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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 1. A Grand Crash |
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_ CHAPTER I. A GRAND CRASH Patter, patter, patter came the rain drops, not only on the roof, but all over, out of doors, splashing here and there, making little fountains in every mud puddle. Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood with their faces pressed against the windows, looking out into the summer storm. "I can make my nose flatter'n you can!" suddenly exclaimed Bunny. "Oh, you cannot!" disputed Sue. "Look at mine!" She thrust her nose against the pane of glass so hard that it almost cracked--I mean the glass nearly cracked. "Look at that, Bunny Brown!" exclaimed Sue. "Isn't my nose flatter'n yours? Look at it!" "How can I look at your nose when I'm looking at mine?" asked Bunny. He, too, had pushed his nose against the glass of his window, the children standing in the dining room where two large windows gave them a good view of things outside. "You must look at my nose to see if it's flatter'n yours!" insisted Sue. "Else how you going to know who beats?" "Well, I can make mine a flatter nose than yours!" declared Bunny. "You look at mine first and then I'll look at yours." This seemed a fair way of playing the game, Sue thought. She left her window and went over to her brother's side. The rain seemed to come down harder than ever. If the children had any idea of being allowed to go out and play in it, even with rubber boots and rain coats, they had about given up that plan. Mrs. Brown had been begged, more than once, to let Bunny and Sue go out, but she had shaken her head with a gentle smile. And when their mother smiled that way the children knew she meant what she said. "Now, go ahead, Bunny Brown!" called Sue. "Let's see you make a flat nose!" Bunny drew his face back from the window. His little nose was quite white where he had pressed it--white because he had kept nearly all the blood from flowing into it. But soon his little "smeller," as sometimes Bunny's father called his nose, began to get red again. Bunny began to rub it. "What you doing?" Sue wanted to know, thinking her brother might not be playing fair in this little game. "I'm rubbing my nose," Bunny answered. "Yes, I know. But what for?" "'Cause it's cold. If I'm going to make my nose flatter'n yours I have to warm it a little. The glass is cold!" "Yes, it is a little cold," agreed Sue. "Well, go ahead now; let's see you flat your nose!" Bunny took a long breath. He then pressed his nose so hard against the glass that tears came into his eyes. But he didn't want Sue to see them. And he wouldn't admit that he was crying, which he really wasn't doing. "Look at me now! Look at me!" cried Bunny, talking as though he had a very bad cold in his head. Sue took a look. "Yes, it is flat!" she agreed. "But I can flatter mine more'n that! You watch me!" Sue ran to her window. She made up her mind to beat her brother at this game. Closing her teeth firmly, as she always did when she was going to jump rope more times than some other girl, Sue fairly banged her nose against the window pane. Her little nose certainly flattened out, but whether more so than Bunny's was never discovered. For Sue banged herself harder than she had meant to, and a moment later she gave a cry of pain, turned away from the window, and burst into tears. "What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, hurrying in from the next room: "Who's hurt?" Sue was crying so hard that she could not answer, and Bunny was too surprised to say anything for the moment. Mrs. Brown looked at the two children. She saw Sue holding her nose in one hand, while Bunny's nose was turning from white to red as the blood came back into it. "Have you children been bumping noses again?" she asked. This was a game Bunny and Sue sometimes played, though they had been told not to. "No, Mother; we weren't 'zactly banging noses," explained Bunny. "We were just seeing who could make the flattest one on the window, and Sue bumped her nose too hard. I didn't do anything!" "No, it--it wasn't Bun--Bunny's fault!" sobbed Sue. "I did it myself! I was trying to--to flatter my nose more'n his!" "You shouldn't play such games," said Mother Brown. "I'm sorry, Sue! Let me see! Is your nose bleeding?" and she gently took the little girl's hand down. "Is--is--it?" asked Sue herself, stopping her sobs long enough to find out if anything more than a bump had taken place. "No, it isn't bleeding," said Mrs. Brown. "Now be good children. You can't go out in the rain, so don't ask it. Play something else, can't you?" "Could we play store?" asked Bunny, with a sudden idea. It was not altogether new, as often before, on other rainy days, he and Sue had done this. "Oh, yes, let's keep store!" cried Sue, forgetting all about her bumped nose. "That will be nice," said Mother Brown. "Tell Mary to let you have some things with which to play store. You may play in the kitchen, as Mary is working upstairs now." "Oh, now we'll have fun!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "Could we have Splash in?" asked Bunny. "The dog? Why do you want him?" asked Mrs. Brown. "We could tie a basket around his neck," explained Bunny, "and he could be the grocery delivery dog!" "Oh, yes!" laughed Sue. "No," said Mother Brown, with a gentle shake of her head, "you can't have Splash in now. He has been splashing through mud puddles and he'd soil the clean kitchen floor. Play store without Splash." There was one nice thing about Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. If they couldn't have one thing they did very well with something else. So now Bunny said: "Oh, all right! We can take turns sending the things out ourselves, Sue." "Yes, and we'll take turns tending store," added Sue. "'Cause I don't want to be doing the buying all the while." "Yes, we'll take turns," agreed Bunny. Soon the children were in the kitchen, keeping store with different things from the pantry that Mary, the cook, gave them to play with. Unopened boxes of cinnamon, cloves and other spices; some cakes of soap in their wrappers just as they had come from the real store, a few nuts, some coffee beans, other beans, dried peas and a bunch of vegetables made up most of the things with which the children played. After they had finished their fun everything could be put back in the pantry. Bunny tore some old newspapers into squares to use in wrapping the "groceries." Mary also gave the children bits of string for tying bundles. The store counter was the ironing board placed across the seats of two chairs in front of a table, and on the table back of this ironing board counter the different things to sell were placed. "What are we going to do for money?" asked Bunny, when the "store" was almost ready to open. "I'll give you some buttons," said his mother. Bunny was given a handful of flat buttons of different sizes and colors to use for change. He placed them in his cash box. Sue also had other buttons to use as money in buying groceries. "Now we're all ready to play," said Bunny, looking over the store. "You must come and buy something, Sue." "Yes. And then I want to keep store," said the little girl. "All right," her brother agreed. Bunny took his place behind the counter and waited. Sue went out into the hall, paused a moment, and then, with a little basket over her arm, came walking in, as much like a grown-up lady as she could manage. "Good morning, Mrs. Snifkins!" exclaimed Bunny. He always called Sue "Mrs. Snifkins" when they kept store. "Oh, good morning, Mr. Huntley," Sue replied. She always called her brother "Mr. Huntley," when they kept store. Perhaps this was because he used to pretend to hunt for things on the make-believe shelves. "What can I do for you this morning, Mrs. Snifkins?" asked Bunny, rubbing his hands as he had seen Mr. Gordon, the real grocer, do. "I want some prunes, some coffee, some eggs, some sugar, some salt, some butter, some----" ordered Sue all in one breath. "Stop! Stop! Wait a minute!" cried Bunny. "I can't remember all that! Now what did you say first?" "Prunes," replied Sue. There were some real prunes among the things the children were playing store with, and Bunny wrapped a few of these in a paper. "Now some sugar," Sue ordered. As real sugar was rather messy if it spilled on the floor, Bunny had some bird gravel, which was almost as good, and he pretended to weigh some of this out on an old castor that was the make-believe scales. Some real coffee beans were also wrapped up for Sue, and then for eggs Bunny used empty thread spools. "Will that be all to-day, Mrs. Snifkins?" asked Grocer Huntley, when Sue had put the things in her basket. "Yes, that's all," Sue answered, placing two large black buttons on the ironing board counter and getting back in change a small white button. Sue went out with her "groceries," and soon came back for more. After her third trip, by which time she had bought nearly everything in the store, she said: "Now I want to be storekeeper." "All right," agreed Bunny. Sue brought back the things she had pretended to buy, they were put on the shelves again, and Bunny became a purchaser while Sue waited on him. Outside it still rained hard, as Bunny saw when he looked from the window. But it was fun in the house, keeping store. The children kept on taking turns, first one being the keeper of the store and then the other, until Bunny suddenly had a new idea. "Oh, I know what we can do!" cried the little boy. "What?" asked Sue. "We'll play hardware store," Bunny said. "I'm tired of having a grocery. We'll keep hammers and nails and things like that." "I think a grocery is more fun," said Sue. "Nope! A hardware store is better," Bunny insisted. "I'll sell you washboilers, basins, tin pans and things like that, and knives and forks. We can have ever so many more of those things than we can have groceries." "Well, maybe we can," Sue agreed, doubtfully. "I'll make a high-up shelf, like those in the hardware store down town," went on Bunny. "I'll have things high up on the shelf, and I'll climb up on a ladder to get 'em, as they do down town." "What you going to climb up on?" Sue asked. "The stepladder." "What you going to make a high shelf of?" Sue inquired. "There's another ironing board down in the laundry," Bunny answered. "And I can get the washboiler and a lot of things. I'll put the other ironing board away up there, across the top of the two doors." "That'll be awful high," said Sue, looking to where Bunny pointed. The pantry door and the one leading from the kitchen into the hall were close together on one side of the room. By opening these doors half way a board could be placed across their tops, making a high shelf. This was soon done, and on this shelf the big tin washboiler was placed, and also some tin pans from the pantry. Bunny climbed up on the stepladder to put the shelf and things in place. Other articles for a hardware play-store were placed on the lower ironing board shelf, and then Bunny was ready for "Mrs. Snifkins" to come again. Sue had her button money all ready, the store was in order, and new fun was about to begin, when Mary, coming suddenly in from the hall and not knowing what the children were doing, pushed wider open the hall door. Instantly there was a grand crash! Down came the upper shelf from the tops of the doors. Down came the washboiler and a lot of tin pans. My, what a racket there was! And, worst of all, Bunny Brown himself was hidden from sight in that mess of ironing board, washboiler, and other things! "Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Sister Sue, dropping her basket and her button money, which rolled all over the floor. "Oh, dear!" "Bless and save us!" cried Mary, the cook. "What has happened?" Bunny Brown said nothing. _ |
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