Charles Kingsley - "Out of the Deep"

Anonymous - "The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume II"

H. Louisa Bedford - "The Village by the River"

Various - "Scientific American Supplement, No. 303"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove




"All I know about it is this," said the man who owned the goat. "I have
a few of these Billies and Nannies for children that don't want a
ponyback ride. But I was getting the goats ready to put in the stable
for the night, and I'd taken off the saddles. I had my back turned, and
the first I knew I heard a shout. I turned and saw this boy on Nero's
back, heading for the merry-go-round. I followed as fast as I could.
Nero is a gentle goat, but I couldn't tell what he'd do when he got
mixed up with the wooden animals," he finished.

"No," said Uncle Tad, "that's so. You did wrong, Bunny, to get on the
goat's back without asking permission."

"I--I didn't mean to," said the little boy. "When you and Sue were
looking at the glass-blower I went over to look at the ponies and the
goats. And I just sort of leaned over this goat, and, first I remember,
I was on his back and he ran away with me."

"There's no harm done," said the goat's owner, as the people in the
crowd smiled and laughed at what had happened. "Come over in the morning
and I'll let you have a regular ride on a saddle--you and your sister,"
he added as he looked at Sue.

"Thank you," she answered. "I'll come if mother will let me."

"I guess we have to go on to Christmas Tree Cove in the morning,"
announced Bunny. "Anyhow, I'm much obliged for this ride," he said.
"Nero's a good goat," and he patted the head of the animal.

"Yes, he's a good goat," agreed the owner.

Then he took his horned steed back to the pony stand, the merry-go-round
started off again with the loud music, and Uncle Tad took Bunny and Sue
back to the _Fairy_.

Of course there was considerable talk and some laughter on board the
boat when the story was told of Bunny's goat ride. His mother, laughing,
told him never to do such a thing again, and, of course, Bunny said he
wouldn't.

"Did you like that ride?" questioned Sue, when they were getting ready
to go to bed.

"I did and I didn't," was Bunny's answer. "I got on the goat so
sudden-like I didn't have time to make up my mind about it. He was an
awful quick goat, Nero was."

"I guess most goats are quick. Once I saw a goat go after a man who was
pasting up bills on a board. My, but that man had to run to get out of
the way!"

"Maybe the goat wanted his bills or his paste," said Bunny. "I once
heard that goats love to eat billboard paper just for the paste on it."

"Maybe so."

Bright and early the next morning Bunker Blue arose and began to wash
down the decks of the boat. As he was splashing the water around in his
bare feet with his trousers rolled up, a young man with a bundle under
his arm came down to the dock.

"Here are the dresses and things Mrs. Brown lent to the young ladies,"
said the young man. "They are very much obliged. I brought them early,
for I thought maybe you'd want to get an early start."

"Yes, I believe we are going to leave soon," answered Bunker. "But I
don't like the looks of the weather," he added. "It seems to me we are
going to have a storm. If you get another canoe and paddle out in it,"
he said, "I wouldn't go too far from shore."

"Thank you, I'll be careful," was the answer.

Bunny and Sue awakened and got ready for breakfast, and Bunker told
about the visit of the young man. Then the children went out on deck to
look at the sea and sky.

I say the "sea," though really it was all part of Sandport Bay, and not
exactly the open ocean, though it was a very large body of water.

"Do you think it's going to rain, Bunker?" asked Sue.

"I think it's going to rain and blow, too," answered the fish and boat
boy, who had learned to read the weather signs. "But the _Fairy_ is able
to stand it, I think. How are you after your goat ride, Bunny?"

"Oh, I feel fine!" declared the little boy. "But I want to get to
Christmas Tree Cove before long."

"So do I," added Sue. "I'm going to make a little bungalow there for my
dolls."

"And I'm going to make one to camp in," declared her brother.

They started off right after breakfast, and as Bunny and Sue played
around on the deck they could see their father and Captain Ross talking
together and looking up at the sky every now and then.

"We'll keep near shore," they heard the captain say. "Then if the storm
breaks we can tie up."

But, though the clouds scudded across the sky all day, the storm did not
break. It was black and lowering when evening came, but, after another
look all around, Bunny heard the captain say to their father and mother:

"We may as well keep on. It may blow over, and if we tie up over night
it will take us just so much longer to get there. I'd better keep on,
don't you think?"

"Yes," said Mr. Brown, "keep on."

So the _Fairy_ kept on through the waters of the bay. Bunny and Sue,
after being allowed out on deck to watch the distant twinkling lights of
other vessels, were put to bed in their bunks, and Mrs. Brown fastened
some broad canvas straps up in front of their berths.

"What are they for?" asked Sue, as she kissed her mother good night.

"So you won't fall out if the boat rolls and rocks too much in the
storm," was the answer.

"Oh, I like to be out in a storm!" exclaimed Bunny.

"I do if it's not too hard a storm," said Sue.

"I think this will be only a small one," replied Mrs. Brown, but as she
went out on deck and felt the strong wind and noticed how high the waves
were she felt a trifle uneasy.

Some hours later Bunny and Sue were each awakened about the same time by
feeling themselves being tossed about in their berths. Bunny was flung
up against the canvas straps his mother had fastened, and at first he
did not know what was happening. Then he heard Sue ask:

"What's the matter?"

"Don't be afraid," said Bunny. "It's only the storm, I guess. Oh, feel
that!" he cried, and as he spoke the _Fairy_ seemed to be trying to
stand on her "head."




CHAPTER XI

WHERE IS BUNNY?


Sue Brown did not know quite what to do. As she cuddled up in the little
berth aboard the _Fairy_, she felt herself being tossed over toward the
edge. At first she was afraid she would be thrown out on the cabin
floor, but the strips of canvas her mother had fastened in place stopped
the little girl from having a fall, just as they had stopped Bunny.

Sue looked up at the tiny electric light, operated by a storage battery.
Captain Ross had put it there so the children would not be in the dark
if they awakened in the night and needed something.

"Bunny! Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, "I don't like a storm on a boat at
night!"

Before Bunny could answer his sister the door of the little stateroom
where they were was opened and Mother Brown looked in. She was dressed,
and her head, face and hair were wet as though she had been out in the
storm. And she really had, for a moment.

"So you're awake, children," she said. "The storm is a bad one, and we
are heading for a quiet cove where we will soon be sheltered and more
quiet."

"Can't I get up, Mother, and dress?" asked Bunny. "Maybe we'll have to
get off the _Fairy_ and into the rowboat, and I want my clothes on."

"Yes, you may get up and dress," said Mrs. Brown. "But there is no
danger that we shall have to take to the small boat. It is just a severe
summer storm, with much wind and rain, but not much else."

"Does it thunder and lightning?" asked Sue.

"No; or you would have heard it and seen it before this," her mother
said. "Here, Sue, I'll take you over in my room and you may dress there.
Bunny, can you manage by yourself?"

"Yes, Mother," he answered.

Mrs. Brown carried Sue in her arms to the room across the main cabin. It
was not easy work with the boat pitching and tossing as it was, but
finally the affair was managed, and Sue had her clothes put on. Bunny
dressed himself, though not without some difficulty, for when he tried
to stand on his right foot to put his left shoe on he slid across the
little room and against the opposite wall. But he was not hurt.

Soon all of them except Captain Ross were in the main cabin. In answer
to a question about the sailor, Mr. Brown said:

"He's out steering the boat. He wants to bring her safe into Clam Cove,
he says, and then we'll anchor for the night. But he thought it best for
us all to be dressed. The storm is worse than any of us thought it would
be."

After the first feeling had worn off of being suddenly awakened in the
night, Bunny and Sue did not mind it much. They sat around, looking a
little anxiously at their father or mother as the boat plunged and
rolled, but when they saw how calm their father, mother, Uncle Tad and
Bunker Blue were, the children took heart also.

"Here are some cookies," said their mother, bringing out a bag from a
locker. "I'd give you some milk to drink, only it would spill the way
the boat is rocking."

"Yes," said Mr. Brown, with a smile, "there'd be as much milk on the
floor, I imagine, as the children would drink."

The storm grew worse instead of less, but Captain Ross was a good
seaman, and in about an hour he brought the _Fairy_ into a sheltered
harbor known as Clam Cove, because of the number of clams that were dug
there.

"Now we'll ride easier," said Bunker Blue. "I'll go up and help get the
anchor over," he added.

Soon Bunny Brown and his sister Sue heard sounds on deck which told of
the big anchor being put over the side, and then the boat came to rest.
She still pitched and tossed a little, but not nearly as much as before.
The wind still blew and the rain came down in pelting drops. But the
craft was water-tight and it was, as Bunker Blue said, "as dry as a
bone" inside.

"You children can go back to your berths now," said Mother Brown, when
the cookies had all been eaten. "I don't believe you'll be tossed out
now."

"All right," assented Bunny and Sue, for they were beginning to feel
sleepy in spite of the excitement of having been awakened by the storm.

And soon, save for the uneasy motion of the storm, which was not felt
much in Clam Cove, there was once again calm aboard the _Fairy_.

In the morning, though the wind was still high, the rain had stopped.
The outer bay, though, was a mass of big waves, and after one look at
them Captain Ross said:

"I think we'd better stay here until it quiets down. We could navigate,
but there's no special hurry."

"No," agreed Mr. Brown, "there isn't. We are not due at Christmas Tree
Cove at any special time, so we'll take it easy."

"Then we can watch the clam boats," said Bunny. "I like to watch them."

The clam boats were of two kinds, large rowing craft in which one or two
men went out and with a long-handled rake pulled clams up from the
bottom of the cove. The other boats were sailing craft. They would start
at one side of Clam Cove, spread their sails in a certain way, and drift
across the stretch of water. Over the side of the boat were tossed big
rakes with long, iron teeth. These rakes, fastened to ropes attached to
the boat, dragged over the bottom of the cove much as the fishermen in
the small boats dragged their rakes.

Of course the sailboats could use much larger rakes and cover a wider
part of the cove. Now and then the men on board the sailboats would haul
up the rakes, which were shaped something like a man's hand is when half
closed and all the fingers and the thumb are spread out. The clams were
dumped on deck, afterward to be washed and sorted.

The sight was not new to any of the Browns, and of course Bunker, Uncle
Tad, and Captain Ross had often taken part in clam raking. But Bunny and
Sue never tired of watching it. Now they sat on deck, as much out of the
wind as possible, and looked at the drifting boats and at the clammers
in their dorries.

The storm was passing. Gradually the wind was dying out and the waves
were getting smaller.

"I think we can start again by this afternoon," said Mr. Brown, coming
up on deck following a short nap in the cabin. He had felt sleepy after
dinner.

"Yes, we can leave before evening if you say so," replied Captain Ross.
"How are you enjoying it?" he asked Sue. "Let's see, I know a riddle
about a clam, if I can think of it. Let me see now, I wonder----"

"Where's Bunny?" asked Mrs. Brown, coming up on the deck at that moment.

"Wasn't he with you?" asked her husband.

"No, he didn't come down. I asked Bunker some time ago about him, and
Bunker said he was on deck with Sue. But he isn't. Where is Bunny?"




CHAPTER XII

CHRISTMAS TREE COVE


When a family is making a trip on a boat and one of the children becomes
lost, or is missing, there is always more worry than if the same thing
happened on land. For the first thing a father and a mother think of
when on a boat and they do not see their children or know where they
are, is that the missing child has fallen into the lake, river or
ocean--whatever the body of water may be.

So when Mrs. Brown came up on the deck of the _Fairy_ and did not see
Bunny, who she had thought was with Sue, she asked at once where he was.

And when Mr. Brown heard his wife say that Bunny had not come to the
cabin he, too, began to wonder where the little boy was.

"Where did Bunny go, Sue?" asked Mother Brown. "Wasn't he sitting here
with you?"

"Yes, he was here a little while ago," answered Sue. "And then I was
watching two of the sailboats to see if they would bump together, and I
didn't look at Bunny. When I did look he was gone, but I thought he was
downstairs."

"He isn't," said Mrs. Brown, "and he isn't here on deck. Oh, if he----"

She did not finish what she was going to say, but quickly ran to the
side of the boat and looked down into the water, as if she might see
Bunny paddling around there. The _Fairy_ was still anchored in Clam
Cove, waiting for the storm to blow out.

"Is Bunny in swimming?" asked Sue.

"What's the matter?" asked Captain Ross, who was up "for'ard," as he
called it, meaning the front of the boat. He and Bunker Blue were
mending one of the sails. "Anything wrong, Mrs. Brown?" asked the jolly
old sailor.

"I can't find Bunny," she answered. "He was here with Sue a moment ago.
Oh, I'm afraid Bunny----"

"Now, don't think that anything has happened!" interrupted Mr. Brown.
"He's probably hiding somewhere."

"Bunny wouldn't do that," declared his mother.

"No, we weren't playing hide and go seek," said Sue.

"Then he must be downstairs in one of the cabins, or he is asleep in his
berth," said Mr. Brown. "I'll look."

"I'll help," offered Uncle Tad, who, himself, had been taking a nap in
his berth.

"I suppose he must be down below if he isn't up here," said Mrs. Brown,
hoping this was true. "I want to look, too."

Sue was beginning to be a bit frightened now, and she started to follow
the others below, while Captain Ross and Bunker Blue, seeing how worried
Mr. and Mrs. Brown were, dropped the sail on which they were working and
decided to join in the search.

It did not take them long to make a search of the boat below decks. No
Bunny was to be found. He was not in his own bunk, nor in that of any
one else, nor was he in the small room where the gasolene motor was
built, though Bunny liked to go there to watch the whirring wheels when
the motor was in motion.

"Where can he be?" exclaimed Mrs. Brown.

Then, suddenly, Sue gave a joyful cry and clapped her hands.

"I think I know where he is!" exclaimed the little girl. "I just
happened to think about it. Come on!"

Wonderingly they followed her. Sue ran to the stern of the _Fairy_,
where the steering wheel was placed. Here was a small rowboat turned
bottomside up. It was kept for the purpose of going to and from shore
when the larger craft was anchored out in the bay.

Going close to this overturned boat Sue leaned down so she could look
under it. The two ends of the boat, being higher than the middle, raised
it slightly from the deck, leaving a sort of long, narrow slot. And Sue
called into this slot:

"Bunny! are you there? Answer me. Are you there?"

For an instant there was no reply, and Mrs. Brown, who had begun to
think she should have looked there first, was about to conclude that,
after all, it was a wrong guess, when suddenly a voice answered:

"Yes; here I am."

The boat tilted to one side and out from beneath it came rolling Bunny
Brown. He seemed sleepy, and his clothes were mussed while his hair was
rumpled. And there was a queer look on his face.

"Why, Bunny! Bunny Brown, what possessed you to crawl under that boat
and go to sleep?" asked his mother. "You have frightened us! We thought
perhaps you had fallen overboard."

"No," said Bunny slowly, shaking his head, "I didn't."

"We see you didn't," said his father, a bit sternly. "But why did you
hide under the boat?"

"I wasn't hiding," answered Bunny. "And if I had fallen overboard into
the water you would have heard me yell," he went on, speaking slowly.

"I suppose so," agreed Mr. Brown. "But if you weren't hiding under that
boat, what were you doing?"

"I was--I was thinking," answered Bunny sheepishly.

"Thinking!" exclaimed his mother.

"Yes, about the dog that took your pocketbook," went on the little boy.
"I wanted to be in a quiet place where I could think about him and maybe
guess where he was so I could make him give back your diamond ring,
Mother. So I crawled under the boat. It was nice and warm there, and the
wind didn't blow on me, and I was thinking and I was thinking, and----"

"And then you fell asleep, didn't you?" asked Uncle Tad, as they all
stood around Bunny on deck.

"Yes, I guess I did," was the answer. "And I didn't dream about the dog,
either."

"Did you think of any way to find him?" asked Captain Ross.

"No," answered Bunny, "I didn't. But I wish I could."

"Oh, you mustn't think any more about that dog," said his mother, with a
smile, as she patted the little boy's tousled head. "I'll manage to get
along without my diamond ring, though I would like to have it back."

"Well, I couldn't think," complained Bunny, with a sigh. "I guess maybe
I was too sleepy."

"Better not hide yourself away again," cautioned his father. "You must
be extra careful aboard a boat so your mother will not have to worry, or
this trip to Christmas Tree Cove will not be any pleasure to her."

"When shall we get there--to the place where the Christmas trees are,
Daddy?" asked Sue.

"Oh, to-morrow, I guess," answered Captain Ross. "I'll land you up
there, and then I'll cruise back. And I'll come after you, to bring you
home, whenever you want me," he added to Mr. Brown.

"We're going to stay all summer," said Bunny. "Wouldn't it be funny if
we could find that big dog and your pocketbook at the Cove, Mother?" he
asked.

"Oh, that could never happen!" declared Sue.

So the lost Bunny was found, and then it was nearly time to get supper.
The wind had all died out now, and it was so calm in the cove that
Captain Ross decided to start the boat without further delay.

"We can tie up wherever you want to over night, or we can anchor out in
the bay, or keep on going," he said to his passengers.

"I think we'd better keep on going," said Mrs. Brown. "I shall worry
less about Bunny and Sue when they are lost if it happens on dry land.
I'll know then that they haven't fallen overboard."

"We could fall in off shore, just the same as off a boat," suggested
Bunny.

"Not quite so easily. And you must be careful when you get to the
bungalow in Christmas Tree Cove," said Daddy Brown. "The bungalow is
right on the shore, but the water is shallow for a long distance out,"
he went on.

"Oh, I'm not going to fall in!" declared Bunny.

"Then we'll start and travel all night," said Captain Ross. "Speaking of
falling into the water," he said, with a jolly laugh, "can you tell me
the answer to this riddle, Bunny or Sue? Why should you tie a cake of
soap around your neck when you go in swimming?"

"I never tied a cake of soap around my neck," said the little girl.

"I like to play the cake of soap is a boat in the bathtub," remarked
Bunny. "It's lots of fun."

"But this is a riddle," went on the seaman. "Why should you tie a cake
of soap around your neck if you go in swimming in deep water?"

"It can't be for you to eat if you get hungry," said Bunny, "can it,
Captain Ross?"

"Of course not!" cried his sister. "How could you eat a cake of _soap_?"

"You could if it was a chocolate cake," returned the little boy. "But
that isn't the answer to the riddle. Please tell us, Captain," he
begged, as Bunker Blue began to pull up the anchor.

"When you go swimming in deep water and get carried too far out, if you
have a cake of soap tied around your neck it might wash you ashore! Ha!
Ha! Ha!" laughed the jolly old sailor. "Do you see, Bunny--Sue? If you
had a cake of soap on your neck it could _wash you ashore_. Soap washes,
you know."

"That's a pretty good riddle," said Uncle Tad, while the two children
laughed. "I must remember that to tell my old friend Joe Jamison when I
get back to Bellemere. A cake of soap washes you ashore! Ha! Ha!"

"Oh, I know a lot of better ones than that," said Captain Ross. "Only I
can't think of 'em just now. Well, all clear, Bunker?" he called.

"Yes, sir," was the answer.

"Then start the motor."

And soon the _Fairy_ was under way again.

Supper was served as the boat slipped through the blue water of the big
bay. It was a calm, quiet, peaceful night, quite different from the one
of the storm, and Bunny and Sue did not have to be strapped in their
bunks. They slept well, and when they came on deck in the morning they
looked over toward shore.

"Oh, what a lot of Santa Claus trees!" cried Sue. "Look, Bunny!"

"That's Christmas Tree Cove up there," said Captain Ross, pointing to
the evergreens where they were thickest. "We'll soon be there."

"And, oh, what fun we'll have!" cried Bunny. "I'm going to dig clams and
catch crabs, and we'll have a clambake on shore, Sue."

"And my dolls can come to it, can't they?" asked the little girl. "I
brought some of my dolls with me, but they're packed up," she added.

"Oh, yes, your dolls can come to the clambake," agreed Bunny. "Will
there be any other boys up at Christmas Tree Cove to play with?" he
asked his father.

"Or girls?" Sue wanted to know.

"Yes. It is quite a summer resort," was the answer. "I fancy you will
have plenty of playmates."

"I had better be getting things ready to go ashore, I suppose," said
Mrs. Brown.

"Yes," answered her husband. "I'll help you."

They were just going down into the cabin, and Bunny and Sue were on
deck, looking at the distant green trees, when there was a sudden
shock, a bump, and the boat keeled far over to one side. It seemed as if
the _Fairy_ had struck something in the water.

"Oh, we're going to sink!" cried Sue.




CHAPTER XIII

A CRASH


Bunker Blue, who was at the steering wheel of the _Fairy_, heard the
dull noise, felt the shock, and saw the boat tip over to one side.
Instantly he pulled the wire which shut off the motor, and then he
turned the steering wheel over, trying to make the boat come upright
again.

This the craft did, though Sue kept on calling:

"We're going to sink!"

Soon the boat was resting quietly in the water, on a "level keel," as a
sailor would say, and floating slowly along.

"Now we're all right, Sue!" said Bunny. "Stop your yelling! We're not
going to sink!"

"How do you know?" she asked. "We bumped into something, and maybe
there's a hole, and the water's coming in, and----"

Just then Mr. and Mrs. Brown came running up on deck, followed by Uncle
Tad and Captain Ross. The old seaman, with an anxious look around,
called to Bunker Blue.

"What happened? Did some one run into us?"

"Felt more as if we ran into something," Bunker answered. "But I didn't
see so much as a canoe."

"We struck something under water, of that I'm sure," said Captain Ross.
"We'd better take a look. We're near shore, anyhow, and it won't take
long to row over if we have to," he added. "But we surely did hit
something."

"Maybe it was a whale," suggested Sue.

"Whales don't come up in the bay. They're too big and fat," declared
Bunny.

"Well, maybe then it was a shark," the little girl went on. "They're not
so fat."

Captain Ross and Mr. Brown hurried below deck again, but presently came
up, and the seaman said:

"We can't find anything wrong below--no leak or anything. We may have
hit a big, submerged log or piece of a wreck. Start the motor again,
Bunker, and we'll see if that's all right."

The gasolene engine was not damaged, but something else was wrong. As
soon as the machinery started there was a trembling and throbbing
throughout the whole boat, but she did not move ahead.

"I see what the matter is!" said Captain Ross. "The propeller is broken.
It hit something."

"Oh, can't we go to Christmas Tree Cove?" asked Sue.

"We'll get there somehow," answered Captain Ross. "But the propeller is
surely broken."

And so it proved. The propeller, you know, is something like an electric
fan. It whirls around underwater and pushes the boat ahead. The
propeller on the _Fairy_ had struck a floating log and had been broken,
as they found out later.

"If we can't go by means of the engine we can sail," remarked Captain
Ross, when it was found that the boat would not move an inch, no matter
how fast the motor whirled around. "Hoist the sail, Bunker. We'll get
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue to Christmas Tree Cove yet! Hoist the
sail!"

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