Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South

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"Oh, you mean that stiff cut," laughed Bunny, as he remembered the paper
he had picked up in the snow. "Isn't it a funny name, Sue--_stiff cut_?
I s'pose somebody cut the paper. But it isn't very stiff if you can
bend it."

Of course Bunny and Sue did not get the name just right, but then, as
they didn't understand about certificates and oil stock, there is no use
in worrying over the matter.

Uncle Tad and the freight man finished putting into the sleigh the
different boxes for Daddy Brown's motor boat in which Bunker Blue often
went out after fish in the summer, sometimes taking Bunny and Sue with
him. By this time the two children came back from the candy store and
got in the sleigh.

"Well, did you find any more valuable papers, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad,
with a joking laugh as he started Prince down the road.

"Nope, I didn't," answered the little boy. "But maybe I'll find some in
Florida."

"You're going to the state of Georgia first, I heard your father say,"
remarked the old soldier.

"Are there any oranges in Georgia?" asked Sue.

"Or alligators?" Bunny wanted to know, for he had heard that there were
plenty of the big, scaly and long-tailed creatures in Florida.

"I don't know much about Georgia," answered Uncle Tad, "except I've
heard that peaches grow there. But, of course, you won't find any of
them now, as it isn't summer."

"Isn't Georgia nice and warm in winter, like Florida?" asked Sue. "And
can't we get some orange blossoms there?"

"I don't believe you'll find any oranges in Georgia," answered Uncle
Tad, "and it isn't as warm as the southern part of Florida, though of
course Florida and Georgia, being close together, are a good deal alike.
They grow lots of cotton in Georgia, and peanuts."

"Peanuts!" cried Bunny, in delight. "Oh, I'm glad! Peanuts are most as
good as oranges, aren't they, Sue?"

"Yes," agreed the little girl. "But it would be nice if we had peanuts
_and_ oranges. 'Cause then when we got thirsty from eating peanuts off a
tree we could go and pick an orange off another tree and suck the juice,
and we wouldn't be thirsty any more, would we, Uncle Tad?"

"No, I presume not," answered the old soldier, with a laugh. "But
peanuts don't grow on trees, Sue."

"They don't?" cried the little girl. "Why not? Hickory nuts do."

"I don't know why, but they don't," said Uncle Tad. "Peanuts grow on
vines, under the ground. In some places down South peanuts are called
'goobers.'"

"What a funny name!" said Bunny. "We'll have some fun in Georgia when we
get there."

"Yes, you two seem to have fun wherever you go, like the lady with rings
on her fingers and bells on her toes, so she had music 'wherever she
goes,'" said Uncle Tad.

Prince had now quieted down, and he drew the sled along without trying
to run away. A little later Bunny and Sue reached home, and Mrs. Brown
was quite excited when she heard how near they had been to the rushing
train.

Bunny and Sue told about the porter and his dustpan, and Uncle Tad took
from his pocket the green and gold oil stock certificate.

"We'll show it to daddy when he comes home," said Mrs. Brown. "He will
know what to do with it."

But though Mr. Brown telephoned to the railroad office, telling about
the finding of the valuable paper, which was thought to be worth much
money, the owner of it could not be found.

After several days, during which Bunny and Sue had more fun in the snow,
Mr. Brown told his wife that the railroad people had not even yet been
able to find the person who owned the oil stock paper.

"It must have been dropped by some one who was riding in that Pullman
car," said Mr. Brown. "Perhaps he dropped it and didn't know it until he
got off the train. Then he may have thought he lost it somewhere else,
and so didn't come back to the railroad office."

"Can't you find out who owns it by writing to the oil company?" Mrs.
Brown asked.

"I could if the certificate were made out in somebody's name," her
husband answered. "But it is made out to 'bearer'--that is, anybody who
holds it can get the permanent certificates. This is a temporary one."

"Could Bunny or Sue?"

"Yes, and if this isn't claimed and we can't find to whom it belongs,
they can sell it and get the money. But the owner may write to the oil
company, even though his name isn't on the paper. In that way I may find
out to whom it belongs. I'll write to the oil company myself in a few
days."

But Mr. Brown had so much to do, getting ready to leave for the sunny
South with Bunny and Sue that, for a time, he forgot about the oil stock
certificate.

As for Bunny and Sue, they talked so much about their coming trip to the
South, mentioning oranges, peanuts, and alligators--it was Bunny who
spoke of the last, you may be sure--that all their little boy and girl
friends were interested.

"I wish you'd send me back some oranges, Sue," begged Mary Watson. "And
some orange blossoms, too. Then I could put them on one of my dolls and
pretend to have a wedding."

"I'll send you lots of oranges and blossoms," promised Sue.

"And will you send me some peanuts from Georgia?" asked Sadie West.

"Lots of 'em!" promised Sue.

At last the day came when the start was to be made. Bunny Brown and his
sister Sue thought it never would arrive, but finally it did, and after
trunks and valises had been packed the party started for the station.
The weather was cold, more snow had fallen, and it seemed that another
storm would soon come.

"But in a little while we'll be where they never have any snow," said
Daddy Brown.

The last good-byes were called back and forth. Bunny and Sue took their
places in the parlor car--the same kind of car as that from which the
porter had tossed the oil stock certificate--and the train began to
move. They were at last off for Georgia and from there would go to
Florida--two states of the sunny South.

As the train began to roll more rapidly out of the station there came
the sound of some excitement from the narrow passageway at one end--the
passage where the porter keeps his towels and soap.

"Oh, there goes Dickie!" cried a woman's voice. "Oh, Dickie, come back!
You'll be hurt, I know you will! Oh, porter! don't let Dickie jump off
and be killed!"

"No'm, I won't," answered the colored man. "Ah'll get yo' Dickie fo'
you!"

"Maybe it's a little child!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown to her husband. "You'd
better go and help her, Walter! That porter is so slow! Go and save
Dickie!"

CHAPTER VII

THE PLANTATION

Mr. Brown knew how he and his wife would worry if anything should happen
to Bunny or Sue, so, with this thought in mind, he hurried to the end of
the car to do what he could in the rescue of Dickie.

Mrs. Brown stayed with the two children, but she was so anxious to help
the woman who had called out about Dickie that she made up her mind to
go to the aid of her husband as soon as Bunny and Sue were settled in
their seats.

As for Mr. Brown, as he hastened toward that end of the parlor car where
some one was begging the porter not to let Dickie be harmed, he saw the
woman who was so excited. She was a large woman, wearing a wide-brimmed
hat trimmed with many ostrich feathers which nodded and swayed as she
moved about.

"Oh, Dickie! Dickie! Where did you go?" this woman cried, clasping her
hands. "Why didn't you stay with me? Now you'll be killed, I'm sure you
will! Or else you'll jump off the train and be left behind! Oh, porter,
close the door so Dickie can't get off!"

"Yes'm. De do' am done closed!" said the colored man. "Ah'll git yo'
Dickie fo' you ef you-all jest waits a minute!"

"Perhaps I can help," suggested Mr. Brown, coming up at that moment, and
looking about in the narrow passageway and in the men's smoking room for
a sight of some little child who might have wandered away from his
mother.

"Oh, if you only can get him!" exclaimed the large woman with the big
hat. "I had him in my arms, but he jumped out--"

"Jumped out of your arms!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "I should think he would
have been hurt."

"Oh, no, he often does that," said the woman. "He always lands on his
feet."

"What a strange child!" thought Mr. Brown. "He must be training for a
circus performer."

"He jumped out of my arms and ran in there," went on the woman, and she
pointed to the smoking room, which, just then, was empty. It was a room
containing several leather chairs, a leather settee across one end, and
a wash basin in one corner.

"Ah'll git him in jest a minute," said the porter, who was putting some
clean towels in a rack over the basin. "He must be under the long seat."

"I'll bring him out," offered Mr. Brown, getting down on his hands and
knees to look under the long leather seat at one end of the smoking
compartment. He remembered a time when Sue had thus crawled under a sofa
at home and what a time he had to get her to come out.

"Oh, Dickie, why did you do it?" wailed the woman. "Are you sure he
didn't fall off the train?" she asked.

"No'm," answered the porter. "Nobody, man, woman or chile, got off dish
yeah car after it started. I shet de do' too quick for dat! But I didn't
see anybody come in heah!"

"This is where he came," said the woman, following Mr. Brown into the
smoking room. "Oh, I do hope he is under the seat."

By this time the father of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue was able to
see under the leather seat. But, to his surprise, he saw no little boy
or girl there. All he caught sight of was a white poodle dog, cowering
back in the corner.

"There's no Dickie here--only a dog," said Mr. Brown.

"That's Dickie!" cried the woman. "Oh, dear Dickie! are you there? I was
afraid my precious was lost forever! Oh, Dickie, come out!"

Mr. Brown was so surprised that he did not know what to say. He had
thought he was coming to the rescue of a little child, and it had turned
out to be--a dog! And while Mr. Brown loved animals, he was a little
angry to think that anybody would make as much fuss over a poodle that
had crawled under a couch as would be made over a missing little boy or
girl.

Still Mr. Brown was too polite to say all that he felt, and so he
reached his hand under the long seat, and tried to get hold of the dog's
fuzzy coat.

The dog growled and barked, and snapped at Mr. Brown's hand.

"Does he bite?" the children's father asked the woman.

"Not very hard," she answered.

"Hum!" mused Mr. Brown, as he drew back and arose. "Perhaps you'd better
coax him out," he said, for he had no desire to be bitten even by a
little dog, as sometimes their teeth inflict a poisonous wound.

"Oh, Dickie! you wouldn't bite the nice, kind man, would you?" the lady
exclaimed, stooping down and trying to peer under the seat.

"Ah'll put on mah gloves an' git him," offered the porter, who perhaps
felt that the woman might give him a large tip. And, of course, Mr.
Brown was very willing to let the colored man have any reward there
might be.

Putting on a pair of heavy gloves he used when he did rough work in
cleaning the Pullman car, the porter reached under the seat and dragged
forth the growling, snapping little white poodle.

By this time Mrs. Brown, hearing the loud talking out in the smoking
room, thought something serious had happened. She hastened to that end
of the car, followed by Bunny and Sue, who did not want to be left
behind. They arrived in time to see the porter handing the woman her
pet.

"Oh, Dickie!" exclaimed the wearer of the big hat, as she clasped the
poodle in her arms, "oo bad 'ittle snookums!"

"Where's the child?" asked Mrs. Brown.

In answer Mr. Brown pointed to the dog, and his wife understood.

"Oh, isn't he nice!" exclaimed Sue.

"May I see him?" asked Bunny.

"In a little while," the woman answered. "Dickie is so fussed up now his
'ittle heart is beating too hard! I must cuddle him!"

She turned and walked into the next car for, it seemed, she had got
into the wrong one, or, rather, her dog had leaped from her arms and had
gone into the one in which the Browns had seats and the woman had
followed her pet.

"Come in and see me when I get 'ittle Dickie quiet," said the woman, but
even Bunny and Sue, much as they loved pets, did not like the silly fuss
this woman made over her dog. So they did not go into the other car.

Mr. Brown turned and went with his wife and children up to the middle of
the car, where they had their seats. As they left, the porter, with a
queer grin which showed his white teeth, said:

"Golly, she suah did make a fuss ober dat dog!"

"Yes," agreed Mr. Brown with a laugh, "she did!"

"He was a nice little dog," observed Sue, "but I like a big dog
better--you can have more fun with it."

"Sure!" agreed Bunny. "And poodles are so snappy."

"I'm glad you didn't pull him out, Walter," Mrs. Brown said. "I'd be
anxious if he had bitten you."

"I didn't give him the chance," her husband said. "Well, now that Dickie
is safe we can settle down."

And so the travelers made themselves as comfortable as possible, for
they had rather a long trip ahead of them. They would be on the train
all night and a large part of the next day.

"I'm glad that woman with the dog isn't in our car," said Mrs. Brown to
her husband, when Bunny and Sue were contentedly looking from the
windows. "She probably makes a fuss over the animal all the while."

"Yes, it's just as well for us she isn't here," agreed the children's
father. "Though if it were the kind of dog they could play with it would
make the time pass more quickly for Bunny and Sue."

"Oh, I think they'll manage to keep themselves amused," said their
mother. "They like traveling."

Bunny and Sue certainly did, and it was a pleasure for them to look
from the windows at the scenery.

No very remarkable adventures happened on the journey to Georgia. To be
sure, Sue did fall out of the berth once, and her mother had to pick her
up. But the little girl scarcely awakened, and as the carpet on the
floor of the sleeping car was soft and thick she was not hurt in the
least.

Bunny had a little accident, too. During the day he went to the end of
the car to get Sue a drink, taking a folding silver cup his mother
carried in her handbag. But when the little boy was half way down the
aisle the train gave a swing around a curve, Bunny almost fell, and the
cup closed, spilling the water all over him.

However, it was not a great deal, and as the car was warm no harm
resulted. Bunny himself laughed at the happening, and insisted on going
back and filling the cup for Sue. This time he brought it to her nearly
full of water.

And so, with looking out of the windows, reading some of their
best-loved books which they had brought with them, eating and sleeping,
the time passed most happily for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.

As mile after mile was reeled off by the train, the children began to
notice a difference in the scenery.

The weather was cold, and there was much snow on the ground when they
left Bellemere, and the snow continued to cover the ground for some
distance. But as the train went farther and farther south the snow
seemed to disappear--melting away until, when the children looked from
the windows of their car toward the end of their journey, they saw green
leaves on the trees.

"Oh, are we down South now, Daddy?" called Sue.

"Yes, we are in the southern part of Georgia," was the answer. "We have
left winter behind us. In a little while, especially when we get into
Florida, you will be in the sunny South."

"Oh, what fun we'll have!" cried Sue.

"Where are the oranges?" demanded Bunny. "I don't see any," and he
looked at the trees.

"Oranges don't grow in Georgia, at least not in the open," said Mr.
Brown. "Some may be raised in hothouses, but to grow them in the open
air warmer weather than Georgia has in winter is needed. We shall have
to wait until we get to Florida to gather oranges."

"What about peanuts?" asked Bunny.

"Oh, I think I can promise you plenty of peanuts," answered his father.

"And shall we see cotton growing?" asked Mrs. Brown. "I have always
wanted to see a cotton field, with the darkies singing and picking the
white, fluffy stuff."

"There is plenty of cotton in Georgia," her husband answered, "but there
may be none where we are going. However, I hope you will have your wish.
If we can't have oranges we may have peanuts and cotton."

"We'll not eat the cotton though, shall we, Daddy?" asked Sue.

"You won't have to unless you want to," he laughed in answer.

A little later, when Mr. and Mrs. Brown had got together their baggage,
for they were near their destination, Bunny, who was looking from the
window, suddenly called:

"Oh, look! Here they are, picking cotton!"

Sue rushed to her window and Mrs. Brown turned to gaze out on the scene.
As Bunny had said, the train was then passing through a cotton section,
and in the fields on either side of the track a number of colored men,
women, and children were picking the big white clumps of cotton from the
bushes which grew in long, straight rows. It was a late crop.

"Oh, it's a cotton plantation!" cried Mrs. Brown. "I'm glad, for I've
always wanted to see one."

As they looked out at the sight, which was a new one to Bunny and Sue,
the train began to slow up. In a very few moments they could see painted
in very large letters on the end of the station the word "Seedville."

"This is our station," announced Daddy Brown.

"Oh, we're going to get out right near the cotton plantation!"
exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "I'm glad! Why didn't you tell us we were going to
be so near where they pick cotton?" she asked her husband.

"I didn't really know it myself," he said. "Mr. Morton, whom I am going
to see, said he owned cotton land, but I did not know it was a
plantation. However, we'll get out here." And Bunny and Sue were wild
with delight at the new adventures which might be in store for them.

CHAPTER VIII

AMONG THE COTTON PICKERS

When the train reached the station of Seedville the cotton fields with
the colored pickers were out of sight around a bend in the road. But
Bunny and Sue were glad they were going to stop not far away from this
new and interesting sight.

As the Brown family alighted from the train at the small station, a
gentleman with a broad-brimmed hat, under which his pleasant smiling
face could be seen, came forward.

"Hello, Jim!" called Mr. Brown. "Well, here we are!"

"So I see, and I'm glad of it!" Mr. Morton answered. Then he was
introduced to Mrs. Brown and the children. Mr. Morton was the man Daddy
Brown had come to Georgia to see on business. Later Mr. Brown would
have to visit Mr. Halliday at Orange Beach, Florida.

"Give me your checks and I'll look after your baggage," went on the
Southerner. "I have my auto right behind the station, and it's only a
short ride over to my place."

"Have you any peanuts?" asked Sue.

"Yes, I grow a few," answered Mr. Morton.

"Course you don't have any oranges?" Bunny added, feeling pretty sure,
from what his father had said, there would be none; but still he could
not help hoping.

"No, I'm sorry to say I haven't any orange grove," Mr. Morton replied,
smiling.

"Is that your cotton field we passed?" asked Mrs. Brown, pointing back
toward the scene through which they had come a little while before.

"That's part of my plantation, yes," answered the Southerner. "It's
quite interesting if you haven't seen it as often as I have."

A little later the family was riding toward Mr. Morton's home, where the
Browns were to stay while Daddy and Mr. Morton finished their business,
which would take about a week. Mrs. Morton welcomed the family, and
Bunny and Sue were delighted to find that there were two children, a boy
and a girl, not much older than they were--Sam and Grace Morton.

"Oh, now we can have a lot of fun!" cried Bunny, when he saw these
playmates. "Will you show me how to pick cotton?" he asked Sam.

"Sure," was the answer. "I help pick it myself, sometimes."

"And will you show me how to dig peanuts?" asked Sue of Grace.

"You don't have to do much digging," answered the little Southern girl,
laughing. "You just pull up the vines and the peanuts stick to 'em, same
as potatoes do. Course you sometimes have to dig out some that don't
come up on the vine."

While Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Mr. and Mrs. Morton were talking together,
the children were allowed to go to one of the near-by cotton fields.
Cotton, as you know, grows on low bushes, which are planted in long
rows, so the pickers may easily walk between them. In some countries the
cotton bushes, or plants, last from one year to the next, but in
Georgia most of the cotton grows from new bushes each year. The seeds
are planted in the spring, but the picking is not finished until
sometimes late in what is the winter season of the North.

Of course in some parts of Georgia there are frosts which kill the
bushes, and in these parts of the state the cotton must be picked
earlier than in the southern part, where the Browns were.

So, though there was cold weather and snow in Bellemere, there were
warm, blue skies in Georgia, and the colored men, women and children
were out in the fields picking the cotton.

As Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, with Sam and Grace, reached the field
of cotton, they could hear the darkies singing. Some one would start a
tune, and then others would join in.

"It's jolly!" laughed Bunny, as they stopped to listen to a funny song
about a mule.

"Yes, the darkies always seem to be happy," said Sam.

The children from the North watched as the colored pickers pulled off
the great, fluffy balls of white, stuffing them into bags or baskets
which were later taken from the field on two-wheeled mule carts.

"What are all those brown things in the cotton?" asked Sue, as she
looked at a fluffy clump on a near-by bush.

"Seeds," answered Grace. "The cotton clump, or boll, is full of seeds,
and these have to be taken out before the cotton is baled up for the
mill."

"Oh, I 'member about that!" cried Bunny. "We learned it in school. A man
named Eli Whitney made a machine for taking seeds out of the cotton."

"That's right," admitted Sam. "I'll take you to the gin, as it is
called, where the seeds are taken from the cotton and the white stuff is
pressed into bales. You ought to see the big presses! It squeezes the
cotton all up!"

"I hope it doesn't squeeze us!" laughed Sue.

"I'll keep you back out of danger," promised Grace.

The children walked through the cotton field of the plantation and were
greeted by broad grins and smiles on the part of the colored folk. There
seemed to be more children than grown people working in the field, and
Sam said it was sometimes hard to get old pickers, so children had to be
used.

The darkies did not work very fast, and often, as Bunny and his sister
walked along with their new friends, the hands would stop working to
look at the children. This, with their habit of stopping to sing every
now and then, slowed up the cotton picking.

"I'd like to go to the mill and see the cotton pressed into bales," said
Bunny after a while.

"All right, we'll go," said Sam. "You've seen about all there is to see
here."

As they turned away Sue suddenly called:

"Hark!"

They all listened, and Grace said:

"That's one of their banjos! They bring them to the field and play and
dance."

"Oh, let's see that!" cried Sue. "It'll be more fun than going to the
cotton factory!"

Bunny, too, wanted to listen to the music, so they turned aside into a
part of the field where most of the cotton had been picked from the
bushes. The darkies, who had finished this part of their work, were
celebrating after a fashion.

Some boards had been laid down, and an awning placed over them to make a
place where bags of cotton were tied up to be taken to the gin. Gathered
around this platform were a number of negro men, women and children. One
of the men had an old banjo, and though the instrument seemed battered
and broken, he managed to get some lively music from it.

"Golly, dat suah mek me want to shuffle mah feet!" exclaimed one
bright-eyed colored lad.

"Why doan you shuffle 'em den, Rastus?" some one called. "Show de white
folks how you kin cut de pigeon wing!"

"Oh, landy, banjo music suah am sweet!" cried an old white-wooled
colored woman, with a jolly laugh.

Then the man with the banjo "cut loose," as one of his friends called
it, and played such a lively tune that even Bunny and Sue said they
felt like dancing. But they wanted to see what the cotton pickers did,
and so they watched. Out on the wooden platform shuffled Rastus, and the
way he kicked up, turned cartwheels, stood on his hands and danced
around made Bunny and Sue laugh in delight.

Others of the pickers, men and women, girls and boys, danced, and then
along came the driver of one of the mule carts who had a mouth organ. He
added this music to that of the banjo, until quite a crowd had
collected.

"My goodness!" exclaimed a voice behind Bunny and Sue when there came a
lull in the fun. "Cotton picking can't be such very hard work after
all!" The children turned around to see their mother and Mrs. Morton,
who had come to the field.

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