Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South

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"Well, of all things!" cried the jolly switchman. "And was the cat with
you, too?" he wanted to know.

"Yes," answered Sue. "This was Nutty's cat."

"What, Nutty, the tramp?" cried the switchman. "Did he have you two
tots?"

Bunny shook his head.

"Nutty was very good to us," answered the little boy. "He was in the car
when we crawled in to get the pussy, but we didn't know it. Then the
train started up and we couldn't get off. Nutty jumped off a while ago,
'cause he was afraid he'd be arrested. But we couldn't jump off until
just now."

"My! My! That's quite a story!" cried the jolly switchman. "You had
better come home with me, and my wife will give you something to eat.
You two children must be lost! Come, I'll take you to my wife."

"Does she live there?" asked Sue, pointing to the shanty.

The jolly switchman burst into a loud laugh.

CHAPTER XVII

A WORRIED MOTHER

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 bench by 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 and Sue. 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 train having 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 Bunny or 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?"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE TRICK DOG

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'm thinking 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 he could 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's question, 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 she got 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 call our cat 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 enough awake 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 the switchman put the broom over the dog's shoulder and under
one paw.

[Illustration: 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.

CHAPTER XIX

A HAPPY REUNION

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 keeps a 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 the
switchman 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 if he 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 in the 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, and Sue 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 should have 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, waving the 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.

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