Read Ebook: Bunny Brown and his sister Sue on the rolling ocean by Hope Laura Lee Rogers Walter S Illustrator

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Ebook has 1556 lines and 45030 words, and 32 pages

I THE RUNAWAY HORSE 1

II A STRANGE STORY 12

V AT THE HOSPITAL 45

VI OFF ON THE TRIP 58

X A MIDNIGHT ALARM 98

XX THE WOODEN HOUSE 194

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON THE ROLLING OCEAN

THE RUNAWAY HORSE

Bunny Brown stood behind a long board which was laid across two boxes in the front yard. On the board were some piles of white stones and little heaps of red pebbles. There were also clam shells, a few filled with white sand and others with brown sand.

On one end of the board were some pieces of paper cut into squares and near them was a ball of string. On the other end of the board, balanced on a small box, was a shingle. This shingle moved up and down like the scales in a grocery store. In fact, this shingle and the box were Bunny Brown's scale. He was "playing store."

"Well, I wonder if anybody is coming to buy anything at my store to-day," said Bunny, as he paced up and down behind the counter.

Just then a little girl, carrying a doll under one arm, walked up to the shade tree under which the play store was. She went to the counter and looked at the piles of sand, pebbles, and the clam shells. But Bunny Brown did not seem to think she was a little girl. He bowed to her and asked:

"What will it be to-day, Mrs. Anderson?"

"Oh, Bunny! You sound just like Mr. Gordon in the real grocery store!" laughed Sue, clapping her hands. As she did this her doll fell down on the grass. "You're just like Mr. Gordon!" cried the little girl again.

Bunny Brown frowned, wrinkling his forehead until it looked like a wash-board from the laundry.

"Look here!" he exclaimed, coming out from behind the counter. "I'm not going to play store if you do that!"

"Do what?" asked Sue, for it was Bunny Brown's sister Sue who had come to the store. Bunny had called her "Mrs. Anderson," but all the same, she was Sue Brown. "What did I do, Bunny?" asked Sue.

"There you go again!" cried Bunny. "Stop calling me by my right name! If we're going to play store I'm Mr. Gordon and you're Mrs. Anderson!"

"Yes, I know, Bunny, but--"

"Oh, will you stop it?" cried the little boy, dancing up and down in his excitement. "I'm Mr. Gordon keeping the store!" he explained.

"Yes, I know you are," admitted Sue. "I said you sounded just like Mr. Gordon when mother goes in and he says what will it be to-day, Mrs. Brown. You sounded just like him, and--"

"Well, then, you must call me Mr. Gordon!" insisted Bunny. "Now start over again."

"Oh, all right, Bun--I mean Mr. Gordon!" and Sue quickly corrected herself. "Wait a minute."

She picked up her doll from the grass and, imitating as nearly as she could the manner of a grown woman, walked out of the store. Of course the store was out of doors, in the front yard of the Brown home, under the trees. But to Bunny the store was very real, indeed. Bunny could "pretend" much harder than could Sue, because, possibly, he was a year older.

Sue--or Mrs. Anderson--having gone out, turned about to come in again. Bunny was once more behind the counter, looking at the clam shells, the piles of pebbles, and the sand, at his wrapping paper and twine and at the swaying shingle on a box--his scales.

"Good morning, Mrs. Anderson, what will it be to-day?" again asked the little boy storekeeper as he bowed to his sister.

"Oh, good morning, Mr. Gordon," replied Sue, and she did not even smile as she gave her brother the pretend name. This showed that Sue was now playing the game in real earnest. "Have you any sugar this morning, Mr. Gordon?"

"Yes, Mrs. Anderson, I have some nice fresh sugar that just came in," Bunny answered, acting so much like Mr. Gordon, the real grocer, that Sue nearly smiled at him. But she remembered just in time and her face grew serious.

"Do you wish white sugar or brown, Mrs. Anderson?" asked Bunny. I can call him that without getting into trouble, you know.

"I'll have a pound of white sugar, and two pounds of brown," answered Sue, or Mrs. Anderson.

"Please have a seat while I weigh it for you," the little storekeeper went on.

In front of the counter there was a small box. Pretending that this was a stool, such as they sometimes have in real stores, Sue sat down on it.

Then Bunny, taking up a stone for a weight, put it on one end of the shingle scales. On the other end of the shingle he piled up some white sand, and when the shingle balanced, that was a pound. He put the white sand in one of the pieces of paper and tied a string around it.

"There is your white sugar, Mrs. Anderson," he said to his sister. Sue took it but cried:

"Oh, Bunny, there's a hole in the paper and all the sand is running out! Look!"

Bunny Brown raised his hands in the air.

"There you go again!" he cried. "Didn't I tell you to call me Mr. Gordon and not Bunny? And that isn't sand--it's sugar! If you aren't going to play right--"

"Oh, Bunny--I mean Mr. Gordon--I forgot!" gasped Sue. "Truly, I did! Come on and play!" she begged, for Bunny started to walk out from behind the counter. "I won't do it again! Really, I won't, Bun--I mean Mr. Gordon! And I don't care if this san--I mean if the sugar spills. I have lots of money and I can buy more," and she looked in her pocket where a mass of green leaves from the lilac bush took the place of money.

"Well, all right," said Bunny slowly, after a moment. "But if you forget again I'm not going to play!"

"I won't forget," promised Sue.

She placed the paper of sand-sugar down on the counter in front of her, brushed some of the grains off her doll's dress and said:

"Now I'll have some brown sugar, Mr. Gordon."

"Yes, Mrs. Anderson," said Bunny. "This brown sugar is very sweet. Just taste it!"

He held some of the brown sand out to his sister. She looked at him in a funny way, and Bunny cried:

"Go on--taste it!"

Thereupon Sue wet the end of her finger and dipped it in the sand Bunny held out to her on the end of a little board. Then Sue put the sand on the tip of her tongue.

"Burr-r-r! Ugh! Oh, yes, it is very sweet sugar!" she exclaimed, making a funny face as she spluttered until the sand was out of her mouth. "I think I'll have two pounds of that, Mr. Gordon."

Bunny never smiled at the funny face his sister made when she tasted the sand. When Bunny played anything he was very much in earnest, as I have told you.

He put another stone on the weight end of the shingle scale. He then dipped out twice as much brown sand as he had of the white and wrapped this up in a paper which he tied with a piece of string.

"There is the brown sugar, Mrs. Anderson," he said. "And now what else will there be to-day?"

Bunny Brown acted so much like Sam Gordon, the real grocer, and even imitated his talk and manners so well, that Sue felt like laughing. But she knew that if she did so her brother would not play any more, so she kept as straight a face as she could and said:

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