fields.
But the summer vacation had done them good. They were strong and healthy, and as brown as little Indian children. They could play all day long, come in, go to bed, and get up early the next morning, ready for more good times.
One day the postman brought another letter from Aunt Lu.
"I can hardly wait for Bunny and Sue to come to see me," said Aunt Lu. "I am sure they will have a fine time in the city, though it is different from the seashore where they live. Bunny will not find any lobster claws here. And my home isn't in the country, either. There are no green fields to play in, though we can go to Central Park, or the Bronx Zoo."
"I can hardly wait for Bunny and Sue to come to see me," said Aunt Lu. "I am sure they will have a fine time in the city, though it is different from the seashore where they live. Bunny will not find any lobster claws here. And my home isn't in the country, either. There are no green fields to play in, though we can go to Central Park, or the Bronx Zoo."
"What's a Zoo?" asked Bunny. "Is it something good to eat?"
"It's a game, like tag," guessed Sue.
"No," said Mother Brown. "Aunt Lu means the Bronx Zoölogical Park, and she calls it Zoo for short. That means a place where animals are kept."
"Wild animals?" asked Bunny.
"Yes."
"Pooh! I know what a Zoo is—it's a circus!" the little boy exclaimed.
"Well, it's partly like that," said his mother. "But that isn't all of Aunt Lu's letter."
"What else does she say?" asked Sue.
"Why, she writes that she has a surprise for you."
"Oh, what is it?" asked Bunny.
"Tell us!" begged Sue.
"Aunt Lu doesn't say," said Mrs. Brown. "You will have to wait until you get to Aunt Lu's city home. Then you'll find out what the surprise is."
Bunny and Sue tried all that day to guess, but of course they could not tell whether they had guessed right or not.
"Oh dear!" sighed Sue. "I wish it was time to go now."
But the days soon passed, and, about a week later, Mrs. Brown, with Bunny and Sue, were at the railroad station, ready to take the train for New York. Mr. Brown could not go with them, though he said he would come later. He went to the station with them, however.
"Here comes the New York train," said Mr. Brown as a whistle sounded down the track. "Now you're off for Aunt Lu's!"
Mr. Brown helped his wife and the two children on to the train. Then he had to hurry down the steps, for the engine was whistling, which meant that it was about to start off again.
"And I don't want to be carried away with it, much as I would like to go," said Daddy Brown. "But I'll come to Aunt Lu's and see you before the winter is over, though now I must stay here, and look after my boat business, with Bunker Blue."
"Bring Bunker with you when you come to New York," called Bunny to his father, as the train slowly rolled out of the station.
"All right, perhaps I will," answered Mr. Brown.
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue crowded up to the open car window to wave a last good-bye to their father, who stood on the depot platform. At last they could see him no longer, for the train was soon going fast, and was quickly far away. Then the children settled down to enjoy their ride.
"Mother, can't I sit next to the window?" begged Sue.
"No, I want to!" cried Bunny.
The children did not often ride in the steam cars, and of course it was quite a treat for each of them to sit next to the window, where one could watch the trees, houses, fences and telegraph poles as they seemed to fly past. In fact Bunny and Sue both wanted the window so much that they quite forgot to be polite, as they nearly always were.
"I'm going to be at the window," said Sue.
"No, I am!" cried Bunny.
"Children, children!" said Mrs. Brown softly. "Be nice now. I will let you each have a seat by yourself, then you may each sit by a window. You must not be so impatient about it."
The car was not crowded, and there was plenty of room for Bunny and Sue to haveeach a seat by a window. Mrs. Brown also sat in a seat by herself behind the two little ones. She had seen that the windows were not raised high enough for Bunny or Sue to put out their heads.
"And you must not put out your arms, or hands, either," she said. "You might be hit by a post or something, and be hurt. Keep your hands and arms in."
Bunny and Sue were quite happy now, for they loved to travel, as most children do. Then, too, they were going to Aunt Lu's in the big city of New York, and would have lots of good times there. They had said good-bye to all their little friends, and to old Miss Hollyhock. The poor old lady had found the groceries on her doorstep, and she was very thankful for them.
"I hope when you get old, and poor and hungry, you'll have some one to be kind to you," she had said to Bunny and Sue, when she found out it was to them she owed the good things.
"Oh, we're never going to be poor!" Sue had said. "Our papa will buy us things toeat. He buys us ice cream cones; don't he Bunny?"
"Yes, dear, and I hope he will always be with you, to look after you," said old Miss Hollyhock.
Bunny and Sue had also said good-bye to Uncle Tad, to Mrs. Redden who kept the candy store, and to Mr. and Miss Winkler. Nor did they forget to say good-bye to Wango, the monkey.
"We won't see any monkeys in the city," said Sue.
"Yes we will," cried Bunny. "We'll see 'em in the Zoo. And they have hand-organ monkeys in cities, Sue."
"Maybe they do," she said.
And now, as the two children were riding in the train, they talked of what they saw from the windows, and also of the friends they had left behind in Bellemere, not forgetting Wango, the monkey.
"Mother, I want a drink of water," said Sue, after a while. "I'm thirsty."
"All right, I'll get you a drink," said Mrs. Brown. In her bag she had a little drinkingcup, that closed up, "like an accordion," as Bunny said. And, taking this out, Mrs. Brown walked to the end of the car where the water was kept in a tank, to get Sue a drink.
As the little girl was taking some from the cup the train gave a sudden swing to one side, and, the first thing Sue knew, the water had splashed up in her face, and down over her dress.
"Oh—oh, Mother!" gasped Sue. "I—I didn't mean to do that."
"No, you couldn't help it," said Mrs. Brown. "It was the train that made you do it. Water won't hurt your dress."
Mrs. Brown sat down, after wiping the drops off Sue's skirt and face. She was beginning to read a book when Bunny, who had been looking out of his window, called:
"Mother, I'm thirsty. I want a drink!"
"Oh, Bunny dear! Why didn't you tell me that when I was getting one for Sue?"
"'Cause, Mother, I wasn't thirsty then."
Mrs. Brown smiled. Then she once more went down to the end of the car and got Bunny a drink. By this time the train had stoppedat a station, so the car was not "jiggling" as Sue called it. And Bunny did not spill his cup of water.
For some time after this the two children sat quietly in their seats.
"I just saw a cow!" Sue called back to her brother.
"Pooh!" he answered. "That's nothing. I just saw two horses in a field, and one was running."
"Well, a cow's better than a horse," insisted Sue.
"No it isn't!" Bunny cried. "You can ride a horse, but you can't ride a cow."
"Well, a cow gives milk."
Bunny could not think of any answer for a minute, and then he said:
"Well, anyhow, two horses is better than one cow."
Even Sue thought this might be so. She sat looking out of the window, watching the trees, houses, fences and telegraph poles, as they seemed to fly past.
By and by a boy came through the car selling candy.
"Mother, I'm hungry!" said Bunny.
"So am I!" added Sue. "I want some candy!"
Mrs. Brown bought them some chocolates, for the ride was a long one, and they had eaten an early breakfast. The candy kept Bunny and Sue quiet for a while, and Mrs. Brown was shutting her eyes for a little sleep, when she heard some one behind her saying:
"Oh, children, I wouldn't do that!"
Quickly opening her eyes she saw Bunny and Sue crossing to the other side of the car, to take some empty seats there. A passenger behind Mrs. Brown, seeing that she was asleep, had spoken to the children.
"Oh, you musn't do that," said Mrs. Brown. "Stay in the seats you had first."
"We want to see what's on this side," said Bunny. He had already climbed up into a vacant seat, and was near the window, when, all at once, a train rushed past on the other track, with a loud whistle, a clanging of the bell and puffing of the engine, that sent smoke and cinders into Bunny's face. The little fellow jumped back quickly.
"There!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "You see it is much nicer on the side where you were first. No trains pass on this side."
So Bunny and Sue were glad enough to go back to the places they had at first. For some time they were quiet, looking out at the different stations as they stopped. At noon their mother gave them some chicken sandwiches from a basket of lunch she had put up.
"Why don't we go into the dining car, like we did once?" Bunny wanted to know.
"Because there isn't any on this train," said Mrs. Brown. "But we will soon be at Aunt Lu's. Now sit back in your seats, and rest yourselves."
Bunny and Sue did for a while. Then they looked for something else to do. The train boy came through with some picture books, and Mrs. Brown bought one each for Bunny and Sue.
These kept them quiet for a little while, but the books were soon finished, even when Bunny took Sue's and gave her his, to change about.
"You come back and sit in my seat, Bunny,"Sue invited her brother after a while.
"No, you come with me," said Bunny. So Sue got in with him, but she wanted to sit next to the window, and as Bunny wanted that place himself, they were not satisfied, until Sue went back in her own seat.
About this time Bunny looked up and saw a long cord stretched overhead in the car, like a clothes line. It hung down from the car ceiling, and ran over little brass wheels, or pulleys, like those on Mr. Brown's boats, only much smaller.
"Do you see that cord, Sue?" asked Bunny.
"Yes," answered the little girl. "What's it for?"
"That's what holds the cars together," Bunny said. "The cars are tied to the engine with that cord."
Of course this was not so, for it takes strong iron chains and bars to hold the railroad cars one to another, and to the engine. But Bunny thought the cord, that blew a whistle in the engine, kept the train from coming apart.
"Is that what it's for?" asked Sue. "It isn't a very big string for to hold a train."
"Oh, it's very strong," Bunny said. "Nobody could break it."
"I—I guess daddy could break it," Sue suggested.
"No he couldn't!"
"Yes he could! Daddy's awful strong!"
"He couldn't break that cord!" declared Bunny. "Nobody could break it. If I could pull it down here, you could pull on it and see how strong it is. No one can break it."
He reached up toward the whistle cord, but he was too short to get hold of it.
"I know how you can get it," said Sue.
"How can I get it?" Bunny asked.
"Hook it down with mother's parasol," answered Sue.
"Oh, so I can!" cried Bunny.
He went back to the seat where his mother sat. Mrs. Brown had fallen asleep, and Bunny got her parasol without awakening her.
The little fellow raised the umbrella, and hooked the crook in the end of it over the whistle cord. He pulled down hard, and then—well, I guess I'll tell you in the next chapter what happened.
When Bunny Brown pulled down on the whistle cord in the railroad car, a very strange thing happened. All at once there was a loud squeaking, grinding sound. The car shivered and shook and began to go slowly. It stopped so suddenly that Bunny slid out of the smooth plush seat down to the floor. So did his sister Sue.
Some of the other passengers had hard work to keep from sliding from their seats, and many of them jumped up and began calling:
"What's the matter?"
"What has happened?"
"Is there an accident?"
For when a train stops suddenly, you know, if it is going along fast, it almost always means that something has happened, or that there isa cow, or something else, on the track, and that the engineer wants to stop, quickly, so as not to hit it. And that's what the other passengers thought now.
Mrs. Brown was suddenly awakened from her sleep. She, too, had almost slid from her seat when the car stopped so suddenly. For the moment Bunny pulled down on the cord, it blew a whistle in the cab, or little house of the engine, where the engineer sits. And when the engineer heard that whistle he knew it meant for him to stop as soon as he could.
He could look down the track, and see that there was nothing on the rails that he could hit, but, hearing the whistle, he thought the conductor, or one of the brakemen, must have pulled the cord. Perhaps the engineer thought some one had fallen off the train, as people sometimes fall off boats, and the engineer wanted to stop quickly so the passenger could be picked up. At any rate, he stopped very suddenly, and that was what made all the trouble. Or, rather, Bunny Brown made all the trouble, though he did not mean to.
"Why, Bunny!" cried his mother, as shestraightened up in her seat. "Where are you? Where is Sue? What has happened?"
For, you know, Bunny and Sue had slid down to the floor of the car when the train came to such a sudden stop.
"Where are you, children?" called Mrs. Brown, anxiously.
"I—I'm here, Mother!" answered Sue. "Bunny pushed me off my seat!"
"Oh-o-o-o, Sue Brown! I did not!" cried the little fellow, getting up with the parasol still in his hand. "I did not!"
"Well, you made the train stop, and that knocked me out of my seat, and my doll was knocked down too, so there!" answered Sue, and she seemed ready to cry.
"Bunny, what happened? What did you do?" asked his mother. "What are you doing with my parasol?" she asked.
"I—I just reached up to pull down that rope with the crooked handle end," Bunny answered, pointing to the whistle cord. "I wanted to show Sue how strong it was, so I pulled on it."
"Oh ho!" exclaimed a fat man, a few seatsahead of Bunny. "So that's what made the train stop; eh? I thought someone must have pulled the engineer's whistle cord to make him stop, but I didn't think it was a little boy like you."
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed his mother, when she saw what had happened. "You shouldn't have done that. You musn't stop the train that way."
"I—I didn't want to stop the train, Mother!" the little boy answered. "I just wanted to show Sue about the cord. I fell out of my seat, too," he added.
"Yes, nearly all of us did," said the fat man with a laugh. "Well if you didn't mean to do it Bunny, we'll forgive you I suppose," and he laughed in a jolly way.
Into the car came hurrying the conductor, with the gold bands on his cap, and the brakeman. They looked all around, and then straight at Bunny who still held his mother's parasol.
"Who pulled the whistle cord?" asked the conductor. Years ago there used to be a bell cord in the train, and a bell rang in the engineer's cab when the cord was pulled. But now an air whistle blows. "Who pulled the cord?" asked the conductor.
Now Bunny Brown was a brave little chap, even when he knew he had done wrong. So he spoke up and said:
"I—I pulled it, Mr. Conductor. I pulled the cord."
"You did eh?" and the conductor smiled a little now. Bunny looked so funny and so cute standing there, with the parasol, and Sue looked so pretty, standing near him, holding her doll upside down, that no one could help at least smiling. Some of the passengers were laughing.
"And so you stopped my train; did you?" the conductor asked.
"I—I guess so," Bunny answered. "I was pulling down on the rope, to show my sister how strong it was."
"Oh, I see," the conductor went on. "Then you didn't stop my train because you wanted to get off?"
"Oh, no!" cried Bunny quickly. "I don't want to get off now. I want to go to NewYork. We're going to my Aunt Lu's house."
"Well, New York is quite a way off yet," laughed the conductor, "so I guess you had better stay with us. But please don't pull on the whistle cord again."
"I won't," Bunny promised. "But it is a strong rope, isn't it, Mr. Conductor? And it does hold the cars together; doesn't it?"
"Well, no, not exactly," the conductor answered, while the passengers laughed. "I'll show you what the cord does in a little while. But I'm glad nothing has happened. I thought there was an accident when the train stopped so quickly, so I ran through all the cars to find out. Now we'll go on again."
He reached up and pulled the car-cord twice. Far up ahead, in the cab of the locomotive, a little whistle blew twice, and the engineer knew that meant for him to go ahead. It's just like that on a trolley car. One bell means to stop, and two bells to go ahead.
"Oh Bunny! Why did you do it?" asked his mother, as she took the parasol from him.
"Why—why, I didn't mean to stop the train," he said.
Mrs. Brown thought there was not much need of scolding Bunny, for he had not meant to do wrong. He promised never again to pull on a whistle cord in a train.
Now the cars were rolling on again, and, in a little while the conductor again came back to where Mrs. Brown was sitting.
"Now where's the little boy who stopped my train?" he asked with a smile.
"I'm here," Bunny answered, "and this is my sister Sue."
"Well, I'm glad to meet you both again, I'm sure," and the conductor shook hands with Bunny and kissed Sue. "Now, if you two would like it, I'll show you where you blew the whistle in the engine."
"Oh, will you take us in the engine?" asked Bunny, who had always wanted to go in that funny little house on top of the locomotive's back.
"Yes, I'll take you in when we make the next stop," the conductor said. "We have to wait a few minutes to give the engine a drink of water, and I'll take you and your sister in the engine. That is if you say it's all right,"and he turned around to look at Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, yes," Bunny's mother answered. "They may go with you if they won't be a bother. I'm sorry my little boy made so much trouble about stopping the train."
"Oh, well, he didn't mean to, so we'll forget all about it. I'll come back and get you when we stop," he said.
A little later the train slowed up. It did it so easily that no one fell out of his seat this time, and, pretty soon, back came the conductor to get Bunny and Sue.
The engine had stopped near a big wooden tank filled with water, and some of this water was running through a big pipe into the tender of the engine. The tender is the place where the coal is kept for the locomotive fire.
"Hello, Jim!" called the conductor to the engineer who was leaning out of the window of his little house. "Here's the boy who stopped the train so suddenly a while back."
"Oh ho! Is he?" asked the engineer. "Well, he isn't a very big boy, to have stopped such a big train."
"I—I didn't mean to," said Bunny, and heand Sue looked back, and saw that truly it was a long train. And the locomotive pulling it was a very big one.
"Well, you didn't do much damage," laughed the engineer.
"I'm going to bring them up to see you," the conductor said.
"That's right, let 'em come!"
The engineer came out of his cab and took first Bunny, and then Sue, from the conductor, who lifted them up to the iron step near the boiler. A hot fire was burning under the engine to make steam, and Bunny and Sue looked at it in wonder.
Then the engineer took them up in his cab, and showed Bunny where, on the ceiling, was the little air whistle—the one Bunny had blown when he pulled the cord with the parasol. Then the engineer showed the children the shiny handle that he pulled to make the engine go ahead, and another that made it go backward. Then he showed a little brass handle.
"This is the one I pulled on in a hurry when I heard you blow the whistle once," he said.
"What handle is that?" asked the little boy.
"That's the handle that puts on the air brakes," said the engineer. "And over here is the rope the fireman pulls when he wants to ring the bell. I'll let you ring it."
"And me, too?" asked Sue.
"Yes, you too!" laughed the engineer.
First Bunny pulled on the rope that was fast to the big bell on the top of the engine, near the smoke-stack where the puffing noise sounded. Bunny could hardly make the bell ring, as it was very heavy, but finally he did make it sound:
"Ding-dong!"
"Now it's my turn!" cried Sue.
She could only make the bell ring once:
"Ding!"
But she was just as well pleased.
By this time the engine had taken enough water for its boiler, to last until it got to New York, and the conductor took Bunny and Sue back to their mother. They were quite excited and pleased over their visit to the locomotive, and told Mrs. Brown all about the strange sights they had seen.
"But when will we be at Aunt Lu's?" asked Bunny, as he looked out of the window.
"Oh, soon now," his mother answered.
And, in about an hour, the brakeman put his head in through the door of their car, and called out:
"New York! All change!"
"Change what, Mother?" asked Sue. "Have we got to change our clothes? Are we going to bed?"
"No, dear. The man means we must change cars. We are at the end of our railroad trip."
"But it's so dark," said Bunny. "I thought it was time to go to bed."
"It's the station that's dark," said Mrs. Brown. "Part of it is underground, like a tunnel."
Indeed it was so dark in the train and the station that the car lamps were lighted. No wonder Bunny and Sue thought it time to go to bed.
But when they got outside the sun was shining, though it was afternoon, and would soon be supper time.
"Oh, here you are! Hello, Bunny dear! Hello, Sue dear!" cried a jolly voice.
"Oh, Aunt Lu! Oh, Aunt Lu!" cried Bunny and Sue as they clung to their aunt. "We're so glad to see you!"
"And I'm glad to see you!" she cried, as she kissed her sister, Mrs. Brown. "Now come on, and we'll soon be at my house."
"But where's the surprise?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, we want to see the surprise," said Sue.
"It's in my automobile," said Aunt Lu with a laugh. "Come on, I'll show her to you."
"Is it—is it aher?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, my dear. You'll soon see. Come on!"
Aunt Lu led the way to a fine, large automobile just outside the station. A man wearing a tall hat opened the door of the car, and looking inside Bunny and Sue saw a queer little colored girl, her kinky hair standing up in little pigtails all over her head. She smiled at Bunny and Sue, showing her white teeth.
"There!" cried Aunt Lu. "What do you think of my surprise?"
For a second or two Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know what to say. They stood on the sidewalk, at the door of the automobile, which was one of the closed kind, staring at the little colored girl, with her kinky wisps of hair.
"Well, what do you think of Wopsie?" asked Aunt Lu again. "Don't you like my surprise, Bunny—Sue?"
"Is—is this the surprise?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, this is Wopsie. I'll tell you about her in a little while. Get in now, and we'll soon be at my house."
Wopsie, the colored girl, smiled to show even more of her white teeth, and then she asked:
"Is yo' all de company?"
"Yes, this is the company I told you about,Wopsie," said Miss Baker, which was Aunt Lu's name. "This is Bunny," and she pointed to the little boy, "and this little girl is Sue. They are going to be my company for a long time, I hope."
Wopsie gave a funny little bow, that sent her black topknots of hair bobbing all over her head, and said:
"Pleased to meet yo' all, company! Pleased to meet yo'!"
Bunny and Sue thought Wopsie talked quite funnily, but they were too polite to say so. They looked at the little colored girl and smiled. And she smiled back at them.
"Home, George," said Miss Baker to one of the two men on the front seat of the automobile. The man touched his cap, and soon Bunny, Sue and their mother were being driven rapidly through the streets of New York in Aunt Lu's automobile.
"It's almost as big as the one we went in to grandpa's, in the country," said Bunny, as he looked around at the seats, and noticed the little electric lamp in the roof.
"But you can't sleep in it or cook in it,"said Sue. "And there's no place for Splash or Bunker Blue."
"No," said Bunny. "That's so."
The children had had to leave Splash, the dog, home with Daddy Brown, and of course Bunker Blue did not come to Aunt Lu's.
"No, we can't sleep in my auto, nor eat, unless it is to eat candy, or cookies, or something like that," said Aunt Lu. "And I have some sweet crackers for the children, if you think it's all right for them to eat," said Aunt Lu to Mother Brown.
"Oh, yes. I guess it will be all right. They must be hungry, though they ate on the train."
"And Bunny stopped the train, too!" cried Sue. "He pulled on the whistle cord, with mother's parasol, and we stopped so quick we slid out of our seats; didn't we, Bunny?"
"Yep!"
"My! That was quite an adventure," said Aunt Lu, laughing.
"And we went in the choo-choo engine," went on Sue. "I ringed the bell, I did, and so did Bunny. Was you ever in a train, Wopsie?" Sue asked the little colored girl.
"Yes'm, I was once."
"Wopsie came all the way up from down South," said Aunt Lu. "She is a little lost girl."
"Lost!" cried Bunny and Sue. They did not understand how any one could be lost when in a nice automobile with Aunt Lu.
"Yes'm, I'se losted!" said Wopsie, shaking her kinky head, "an' I suttinly does wish dat I could find mah folks!"
"I must tell you about her," said Aunt Lu. "Wopsie, which is the name I call her, though her right name is Sallie Jefferson, was sent up North to live with her aunt here in New York. Wopsie made the trip all alone. She was put on the train, at a little town somewhere in North Carolina, or South Carolina—she doesn't remember which—and sent up here."
"All alone?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, all alone. She had a tag, or piece of paper, pinned to her dress, with the name and house number of her aunt. But the paper was lost."
"De paper was losted, and now I'se losted," said Wopsie.
"I'll tell them all about you, Wopsie," said Aunt Lu.
Then she told Bunny and Sue how the little colored girl had reached New York all alone, not knowing where to go.
"A kind lady, in the same station where you children just came in, looked after Wopsie," said Aunt Lu. "This lady looks after all lost boys and girls, and she took Wopsie to a nice place to stay all night. In the morning she tried to find Wopsie's aunt, but could not. Nor could Wopsie tell her aunt's name, or where she lived. She was lost just as you and Sue, Bunny, sometimes get lost in the woods."
"And how did you come to take her?" asked Mother Brown.
"Well, Wopsie was sent to a society that looks after lost children," said Aunt Lu. "They tried to find her friends, either up here, in New York, or down South, but they could not. I belong to this society, and when I heard of Wopsie I said I would take her and keep her in my house for a while. I can train her to become a lady's maid while I am waiting to find her folks."
"Are you trying to find them?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, I have written all over, and so has the society. We have asked the police to let us know if any one is asking for a little lost colored girl. But I have had her nearly a month now, and no one has claimed her."
"Yep. I suah am losted!" said Wopsie, but she laughed as she said it, and did not seem to mind very much. "It's fun being losted like this," she said, as she patted the soft cushions of the automobile. "I likes it!"
"And are you really going to keep her?" asked Mrs. Brown of her sister.
"Yes, until she gets a little older, or until I can find her folks. I think her father and mother must have died some time ago," said Aunt Lu in a whisper to Mrs. Brown. "She probably didn't have anyrealfolks down South, so whoever she was with sent her up here."
"Well, I'm glad you took care of her," said Mrs. Brown. "She looks like a nice clean little girl."
"She is; and she is very kind and helpful.She is careful, too, and she will be a help with Bunny and Sue. Wopsie has already learned her way around that part of New York near my apartment, and I can send her on errands. She can take Bunny and Sue out."
While Mrs. Brown and Aunt Lu were talking together Wopsie had given Bunny and Sue some sweet crackers from a box she took out from a pocket in the side of the automobile. Aunt Lu had told her to do so. So Bunny and Sue ate the crackers as they rode along, and Wopsie sat near them.
"Don't you want a cracker?" asked Bunny.
"No, sah, thank you," answered the little colored girl. "I don't eat 'tween meals. Miss Baker say as how it ain't good for your intergestion."
"What's in—indergaston?" asked Sue.
"Huh! Dat's a misery on yo' insides—a pain," said Wopsie. "I t'ought everybody knowed dat!"
Bunny was silent a minute.
"Do you know how to stop a train by pulling on the whistle cord?" he asked.
"No," said Wopsie.
"Huh! I thought everybody knew that!" exclaimed Bunny. Then he laughed, as Wopsie did. It was a little joke on her, when Bunny answered her the way he did.
The automobile came to a stop in front of a large building. Bunny and Sue looked up at it.
"My! What a big house you live in, Aunt Lu!" said Bunny.
"Oh, this isn't all mine!" laughed Aunt Lu. "There are many others who live in here. This is what is called an apartment house. I have my dining room, kitchen, bath room and other rooms, and other families in this building have the same thing. You see there isn't room in New York to build separate houses, such as you have in Bellemere, so they make one big house, and divide it up on the inside, into a number of little houses, or apartments."
Bunny and Sue thought that very strange.
"But you haven't any yard to play in!" exclaimed Bunny, as he and his sister got out of the automobile, and found that the front door of Aunt Lu's apartment was right on the sidewalk.
"No, we don't have yards in the city, Bunny. But we have a roof to go up on and play."
"Playing on a roof!" cried Bunny. "I should think you'd fall off!"
"Oh, it has a high railing all around it. Wopsie may take you up there after a bit. Then you can see how it seems to play on a roof, instead of down on the ground. We have to do queer things in big cities."
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue certainly thought so.
As they entered the apartment house the children found themselves in a wide hall, with marble floor and sides. There was a nice carpet over the marble floor and bright electric lights glowed from the ceiling.
"Right in here," said Aunt Lu, leading the children toward what seemed to be a little room with an iron door, like the iron gate to some park. A colored boy, with many brass buttons on his blue coat, stood at the door.
"Jes' yo' all wait an' see what gwine t' happen!" said Wopsie.
"Why, what is going to happen?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, ho! Yo' all jes' wait!" exclaimed Wopsie, laughing at her secret.
"What is it? I don't want anything to happen!" cried Sue hanging back.
"Oh, it isn't anything, dear. This is just the elevator," said Aunt Lu. "Get in and you'll have a nice ride."
"Oh, I like a ride," Sue said.
In she stepped with Bunny, her mother, Aunt Lu and Wopsie. The colored boy, who was also smiling, and showing his white teeth as Wopsie was doing, closed the iron door. Then, all of a sudden, Bunny and Sue felt themselves shooting upward.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Bunny. "We're in a balloon! We're in a balloon! We're going up!"
"Just like a skyrocket on the Fourth of July!" added Sue. She was not afraid now. She was clapping her hands.
Up and up and up they went!
"Oh, what makes it?" asked Bunny. "Is it a balloon, Aunt Lu?"
"No, dear, it's just the elevator. You see this big house is so high that you would get tired climbing the stairs up to my rooms, sowe go up in the elevator. It lifts us up, and in England they call them 'lifts' on this account."
"Oh, I see!" Bunny cried, as he looked up and saw that he was in a sort of square steel cage, going up what seemed to be a long tunnel; standing up instead of lying on the ground as a railroad tunnel lies. "I see! We're going up, just like a bucket of water comes up out of the well."
"That's it!" said Aunt Lu. "And when we go down we go down just like the bucket going down in the well."
"It's fun! I like it!" and Sue clapped her hands. "I like the elevator!"
"Yes'm, it sho' am fun!" echoed Wopsie.
"Wopsie would ride up and down all day if I'd let her," said Aunt Lu. "But here we are at my floor. Now wasn't that better than climbing up ten flights of stairs, children?"
"I guess it was!" cried Bunny. "Do you live up ten flights?"
"Yes, and there are some families who live higher than that."
They stepped out of the elevator into a little hall, and soon they were in Aunt Lu's nice city apartment, or house, if you like that word better.
"Now, Wopsie," said Aunt Lu, "you tell Jane to make Mrs. Brown a nice cup of tea."
"And can we go up on the roof?" asked Bunny.
"Not right away—but after a while," said his aunt.
"Let's go out into the elevator again," suggested Sue.
"No, dear, not now," said Mrs. Brown.
Bunny and Sue thought they had never been in such a nice place as Aunt Lu's city home. From the windows they could look down to the street, ten stories below.
"It's a good way to fall," said Bunny, in a whisper.
"But you musn't lean out of the windows, and then you won't fall," his mother told him.
The children were given their supper, and then Wopsie took them up on the roof. This was higher yet. It was a flat roof, with a broad, high railing all around it so no one could fall off. And from it Bunny and Suecould look all over New York, and see the twinkling lights far off, for it was now getting on toward evening, though it was not yet dark.
A little later Wopsie took them down in the elevator again, to the street. There they saw other children walking up and down, some of them playing; some babies being wheeled in carriages, and many men and women walking past.
"My! What a lot of people!" cried Bunny. "Is it always this way in a city, Wopsie?"
"Yes'm," answered the little colored girl, who seemed to mix up "Yes, ma'am," and "Yes, sir." But what of it? She meant all right. "It's bin dis way eber sence I come t' New York," she went on. "Allers a crowd laik dis. Everybuddy hurryin' an' hurryin'."
Wopsie stood still a moment to speak to another colored girl, who came out of the next house, and Bunny and Sue walked on ahead. Before they knew it they had turned a corner. Down at the end of the street they saw a man playing a hand-piano, or hurdy-gurdy, as they are called.
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Let's go down and listen to the music."
"All right," Bunny agreed. "And maybe he has a monkey, like Wango."
Hand in hand the two children ran on. They saw other children about the hurdy-gurdy. Some of them were dancing. Bunny and Sue danced too. Then the music-man wheeled his music machine away, and Bunny and Sue turned to go back. They walked on and on, and finally Bunny, stopping in front of a big house said:
"This is where Aunt Lu lives."
"But where is Wopsie?" asked Sue. "Why isn't she here?"
"Oh, maybe she went inside," replied Bunny. "Come on, we'll go in the elevator and have a ride."
They went into the marble hall. It looked just like the one in Aunt Lu's apartment. And there was the same colored elevator boy in his queer little cage. Bunny and Sue went to the entrance.
"Where yo' want to go?" asked the elevator boy.
"To Aunt Lu's," answered Bunny.
"What floor she done lib on?" the boy asked.
"I—I don't know," Bunny said. "I—I forgot the number."
"What's her name?"
"Aunt Lu," said Sue.
"No, I mean her last name?"
"Oh, it's Baker," said Bunny. "Aunt Lu Baker."
The colored elevator boy shook his head.
"They don't no Miss Baker lib heah!" he said. "I done guess yo' chilluns done got in de wrong house!"
Bunny Brown looked at his sister Sue, and his sister Sue looked at Bunny Brown. Then they both looked at the colored elevator boy. He was smiling at them, so Bunny and Sue were not as frightened as they might otherwise have been.
"Isn't this where Aunt Lu lives?" asked Bunny.
"Nope. Not if her name's Baker," answered the elevator lad. "We sure ain't got nobody named Baker in heah!" (He meant "here.")
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Then we're losted again!"
"Where'd you come from?" asked the colored boy. "Now don't git skeered, 'cause yo' all ain't losted very much I guess. Maybe I kin find where yo' all belongs. What's de number of, de house where yo' auntie libs?"
"I—I don't know," said Bunny. He had not thought to ask the number of his aunt's house, nor had he looked to see what the number was over the door before he and Sue came out. In the country no one ever had numbers on their houses, and Bellemere was like the country in this way—no houses had numbers on them.
"Well, what street does your aunt done lib on?" asked the colored boy, in the funny way he talked.
"I don't know that, either," said Bunny.
"Huh! Den yo' suahamlost!" cried the elevator lad. "But don't yo' all git skeered!" he said quickly, as he saw tears coming in Sue's brown eyes. "I guess yo' all ain't losted so very much, yet. Maybe I kin find yo' aunt's house."
"If you could find Wopsie for us, she could take us there," said Bunny.
"Find who?"
"Wopsie. She's a little girl that lives with my aunt, and—"
But the elevator boy did not wait for Bunny to finish.
"Wopsie!" he cried. "Am she dat queer li'l colored gal, wif her hair all done up in rags?"
"Yes!" cried Sue eagerly. "That's Wopsie. We came out to walk with her, but we heard the hand-piano music, and we got lost."
"Do you know Wopsie?" asked Bunny.
"I suah does!" cried the elevator boy. "She's a real nice li'l gal, an' we all likes her."
"She's losted too," said Bunny.
"Yes, I knows about dat!" replied the elevator boy. "We all knows 'bout Wopsie. Why she's jest down the street, and around the corner a few houses. Now I know where yo' Aunt Lu libs. If you'd a' done said Wopsiefust, I'd a knowed den, right off quick!"
"Can you take us home?" asked Sue.
"I suah can!" cried the kind colored boy. "Jes yo' all wait a minute."
He called to another colored boy to take care of his elevator, and then, holding one of Bunny's and one of Sue's hands, he went out into the street. Around the corner he hurried, and, no sooner had he turned it, than up rushed Wopsie herself. She made a grab for Bunny and Sue.
"Oh, mah goodness!" cried the little colored girl. "Oh, mah goodness! I'se so skeered! I done t'ought I'd losted yo' all!"
"No, Wopsie," said Bunny. "You didn't lost us. We losted ourselves. We heard music, and we went to look for a monkey."
"But there wasn't any monkey," said Sue, "and we got in the wrong house, where Aunt Lu didn't live."
"But he brought us back. He knows you, Wopsie," and Bunny nodded toward the kind elevator boy.
"I guess everybody around dish yeah place knows Wopsie," said the boy, smiling. "Will yo' all take dese chilluns home now?" he asked.
"I suah will!" Wopsie said. "Mah goodness! I'se bin lookin' all ober fo' 'em! I didn't know where dey wented. Come along now, an' yo' all musn't go 'way from Wopsie no mo'!"
"We won't!" promised Bunny.
He and Sue were beginning to find out that it was easier to get lost in the city, even by going just around the corner, than it was inthe country, when they went down a long road. For in the city the houses were so close together, and they all looked so much alike, that it was hard to tell one from the other.
"But yo' all am all right now, honey lambs," said Wopsie, who seemed to be very much older than Bunny and Sue, though really she was no more than three or four years older.
"Do we have to go in now?" asked Bunny, as Wopsie led him and Sue down the street, having said good-bye to the kind elevator boy who had brought them part way home.
"Yes, I guess we'd better go in," said the little colored girl. "Yo' ma might be worried about yo'. We'll go in. It's gittin' dark."
The elevator quickly carried them up to Aunt Lu's floor.
"Oh, now I see the number!" cried Bunny. "It's ten—I won't forget any more."
"Well, did you have a good time?" asked Mother Brown when Bunny and Sue came in, followed by Wopsie.
"We got losted!" exclaimed Sue.
"What! Lost so soon?" cried Aunt Lu. "Where was it?"
"In a house just like this," broke in Bunny. "And it had a lift elevator and a colored boy and everything. Only he said you didn't live there, and you didn't, and I didn't know the number of your floor, or of your house, and we got losted!"
"But I found them!" said Wopsie, for she felt it might be a little bit her fault that Bunny and Sue had gotten away. But of course it was their own fault for running to hear the music.
"You must be careful about getting lost," said Aunt Lu. "But of course, if ever you do, just ask a policeman. I'll give you each one of my cards, with my name and address on, and you can show that to the officer. He'll bring, or send, you home."
Sue and Bunny were each given a card, and they put them away in their pockets, where they would have them the next time they went out on the street.
For the next two or three days Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not go far away from Aunt Lu's house. Wopsie took them up and down the block for a walk, but moreoften they were riding in Aunt Lu's automobile. And many wonderful sights did the children see in the big city of New York. They could hardly remember them, there were so many.
Bunny and Sue grew to like Wopsie very much. She was a kind, good girl, anxious to help, and do all she could, and she just loved the children. She was almost like a nurse girl for them, and Mrs. Brown did not have to worry when Bunny and Sue were with Wopsie.
"Do you think you'll ever find her folks?" asked Mrs. Brown of Aunt Lu, when they were talking of the colored girl one day.
"Well, I'm sure I hope so," answered Aunt Lu, "though I like the poor little thing myself very much, and I would like to keep her with me. But I know she is lonesome for her own aunt whom she has not seen since she was a little baby. And I think the aunt must be worrying about lost Wopsie. The police haven't been able to find any one who is looking for a little colored girl, to come up from down South. Perhaps her aunt has movedaway. Anyhow I'll keep Wopsie until I find her folks."
Sometimes Bunny and Sue thought that Wopsie looked sad. Perhaps she did, when she thought of how she was lost. But she had a good home with Aunt Lu, and after all, Wopsie was quite happy, especially since Bunny and Sue had come.
The two Brown children thought riding in the elevator was great fun. Often they would slip out by themselves and get Henry, the colored boy, to carry them up and down. And he was very glad to do it, if he was not busy.
One day Bunny and Sue went out into Aunt Lu's kitchen, where Mary, the colored cook, was busy. She often gave the children cookies, or a piece of cake, just as Mother Brown did at home.
This day, after they had eaten their cookies, Bunny and Sue heard a knocking in the kitchen.
"Somebody's at the door," called Bunny.
"No, chile! Folks don't knock at de kitchen do' heah," said Mary. "Dey rings de bell."
"But somebody's knocking," said Bunny.
"Yes chile. I s'pects dat's de ice man knockin' on de dumb waiter t' tell me he's put on a piece ob ice," went on the cook.
She opened a door in the kitchen wall, and Bunny and Sue saw what looked like a big box, in a sort of closet. In the box was a large piece of ice.
"Yep. Dat's what it am. Ice on de dumb waiter," said Mary, as she took off the cold chunk and put it in the refrigerator. It was an extra piece gotten that day because she was going to make ice cream for dessert.
"What's a dumb waiter?" asked Bunny.
"Dis is," said Mary, pointing to the box, back of the door in the wall. "It waits on me—it brings up de milk and de ice. It's jest a big box, and it goes up an' down on a rope dat runs ober a wheel."
"I know—a pulley wheel," said Bunny.
"Dat's it!" cried Mary. "De box goes up an' down inside between de walls, and when de ice man, or de milk man puts anyt'ing on de waiter in de cellar, dey pulls on de rope and up it comes to me."
"What makes them call it a dumb waiter?" asked Sue.
"'Cause as how it can't talk, chile. Anyt'ing dat can't talk is dumb, an' dis waiter, or lifter, can't talk. So it's dumb."
Bunny and Sue looked at the dumb waiter for some time. Mary showed them how it would go up or down on the rope, very easily.
A little while after that, Mary went to her room to put on a clean apron; Bunny and Sue were still in the kitchen.
"Sue," said Bunny. "I know something we can do to have fun."
"What?" asked the little girl.
"Play with the dumb waiter. It's just like a little elevator. Now I'll get in, you close the door, and I'll ride down cellar. Then when I ride up it will be your turn to ride down."
"All right!" cried Sue. "I'll do it. You go first, Bunny."
Standing on a chair, Bunny managed to crawl into the dumb waiter box, where the piece of ice had been. And then, all at once something happened.