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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 19. A Happy Reunion |
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_ CHAPTER XIX. A HAPPY REUNION Mr. Black took the pail his wife gave him, and in the bottom, wrapped in a piece of clean paper, he put some money. Then the cover was put on the pail and the handle was slipped into Bruno's mouth. "Milk, Bruno!" called the switchman again, and he opened the door and out ran the dog. "Will he go for it all alone?" asked Bunny. "Yes," answered the switchman. "And he'll bring it back without spilling a drop--that is, unless some other dog chases him or unless some bad boys throw stones at him and make him run. Just wait a few minutes and you'll see Bruno coming back with the milk." "Take the children out on the porch where it's cooler," said Mrs. Black. "I'll clear away the supper things." "Can I help?" asked Sue, for she was used to helping her mother at home. "Oh, no, thank you, dear," Mrs. Black answered. "You go out and see Bruno do his tricks. He is quite a clever dog." Bunny and Sue certainly thought so when a little later, as they sat on the porch with Mr. Black, they saw the dog come along with the handle of the milk pail in his mouth. "He walks carefully so he won't spill it, doesn't he?" asked Sue. "Yes, he is a very good dog," the switchman answered. "I don't remember of his spilling the milk more than once or twice. He did it the first time when he was just learning, and again it happened when another dog chased him when Bruno was almost home with the bucket." "Do the people that sell milk know Bruno is going to come for it?" Sue asked, as Mrs. Black came out of the kitchen and took the pail from Bruno, who stood carefully holding it. He had not spilled a drop. "Yes, we get our milk at Mr. Hasting's place," answered the switchman. "He keeps a cow, and they watch for Bruno every night." "Can he do any more tricks?" asked Bunny. He and his sister were so interested in the dog that they forgot about being far from their daddy and mother. "Yes, he can dance when I play the mouth organ," answered Mr. Black. "Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "We heard the darkies on the cotton plantation play the mouth organ and banjo and we saw 'em dance!" she went on. "Well, I don't claim that my dog can dance as well as a plantation darky," laughed the switchman. "But Bruno does pretty well. I'll get my mouth organ." Bruno barked and leaped about when he saw his master come out with the mouth organ, and no sooner had the first few notes been blown than the dog, without being told, stood up on his hind legs and pranced around. He almost kept time to the music, and for a dog, he danced very well. "Oh, I wish we had a dog like that!" sighed Bunny, when the dancing animal, wagging his tail, came to Mr. Black to be petted after the switchman stopped playing the mouth organ. "Maybe I can teach Nutty's cat to dance," Sue said. "I'm afraid not," said Mr. Black. "It is very hard to teach cats to do tricks. I've tried more than once, but I never had any luck. But Bruno is one of the smartest dogs I ever saw." The children thought so, too, and after Bruno had done a few more tricks, such as turning somersaults, and lying down and rolling over, Mrs. Black came to say she thought it time for Bunny and Sue to go to bed. "I only have one spare room," said the switchman's wife. "That has a large bed in it big enough for both of you. Don't you want to go to sleep now?" Bunny looked at Sue and Sue whispered something to her brother. "What is it?" asked Mrs. Black, seeing that something was "in the wind," as she remarked afterward. "Sue says we can't go to bed without saying our prayers," replied Bunny, "and mother isn't here--and--" He faltered a moment, and it sounded as if he might be going to cry. There was a trace of tears, too, in Sue's eyes, and Mrs. Black, guessing that the children were beginning to feel lonesome and homesick, laughed and said: "Bless your hearts! I can hear you say your prayers as well as your mother could. I used to have children of my own, but they are grown up now. When they were your size I heard them say their prayers every night. And I've got some night dresses for you, too!" "You have?" exclaimed Bunny. He wondered where Mrs. Black could get those, when she had no small children of her own. "I have," said Mrs. Black. "While you were on the porch, watching Bruno do tricks, I went next door and borrowed two clean night dresses for you. They have five children at Mr. Sweeney's." "Then if we can say our prayers and have night gowns, let's go to bed," proposed Sue. "Mother will come and get us in the morning," she went on. "Yes, mother will come to-morrow," said Mrs. Black gently. Soon Bunny and Sue were falling asleep in the big, clean bed, and they did not have to fall very far to get to Slumberland, either, for they were so tired they could hardly hold their eyes open to get undressed. "I wonder if their mother will come in the morning?" asked Mrs. Black of her husband, as she came out of the spare bedroom and softly closed the door. "Well, if she doesn't I have thought of a way to get word to her and the father, too," the switchman said. "How?" asked his wife. "In the morning I'll have Mr. Sweeney telephone to the ticket agent at the railroad station here. The agent can tell the main office." "Oh, yes," agreed Mrs. Black. "And then word can be telegraphed all up and down the line, and whatever station it was these children got into the freight car, there Mrs. Brown will be waiting and she'll get the word." "That's it," Mr. Black said. But before he could put his kind plan into operation Mr. and Mrs. Brown had already started a movement of their own looking to the finding of the lost children. Mr. Brown was very much surprised and not a little frightened when he met his wife on the station platform, where they had alighted to change cars, and was told that Bunny and Sue were missing. "Where did you last see them?" asked Mr. Brown. "Down by the line of freight cars," Mrs. Brown answered. And then she thought of something that she had not thought of before. "Why," she exclaimed, "the freight cars are gone! I remember now that the noise the engine made when it coupled on woke me from my doze. Oh, do you think Bunny and Sue are on the freight train?" "I'm beginning to think so," answered Mr. Brown. "You say the colored boys couldn't find them around here, there has been no accident and neither Bunny nor Sue came up to the village after me. They must be in one of the freight cars and are being hauled away." "But how could they get into one of those high cars?" asked his wife. "Oh, Bunny can do almost anything, and Sue isn't far behind him. Probably he found a box to stand on." "Suppose we take a look," suggested Mr. Parker, the gentleman who had brought Mr. Brown to the station in the automobile. The three of them walked down the tracks where the freight cars had stood before being hauled away. "There's a box!" exclaimed Mr. Brown, pointing to one near the track. "It's just about high enough for a person to get from it into an open boxcar." "And here are the marks of their feet!" cried Mrs. Brown, pointing to the very footprints of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, made by the children in the soft dirt between the tracks. "Oh, they are in that train! How shall we get them?" she cried. "Well, now that we know this much, it will be an easy matter to telegraph on ahead and have the train searched," said Mr. Parker. "I'll go and see the train dispatcher here." It was now getting late, and soon the train arrived on which the Brown family should have made the remainder of their trip to Florida. But of course daddy and mother would not travel on until they had found Bunny and Sue. So they let the train go, and went to the ticket office to find the name of the first station where the freight train might stop, in order that a telegram could be sent to have it searched. It was quite dark when the telegram had been sent, and Mr. and Mrs. Brown were invited to stay at the home of Mr. Parker for supper, and to remain there all night, if necessary. There were some hours of anxious waiting, and at last a telegram came back to Mr. Brown saying that the train crew of the freight had looked into every empty car, but the children had not been found. In one car, however, were some empty nut boxes and pieces of candles. "That's the car they were in!" declared Mr. Parker. "But where are they now?" asked the distracted mother. "Oh, where are Bunny and Sue?" "They must have got out when the train stopped," said Daddy Brown. "Then the thing to do," went on Mr. Parker, "is to find out the names of all the stations and water tanks where stops, were made, and telegraph there." So after some work the railroad people found out the different regular stops the freight train had made, but at none of these places were there any traces of Bunny or Sue. "Then a water tank stop is our only hope," Mr. Parker said. "Some of the tanks are in lonely places, and if the children got out there they would be taken in charge by the pumpman or switchman. He would have no way of telegraphing back. We shall have to wait until morning." You can imagine that Mrs. Brown did not sleep much that night. She did not sleep as well as did Bunny and Sue. But in the morning a telegram, sent by Mr. Black through Mr. Sweeney, was received, telling just where the missing children were. "They're found!" cried Daddy Brown, as he came upstairs to his wife's room, waving the telegram over his head. "They're all right!" And a little later he and his wife were on the first train going to the village where Bunny and Sue had been so kindly cared for all night. "Oh, Momsie!" cried Sue, as she rushed into the dear arms. "Oh, Momsie!" "Well, Bunny boy, you had quite an adventure!" said his father, as he clasped the little chap close to him. _ |
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