While Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were traveling in the freight car with the pussy and with Nutty, the tramp, Mrs. Brown was left alone on the station platform, where she had sat down to rest after lunch and to wait for her husband. Mr. Brown had some business to attend to uptown, and he had to see not one man, as he thought at first, but several.
Mrs. Brown watched Bunny and Sue walk down the street alongside of the freight tracks, but she did not see the children cross to look into the open car.
Then Mrs. Brown went to sleep, or, if she did not exactly go to sleep, she closed her eyes, so she saw nothing of what went on.
Mrs. Brown was suddenly awakened from her mid-day doze on the railroad station benchby hearing a loud banging noise. The noise was caused when the engine backed down the track, bumped into the train of freight cars and was coupled to them. Then the engine started off, pulling the cars with it.
"My, I thought that was a clap of thunder!" said Mrs. Brown, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I'm glad it isn't," she went on, as she saw the warm, southern sun shining.
"Where did Bunny and Sue go?" she asked herself, speaking aloud, as she arose from the bench. Then she heard some voices of children on the other side of the station, and, thinking her two might be there, she walked around to the farther platform.
But there were only some colored boys playing with their marbles and tops.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, "I hope those two haven't wandered away. I hope they haven't gone toward the town, thinking they can find their father. I must look for them."
She went back to the place where she had been sitting on the bench and looked down the street where she had last seen Bunny andSue. But the children were not there. And the freight train was almost out of sight now down the track.
"Perhaps they are in talking to the station agent," thought Mother Brown. "Surely they wouldn't wander away without telling me."
But as this was between the time for trains the office of the station agent was closed. He had gone home and would not be back until it was time for the arrival of the train Mr. Brown intended taking, to go on to Orange Beach.
The door of the office was locked and the glass ticket window was closed. Inside the office could be heard the clicking of the telegraph sounders, and this, with the voices of the colored boys playing with their tops, were the only noises to be heard.
"Where can Bunny and Sue have gone?" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, getting more and more worried. "They must have wandered off. If there had been an accident on the track, I'd see something of it." She was glad there was no sign of a train having hurt any little boy or girl. In fact, except for the freight trainhaving pulled away, there had been no other trains moving around the station since the Browns had arrived.
"I'll go ask those colored boys if they have seen Bunny and Sue," said Mrs. Brown to herself.
She walked around the corner of the station, and was just in time to see one little colored boy trip another, sending him sprawling in the dust.
"Heah, yo' li'l sinnah!" cried the boy who had sent the other sprawling. "What fo' yo' tuck mah top!"
"Ah didn't tek yo' top, Sam!" answered the other, as he arose from the dust.
"Yes, yo' did!" declared the other. "Now yo' go on 'way from heah or Ah'll cuff yo' ears!"
In answer the other colored boy, the one who had been tripped, rushed at his enemy and struck him with clenched fist. In an instant the other hit back, and soon there was a lively fight. The colored boys fell down and rolled over and over in the dust.
"Here! Here! You boys mustn't fight!"cried Mrs. Brown, hastening toward them and trying to pull off the one on top, who was pounding the bottom lad with his fists. "Stop it!"
"You best let 'em alone, lady," said an older colored boy, with a grin. "Dem two am always fightin', but dey don't do no harm nohow!"
"But it isn't nice to fight," said the mother of Bunny and Sue. "Get up, please, I want to ask you boys something."
Hearing this, and seeing that Mrs. Brown was well dressed and was a "white lady of quality" carrying a pocketbook out of which pennies might be handed, the fighting boys stopped. The top one got off the other, and both stood up, dusting off their ragged clothes. Neither seemed much hurt, and both were broadly grinning.
"You mustn't fight!" declared Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, we was only in fun, lady," laughed the one who had first tripped the other.
"Have you seen a little boy and girl?" went on Mrs. Brown.
"White chilluns?" asked one of the black boys.
"Co'se she done mean white chilluns!" exclaimed another. "I done seen 'em get offen de train!"
"Have you seen them since?" asked Mrs. Brown. "We had lunch, and my husband went uptown. I sat down on the bench, and Bunny and Sue walked down the street. I haven't seen them since, and they aren't in sight. Do you know where they are?"
None of the colored boys did, it appeared, though hearing that two white children were missing there were soon eager volunteers to search for them.
Out and around the station scattered the colored boys, Mrs. Brown having said she would give fifty cents to the one first bringing news of Bunny and Sue.
"Oh, golly! I'se gwine to earn dat money, suah!" cried one lad.
But though the boys looked up and down the different streets, and though some even went into near-by stores, not a trace of Bunnyor Sue could they find. And for a good reason—because Bunny and Sue were traveling far away in the freight car with Nutty, the tramp.
Mrs. Brown became more and more worried as nearly an hour passed and Bunny and Sue were not found. The station agent came back, for it was nearly time for the other train to arrive. But he could tell nothing of the missing children.
"I must find my husband!" Mrs. Brown exclaimed, and she was just starting uptown when Mr. Brown came riding to the station in an automobile. One of the business men, on whom he had called, had brought him back in the car.
"Oh, Walter," cried Mrs. Brown, "Bunny and Sue are lost! I can't find them anywhere! What shall we do?"
We left Bunny and Sue Brown standing beside the track with the jolly switchman, who laughed at the little girl's question as to whether his wife lived in the small brown shanty.
"My wife live in that little shanty?" he cried, his face all wrinkled with smiles like a last year's apple. "Why, that shack is hardly big enough for me, and when my dog comes to see me he has to stick his tail outside if he wants to wag it!"
"Oh, have you a dog?" cried Bunny.
"That I have, and a fine dog he is, too. He's at home with my wife now, in the cottage. But I'll soon take you there. My, my! but you're little children to have come alone in a freight car."
"We weren't alone," explained Sue. "Nutty was with us."
"Oh, yes, I know that queer tramp," said the water-tank switchman with another laugh. "There's no harm in him, though some of the trainmen put him off when they find him stealing a ride."
"This is his cat," went on Sue, showing the pussy. "Will your dog bite it?"
"Oh, no, indeed!" exclaimed the switchman. "My dog likes cats. In fact, my wife has a cat and I have a dog, and the two animals get along very nicely together. But come along—let's see—what shall I call you?" he asked.
"I'm Bunny and this is my sister Sue," answered the little boy. "Our last name is Brown."
"Hum! That's funny!" laughed the jolly switchman. "My last name is Black, though I'm a white man."
"What's your dog's name?" asked Bunny, as he and his sister trudged along with the switchman, one on either side of him, Sue carrying Nutty's pussy cat.
"His name is Bruno," was the answer. "He's a good dog and likes children. But I'mthinking your mother and father will be worried about you. Night's coming on. They can hardly get here after you before to-morrow, and I don't believe they know where to look for you. Did they see you get into the freight car and come away?"
"No," said Bunny. "Daddy wasn't there and mother was asleep."
"If I knew where your mother was I could go into town and send her a telegram, I suppose," went on the switchman. "What station was it you got off at?"
But Bunny and Sue had either forgotten or they had never heard it. It was all the same as far as telling the switchman was concerned. He did not know how to reach Mrs. Brown and she did not know where to come to get Bunny and Sue.
"I guess you'll have to stay with me all night," said the railroad man. "Lucky I've got a spare bed. My wife will be glad to see you, for she doesn't see much white company. There's lots of colored folks in the village, though."
"Do you live in a village?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, it's a little town about half a mile away over the hill. I leave there every morning and come to the shanty by the water tank to stay until dark. Then I go home as I'm doing now. Sometimes my dog comes to keep me company, but he didn't come to-day."
"I hope he doesn't bother my kittie," said Sue. She was beginning to think of Nutty's cat as hers now.
"Oh, Bruno loves cats!" declared the switchman.
He led the children up a hill and away from the railroad. Looking down the road from the top of the hill Bunny and Sue could see through the gathering twilight a small village.
"Here's my house," said the switchman a little later, as he turned into a path that led through a yard and up to a white cottage. A dog ran out, barking.
"Down, Bruno! Down!" cried the switchman, who had said his name was Black. "These are friends, and you must be good to them and to the pussy."
Bruno sniffed around the legs of Bunny and Sue, and he sniffed toward the cat, though hecould not put his nose on her because Sue held her new pet high in her arms. Then Bruno wagged his tail to show that he would be friends.
"Hello, Mrs. Black!" called the switchman in a jolly voice to his wife, who just then came to the side door to look out. "I've brought you company for supper!"
"Company!" cried Mrs. Black, in surprise.
"Yes, two children and a cat!" laughed her husband. "Guess we'll have to put 'em up over night!"
Quickly he told of the ride of Bunny and Sue in the freight car, and Mrs. Black came out, followed by a large maltese cat, and soon made the Brown children welcome.
"Of course they shall have supper and stay all night," she said in kind tones which matched the jolly ones of her husband. "And I'll give your pussy some milk, Sue," she added.
"Thank you," replied Sue. "And do you think my mother will be here after supper?" she asked.
Mrs. Black did not answer the little girl'squestion, but talked about the cat. She did not want to tell Sue that it would be almost impossible for Mrs. Brown to get there before the next day.
The freight car had not been a very clean place, and if you can get dirty and grimy traveling in a regular passenger coach, you can imagine how much more grimy Bunny and Sue got on their trip.
"Come in and wash," went on Mrs. Black, while her husband tossed sticks for Bruno to race after and bring back to him. It was almost too dark for the children to see the sticks as they were thrown, but the dog seemed to know where to find them.
Bunny and Sue washed in a basin, there being no bathroom in the humble cottage of the switchman. As for Mr. Black, his hands and face got so dirty from working around the pumping engine that he had to scrub himself out back of the woodshed in a tin basin.
"I like to splash a lot of water when I wash," he said. "And I need lots of room. I can't wash in the house."
"I should say not!" laughed his wife, as shegot some clean towels for Bunny and Sue. "You'd spoil all the wall paper!"
Mr. Black looked a very different person when his face and hands were clean and his hair nicely combed. Bunny and Sue also felt better after getting off some of the grime of their trip. A little later they all sat down to the supper table.
There was plenty to eat, and enough left over for Bruno, the dog, and for Waffles, the big cat. Toddle also had supper.
"We callourcat Waffles because he is so fond of waffles," explained Mrs. Black.
"What are waffles?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, they're a sort of pancake, but baked on an iron that makes them full of little squares," said the switchman's wife. "I'll make you some to-morrow."
"Maybe my pussy will like waffles," suggested Sue.
"Maybe," answered the switchman's wife. "Now, any time you children want to go to bed let me know. You must be tired and sleepy."
Bunny and Sue, however, were wide enoughawake for the present. It was new and strange, this stopping at the cottage of a switchman whom they had never before seen. But they were beginning to feel at home. Of course they were lonesome for their father and mother, and Bunny was afraid Sue would cry in the night. But for the time being the two children were so interested in being at a new place that they did not worry much. Not half as much as Mr. and Mrs. Brown, back at the station, worried about the children.
"Bruno," suddenly called Mr. Black, "go see if my paper has come!"
With a short bark, the dog, having finished eating, ran out of the room. In a few minutes he came walking back on his hind feet with the folded evening paper in his mouth.
"Oh, look!" cried Bunny.
"He's a trick dog, isn't he?" squealed Sue.
"Well, yes, I have taught him a few tricks," the switchman answered. "I'll show you what else he can do. Bruno, play soldier!" he called.
Mr. Black got a broom from a corner, and as Bruno stood upright on his hind legs theswitchman put the broom over the dog's shoulder and under one paw.
BRUNO MARCHED AROUND THE ROOM.BRUNO MARCHED AROUND THE ROOM.
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South.Page 179
"March!" cried Mr. Black, and while he hummed a tune Bruno marched around the room, with the broom for a gun.
"Oh, that's a dandy trick!" cried Bunny. "Can he do any more?"
"Yes," answered Mr. Black. "He'll go for the milk. Here's the bucket. I'll put the money in it and he'll carry it down the street to the house where we get our milk and bring back the full bucket. Come, Bruno!" he called. "Get the milk!"
With a bark, the trick dog dropped the broom and sprang to do this new trick.
Mr. Black took the pail his wife gave him, and in the bottom, wrapped in a piece of clean paper, he put some money. Then the cover was put on the pail and the handle was slipped into Bruno's mouth.
"Milk, Bruno!" called the switchman again, and he opened the door and out ran the dog.
"Will he go for it all alone?" asked Bunny.
"Yes," answered the switchman. "And he'll bring it back without spilling a drop—that is, unless some other dog chases him or unless some bad boys throw stones at him and make him run. Just wait a few minutes and you'll see Bruno coming back with the milk."
"Take the children out on the porch where it's cooler," said Mrs. Black. "I'll clear away the supper things."
"Can I help?" asked Sue, for she was used to helping her mother at home.
"Oh, no, thank you, dear," Mrs. Black answered. "You go out and see Bruno do his tricks. He is quite a clever dog."
Bunny and Sue certainly thought so when a little later, as they sat on the porch with Mr. Black, they saw the dog come along with the handle of the milk pail in his mouth.
"He walks carefully so he won't spill it, doesn't he?" asked Sue.
"Yes, he is a very good dog," the switchman answered. "I don't remember of his spilling the milk more than once or twice. He did it the first time when he was just learning, and again it happened when another dog chased him when Bruno was almost home with the bucket."
"Do the people that sell milk know Bruno is going to come for it?" Sue asked, as Mrs. Black came out of the kitchen and took the pail from Bruno, who stood carefully holding it. He had not spilled a drop.
"Yes, we get our milk at Mr. Hasting's place," answered the switchman. "He keepsa cow, and they watch for Bruno every night."
"Can he do any more tricks?" asked Bunny. He and his sister were so interested in the dog that they forgot about being far from their daddy and mother.
"Yes, he can dance when I play the mouth organ," answered Mr. Black.
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "We heard the darkies on the cotton plantation play the mouth organ and banjo and we saw 'em dance!" she went on.
"Well, I don't claim that my dog can dance as well as a plantation darky," laughed the switchman. "But Bruno does pretty well. I'll get my mouth organ."
Bruno barked and leaped about when he saw his master come out with the mouth organ, and no sooner had the first few notes been blown than the dog, without being told, stood up on his hind legs and pranced around. He almost kept time to the music, and for a dog, he danced very well.
"Oh, I wish we had a dog like that!" sighed Bunny, when the dancing animal, wagging his tail, came to Mr. Black to be petted after theswitchman stopped playing the mouth organ.
"Maybe I can teach Nutty's cat to dance," Sue said.
"I'm afraid not," said Mr. Black. "It is very hard to teach cats to do tricks. I've tried more than once, but I never had any luck. But Bruno is one of the smartest dogs I ever saw."
The children thought so, too, and after Bruno had done a few more tricks, such as turning somersaults, and lying down and rolling over, Mrs. Black came to say she thought it time for Bunny and Sue to go to bed.
"I only have one spare room," said the switchman's wife. "That has a large bed in it big enough for both of you. Don't you want to go to sleep now?"
Bunny looked at Sue and Sue whispered something to her brother.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Black, seeing that something was "in the wind," as she remarked afterward.
"Sue says we can't go to bed without saying our prayers," replied Bunny, "and mother isn't here—and—"
He faltered a moment, and it sounded as ifhe might be going to cry. There was a trace of tears, too, in Sue's eyes, and Mrs. Black, guessing that the children were beginning to feel lonesome and homesick, laughed and said:
"Bless your hearts! I can hear you say your prayers as well as your mother could. I used to have children of my own, but they are grown up now. When they were your size I heard them say their prayers every night. And I've got some night dresses for you, too!"
"You have?" exclaimed Bunny. He wondered where Mrs. Black could get those, when she had no small children of her own.
"I have," said Mrs. Black. "While you were on the porch, watching Bruno do tricks, I went next door and borrowed two clean night dresses for you. They have five children at Mr. Sweeney's."
"Then if we can say our prayers and have night gowns, let's go to bed," proposed Sue. "Mother will come and get us in the morning," she went on.
"Yes, mother will come to-morrow," said Mrs. Black gently.
Soon Bunny and Sue were falling asleep inthe big, clean bed, and they did not have to fall very far to get to Slumberland, either, for they were so tired they could hardly hold their eyes open to get undressed.
"I wonder if their mother will come in the morning?" asked Mrs. Black of her husband, as she came out of the spare bedroom and softly closed the door.
"Well, if she doesn't I have thought of a way to get word to her and the father, too," the switchman said.
"How?" asked his wife.
"In the morning I'll have Mr. Sweeney telephone to the ticket agent at the railroad station here. The agent can tell the main office."
"Oh, yes," agreed Mrs. Black. "And then word can be telegraphed all up and down the line, and whatever station it was these children got into the freight car, there Mrs. Brown will be waiting and she'll get the word."
"That's it," Mr. Black said.
But before he could put his kind plan into operation Mr. and Mrs. Brown had already started a movement of their own looking to the finding of the lost children.
Mr. Brown was very much surprised and not a little frightened when he met his wife on the station platform, where they had alighted to change cars, and was told that Bunny and Sue were missing.
"Where did you last see them?" asked Mr. Brown.
"Down by the line of freight cars," Mrs. Brown answered. And then she thought of something that she had not thought of before. "Why," she exclaimed, "the freight cars are gone! I remember now that the noise the engine made when it coupled on woke me from my doze. Oh, do you think Bunny and Sue are on the freight train?"
"I'm beginning to think so," answered Mr. Brown. "You say the colored boys couldn't find them around here, there has been no accident and neither Bunny nor Sue came up to the village after me. They must be in one of the freight cars and are being hauled away."
"But how could they get into one of those high cars?" asked his wife.
"Oh, Bunny can do almost anything, andSue isn't far behind him. Probably he found a box to stand on."
"Suppose we take a look," suggested Mr. Parker, the gentleman who had brought Mr. Brown to the station in the automobile. The three of them walked down the tracks where the freight cars had stood before being hauled away.
"There's a box!" exclaimed Mr. Brown, pointing to one near the track. "It's just about high enough for a person to get from it into an open boxcar."
"And here are the marks of their feet!" cried Mrs. Brown, pointing to the very footprints of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, made by the children in the soft dirt between the tracks. "Oh, they are in that train! How shall we get them?" she cried.
"Well, now that we know this much, it will be an easy matter to telegraph on ahead and have the train searched," said Mr. Parker. "I'll go and see the train dispatcher here."
It was now getting late, and soon the train arrived on which the Brown family shouldhave made the remainder of their trip to Florida. But of course daddy and mother would not travel on until they had found Bunny and Sue. So they let the train go, and went to the ticket office to find the name of the first station where the freight train might stop, in order that a telegram could be sent to have it searched.
It was quite dark when the telegram had been sent, and Mr. and Mrs. Brown were invited to stay at the home of Mr. Parker for supper, and to remain there all night, if necessary.
There were some hours of anxious waiting, and at last a telegram came back to Mr. Brown saying that the train crew of the freight had looked into every empty car, but the children had not been found. In one car, however, were some empty nut boxes and pieces of candles.
"That's the car they were in!" declared Mr. Parker.
"But where are they now?" asked the distracted mother. "Oh, where are Bunny and Sue?"
"They must have got out when the train stopped," said Daddy Brown.
"Then the thing to do," went on Mr. Parker, "is to find out the names of all the stations and water tanks where stops, were made, and telegraph there."
So after some work the railroad people found out the different regular stops the freight train had made, but at none of these places were there any traces of Bunny or Sue.
"Then a water tank stop is our only hope," Mr. Parker said. "Some of the tanks are in lonely places, and if the children got out there they would be taken in charge by the pumpman or switchman. He would have no way of telegraphing back. We shall have to wait until morning."
You can imagine that Mrs. Brown did not sleep much that night. She did not sleep as well as did Bunny and Sue. But in the morning a telegram, sent by Mr. Black through Mr. Sweeney, was received, telling just where the missing children were.
"They're found!" cried Daddy Brown, as he came upstairs to his wife's room, wavingthe telegram over his head. "They're all right!"
And a little later he and his wife were on the first train going to the village where Bunny and Sue had been so kindly cared for all night.
"Oh, Momsie!" cried Sue, as she rushed into the dear arms. "Oh, Momsie!"
"Well, Bunny boy, you had quite an adventure!" said his father, as he clasped the little chap close to him.
The happy reunion had taken place on the platform of the little railroad station just outside the village where Mr. Black, the switchman, lived. As soon as telegrams had been sent and received, Mr. Black took Bunny and Sue to the station to wait for the arrival of the train carrying their father and mother to them.
Coming in a passenger car, and not on a freight train in which the children had ridden, Mr. and Mrs. Brown soon arrived at the place. And then you can imagine how happy every one was.
"But whatever possessed you two children to climb into a freight car and let yourselves be carried away?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she hugged Bunny, while Mr. Brown took Sue in his arms.
"We wanted to get the kitten, Mother," Sue explained. "And he's at Mrs. Black's now, and please can't we take him with us to Florida?"
"It's Nutty's cat," objected Bunny.
"But he ran away and left him," went on Sue. "Please, Mother, can't we take Toddle with us?"
"Who is Nutty?" asked Mr. Brown.
Then, by turns, the children told the whole story, which included how they had met the queer old tramp in the boxcar.
"And you ought to see Bruno do tricks!" cried Bunny, when it came his turn to tell something.
"Who is Bruno, another tramp?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"He's a dog!" exclaimed Bunny. "And you ought to see him dance!"
"You children seem to have had a better time than your mother or I had," said Mr. Brown, after he had thanked the kind switchman for the care he and his wife had given Bunny and Sue. "We were certainly worried about you."
Mr. and Mrs. Brown paid a little visit to Mrs. Black to thank her, and then it was time for the travelers to resume their journey to Orange Beach, where they expected to spend some time with Mr. Halliday, with whom Daddy Brown had business to talk over.
"Can't we take Toddle?" begged Sue again, as she held Nutty's little cat in her arms.
"No, my dear," answered her mother. "We could not take him to Florida with us."
"I'll keep him here with my dog and cat," offered Mrs. Black.
"And when I see Nutty, as I often do," added the switchman, "I'll tell him where he can get his cat again."
"Well, I s'pose he will want Toddle," sighed Sue. So the pussy was left behind.
Once more Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were on the train traveling. This time they were in a sleeping car, in which, at night, beds were made from the seats.
"This is better than riding in a freight car, isn't it?" asked Sue's mother.
"Yes," answered the little girl, turning away from the window, out of which she was looking at the scenery. "But we had a pretty good time with Nutty; didn't we, Bunny?"
"Yes, we did," answered the little boy. "And the nuts were good."
There was still for the party an all night ride before the Brown family would arrive at Orange Beach, which was in the southwestern part of Florida.
"Do the orange trees grow right near the ocean, Mother?" asked Bunny, when they had been talking for some time about the place to which they were going.
"Not exactly," his father answered. "I believe oranges do not grow so well too close to salt water. At any rate Mr. Halliday's orange grove is inland a few miles. It is on the banks of a river, but the river flows into the ocean, or rather, into the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the ocean."
"Can we go swimming?" Sue wanted to know.
"You can't if there's any alligators there," Bunny said. "Anyhow, you can't go in the water till I catch all the alligators."
"If there's alligators I'm not going in," declared Sue.
"Oh, I don't believe there will be any," Mrs. Brown said, with a laugh.
And so with talk and laughter over what they might find at Orange Beach, the time passed until it was time to go to bed.
The colored porter made up the clean, white beds, and Bunny and Sue were glad enough to get in theirs when the time came. They had slept pretty well at Mrs. Black's home, but they were still tired from their bumping, jolting journey in the rough freight car.
So soundly did Bunny and Sue sleep that even when there was a little accident they did not awaken. During the night the train on which they rode had a little collision with an empty freight car which was standing on a side track. The freight car was smashed, but hardly any damage was done to the passenger train, except that the passengers were awakened by being jolted. That is, all but Bunny and Sue. They slept through it.
"Is any one hurt?" asked Mr. Brown, assoon as quiet was restored and it was found that the express train could go on.
"A couple of tramps who were sleeping in the empty freight car were hurt," the conductor said. "We've sent them to the hospital."
"Oh! Tramps!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, who heard the talk. "I hope one of them wasn't Nutty, who was so kind to the children, even though he did jump off and leave them alone. I hope Nutty wasn't hurt!"
"Nutty could hardly have got so far south as this since he left the children," Mr. Brown said. "I don't believe he was one of the tramps hurt in this collision."
Next morning, when Bunny and Sue awakened, they were told of the collision in the night, but nothing was said to them of the two tramps who were hurt for fear they might think one was Nutty. But neither was.
There was enough else to take the attention of the little boy and girl, for they were now in the real South, and they began to notice palm trees for the first time.
"They look just like pictures of cocoanuttrees!" exclaimed Bunny, gazing from the car window.
"Wouldn't Nutty be glad if he was here and could gather cocoanuts!" cried Sue. "Can we pick cocoanuts, Daddy?"
"I hardly think so, where we are going," Mr. Brown answered. "I think oranges will be enough for you to pick for a while."
"That and catching alligators," added Bunny, who never seemed to stop thinking of these scaly creatures, which Sue did not like at all.
On and on went the train, and the children were just about getting tired of so much travel when they saw their father and mother beginning to gather up the hand baggage.
"Are we there?" asked Bunny excitedly.
"Almost," his father answered.
A little later a trainman called:
"Orange Beach! Orange Beach!"
"Hurray! We're here!" cried Bunny.
"And I'm going to pick orange blossoms!" echoed Sue.
Orange Beach, where Mr. Halliday owned many fruit groves, was the name of a small village. It was almost as small a town as the one in which Mr. Black, the switchman, lived. But Bunny and Sue liked small places. They had seen enough of cities, having passed through many on their railroad journey.
Alighting from the train, the Brown family found Mr. Halliday waiting for them in his motor car, Daddy Brown having telegraphed to tell the time of their arrival.
"Well, you got here at last, I see!" the orange grower exclaimed, as he came up to welcome his guests.
"If Bunny and Sue could have had their way perhaps we wouldn't have come," said Mrs. Brown, with a smile.
"Why not?" asked Mr. Halliday, with a smile.
"Oh, they went for a ride on a freight train," laughed their mother, and then she told of the adventure.
"I guess they have had enough nuts for a time," the fruit grower said, at the end of the little story. "I'll try them on oranges."
"May I pick some for myself?" Sue asked eagerly.
"All you want!" was the answer. "We have a big crop this year."
"And will you please show me where to catch alligators?" asked Bunny Brown.
"Oh ho! So that's what you came here for, is it?" exclaimed Mr. Halliday, with a wink at Mr. Brown. "Well, I'm sorry to say we are all out of alligators!"
"Aren't there any?" inquired Bunny, in disappointed tones.
"Not right around here," went on the orange grower. "But there are some farther down Squaw River. I'll take you down some day and show them to you."
"Hurray!" cried Bunny Brown.
"My grove and house are a few miles from here," the orange grower said. "You'll soon be there, and I hope you'll have lots of fun."
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue felt sure that they would. They liked the sunny South very much, as a change from the cold northland where they had been coasting a few days before.
Everything was lovely and green in Florida now, though it was the middle of what is called winter in the North. Trees and bushes glowed in soft green tints, and had been washed clean in a recent rain. As the automobile bearing the Brown family and their host along a pleasant road chugged on and on, Sue suddenly exclaimed:
"What's that nice smell?"
"I hear it, too—I mean I smell it!" said Bunny.
"Those are orange blossoms you smell," said Mr. Halliday. "In some of my groves you will find both blossoms and fruit. We get so used to the sweet smell that we don't notice it, but I suppose a stranger, coming in from another place, finds it very nice."
"I just love it!" exclaimed Sue, taking long deep breaths.
"So do I!" added Bunny, sniffing hard.
They had left the small village behind some time before, and were now on a pleasant country road, lined with trees on either side. The road twisted and turned, and in about an hour, after making a sudden turn in the highway, Mr. Halliday called out:
"There's my place!"
Bunny and Sue looked and saw a white house, surrounded by a few barns and other outbuildings set in a green landscape. All about were rows of green trees, and the sweet smell of the orange blossoms was stronger than ever.
"Oh, look at the golden apples!" cried Sue, pointing to some trees quite near the road.
"Those golden apples, as you call them," said Mr. Halliday, "are yellow oranges. I'll stop and let you pick some."
It was the first time the Brown children had ever seen the wonderful fruit growing, and they were delighted when Mr. Halliday stopped the car and they were allowed to getout. Then they saw that in between the rows of trees were men picking the oranges.
Some of the men were up on high stepladders, so they might reach the top branches of the trees. Other men stood on the ground, from which they could easily reach up to the low limbs and pull off the ripe fruit.
The men had big cloth bags slung over their shoulders or tied around their waists, and as fast as they picked the "golden apples," as Sue called them, they were dropped into the bags. When the bags were filled the men took them to empty boxes, placed here and there amid the trees, and placed the oranges into them. Other men took the boxes away as fast as they were filled, leaving more empty ones in their places.
"Do you ship the fruit right from here?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"First it has to be sorted, graded, as we call it," Mr. Halliday answered. "Then it is carefully packed and sent up North."
Bunny and Sue had been standing quietly to one side, listening to the talk of their parents and Mr. Halliday and watching the menpick the fruit. The grove owner now turned to the children and said:
"Go ahead! Pick as many as you like. Here, these are the best and ripest," and he led them to a tree, the lower branches of which were easily within the reach of Bunny and Sue.
With delight and wonder showing on their faces, the children picked their first oranges and ate them there in the grove, while the wind brought to them the sweet smell of distant blossoms.
"Oh, how good!" murmured Sue, as she finished her fruit.
"Best I ever ate," declared Bunny.
"Try some," said Mr. Halliday to Mr. and Mrs. Brown. "You will find oranges picked ripe from a tree taste very different from those you get up North."
"I should say so!" exclaimed Mother Brown. "They are delicious."
"Guess we didn't make any mistake coming to Florida," laughed Mr. Brown, as he, too, ate not one, but two ripe oranges.
"Well, let's go on to the house," suggested Mr. Halliday, as he walked back toward theroad where the automobile had been left standing. "My wife will be eager to see you, and the orange groves aren't going to run away as Nutty, the tramp, did," and the Southerner laughed at the remembrance of the story of the travels of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
Mrs. Halliday made her guests welcome, and when she and Mrs. Brown were chatting over a cup of tea, and while Daddy Brown and Mr. Halliday were talking business, Bunny and Sue changed into some of their every-day clothes and asked if they might walk around and see things.
"Yes," their mother told them. "Only don't get into mischief."
"And keep away from the river," added their father, for the stream which went by the name of Squaw River was not far from the house.
"Can't we just stand on the bank and look for alligators?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, let them," Mr. Halliday advised. "The river is not as big nor deep as it sounds.In fact up here it is only a shallow creek, though down below it widens and deepens. And there aren't any alligators in it."
"Well, anyhow, we can look," said Bunny, hoping against hope that there would be some of the scaly lizards in the water.
So, having been cautioned not to fall in, a promise the children readily gave, Bunny and Sue started off down through an orange grove near the house to go to Squaw River. They paused only a little while to watch the men picking oranges, and then hastened on. Soon they were at the edge of a slow-moving stream which flowed this way and that between banks of overhanging palm trees, some of which were festooned with Spanish moss that hung down in clusters like the ragged beard of a very old man.
It was very quiet and still beside the river. It was shady and cool, too, after the hot sun of the open places and the orange groves, and Bunny and Sue rather liked it.
Bunny picked up a stone and tossed it into the river. It fell with a splash.
"What you doing?" Sue wanted to know.
"Maybe I can scare up an alligator," Bunny answered.
"Mr. Halliday said there wasn't any," Sue responded.
Bunny tossed in another stone, and hardly had it sunk beneath the surface than Sue grasped her brother's arm, and, pointing to the river, whispered:
"Look! There's an alligator!"
Something like the long, black snout, as Bunny remembered once to have seen it on an alligator in a zoological park tank, rose into view. And there was a swirl of the water as though the reptile had switched its tail.
"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "It's an alligator! I'm going to run!"
Bunny Brown wanted to be called a brave little boy, so when he heard his sister say she was going to run because she thought he had scared up an alligator in the river by throwing stones, Bunny thought it was time to show his bravery.
"Don't be afraid!" he called to Sue, catching her by the hand before she had time to run very far. "I won't let him hurt you!"
"How are you going to stop him?" Sue asked.
"I—I'll bang him on the nose with a stick," Bunny said, and he let go of Sue's hand as he turned around to search for the proper kind of club with which to beat an alligator.
As he did this Sue looked once more toward the river. Then she gave a cry of delight.
"Oh, Bunny!" she exclaimed, "it isn't an alligator at all!"
"What is it?"
"It's just an old black log floating down," Sue answered. And that is what it was. Either the stones Bunny had thrown or some swirl of the current had loosed from the mud where it was held on the bottom of Squaw River the long black log which was shaped like the snout of an alligator. Floating half in and half out of the muddy water as it did, the log looked exactly like one of the big, scaly reptiles.
"This is no good!" declared Bunny, who was rather disappointed at not having a chance to do some hunting. "I'd like to see a real, live alligator."
"Well, I wouldn't—not until mother and daddy are with me," remarked Sue. She was no longer afraid and took turns with her brother throwing stones at the floating log.
"Let's go down a little farther where the river is wider, and maybe we'll see some alligators," suggested Bunny.
"All right," agreed Sue. "But I'm going to run if I see any."
She need not have been worried, however, for not an alligator did they see, though Bunny threw many stones into the muddy water. Nor did they see another log shaped so nearly like one of the reptiles.
But the children had a good time wandering around among the palm trees and smelling the orange blossoms. They could hardly believe that about a week before they were wearing mittens and playing in the snow.
"We'd better go back now," Sue said, after a while. "Mother will be looking for us."
"Let's go just a little farther," proposed Bunny. "I'd like to see a little alligator. You wouldn't be afraid of a baby 'gator, would you, Sue?"
"Not if it was a little baby one, I don't guess I would," she answered.
So she followed Bunny down the bank of the slow-flowing river, where it widened out and grew deeper. And in a place where the bank curved in, making a still pool, or "eddy," as it is called, Bunny saw something which was the cause of quite an adventure which came to him and Sue a few days later.
Bunny caught sight of some boards and logs piled together on shore, and no sooner had he seen them than he exclaimed:
"Oh, Sue! I know what we can do."
"What?" she asked.
"We can make a raft and go sailing down the river. Here's a lot of boards and logs, and I can easy make a raft. Bunker Blue showed me how, and you and I have been in daddy's boats lots of times. Let's make a raft!"
"Not now," replied Sue, holding back as Bunny ran forward. "It's time we went back. Mother told us not to stay too long."
"Well, I'll just look at the boards and see if I could make a raft of 'em, and then I'll go back with you," Bunny said.
On this promise Sue waited, and after looking at the tangled pile of boards, which seemed to have been left on shore by a flood of high water, the little fellow went back to where he had left his sister.
"It'll make a dandy raft!" Bunny reported. "To-morrow we'll make it and go sailing down the river."
However, this was not to be, for the nextday Mr. and Mrs. Brown were taken by Mr. Halliday on an excursion to a distant orange grove, and Bunny and Sue went along.
"We'll make the raft to-morrow," Bunny said.
But for one reason or another this fun had to be put off, and it was not until they had been at Orange Beach nearly a week that Bunny got the chance he wanted.
During this time the Brown family had very much enjoyed their stay in Florida. The weather was lovely, and there was much that was new to visit. While there was not the variety in an orange grove that there was on the cotton and peanut plantation, still there was much work to be done.
The children saw how the oranges, when brought in from the trees, were sorted over, the best being packed for one class of trade, and those that were not so good for another. The golden yellow fruit was wrapped in tissue paper and then the thin wooden crates were packed full, to be shipped North.
Sometimes Bunny and Sue were allowed to ride to the railroad freight depot on the loadof oranges, and this trip they liked very much.
One night, just before a strange adventure that happened to Bunny and Sue, the children were in the sitting room with their parents and Mr. and Mrs. Halliday. It was almost bedtime for Bunny and Sue.
"Did you ever hear anything more about that oil stock Bunny found?" asked Mrs. Brown of her husband.
"No, not a word," he answered. "The oil company wrote me that they had no notice from any one of the loss of a certificate. They advised me to hold it until some one claimed it."
"If you ever get any money—or a reward for it—Bunny must have the cash put in a bank for him, to keep until he grows up," said Mother Brown.
"Yes," agreed Daddy. "And I think Bunny ought to share the reward with Sue. She was with him when the certificate was found."
"Uncle Tad ought to have some, too!" exclaimed Bunny, rousing up when he heard this talk. "He gave us the ride in the sleigh."
"Yes, I think Uncle Tad ought to have his share of the reward—if we ever get any," agreed Mr. Brown. "And if some one doesn't soon claim the oil stock I shall sell it and put the money in the bank."
"What's all this—about oil stock?" asked Mr. Halliday.
Then Daddy Brown told how the valuable green and gold paper had been thrown out of the Pullman car by the porter in his pan filled with dust.
After breakfast the next morning Bunny called Sue out on the side porch and showed his sister a cloth bag partly filled with pieces of bread, crackers and some chunks of dried cake.
"This is our lunch," Bunny said to Sue.
"What lunch?" asked the little girl.
"To take on the raft," Bunny went on. "I found the things in the pantry. They're stale, so I guess Mrs. Halliday won't mind if we take 'em. And I picked up this little orange bag. You carry that and I'll get the sharp stick."
"What sharp stick?" asked Sue, as she accepted the bag of dried bread and cake Bunny held out.
"The sharp stick I'm going to jab at alligators if any chase us," he answered.
Sue dropped the bag of "lunch."
"No, sir!" she exclaimed. "I'm not going on that raft with you if you're going to hunt alligators, so there, Bunny Brown!"
"All right, then I won't hunt any," agreed Bunny, who did not want to go voyaging alone. "But if any come after us you'll want me to jab 'em with a sharp stick and drive 'em away, won't you, Sue?"
"Yes—yes, I guess I will," she answered. "But you mustn't hunt 'em on purpose."
This Bunny promised not to do, and then he went on to tell Sue what his plans were.
"Daddy is going riding with Mr. Halliday," said the little fellow, "and I heard mother say she and Mrs. Halliday were going to make orange shortcake to-day, so they won't want us around. We can go down and make the raft and have a sail. Won't that be fun?"
"It will be if the alligators don't come," agreed Sue.
"I don't b'lieve any will come," Bunny answered, though in his heart he hoped they would, so he could scare them away with the sharp stick.
So Sue took up the bag of lunch and Bunny ran and got the sharp stick where he had hidden it under the porch. Bunny also had a hammer and some nails he had taken from the shop where Mr. Halliday's men put together the orange crates.
"We'll make a big raft and sail away off," Bunny said, as he and Sue, telling their mother nothing about their plans, went down to the river. They found the pile of boards and small logs in the same place they had first seen them, and Bunny, with Sue's help, began to make a raft.
The two children had been around boats enough to know more about water craft than most boys and girls of their age. Bunny's father, owning a boat and fish dock, where Sue and her brother often played, had taught the youngsters something about how boats are steered. A raft, as Bunny knew, was the simplest and safest form of a boat. He also knew that a raft was only a lot of logs and boards fastened together. On it one could float or push down a little river or across a pond.
"This is nice smooth water, isn't it?" asked Sue, as she looked out over Squaw River which, as has been said, was a sluggish stream. It hardly seemed to flow at all.
"Yes, it's nice here," Bunny said. "We won't go very fast. There aren't any waves like in the ocean or our bay."
Bunny and Sue had often been out with their father, Uncle Tad, or Bunker Blue on Sandport Bay at home, and sometimes on the real ocean when it was not too rough. So Squaw River seemed very small and smooth to them.
It was harder work than Bunny had thought it would be to make the raft, but he had right at hand everything he needed, from boards and small logs to hammer and nails. The hammer and nails he had brought with him. Putting the cloth bag of lunch in a safe place on the bank, Bunny began work.
He laid some logs down on the sandy shore as close to the water as he could. On top of the logs he placed boards, and these he nailed on, so they would not float away.
On top of the first layer of boards he placed others, crossing them to and fro, as he had once seen his father and Uncle Tad making a float near the dock. The float was like a raft, only it was anchored in the bay and used for getting in and out of the fishing boats.
"How far you going to sail on the raft, Bunny?" asked Sue, as she helped her brotherlay in place the boards to be nailed. Sue did none of the nailing. She tried it once, but she hit her fingers and thumb instead of the nail, and she threw the hammer aside.
"Oh, we'll sail down until we get hungry, and then we'll go on an island like the pirates and eat our lunch," Bunny answered.
By "sail" he meant pushing the raft along with a pole he had brought from the orange grove.
"S'posin' there isn't any island?" asked Sue.
"Oh, I guess there is one," Bunny said, looking at the raft to see if it needed any more boards to make it strong enough. "Anyhow, if we don't find an island we can go on shore. Course an island would be more fun, but we can have a good time anyhow."
"To be sure we can!" laughed Sue. "We've had lots of fun since we've come down South, haven't we, Bunny?"
"Yes!" answered the little boy. He was too busy to talk much, for he was thinking of the best plan to get his raft into the water. For the boards and logs, now nailed together, must be shoved from the shore into the river,else there could be no wonderful voyage down-stream to the "pirate island."
Bunny had often seen his father move heavy boards from the shore into the waters of the bay by means of rollers. Rollers are round pieces of wood, like the rolling pin in mother's kitchen. Rollers placed under a boat make it easy to launch into the water. If you have ever seen men moving a house from one street to another you may have noticed that they used rollers. Or they may have slid the house along on big beams which were made slippery with grease or soap.
"I'll roll my raft into the water," said Bunny.
"And I'll help!" offered Sue, for she knew what rolling a boat into the water meant—she had often seen her father do it.
Getting the raft into Squaw River was not quite as hard as putting the craft together. By using a long pole Bunny managed to raise up one edge of his nailed-together boards and logs, and under it Sue slipped a round roller, which was a short piece of round tree trunk. Then when Bunny raised up the other side ofthe raft his sister slipped under it another roller.
"Now she'll slide!" cried Bunny, as he had often heard his father or Bunker Blue say.
With his long pole Bunny now pried up on the rear of the raft. At first it did not move, and Bunny began to be afraid he and Sue would not, after all, have a voyage down the river.
But at last it slid a little bit, and then more and more, until finally it was rolling along quite rapidly. As the bank sloped down to the river like a little hill, Bunny hardly had to push or pry at all now, and a minute later the raft was floating in the water.
It would have floated away, but Bunny had tied a rope to one edge, and the other end of the rope he had fastened to a tree stump on shore, so the raft was "made fast," as a sailor would say. Bunny had been around his father's dock enough to know that when one puts a boat into the water one must make it fast or it will be lost.
"Isn't our raft nice, Bunny?" exclaimed Sue, as she saw it floating in the water.
"Yes," Bunny agreed, "we'll have lots of fun! Wait till I get the lunch and we'll start."
"I want a pole so I can help push," said Sue.
"All right. You bring the bag of lunch and I'll get you a pole," promised Bunny.
Soon the two children were on the raft, each one thrusting with a pole on the bottom of the river, which was not very deep, and so shoving themselves along. In the middle of the raft was the bag of lunch—the dried bread, pieces of cake and a very much flattened piece of pie that Bunny had found on the pantry shelf.
"Oh, this is lots of fun!" exclaimed Sue, as they floated along.
"Yep!" agreed Bunny, shoving hard on his pole. "I'm glad we came to Florida."
It was very pleasant on this part of Squaw River, where it ran through the orange groves of Mr. Halliday. On either side were growing palms and other trees, some of which met overhead in a green arch, making it very shady. Only for this the sun would have been very warm—quite different from the sun inBellemere, where there was now snow on the ground.
"Our snow man wouldn't last very long down here, would he, Bunny?" asked Sue, as she began to feel quite warm from poling the raft.
"Nope! A snow house wouldn't either," Bunny answered. "But I like it here."
"So do I," said Sue. "There's lots of birds, too."
There were. Bunny and Sue could hear them flitting through the tree branches overhead, and could listen to their songs. Sometimes birds with brilliant feathers flashed into view, disappearing in the thick, leafy trees on either side of the river.
Bunny had made his raft rather strong and heavy, so that it floated well up out of the water. In fact, the top part was quite dry, and if the children had worn shoes and stockings they would have been perfectly safe. But Bunny knew that, sooner or later, water generally washes over the top of a raft, for one side or the other is likely to tip down. So he and Sue were barefooted. They had left theirshoes and stockings on shore at the spot where they had launched the raft. It did not matter now whether the water washed over the top of their craft or not.
On and on, down the river floated the two children. For a time nothing happened. It was as calm and peaceful as even Mrs. Brown could have wished. But Bunny and Sue wanted something to happen, and pretty soon Bunny said:
"Let's eat!"
"Oh, yes, let's!" agreed Sue, always willing to do what Bunny did.
"We'll make believe it's dinner time," Bunny went on, "and we'll let the raft float."
There was enough current in the river to carry the raft gently down, and Bunny and Sue were in no hurry.
Bunny had thought the time would come when he and his sister might want to sit down on their raft, and to keep them up out of the water he had put two empty orange crates on the craft. These made fine seats, and on one the lunch bag had been placed.
Laying their pushing poles down on top ofthe raft, in the middle, Bunny and Sue sat down on the orange crates and began to eat what they had brought with them. It did not matter that the cake and the bread were stale. To the children the food tasted as good as anything they had ever eaten at a party.
As they ate and floated along, the raft swung this way and that, sometimes turning completely around, so, at times, the children were going backward down the stream. It was at one of these times that they felt a sudden bump and jar—almost like the time when the engine had hitched itself to the freight car.
"Oh!" cried Sue. "What's that?"
Bunny turned, gave one look and cried:
"Hurray! We're here!"
"Where?" Sue asked.
"On the pirate island! Come on! All ashore!"