Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

There was danger in it because sometimes the hands or legs of some one
in the middle would lose their grip, and the "bob" would come apart.
Then sleds would crash together, and often the children were hurt. Sue's
father had told her never to do this, for he had more than once seen
children hurt at this game.

Whether he had told Bunny not to make a bob I do not know. I think if
Bunny had been forbidden this fun he would not have taken part in it.
But perhaps he forgot.

Anyhow, he and Charlie and some of the other lads stretched out on their
sleds, making a bob as I have told you it was done, and down the hill
they coasted.

All went well for some distance, and then suddenly Harry Bentley, who
was in the middle, lost his hold of Bunny's sled.

"Hold on to me! Hold on to me!" cried Bunny, as he saw that he was
slipping sideways.

"I can't!" Harry answered.

A few seconds later the bob came apart, some boys rolling off their
sleds and others coasting down backwards or sideways. Bunny went on by
himself for some little distance, and then, all of a sudden, the two
last boys, who were still locked together, crashed right into the side
of Bunny's sled, knocking him off and coasting on right over him!

"Oh! Oh!" cried Sue, who saw what had happened. "Look at Bunny!"

For a moment it seemed that her brother must be severely hurt, but when
some of the older boys ran to pick him up, Bunny arose by himself. On
his face was a spot of blood.

"Oh, you're hurt!" cried Charlie Star.

Bunny put his hand to his nose. It was bleeding, and at first he was
frightened. But he did not cry.

"I--I don't care!" he said bravely. "I've had nose-bleed before. It
don't hurt much!"

"Hold some snow on it," advised one boy. "That'll stop the bleeding."

Bunny did this, but as the cold snow hurt worse than the pain of his
bumped nose, he soon tossed the red ball away.

"Come on, I'll take you home," said Jack Denson, one of the older boys.
"Don't cry, Sue," he said, as Bunny's sister began to whimper. "He's
all right."

Jack was very kind, wiping the blood off Bunny's face at times with a
handkerchief, so that when the Brown home was almost reached the
bleeding had nearly stopped. Sue, who had been very much frightened at
first, was growing calmer, and Bunny was feeling better. As they neared
their house they saw their father coming home from his work at the boat
and fish dock.

"There's my father," Bunny said.

"Oh, then you'll be all right," remarked Jack. "I'll skip back then, for
I've got to go to the store for my mother."

Mr. Brown stood at the gate waiting for his two children, who came along
dragging their sleds.

"Why, Bunny! what's the matter?" asked Mr. Brown, when he saw the blood
on his son's face.

"He played bob; and didn't you tell him not to?" broke out Sue. "An' the
bob busted and he got bumped into and he was run over and he was under
a drift and he crawled through the cellar window an' Uncle Tad couldn't
find him an'--an'--everything!" gasped Sue, now quite out of breath.

"My, you're telling all the bad news at once!" laughed her father, for
he saw that Bunny was not seriously hurt and he knew that sometimes
accidents will happen on coasting hills.

Mr. Brown had a box under his arm. It was a box that had come through
the mail, as Bunny and Sue could see by the stamps. It looked very
interesting and mysterious, this box did, and the children regarded it
curiously as they walked up the path to the front door of the house with
their father.

"Didn't you tell Bunny never to make a bob?" asked Sue, as Daddy Brown
took his key from his pocket to open the door.

"I don't know that I did," was the answer. "Still if it is dangerous to
make bobs I wish neither you nor Bunny to do it."

"Oh, it's lots of fun," Bunny said. "And my nose doesn't hurt much now.
What's in the box, Daddy?" he asked.

"I'll show you in a minute," Mr. Brown promised. "It is something very
nice."

"Candy?" cried Sue, who had more than one "sweet tooth," I think.

"No, not candy," her father teased. "You'll soon see."

He went into the house with the children, and as soon as Mrs. Brown saw
Bunny she knew what had happened; at least she knew his nose had bled.

"Did you have a tumble?" she asked.

"He was in a bob and it broke and he was run over!" cried Sue, who
seemed anxious to do all the telling.

"Well, I'm glad it was no worse," said Mother Brown. "What's this?" she
asked, as her husband handed her the box. "For me?"

"Yes," he answered. "Orange blossoms."

"Orange blossoms! How lovely!" cried the children's mother. "Where
from?"

"Florida. Mr. Halliday sent them. He's down there on an orange farm, and
I may have to go down myself."

"Down where?" cried Bunny.

"South," answered his father.

"To Florida where the orange blossoms grow?" asked Sue eagerly, as her
mother was opening the box.

"Well, we may get to Florida. But first I shall have to go to Georgia,"
answered Mr. Brown.

"Oh, take us!" cried Bunny and Sue. "Please take us!"

"We'll see," said Mr. Brown, with a look at his wife. "We'll talk it
over after supper. Let's look at the orange blossoms now."

While Mother Brown was opening the box there came a noise at the side
door as though some one were trying to break it open by pounding on it.

CHAPTER IV

A RUNAWAY

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, who were standing on their tiptoes to
look at the orange blossoms in the box, turned quickly and glanced at
the door as the pounding sounded again.

"I wonder who that can be," said Mother Brown, pausing with the box
cover in her hand.

"I'll go and see," offered Mr. Brown. "It's queer they didn't go to the
front door."

"Maybe it's somebody from the post-office come to take our orange
blossoms away," suggested Bunny.

"What would they do that for?" Sue wanted to know.

"'Cause," answered Bunny, "maybe the orange blossoms came to the wrong
place and have to go to somebody else, like that letter one day." He
was speaking of a time when the letter carrier left a wrong missive at
Mr. Brown's home, and came later to get it.

"Oh, these are daddy's orange blossoms all right!" said Mrs. Brown, as
she looked at the address on the box. "They came to him at his office on
the dock."

"Then who can it be?" asked Bunny, as the knock sounded again.

There came the sound of a bark as Mr. Brown opened the door, and next
the children heard their father exclaim:

"Well, you poor half-frozen fellow! Come in and get warm! Go on away,
dog!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "Let Wango alone!"

"Oh, it's Wango!" cried Sue, running to the door.

"Mr. Winkler's monkey!" added Bunny. "Did he bring him over to play with
us?"

"No, Wango seems to have come by himself," answered Mr. Brown, and as
soon as the door was opened wider in scrambled the monkey, a stick of
wood in one paw probably being what he had been pounding on the door
with. From the light of the lamp, which streamed out on the side porch,
the children could see a big black dog that, very likely, had been
chasing and barking at poor Wango.

"Go on away, dog!" cried Mr. Brown, and, stooping, he gathered up a
handful of snow from a corner of the side porch and threw it at the
barking animal, which then ran away.

Meanwhile Wango, the pet monkey that was a great favorite with Bunny and
Sue, came shivering into the room to get warm.

"Oh, you poor thing!" cried Sue. "I'll get you my coat to put on! You're
all shivery!" She started for the hall to get her garment, while Bunny
petted the wet head of the long-tailed animal.

"No, Sue! Don't take your coat," called her mother. "You'll get it
covered with monkey hairs. Wrap a floor rug around Wango if you like."

"I'll do that!" cried Bunny, taking a small carpet rug up from the
floor. This he draped around Wango's shoulders, and the cold, shivering
monkey seemed to like it.

"Well, Wango, what made you come out this kind of weather?" asked Mr.
Brown, coming back to the table on which was standing the box of orange
blossoms.

"Maybe Mr. Winkler left the window open and he got out," said Sue.

"Don't monkeys like cold, Daddy?" asked Bunny.

"No, they come from warm, tropical countries," answered his father.
"They cannot stand the cold."

"Florida is warm, isn't it, Daddy?" asked Sue, as she helped wrap the
rug about Wango.

"Oh, yes, Florida, especially the southern part where oranges grow, is
quite warm," Mr. Brown answered. "There is no snow there."

"Then maybe we can find some monkeys when we go down!" Sue said. "Won't
that be nice, Bunny? We'll each have a monkey of our own."

"I'm going to teach mine to do circus tricks!" cried Bunny.

"Hold on! Hold on!" laughed Mr. Brown. "In the first place, there aren't
any monkeys in Florida--at least none running around wild as there are
in the South American jungles. And in the second place, what makes you
children so sure you are going to Florida?"

"You said you'd take us!" replied Bunny.

"I said I'd _see_," remarked his father. "Anyway, I have to go on
business to Georgia, not Florida, though your mother and I may take a
trip to the orange country later on."

"But if you went you'd take us, wouldn't you?" pleaded Sue.

"Oh, of course he would! Don't tease the children so!" exclaimed Mrs.
Brown. "And what are we going to do with Wango?" she asked, for the
monkey seemed quite contented now that he was in a warm, light room with
his two special friends, Bunny and Sue.

"I think Jed will be after him as soon as he finds his monkey is
missing," said Mr. Brown. "But let's get those orange blossoms in water,
to freshen them up. Mr. Halliday said he would send me some packed in
damp moss, so they would keep pretty well, but he told me to put them in
a bathtub full of water as soon as I got them and they would freshen
up."

"These seem quite fresh now," remarked Mother Brown, as she lifted from
the box, lined with moss, the fragrant orange blossoms. Their perfume
filled the whole room, and even Wango sniffed in delight, at least so
Bunny said.

The children were allowed to look at the beautiful waxlike white
blossoms, with their glossy green leaves, and then Mother Brown carried
them upstairs to immerse them in the bathtub full of water. When they
had freshened up they would be put in vases.

"Oh, I'd just love to see orange blossoms growing on a tree!" sighed
Sue, as she drew in a deep breath of the fragrance.

"I'd rather see oranges and eat 'em!" exclaimed Bunny. "Can I pick
oranges off a tree?" he asked his father.

"Well, yes. I suppose I might as well say I'll take you and then you'll
stop teasing," said Mr. Brown laughingly, as his wife came back, having
left the orange blossoms upstairs. "We'll all go to Florida!"

"When?" cried Bunny and Sue, eagerly.

"In about a week, I think," their father answered. "I shall have to go
to Georgia then, and after I get through my business there we can run
down to Florida for a few weeks."

There came a knock on the door just then, and when it was opened there
stood the old sailor, Jed Winkler.

"Is my monkey here?" he asked. "Yes, I see he is," he added, as he
caught sight of his pet near Bunny and Sue. "Come here, you rascal!" he
went on, pretending to be cross. "What did you want to run away for?"

"Is that what he did?" asked Bunny.

"Yes," answered Mr. Winkler, as he came in. "My sister opened the
windows to-day when she was sweeping or dusting or doing something like
that, and she must have forgotten to lock one. Wango found it and got
out. I didn't miss him until a little while ago. I hope he hasn't been
into any mischief."

"Oh, no," answered Mr. Brown. "It looks as though a strange dog might
have chased him after he left your house. We heard a pounding on our
door a few minutes ago, and when I opened it Wango rushed in.

"There was a big, strange dog near the porch, but I drove it away. Your
monkey had a stick in his hand. He probably picked it up to hit the dog
with, and he used it to pound on our door."

"He pounded hard, too," said Sue. "Wango pounded very hard."

"Hope he didn't hurt the door," said the old sailor.

"Oh, I think not," Mr. Brown answered. "But he was cold and shivery, so
the children wrapped him up."

"Well, I'm much obliged," said Mr. Winkler. "Come along home, Wango!" he
called, and the monkey leaped into his master's arms, dropping the
stick, which he no longer needed. "What's that nice smell?" asked Mr.
Winkler, as he started for home. "Did somebody break a bottle of
perfume?"

"It's orange blossoms," explained Bunny.

"And we're going to Florida and pick oranges," added Sue. "But there
aren't any monkeys there."

"Then that's the place where my sister ought to go," laughed the old
man. "She hates monkeys, and I think sometimes she leaves the windows
open or unlocked on purpose so Wango'll get lost. But I wouldn't want to
tell her that," he went on. For Miss Winkler was of rather a sour
disposition, not at all as jolly and happy as her brother.

When the old sailor and his pet had gone and supper was over, Bunny and
Sue sat near their father and mother, talking happily about the coming
trip to the sunny South where the orange blossoms grow. The flowers had
been brought downstairs and filled the rooms with fragrance.

"You'll be sure to take us now, won't you, Daddy?" asked Bunny, as he
and Sue started for bed a little later.

"Oh, yes, we shall all go South," promised Mr. Brown. "But you can't
make snow men or go coasting there, Bunny."

"Picking oranges will be more fun," decided the little boy.

He and Sue had happy dreams that night, and there were no visions of
alligators mingled with those of orange flowers.

In the night it snowed, so the next day there was more of the white
flaky substance on the ground.

"This'll make good sleighing," said Uncle Tad at the breakfast table.
"You children want to come for a ride with me?"

Did they? You should have heard Bunny Brown and his sister Sue exclaim
in delight at this!

"Where are you going?" asked Mrs. Brown, as Uncle Tad went out to
harness the horse to the small sleigh.

"Walter wanted me to go to the railroad depot and get some freight that
came in for him," answered the old soldier. "There are some small boxes
of things he needs for his motor boat. There'll be plenty of room for
the youngsters."

"All right--take them along," said Mrs. Brown. And a little later Bunny
and Sue were in the sleigh with Uncle Tad.

"Whoa there now! Steady, Prince!" called the soldier to the horse, for
the animal seemed rather more frisky than usual.

"What makes him go so fast?" asked Bunny, for he could tell that Uncle
Tad was having hard work to hold in the horse.

"Oh, he hasn't been out for two or three days and he feels frisky," the
soldier answered. "But I guess I can manage him all right. Sit tight,
you two!"

There were many other sleighs and cutters out around Bellemere, and the
air was filled with the jingle of merry bells. Bunny and Sue saw many of
their friends and waved to them.

"I guess all the boys and girls'll wish they were us when we go to
Florida, won't they?" asked Sue of Bunny.

"I guess they will!" he declared.

They were nearing the railroad now, on their way to the freight depot to
get the boxes for Mr. Brown. There were several tracks to cross before
the depot could be reached.

Suddenly, as the sleigh containing Bunny and Sue was about to cross the
rails, a distant locomotive gave a loud whistle. Prince gave a jump and,
a moment later, began to trot very fast.

"Whoa! Whoa there! Steady, Prince!" cried Uncle Tad, taking a firm hold
of the reins. But Prince did not settle down. Instead he ran the faster,
and straight for the tracks. And as the whistle of the locomotive
sounded louder, Bunny and Sue knew a train was coming!

"Oh, Uncle Tad!" cried Sue, clinging to Bunny.

"Keep quiet, children!" begged the old soldier. "I guess we'll be all
right!"

"Is he running away?" asked Bunny.

"I'm afraid he is," answered Uncle Tad. "But I'll pull him down in a
minute. Sit tight and hold fast!"

CHAPTER V

OUT OF A DUSTPAN

Prince was certainly a frisky horse that morning. In spite of all Uncle
Tad could do by pulling on the reins and calling soothingly to the
animal, he raced with the sleigh over the railroad tracks. And the train
was coming nearer and nearer. Bunny and Sue well knew what would happen
if it hit them.

"Whoa there, Prince! Be a good horse!" called Uncle Tad. He pulled
harder on the reins, and when he saw that unless turned, the animal
might dash across the tracks right in front of the rushing train, the
old soldier gave such a pull that he swung the head of the runaway horse
around and guided him alongside of the tracks instead of across them.

"Look out, Uncle Tad! You're going into a big drift!" cried Bunny.

"That's just where I want to go!" said the soldier. "If I head Prince
into the drift he can't run any more."

And this is just what Uncle Tad did. By a hard pull on the reins he
swung the horse to one side, and not any too soon, either. For as Prince
dragged the sled along the tracks and into a big drift that was almost
as high as the head of the animal himself, the train dashed by--the
train with the locomotive that had whistled and set Prince to running
away.

"Whoa, there now! Quiet! Steady, old fellow!" called Uncle Tad
soothingly, as Prince saw the big drift in front of him and seemed to
know that he could neither go through it nor jump over it, especially
when harnessed to the sleigh.

[Illustration: WITH A WHIZZ AND A ROAR THE TRAIN SPED PAST.

_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South._ _Page 44_]

With a whizz and a roar the train sped past Bunny and Sue in the sleigh.
They were quite near it, being alongside the tracks.

Prince stamped and reared a little, but he seemed to have gotten over
his first fright, and was more like himself. Usually he was not skittish
nor afraid of trains or engines. But not having been out of the stable
for some time and having had no exercise, he was, like many other
horses, ready to run away at the first loud noise. But Uncle Tad had
pulled him down to a walk and guided him into the snowdrift just in
time.

"My, that train was going fast!" exclaimed Sue, as it roared on its way.

"If it had hit us it would--it would have busted us all to pieces,
wouldn't it, Uncle Tad?" asked Bunny, who, being a little older than his
sister, knew more about the danger they had been in.

"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed the soldier, as he again spoke soothingly to
Prince. "Getting in the way of railroad trains is dangerous. But we're
all right now."

"Then let's go on," begged Sue. "I don't like it here. Let's get daddy's
boxes and go for a nice ride where there aren't any trains, Uncle Tad."

"All right, we will," promised the old gentleman. But as he looked up
and down the track, to make sure all was clear, he heard the whistle of
another engine and the roar of an approaching train.

"We'll wait until this one goes past," he said, little guessing what a
strange thing was to happen.

Prince pranced a little as he heard another locomotive coming toward
him, but he did not try to run away again nor jump through the
snowdrift.

With a roar the second train approached, gliding swiftly past Bunny,
Sue, and Uncle Tad seated in the sleigh alongside of the tracks. And as
the children watched for the last car they saw the rear door of it open,
and a colored porter, with his white jacket on, stood on the platform.

It was a chair car, and the porter had evidently been doing some
sweeping, for he held in his hands a dustpan. This dustpan he had taken
to the back door to empty, and, just as his car came near the sleigh in
the snowdrift, the porter threw the dust, dirt, and other things from
the pan into the air.

The train was going so fast that it made quite a breeze, and this wind
carried the stuff from the dustpan into the very faces of Uncle Tad and
Sue. Bunny, being on the outside of the seat, did not get any dust in
his face.

"Oh!" cried Sue, as she felt the swirling wind and dust.

"That porter certainly was a careless fellow!" exclaimed Uncle Tad.
"That dust nearly blinded me!" The old soldier held the reins in one
hand, for Prince seemed ready to bolt again, and with the other hand
Uncle Tad wiped the dust from the porter's pan out of his eyes.

Bunny had a glimpse of torn papers and other refuse from the car falling
into the snowdrift near the sleigh.

"I guess he didn't mean to do it, Uncle Tad," the little boy said. "He
wasn't looking this way when he emptied that dustpan."

"I wish he had been!" exclaimed the old soldier. "Did you get a lot of
dust in your eyes, Sue?"

"Yes," answered the little girl. "But it's most gone now."

"How about you, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad.

"Oh, I'm all right," Sue's brother answered. "Look, Uncle Tad, there
are some papers the porter threw out, too," and he pointed to the heap
of refuse on the snow.

"All trash, I suppose," said the soldier. "People in parlor cars throw
on the floor things they don't want, and the porter has to sweep it up.
Well, we'll get along now."

"Wait a minute, Uncle Tad!" cried Bunny, as the soldier was about to
swing Prince around to go on to the freight depot.

"Eh? What's that, Bunny? What's the matter?" asked Uncle Tad.

"There's a nice green and gold piece of paper down there," Bunny
answered. "Maybe it's some good."

"No, I don't believe so, else the porter wouldn't have thrown it out,"
Uncle Tad answered, as he looked at the train now a mile or more away
down the track.

"Maybe it's some good," Bunny insisted. "Please let me get it, Uncle
Tad. Maybe it's some old railroad ticket and Sue and I can play
conductor on the train when we go to Florida."

"Well, all right, get it if you want to," agreed the old soldier.
"Whoa, Prince! Whoa!"

He steadied the horse while Bunny got down out of the sled, and ran to
the scattered refuse from the porter's dustpan. Bunny picked up the
paper. It was printed in green and gold, as he had said, and was not
torn as were the other scraps of paper that had come from the chair car.

"Look, Uncle Tad!" called Bunny, holding up what he had found. "Is this
a railroad ticket?"

The old soldier put on his glasses and looked carefully at the paper.

"Why, Bunny boy!" he exclaimed, "you've found something worth a lot of
money--a whole lot of money. I must put this away in my pocket and show
it to your father. Whoa there! Steady, Prince! Bunny has just found,
what may be worth a lot of money!"

CHAPTER VI

OFF FOR GEORGIA

Uncle Tad slipped into his coat pocket the paper printed in green and
gold that Bunny had picked up from the refuse tossed out by the Pullman
car porter. Then the old soldier turned Prince around so the horse could
pull the sleigh out of the drift.

"How much money did I find, Uncle Tad?" asked Bunny.

"Well, I don't know just how much it may amount to," was the answer.
"'Tisn't exactly money, you understand. That paper, Bunny, is what is
called a certificate, or something like that, and it's for some stock in
an oil well made out to bearer, as nearly as I can tell."

"Can I have some of the money to spend?" Bunny asked. "I want to get
some candy for Sue and me."

"You can't exactly _spend_ this money," said the old soldier. "In the
first place, it isn't yours, Bunny. You just found it, you know, and
finding isn't always keeping. This oil stock certificate must belong to
some one on the train. They very likely dropped it in the car, and when
the colored porter was cleaning up he swept it into his dustpan and
never noticed it when he threw the dirt in our faces. That certificate
may be worth a lot of money, but it would have to be sold before you
could get cash for it, and, besides, it isn't yours."

"Whose is it?" Bunny wanted to know. "I found it, didn't I?"

"Yes, but we must try to learn to whom it belongs, and give it back,"
Uncle Tad went on. "They may give a reward for it, and then you would
have real money."

Bunny could not understand this, nor could Sue. If you found a thing why
couldn't you keep it? the little boy wondered. Also when something
looked so much like money, as this gold and green paper looked like nice
new bills from the bank, why couldn't some of it be spent for candy?
Bunny and Sue wondered about this.

But when Prince was driven across the tracks to the freight depot, and
when Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were given some pennies by Uncle Tad
and allowed to go to a near-by store while the boxes of motor boat parts
were being loaded into the sleigh, the two children forgot all about the
oil stock paper. They were more interested in getting the kind of candy
they wanted.

"Wouldn't it be nice, Bunny," said Sue, as she chewed a red gumdrop, "if
you'd get a lot of money so we could spend it in Florida?"

"Course it would be nice," her brother agreed. "But where shall I get a
lot of money?" and he bit the end off a stick of cocoanut candy.

"You might get it from that stiff thing you found," went on Sue. "But I
don't think it's very stiff. I saw Uncle Tad bend it when he put it in
his pocket."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10