Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South

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

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CHAPTER XX

AT ORANGE BEACH

The happy reunion had taken place on the platform of the little railroad
station just outside the village where Mr. Black, the switchman, lived.
As soon as telegrams had been sent and received, Mr. Black took Bunny
and Sue to the station to wait for the arrival of the train carrying
their father and mother to them.

Coming in a passenger car, and not on a freight train in which the
children had ridden, Mr. and Mrs. Brown soon arrived at the place. And
then you can imagine how happy every one was.

"But whatever possessed you two children to climb into a freight car and
let yourselves be carried away?" asked Mrs. Brown, as she hugged Bunny,
while Mr. Brown took Sue in his arms.

"We wanted to get the kitten, Mother," Sue explained. "And he's at Mrs.
Black's now, and please can't we take him with us to Florida?"

"It's Nutty's cat," objected Bunny.

"But he ran away and left him," went on Sue. "Please, Mother, can't we
take Toddle with us?"

"Who is Nutty?" asked Mr. Brown.

Then, by turns, the children told the whole story, which included how
they had met the queer old tramp in the boxcar.

"And you ought to see Bruno do tricks!" cried Bunny, when it came his
turn to tell something.

"Who is Bruno, another tramp?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"He's a dog!" exclaimed Bunny. "And you ought to see him dance!"

"You children seem to have had a better time than your mother or I had,"
said Mr. Brown, after he had thanked the kind switchman for the care he
and his wife had given Bunny and Sue. "We were certainly worried about
you."

Mr. and Mrs. Brown paid a little visit to Mrs. Black to thank her, and
then it was time for the travelers to resume their journey to Orange
Beach, where they expected to spend some time with Mr. Halliday, with
whom Daddy Brown had business to talk over.

"Can't we take Toddle?" begged Sue again, as she held Nutty's little cat
in her arms.

"No, my dear," answered her mother. "We could not take him to Florida
with us."

"I'll keep him here with my dog and cat," offered Mrs. Black.

"And when I see Nutty, as I often do," added the switchman, "I'll tell
him where he can get his cat again."

"Well, I s'pose he will want Toddle," sighed Sue. So the pussy was left
behind.

Once more Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were on the train traveling.
This time they were in a sleeping car, in which, at night, beds were
made from the seats.

"This is better than riding in a freight car, isn't it?" asked Sue's
mother.

"Yes," answered the little girl, turning away from the window, out of
which she was looking at the scenery. "But we had a pretty good time
with Nutty; didn't we, Bunny?"

"Yes, we did," answered the little boy. "And the nuts were good."

There was still for the party an all night ride before the Brown family
would arrive at Orange Beach, which was in the southwestern part of
Florida.

"Do the orange trees grow right near the ocean, Mother?" asked Bunny,
when they had been talking for some time about the place to which they
were going.

"Not exactly," his father answered. "I believe oranges do not grow so
well too close to salt water. At any rate Mr. Halliday's orange grove is
inland a few miles. It is on the banks of a river, but the river flows
into the ocean, or rather, into the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the
ocean."

"Can we go swimming?" Sue wanted to know.

"You can't if there's any alligators there," Bunny said. "Anyhow, you
can't go in the water till I catch all the alligators."

"If there's alligators I'm not going in," declared Sue.

"Oh, I don't believe there will be any," Mrs. Brown said, with a laugh.

And so with talk and laughter over what they might find at Orange Beach,
the time passed until it was time to go to bed.

The colored porter made up the clean, white beds, and Bunny and Sue were
glad enough to get in theirs when the time came. They had slept pretty
well at Mrs. Black's home, but they were still tired from their bumping,
jolting journey in the rough freight car.

So soundly did Bunny and Sue sleep that even when there was a little
accident they did not awaken. During the night the train on which they
rode had a little collision with an empty freight car which was standing
on a side track. The freight car was smashed, but hardly any damage was
done to the passenger train, except that the passengers were awakened by
being jolted. That is, all but Bunny and Sue. They slept through it.

"Is any one hurt?" asked Mr. Brown, as soon as quiet was restored and
it was found that the express train could go on.

"A couple of tramps who were sleeping in the empty freight car were
hurt," the conductor said. "We've sent them to the hospital."

"Oh! Tramps!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, who heard the talk. "I hope one of
them wasn't Nutty, who was so kind to the children, even though he did
jump off and leave them alone. I hope Nutty wasn't hurt!"

"Nutty could hardly have got so far south as this since he left the
children," Mr. Brown said. "I don't believe he was one of the tramps
hurt in this collision."

Next morning, when Bunny and Sue awakened, they were told of the
collision in the night, but nothing was said to them of the two tramps
who were hurt for fear they might think one was Nutty. But neither was.

There was enough else to take the attention of the little boy and girl,
for they were now in the real South, and they began to notice palm trees
for the first time.

"They look just like pictures of cocoanut trees!" exclaimed Bunny,
gazing from the car window.

"Wouldn't Nutty be glad if he was here and could gather cocoanuts!"
cried Sue. "Can we pick cocoanuts, Daddy?"

"I hardly think so, where we are going," Mr. Brown answered. "I think
oranges will be enough for you to pick for a while."

"That and catching alligators," added Bunny, who never seemed to stop
thinking of these scaly creatures, which Sue did not like at all.

On and on went the train, and the children were just about getting tired
of so much travel when they saw their father and mother beginning to
gather up the hand baggage.

"Are we there?" asked Bunny excitedly.

"Almost," his father answered.

A little later a trainman called:

"Orange Beach! Orange Beach!"

"Hurray! We're here!" cried Bunny.

"And I'm going to pick orange blossoms!" echoed Sue.

CHAPTER XXI

GOLDEN APPLES

Orange Beach, where Mr. Halliday owned many fruit groves, was the name
of a small village. It was almost as small a town as the one in which
Mr. Black, the switchman, lived. But Bunny and Sue liked small places.
They had seen enough of cities, having passed through many on their
railroad journey.

Alighting from the train, the Brown family found Mr. Halliday waiting
for them in his motor car, Daddy Brown having telegraphed to tell the
time of their arrival.

"Well, you got here at last, I see!" the orange grower exclaimed, as he
came up to welcome his guests.

"If Bunny and Sue could have had their way perhaps we wouldn't have
come," said Mrs. Brown, with a smile.

"Why not?" asked Mr. Halliday, with a smile.

"Oh, they went for a ride on a freight train," laughed their mother, and
then she told of the adventure.

"I guess they have had enough nuts for a time," the fruit grower said,
at the end of the little story. "I'll try them on oranges."

"May I pick some for myself?" Sue asked eagerly.

"All you want!" was the answer. "We have a big crop this year."

"And will you please show me where to catch alligators?" asked Bunny
Brown.

"Oh ho! So that's what you came here for, is it?" exclaimed Mr.
Halliday, with a wink at Mr. Brown. "Well, I'm sorry to say we are all
out of alligators!"

"Aren't there any?" inquired Bunny, in disappointed tones.

"Not right around here," went on the orange grower. "But there are some
farther down Squaw River. I'll take you down some day and show them to
you."

"Hurray!" cried Bunny Brown.

"My grove and house are a few miles from here," the orange grower said.
"You'll soon be there, and I hope you'll have lots of fun."

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue felt sure that they would. They liked the
sunny South very much, as a change from the cold northland where they
had been coasting a few days before.

Everything was lovely and green in Florida now, though it was the middle
of what is called winter in the North. Trees and bushes glowed in soft
green tints, and had been washed clean in a recent rain. As the
automobile bearing the Brown family and their host along a pleasant road
chugged on and on, Sue suddenly exclaimed:

"What's that nice smell?"

"I hear it, too--I mean I smell it!" said Bunny.

"Those are orange blossoms you smell," said Mr. Halliday. "In some of my
groves you will find both blossoms and fruit. We get so used to the
sweet smell that we don't notice it, but I suppose a stranger, coming in
from another place, finds it very nice."

"I just love it!" exclaimed Sue, taking long deep breaths.

"So do I!" added Bunny, sniffing hard.

They had left the small village behind some time before, and were now on
a pleasant country road, lined with trees on either side. The road
twisted and turned, and in about an hour, after making a sudden turn in
the highway, Mr. Halliday called out:

"There's my place!"

Bunny and Sue looked and saw a white house, surrounded by a few barns
and other outbuildings set in a green landscape. All about were rows of
green trees, and the sweet smell of the orange blossoms was stronger
than ever.

"Oh, look at the golden apples!" cried Sue, pointing to some trees quite
near the road.

"Those golden apples, as you call them," said Mr. Halliday, "are yellow
oranges. I'll stop and let you pick some."

It was the first time the Brown children had ever seen the wonderful
fruit growing, and they were delighted when Mr. Halliday stopped the car
and they were allowed to get out. Then they saw that in between the
rows of trees were men picking the oranges.

Some of the men were up on high stepladders, so they might reach the top
branches of the trees. Other men stood on the ground, from which they
could easily reach up to the low limbs and pull off the ripe fruit.

The men had big cloth bags slung over their shoulders or tied around
their waists, and as fast as they picked the "golden apples," as Sue
called them, they were dropped into the bags. When the bags were filled
the men took them to empty boxes, placed here and there amid the trees,
and placed the oranges into them. Other men took the boxes away as fast
as they were filled, leaving more empty ones in their places.

"Do you ship the fruit right from here?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"First it has to be sorted, graded, as we call it," Mr. Halliday
answered. "Then it is carefully packed and sent up North."

Bunny and Sue had been standing quietly to one side, listening to the
talk of their parents and Mr. Halliday and watching the men pick the
fruit. The grove owner now turned to the children and said:

"Go ahead! Pick as many as you like. Here, these are the best and
ripest," and he led them to a tree, the lower branches of which were
easily within the reach of Bunny and Sue.

With delight and wonder showing on their faces, the children picked
their first oranges and ate them there in the grove, while the wind
brought to them the sweet smell of distant blossoms.

"Oh, how good!" murmured Sue, as she finished her fruit.

"Best I ever ate," declared Bunny.

"Try some," said Mr. Halliday to Mr. and Mrs. Brown. "You will find
oranges picked ripe from a tree taste very different from those you get
up North."

"I should say so!" exclaimed Mother Brown. "They are delicious."

"Guess we didn't make any mistake coming to Florida," laughed Mr. Brown,
as he, too, ate not one, but two ripe oranges.

"Well, let's go on to the house," suggested Mr. Halliday, as he walked
back toward the road where the automobile had been left standing. "My
wife will be eager to see you, and the orange groves aren't going to run
away as Nutty, the tramp, did," and the Southerner laughed at the
remembrance of the story of the travels of Bunny Brown and his sister
Sue.

Mrs. Halliday made her guests welcome, and when she and Mrs. Brown were
chatting over a cup of tea, and while Daddy Brown and Mr. Halliday were
talking business, Bunny and Sue changed into some of their every-day
clothes and asked if they might walk around and see things.

"Yes," their mother told them. "Only don't get into mischief."

"And keep away from the river," added their father, for the stream which
went by the name of Squaw River was not far from the house.

"Can't we just stand on the bank and look for alligators?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, let them," Mr. Halliday advised. "The river is not as big nor deep
as it sounds. In fact up here it is only a shallow creek, though down
below it widens and deepens. And there aren't any alligators in it."

"Well, anyhow, we can look," said Bunny, hoping against hope that there
would be some of the scaly lizards in the water.

So, having been cautioned not to fall in, a promise the children readily
gave, Bunny and Sue started off down through an orange grove near the
house to go to Squaw River. They paused only a little while to watch the
men picking oranges, and then hastened on. Soon they were at the edge of
a slow-moving stream which flowed this way and that between banks of
overhanging palm trees, some of which were festooned with Spanish moss
that hung down in clusters like the ragged beard of a very old man.

It was very quiet and still beside the river. It was shady and cool,
too, after the hot sun of the open places and the orange groves, and
Bunny and Sue rather liked it.

Bunny picked up a stone and tossed it into the river. It fell with a
splash.

"What you doing?" Sue wanted to know.

"Maybe I can scare up an alligator," Bunny answered.

"Mr. Halliday said there wasn't any," Sue responded.

Bunny tossed in another stone, and hardly had it sunk beneath the
surface than Sue grasped her brother's arm, and, pointing to the river,
whispered:

"Look! There's an alligator!"

Something like the long, black snout, as Bunny remembered once to have
seen it on an alligator in a zoological park tank, rose into view. And
there was a swirl of the water as though the reptile had switched its
tail.

"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "It's an alligator! I'm going to run!"

CHAPTER XXII

THE RAFT

Bunny Brown wanted to be called a brave little boy, so when he heard his
sister say she was going to run because she thought he had scared up an
alligator in the river by throwing stones, Bunny thought it was time to
show his bravery.

"Don't be afraid!" he called to Sue, catching her by the hand before she
had time to run very far. "I won't let him hurt you!"

"How are you going to stop him?" Sue asked.

"I--I'll bang him on the nose with a stick," Bunny said, and he let go
of Sue's hand as he turned around to search for the proper kind of club
with which to beat an alligator.

As he did this Sue looked once more toward the river. Then she gave a
cry of delight.

"Oh, Bunny!" she exclaimed, "it isn't an alligator at all!"

"What is it?"

"It's just an old black log floating down," Sue answered. And that is
what it was. Either the stones Bunny had thrown or some swirl of the
current had loosed from the mud where it was held on the bottom of Squaw
River the long black log which was shaped like the snout of an
alligator. Floating half in and half out of the muddy water as it did,
the log looked exactly like one of the big, scaly reptiles.

"This is no good!" declared Bunny, who was rather disappointed at not
having a chance to do some hunting. "I'd like to see a real, live
alligator."

"Well, I wouldn't--not until mother and daddy are with me," remarked
Sue. She was no longer afraid and took turns with her brother throwing
stones at the floating log.

"Let's go down a little farther where the river is wider, and maybe
we'll see some alligators," suggested Bunny.

"All right," agreed Sue. "But I'm going to run if I see any."

She need not have been worried, however, for not an alligator did they
see, though Bunny threw many stones into the muddy water. Nor did they
see another log shaped so nearly like one of the reptiles.

But the children had a good time wandering around among the palm trees
and smelling the orange blossoms. They could hardly believe that about a
week before they were wearing mittens and playing in the snow.

"We'd better go back now," Sue said, after a while. "Mother will be
looking for us."

"Let's go just a little farther," proposed Bunny. "I'd like to see a
little alligator. You wouldn't be afraid of a baby 'gator, would you,
Sue?"

"Not if it was a little baby one, I don't guess I would," she answered.

So she followed Bunny down the bank of the slow-flowing river, where it
widened out and grew deeper. And in a place where the bank curved in,
making a still pool, or "eddy," as it is called, Bunny saw something
which was the cause of quite an adventure which came to him and Sue a
few days later.

Bunny caught sight of some boards and logs piled together on shore, and
no sooner had he seen them than he exclaimed:

"Oh, Sue! I know what we can do."

"What?" she asked.

"We can make a raft and go sailing down the river. Here's a lot of
boards and logs, and I can easy make a raft. Bunker Blue showed me how,
and you and I have been in daddy's boats lots of times. Let's make a
raft!"

"Not now," replied Sue, holding back as Bunny ran forward. "It's time we
went back. Mother told us not to stay too long."

"Well, I'll just look at the boards and see if I could make a raft of
'em, and then I'll go back with you," Bunny said.

On this promise Sue waited, and after looking at the tangled pile of
boards, which seemed to have been left on shore by a flood of high
water, the little fellow went back to where he had left his sister.

"It'll make a dandy raft!" Bunny reported. "To-morrow we'll make it and
go sailing down the river."

However, this was not to be, for the next day Mr. and Mrs. Brown were
taken by Mr. Halliday on an excursion to a distant orange grove, and
Bunny and Sue went along.

"We'll make the raft to-morrow," Bunny said.

But for one reason or another this fun had to be put off, and it was not
until they had been at Orange Beach nearly a week that Bunny got the
chance he wanted.

During this time the Brown family had very much enjoyed their stay in
Florida. The weather was lovely, and there was much that was new to
visit. While there was not the variety in an orange grove that there was
on the cotton and peanut plantation, still there was much work to be
done.

The children saw how the oranges, when brought in from the trees, were
sorted over, the best being packed for one class of trade, and those
that were not so good for another. The golden yellow fruit was wrapped
in tissue paper and then the thin wooden crates were packed full, to be
shipped North.

Sometimes Bunny and Sue were allowed to ride to the railroad freight
depot on the load of oranges, and this trip they liked very much.

One night, just before a strange adventure that happened to Bunny and
Sue, the children were in the sitting room with their parents and Mr.
and Mrs. Halliday. It was almost bedtime for Bunny and Sue.

"Did you ever hear anything more about that oil stock Bunny found?"
asked Mrs. Brown of her husband.

"No, not a word," he answered. "The oil company wrote me that they had
no notice from any one of the loss of a certificate. They advised me to
hold it until some one claimed it."

"If you ever get any money--or a reward for it--Bunny must have the cash
put in a bank for him, to keep until he grows up," said Mother Brown.

"Yes," agreed Daddy. "And I think Bunny ought to share the reward with
Sue. She was with him when the certificate was found."

"Uncle Tad ought to have some, too!" exclaimed Bunny, rousing up when he
heard this talk. "He gave us the ride in the sleigh."

"Yes, I think Uncle Tad ought to have his share of the reward--if we
ever get any," agreed Mr. Brown. "And if some one doesn't soon claim the
oil stock I shall sell it and put the money in the bank."

"What's all this--about oil stock?" asked Mr. Halliday.

Then Daddy Brown told how the valuable green and gold paper had been
thrown out of the Pullman car by the porter in his pan filled with dust.

After breakfast the next morning Bunny called Sue out on the side porch
and showed his sister a cloth bag partly filled with pieces of bread,
crackers and some chunks of dried cake.

"This is our lunch," Bunny said to Sue.

"What lunch?" asked the little girl.

"To take on the raft," Bunny went on. "I found the things in the pantry.
They're stale, so I guess Mrs. Halliday won't mind if we take 'em. And I
picked up this little orange bag. You carry that and I'll get the sharp
stick."

"What sharp stick?" asked Sue, as she accepted the bag of dried bread
and cake Bunny held out.

"The sharp stick I'm going to jab at alligators if any chase us," he
answered.

Sue dropped the bag of "lunch."

"No, sir!" she exclaimed. "I'm not going on that raft with you if you're
going to hunt alligators, so there, Bunny Brown!"

"All right, then I won't hunt any," agreed Bunny, who did not want to go
voyaging alone. "But if any come after us you'll want me to jab 'em with
a sharp stick and drive 'em away, won't you, Sue?"

"Yes--yes, I guess I will," she answered. "But you mustn't hunt 'em on
purpose."

This Bunny promised not to do, and then he went on to tell Sue what his
plans were.

"Daddy is going riding with Mr. Halliday," said the little fellow, "and
I heard mother say she and Mrs. Halliday were going to make orange
shortcake to-day, so they won't want us around. We can go down and make
the raft and have a sail. Won't that be fun?"

"It will be if the alligators don't come," agreed Sue.

"I don't b'lieve any will come," Bunny answered, though in his heart he
hoped they would, so he could scare them away with the sharp stick.

So Sue took up the bag of lunch and Bunny ran and got the sharp stick
where he had hidden it under the porch. Bunny also had a hammer and some
nails he had taken from the shop where Mr. Halliday's men put together
the orange crates.

"We'll make a big raft and sail away off," Bunny said, as he and Sue,
telling their mother nothing about their plans, went down to the river.
They found the pile of boards and small logs in the same place they had
first seen them, and Bunny, with Sue's help, began to make a raft.

CHAPTER XXIII

ON THE ISLAND

The two children had been around boats enough to know more about water
craft than most boys and girls of their age. Bunny's father, owning a
boat and fish dock, where Sue and her brother often played, had taught
the youngsters something about how boats are steered. A raft, as Bunny
knew, was the simplest and safest form of a boat. He also knew that a
raft was only a lot of logs and boards fastened together. On it one
could float or push down a little river or across a pond.

"This is nice smooth water, isn't it?" asked Sue, as she looked out over
Squaw River which, as has been said, was a sluggish stream. It hardly
seemed to flow at all.

"Yes, it's nice here," Bunny said. "We won't go very fast. There aren't
any waves like in the ocean or our bay."

Bunny and Sue had often been out with their father, Uncle Tad, or Bunker
Blue on Sandport Bay at home, and sometimes on the real ocean when it
was not too rough. So Squaw River seemed very small and smooth to them.

It was harder work than Bunny had thought it would be to make the raft,
but he had right at hand everything he needed, from boards and small
logs to hammer and nails. The hammer and nails he had brought with him.
Putting the cloth bag of lunch in a safe place on the bank, Bunny began
work.

He laid some logs down on the sandy shore as close to the water as he
could. On top of the logs he placed boards, and these he nailed on, so
they would not float away.

On top of the first layer of boards he placed others, crossing them to
and fro, as he had once seen his father and Uncle Tad making a float
near the dock. The float was like a raft, only it was anchored in the
bay and used for getting in and out of the fishing boats.

"How far you going to sail on the raft, Bunny?" asked Sue, as she helped
her brother lay in place the boards to be nailed. Sue did none of the
nailing. She tried it once, but she hit her fingers and thumb instead of
the nail, and she threw the hammer aside.

"Oh, we'll sail down until we get hungry, and then we'll go on an island
like the pirates and eat our lunch," Bunny answered.

By "sail" he meant pushing the raft along with a pole he had brought
from the orange grove.

"S'posin' there isn't any island?" asked Sue.

"Oh, I guess there is one," Bunny said, looking at the raft to see if it
needed any more boards to make it strong enough. "Anyhow, if we don't
find an island we can go on shore. Course an island would be more fun,
but we can have a good time anyhow."

"To be sure we can!" laughed Sue. "We've had lots of fun since we've
come down South, haven't we, Bunny?"

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