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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 7. The Barn Store |
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_ CHAPTER VII. THE BARN STORE For a second or two Miss Bradley seemed to pay no attention to the buzzing sound which Bunny, Charlie, and some of the other pupils heard only too plainly. The teacher was busy thinking whether she had done enough talking to make sure her boys and girls would not again go near the deep hole in the school yard. "I wouldn't want any of them to get hurt," thought Miss Bradley. "I had better scare them a little now than have any of them harmed the least bit." She was thinking what else she might say, to impress on the pupils the danger of the hole, when she seemed to hear, for the first time, the buzzing of Charlie's auto. "What's that?" asked Miss Bradley. No one answered, except that, here and there in the room, a boy or girl snickered. There was one queer thing about Charlie's new toy auto. It made a great deal of buzzing as the wheels whirred around when the wound-up spring made them do this, but the machine itself did not go very fast. It seemed to make a great fuss about getting anywhere, but it took its own time in doing it. This was the reason why the auto, though it had been pulled out of Charlie's pocket with his handkerchief and had fallen into the aisle down which it ran, did not very soon get where Miss Bradley could see it. She could hear the buzzing sound, but she did not know what it was. "Who is making that noise?" she asked again. No one answered, for, truth to tell, neither a boy nor a girl in the room was causing the noise; though of course Charlie was to blame, in a way. Miss Bradley was looking over the room, into the faces of her pupils. The buzzing sound kept up. It seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. The windows were open, and she thought a bee or a wasp might have flown in. But it would be a very large wasp or bee, indeed, which would make so loud a buzzing sound as this. "Children----" began Miss Bradley, and then she suddenly stopped, for something struck her on the foot. And it was right near her foot that the buzzing noise sounded. But as she had walked a little way down from her platform, and her foot was partly under the first desk--that of fat Bobbie Boomer--Miss Bradley could not see what had struck her. "Oh!" she cried, as she jumped back, rather startled. Charlie Star and Bunny Brown could not help laughing right out loud. They knew what had caused all this excitement. A moment later Miss Bradley knew also. For Charlie's buzzing auto, having struck her foot, turned aside and rolled out on the floor in front of her teaching platform, in plain sight. There the little red toy came to a stop, for its spring was fully unwound. Charlie and Bunny stopped their laughing suddenly as the teacher looked down at them. "Whose is this?" asked Miss Bradley, in a voice she hardly ever used in the classroom, for her pupils were generally very orderly. "Who owns this automobile?" she asked, sternly. Timidly Charlie Star raised his hand. "If you please, Teacher, it's mine," he said. And such a weak little voice as it was! Not at all like the loud, hearty tones Charlie used when he called to Bunny, "first shot agates!" Miss Bradley stooped over and picked up the toy. She placed it on her desk, and then, turning to face the children, she said: "I am very sorry about this. I thought, after what had happened to Helen, that you were going to settle down and study your lessons. Why did you bring this auto to school, Charlie? And why did you take it out?" Charlie was silent a moment, and then he answered, saying: "I--I didn't exactly take it out, Miss Bradley. It came out when I took out my handkerchief. I--I didn't mean to do it." "Very well then, you didn't," the teacher agreed, with a little smile, for she knew Charlie was telling the truth. "But why did you bring the auto to school at all?" Then Charlie told of having bought the toy that morning, on his way to school with Bunny Brown. "I didn't have time to go home with it after I bought it," he said, "so I put it in my pocket. We played with it at recess, and I forgot and wound it up and stuck it in my pocket. I didn't mean to let it get out and run down the aisle." Miss Bradley wanted to smile, but she knew it would not be just the thing to do. So she said: "Well, Charlie, I will excuse you this time. But please don't bring any more toys into the schoolroom. And now, as we have lost much time from our lessons, we must study extra hard to make it up. Come to me after school, Charlie, and I'll give you back your auto." Miss Bradley put the toy in her desk for safe keeping, and went on with the lessons. But it was rather hard for the pupils to get their minds back on their studies, because so much had happened that day from the time the parrot had screeched "Cracker! Cracker!" in the cloakroom until Charlie's auto fell out of his pocket and went buzzing down the aisle to bang into the teacher's foot. However, the day came to an end at last, and then, talking and laughing, the boys and girls ran out of doors. Charlie stayed after the others, and walked shyly up to the desk at which Miss Bradley sat, looking over some examination papers. The room was very still and quiet after the noise and excitement of the children's outgoing. "Yes, Charlie. What is it?" asked Miss Bradley, as she saw him standing near her desk. "If you please--my auto----" "Oh, yes," and she opened her desk and handed it to him. "It is a cute little toy," and she smiled at Charlie. "You ought to see it go!" he exclaimed eagerly, for Miss Bradley was really a friend to her pupils, and she knew how to make kites and spin tops almost as good as a boy. "Here! I'll show you!" Charlie went on. "It's a dandy!" Quickly he wound up the auto and set it down on the floor. The wheels buzzed and the little red car spun across the schoolroom floor. Bunny Brown and George Watson, waiting outside for Charlie, wondered what was keeping their chum. They knew he had stayed in to get his plaything. "Maybe she's going to make him stay in half an hour," suggested George. "She didn't say she was," replied Bunny. "But maybe she's giving him a--a leshure." What Bunny meant was lecture. "Let's look in," suggested George. On tiptoes they went to a window whence they could see into the room. There they saw Miss Bradley winding up Charlie's auto, and they heard Charlie saying: "You try it now, Miss Bradley! See how nice it runs!" And as the surprised watchers looked on, their teacher started the toy across the floor as Charlie had done. For, following the first showing of his plaything, Charlie had offered to let his teacher wind it, and she had agreed. "Yes, it is a cute toy," said the teacher, as the auto banged into a side wall and stopped. "But we mustn't play with it in school hours." "Oh, no'm!" agreed Charlie, and then he hurried outside, where Bunny and George were waiting for him. "Say, you ought to see!" exclaimed Charlie, half breathless. "She ran the auto herself!" "We saw her," said Bunny. "She's a dandy teacher all right!" declared George. One Saturday morning Bunny and Sue came downstairs to breakfast at the same hour as on other days. Usually this did not happen, for on Saturdays they were allowed to remain in bed a little longer than on days when they had to go to school. "Well, what does this mean?" asked Uncle Tad, who was finishing his meal and reading the paper at the same time. "This is Saturday, isn't it? Unless I have on the wrong glasses!" he added, as he looked at the calendar on the wall. "Yes, it's Saturday," said Bunny. "Then why are you up so early?" asked Uncle Tad. "'Cause a lot of the boys and girls are coming over, and we're going to play store out in our barn," explained Sue. "You can come and buy something if you want to, Uncle Tad." "Thanks! Maybe I will!" chuckled the old soldier. "Are you going to sell any inside outside cocoanuts flavored with saltmint?" he asked. "What are those?" Bunny inquired. "Oh, he's only joking!" declared Sue, as she saw a twinkle in the eyes of Uncle Tad. And of course he was joking. "Well, maybe I'll look in and see what you do have to sell in your barn store," he said, as he left the table. Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were not long in finishing their breakfast, and then they hurried out to the barn where they were to keep store. Bunny and Sue had found some boards and boxes out there which would make fine shelves for a pretend store. "We'll put the shelves up before the others get here," said Bunny. "Yes," she agreed. "But what kind of store are you going to play? Are you going to have washboilers and tin pans?" "No, I guess not," said Bunny, after thinking about it a moment. "We'll keep a store like Mrs. Golden's." "Yes, that will be nice," agreed Sue. "Here, Splash!" she cried. "Get out of there! That box isn't for you to sleep in!" For the big dog had crawled into one of the boxes that were to form the store shelves. Splash was curling up most comfortably. "We'll use him for a delivery dog," said Bunny. "We'll tie a basket on his neck and he can take the groceries and things to different places." "Oh, that will be fun!" laughed Sue, clapping her hands. "Here comes Helen!" she cried a moment later, and then, with joyous shouts and laughter, a number of children came running into the Brown yard, ready to play barn store. _ |
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