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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 23. The Pony Express |
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_ CHAPTER XXIII. THE PONY EXPRESS Bunny Brown ran out of the storeroom, in his hand a hammer with which he had been opening the box of prunes. Mrs. Golden gave a cry of alarm as she heard the clatter of the boxes falling around Sue. Mr. Flynt joined Bunny in a rush to help the little girl. As for George, he was so frightened by the sudden toppling of things from the shelf that a tune he had started to whistle died away and he got ready to run out of the store. "Mercy sakes! what is going on in here?" cried Mrs. Clark, entering the store as the boxes ceased falling. "Is anybody hurt?" No one knew for a moment, as Sue had uttered no cry save the first frightened one. But by the time Bunny and Mr. Flynt reached her the shower of boxes was over and the little girl took down her hands from over her head. "Did anything break?" asked Sue, looking about her. "Oh, dear, what a terrible mess!" she cried. "Don't worry about that, child!" exclaimed Mrs. Golden. "What if a few boxes are broken open? It's you I'm thinking of." "Oh, I'm all right!" Sue said, and she laughed a little. And when they came to look her over nothing worse had happened than that she had a few bumps and bruises. And they were not very hard ones, for the boxes were of pasteboard and not wood. And only one or two of the oatmeal packages were split open, so that not much was lost in that way. So, take it all in all, the accident was a very little one, though it made a great deal of excitement for the time being. "You oughtn't to reach up for such high things, little girl," said Mr. Flynt, when he had helped pick up the packages. "No, sir, I guess I oughtn't," agreed Sue. "But George wanted one and I thought I could get it." "You call me when you want things from a high shelf," said Bunny, going back to the task of opening the box of prunes. "I'm a good climber." "I wasn't climbing, I was reaching," answered Sue, as if that made a lot of difference. "Here's your oatmeal, George," she added, and the whistling boy came back to the counter and got it. Bunny and Sue stayed in the store for an hour or more after the fall of the oatmeal boxes. Bunny finished opening the box of prunes, and he and Sue waited on several customers, for Mrs. Golden seemed to be quite busy talking to Mr. Flynt in the back room. And it was not a pleasant talk, either, as Bunny and Sue guessed when they caught glimpses now and then of Mrs. Golden wiping tears from her eyes. Finally the grocery man came out of the back room with Mrs. Golden. He was saying, so that the children could hear: "Now you'd better take my advice, Mrs. Golden, and sell out your store here. You'll never make it pay, and you keep on owing us more money all the while. I know you're trying to do your best, but you must either pay us or we'll have to take our things back and sell you out besides for the rest that you owe us. "Take my advice and sell out before you're sold out. It will be better that way. We can't wait any longer. This is a good little store, but you don't make it pay." "Maybe I could if my son Philip were to come back," sadly said the old lady. "He's gone after a legacy, and when he comes back----" "There there, Mrs. Golden! It's of no use to talk that way!" exclaimed Mr. Flynt. "You've been telling me about that legacy a long time. Why doesn't it come?" "I don't know, Sir." "No. And I don't believe it ever will come. We've waited as long as we ought, but I'll give you a little more time, and that will be the last. If you don't pay we'll have to close your store. Think it over and sell out before you're sold out." And then Mr. Flynt went out. Bunny and Sue, who had been about to go home, looked at Mrs. Golden and felt sorry for her. They could see that she was feeling bad, and that she had been crying. "What's the matter?" asked Bunny. "Not enough money--that's the trouble," was her answer. "Oh, dear, I don't want to sell my store!" she said. "I want to keep it." "Have you got to sell?" asked Sue. "Mr. Flynt says so," came the reply, "because I owe him a lot of money I can't pay. If business was only better I might keep my store going until Philip comes back with the legacy. Once we get that we'll be all right! But if we don't----" Mrs. Golden put her handkerchief to her eyes. Then, seeing that she was making Bunny and Sue sad, she added: "There now! Run along. Maybe I can get the money somehow. At any rate you children have been most kind to me. Run along now, and don't mind a poor old woman." But Bunny and Sue did mind. They talked matters over on their way home and decided that something must be done. They wanted to help more than they had been doing, and Bunny thought of a way. As usual Sue agreed with him, for she was willing to do anything her brother did. That evening after supper Bunny brought his little tin savings bank from a shelf in his room, and Sue brought hers. There was a great rattling as the pennies, dimes and nickels in the tin boxes clattered against the sides. "My goodness! what's going on?" cried Daddy Brown, looking up from the paper he was reading. "Are you two going to buy an automobile with all that money?" "Will you please open my bank, Daddy, and see how much is in it?" asked Bunny. His father, wondering what was "in the wind," as old Jed Winkler would say, did so. With Bunny's help the cash was counted. There was eight dollars and fifteen cents. "I have more than that!" exclaimed Sue, and indeed she had, for Bunny had taken some of his money the week before to buy a top and a set of kite sticks. Sue had ten dollars and forty-six cents in her bank. "What are you going to do with it?" asked Mrs. Brown, for she knew the children would not have gotten down their banks unless they had some plan in their heads. "We're going to give it to Mrs. Golden," said Bunny. "Mrs. Golden?" cried their father. "You mean you're going to buy something at her store?" asked Mrs. Brown. "No, we're going to give it to her," said Bunny gravely. "She owes money and Mr. Flynt will close up her store if she doesn't pay. So we're going to give her our money so she can pay Mr. Flynt and then the store will stay open." "'Cause if it's closed," added Sue, "we can't have any more fun helping keep it." "Oh, ho! I see!" laughed Mr. Brown. "Well, I must admit I forgot all about Mrs. Golden. I promised to see if I couldn't help her when you told me about Mr. Flynt before, but I forgot. Now, children, it wouldn't be right for you to take your bank money to help Mrs. Golden. She wouldn't want you to do that. Put away your pennies, and I'll see what I can do to help." This made Bunny and Sue feel happier, and they went to bed more satisfied, for they felt sure their father could make everything right. But the next day, when they went in to see Mrs. Golden, to help keep store, they found her looking very sad and unhappy. "What's the matter?" asked Sue. "Oh, just the same old trouble," Mrs. Golden answered. "I need money to pay bills." "Mr. Flynt's?" asked Bunny. "Yes, his and another man's. I'm afraid, children, you won't be able to come here much longer and help keep store." "Why not?" Bunny wanted to know. "Because there won't be any store--at least I won't have it. I'm afraid I'm going to lose it. If I could only get some more customers and do more business I might manage to pull through until Philip gets back. But I don't know--I don't know!" and she shook her head sadly. That afternoon, going home with Sue, Bunny had another idea. "Sue!" he exclaimed, "if we can't give our money to Mrs. Golden maybe we can get her more customers." "How?" asked the little girl. "We can ask everybody we know to come and trade there," said Bunny. "I remember when the Italian shoemaker started down at the end of our street and I took my rubber boots there to have him fix a hole, he said for me to tell all the boys I knew to bring their boots and shoes to him to be mended." "Did you?" Sue inquired. "Yes. And the shoeman said I brought him good trade and he gave me a piece of beeswax. So maybe we could get customers for Mrs. Golden." "Maybe we could!" cried Sue. "Let's tell the other boys and girls to get their fathers and mothers to let them buy things at Mrs. Golden's, and then she'll have a lot of customers!" "Oh, let's!" cried Bunny Brown. And they did. The next day, when Bunny and Sue were playing with Charlie, George, Mary, Sadie, Helen, Harry and Bobbie, the idea was spoken of again. "Fellows and girls!" exclaimed Bunny, who got up to make a speech, "we have to help Mrs. Golden." "You should speak of the girls first," said Sadie, who was a little older than the others. "Well, anyhow, we ought to help Mrs. Golden," went on Bunny. "She needs customers. Now, if all of you would buy everything you could of her, like Sue and I do, maybe she wouldn't lose her store." "My mother says she'd trade there if Mrs. Golden would deliver stuff," remarked Helen Newton. "But she says she can't cart heavy things from any store." "My mother said the same thing," added Mary Watson. "She can't afford to hire a delivery horse and wagon," said Charlie Star. "I know, 'cause I helped in her store." "She needs an auto like Mr. Gordon," said Bobbie Boomer. "Pooh, autos are only for big stores!" exclaimed Harry. Bunny Brown seemed to be doing some hard thinking. He had a new idea. "Fellows!" he suddenly cried, "I have it! I'll get a delivery wagon for Mrs. Golden!" "You will?" "A delivery wagon?" "How?" These cries greeted what Bunny had said. "I'll take our Shetland pony, Toby, and deliver things for her in the little cart!" cried Bunny Brown. "If all of you will promise to buy as much as you can from her, I'll deliver things in our pony cart!" "Hurray for the pony express!" cried Charlie Star. "I'll help!" _ |
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