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Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 7. The Plantation |
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_ CHAPTER VII. THE PLANTATION Mr. Brown knew how he and his wife would worry if anything should happen to Bunny or Sue, so, with this thought in mind, he hurried to the end of the car to do what he could in the rescue of Dickie. Mrs. Brown stayed with the two children, but she was so anxious to help the woman who had called out about Dickie that she made up her mind to go to the aid of her husband as soon as Bunny and Sue were settled in their seats. As for Mr. Brown, as he hastened toward that end of the parlor car where some one was begging the porter not to let Dickie be harmed, he saw the woman who was so excited. She was a large woman, wearing a wide-brimmed hat trimmed with many ostrich feathers which nodded and swayed as she moved about. "Oh, Dickie! Dickie! Where did you go?" this woman cried, clasping her hands. "Why didn't you stay with me? Now you'll be killed, I'm sure you will! Or else you'll jump off the train and be left behind! Oh, porter, close the door so Dickie can't get off!" "Yes'm. De do' am done closed!" said the colored man. "Ah'll git yo' Dickie fo' you ef you-all jest waits a minute!" "Perhaps I can help," suggested Mr. Brown, coming up at that moment, and looking about in the narrow passageway and in the men's smoking room for a sight of some little child who might have wandered away from his mother. "Oh, if you only can get him!" exclaimed the large woman with the big hat. "I had him in my arms, but he jumped out--" "Jumped out of your arms!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "I should think he would have been hurt." "Oh, no, he often does that," said the woman. "He always lands on his feet." "What a strange child!" thought Mr. Brown. "He must be training for a circus performer." "He jumped out of my arms and ran in there," went on the woman, and she pointed to the smoking room, which, just then, was empty. It was a room containing several leather chairs, a leather settee across one end, and a wash basin in one corner. "Ah'll git him in jest a minute," said the porter, who was putting some clean towels in a rack over the basin. "He must be under the long seat." "I'll bring him out," offered Mr. Brown, getting down on his hands and knees to look under the long leather seat at one end of the smoking compartment. He remembered a time when Sue had thus crawled under a sofa at home and what a time he had to get her to come out. "Oh, Dickie, why did you do it?" wailed the woman. "Are you sure he didn't fall off the train?" she asked. "No'm," answered the porter. "Nobody, man, woman or chile, got off dish yeah car after it started. I shet de do' too quick for dat! But I didn't see anybody come in heah!" "This is where he came," said the woman, following Mr. Brown into the smoking room. "Oh, I do hope he is under the seat." By this time the father of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue was able to see under the leather seat. But, to his surprise, he saw no little boy or girl there. All he caught sight of was a white poodle dog, cowering back in the corner. "There's no Dickie here--only a dog," said Mr. Brown. "That's Dickie!" cried the woman. "Oh, dear Dickie! are you there? I was afraid my precious was lost forever! Oh, Dickie, come out!" Mr. Brown was so surprised that he did not know what to say. He had thought he was coming to the rescue of a little child, and it had turned out to be--a dog! And while Mr. Brown loved animals, he was a little angry to think that anybody would make as much fuss over a poodle that had crawled under a couch as would be made over a missing little boy or girl. Still Mr. Brown was too polite to say all that he felt, and so he reached his hand under the long seat, and tried to get hold of the dog's fuzzy coat. The dog growled and barked, and snapped at Mr. Brown's hand. "Does he bite?" the children's father asked the woman. "Not very hard," she answered. "Hum!" mused Mr. Brown, as he drew back and arose. "Perhaps you'd better coax him out," he said, for he had no desire to be bitten even by a little dog, as sometimes their teeth inflict a poisonous wound. "Oh, Dickie! you wouldn't bite the nice, kind man, would you?" the lady exclaimed, stooping down and trying to peer under the seat. "Ah'll put on mah gloves an' git him," offered the porter, who perhaps felt that the woman might give him a large tip. And, of course, Mr. Brown was very willing to let the colored man have any reward there might be. Putting on a pair of heavy gloves he used when he did rough work in cleaning the Pullman car, the porter reached under the seat and dragged forth the growling, snapping little white poodle. By this time Mrs. Brown, hearing the loud talking out in the smoking room, thought something serious had happened. She hastened to that end of the car, followed by Bunny and Sue, who did not want to be left behind. They arrived in time to see the porter handing the woman her pet. "Oh, Dickie!" exclaimed the wearer of the big hat, as she clasped the poodle in her arms, "oo bad 'ittle snookums!" "Where's the child?" asked Mrs. Brown. In answer Mr. Brown pointed to the dog, and his wife understood. "Oh, isn't he nice!" exclaimed Sue. "May I see him?" asked Bunny. "In a little while," the woman answered. "Dickie is so fussed up now his 'ittle heart is beating too hard! I must cuddle him!" She turned and walked into the next car for, it seemed, she had got into the wrong one, or, rather, her dog had leaped from her arms and had gone into the one in which the Browns had seats and the woman had followed her pet. "Come in and see me when I get 'ittle Dickie quiet," said the woman, but even Bunny and Sue, much as they loved pets, did not like the silly fuss this woman made over her dog. So they did not go into the other car. Mr. Brown turned and went with his wife and children up to the middle of the car, where they had their seats. As they left, the porter, with a queer grin which showed his white teeth, said: "Golly, she suah did make a fuss ober dat dog!" "Yes," agreed Mr. Brown with a laugh, "she did!" "He was a nice little dog," observed Sue, "but I like a big dog better--you can have more fun with it." "Sure!" agreed Bunny. "And poodles are so snappy." "I'm glad you didn't pull him out, Walter," Mrs. Brown said. "I'd be anxious if he had bitten you." "I didn't give him the chance," her husband said. "Well, now that Dickie is safe we can settle down." And so the travelers made themselves as comfortable as possible, for they had rather a long trip ahead of them. They would be on the train all night and a large part of the next day. "I'm glad that woman with the dog isn't in our car," said Mrs. Brown to her husband, when Bunny and Sue were contentedly looking from the windows. "She probably makes a fuss over the animal all the while." "Yes, it's just as well for us she isn't here," agreed the children's father. "Though if it were the kind of dog they could play with it would make the time pass more quickly for Bunny and Sue." "Oh, I think they'll manage to keep themselves amused," said their mother. "They like traveling." Bunny and Sue certainly did, and it was a pleasure for them to look from the windows at the scenery. No very remarkable adventures happened on the journey to Georgia. To be sure, Sue did fall out of the berth once, and her mother had to pick her up. But the little girl scarcely awakened, and as the carpet on the floor of the sleeping car was soft and thick she was not hurt in the least. Bunny had a little accident, too. During the day he went to the end of the car to get Sue a drink, taking a folding silver cup his mother carried in her handbag. But when the little boy was half way down the aisle the train gave a swing around a curve, Bunny almost fell, and the cup closed, spilling the water all over him. However, it was not a great deal, and as the car was warm no harm resulted. Bunny himself laughed at the happening, and insisted on going back and filling the cup for Sue. This time he brought it to her nearly full of water. And so, with looking out of the windows, reading some of their best-loved books which they had brought with them, eating and sleeping, the time passed most happily for Bunny Brown and his sister Sue. As mile after mile was reeled off by the train, the children began to notice a difference in the scenery. The weather was cold, and there was much snow on the ground when they left Bellemere, and the snow continued to cover the ground for some distance. But as the train went farther and farther south the snow seemed to disappear--melting away until, when the children looked from the windows of their car toward the end of their journey, they saw green leaves on the trees. "Oh, are we down South now, Daddy?" called Sue. "Yes, we are in the southern part of Georgia," was the answer. "We have left winter behind us. In a little while, especially when we get into Florida, you will be in the sunny South." "Oh, what fun we'll have!" cried Sue. "Where are the oranges?" demanded Bunny. "I don't see any," and he looked at the trees. "Oranges don't grow in Georgia, at least not in the open," said Mr. Brown. "Some may be raised in hothouses, but to grow them in the open air warmer weather than Georgia has in winter is needed. We shall have to wait until we get to Florida to gather oranges." "What about peanuts?" asked Bunny. "Oh, I think I can promise you plenty of peanuts," answered his father. "And shall we see cotton growing?" asked Mrs. Brown. "I have always wanted to see a cotton field, with the darkies singing and picking the white, fluffy stuff." "There is plenty of cotton in Georgia," her husband answered, "but there may be none where we are going. However, I hope you will have your wish. If we can't have oranges we may have peanuts and cotton." "We'll not eat the cotton though, shall we, Daddy?" asked Sue. "You won't have to unless you want to," he laughed in answer. A little later, when Mr. and Mrs. Brown had got together their baggage, for they were near their destination, Bunny, who was looking from the window, suddenly called: "Oh, look! Here they are, picking cotton!" Sue rushed to her window and Mrs. Brown turned to gaze out on the scene. As Bunny had said, the train was then passing through a cotton section, and in the fields on either side of the track a number of colored men, women, and children were picking the big white clumps of cotton from the bushes which grew in long, straight rows. It was a late crop. "Oh, it's a cotton plantation!" cried Mrs. Brown. "I'm glad, for I've always wanted to see one." As they looked out at the sight, which was a new one to Bunny and Sue, the train began to slow up. In a very few moments they could see painted in very large letters on the end of the station the word "Seedville." "This is our station," announced Daddy Brown. "Oh, we're going to get out right near the cotton plantation!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "I'm glad! Why didn't you tell us we were going to be so near where they pick cotton?" she asked her husband. "I didn't really know it myself," he said. "Mr. Morton, whom I am going to see, said he owned cotton land, but I did not know it was a plantation. However, we'll get out here." And Bunny and Sue were wild with delight at the new adventures which might be in store for them. _ |
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