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diff --git a/26232.txt b/26232.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b64408 --- /dev/null +++ b/26232.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4193 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Sunny Boy in the Country, by Ramy Allison White + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sunny Boy in the Country + +Author: Ramy Allison White + +Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn + +Release Date: August 8, 2008 [EBook #26232] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Indeed there were all kinds of goodies in those boxes. +(See Page 207)] + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY + +By +RAMY ALLISON WHITE + +Illustrated By +CHARLES L. WRENN + +BARSE & HOPKINS +Publishers +New York, N.Y.--Newark, N.J. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright, 1920 +By +Barse & Hopkins + +Sunny Boy in the Country + +Printed in the United States of America + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + I The Mended Drum 9 + II Spreading The News 22 + III Packing The Trunk 35 + IV Off For Brookside 49 + V On The Train 61 + VI Brookside 73 + VII Adventures Begin 86 + VIII A Letter From Daddy 98 + IX Sunny Boy Forgets 110 + X Going Fishing 124 + XI The Hay Slide 136 + XII Apple Pies 152 + XIII More Mischief 169 + XIV Another Hunt 185 + XV Sunny's Good Luck 201 + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + +Indeed there were all kinds of goodies in those boxes. Frontispiece + +And tucked the clock away down deep in one of the corner +holes Aunt Bessie had left in the trunk. 45 + +He lifted one of the baby rabbits and placed it in +Sunny's hands. 109 + +With a crash a frightened little boy fell into the +flour barrel. 163 + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +SUNNY BOY +IN THE COUNTRY + +CHAPTER I + +THE MENDED DRUM + + +"Rub-a-dub, dub! Bang! Rub-a-dub-dub--Bang! Bang!" Sunny Boy thumped his +drum vigorously. + +Usually when he made such a racket some one would come out and ask him +what in the world was he making a noise like that for, but this morning +every one seemed to be very busy. For several minutes now Sunny Boy had +been trying to attract Harriet's attention. She was doing something to +the front door. + +"I spect she needs me," said Sunny Boy to himself. + +There were any number of interesting things going on around the front +door this morning, but he was chiefly interested in Harriet, because as a +rule he had to help her Saturday mornings by going with her to the +grocery store at the corner. He liked to stand in her clean, comfortable +kitchen and drum for her until she was ready to start. + +This particular morning Harriet's mind seemed to be far away from music. +She was rubbing briskly as Sunny Boy watched her, polishing--that was it: +she was shining the brass numbers on the door--266. Sunny Boy knew them, +and how careful Harriet was to keep them always bright. + +"Just think," she would say, as they might be coming up the steps; +"suppose the postman had a letter for 266 Glenn Avenue, and the numbers +were so dull and streaked he couldn't read them! Think how we'd feel if +that should happen to us!" + +Sunny Boy was sure such a thing could never happen, not with Harriet +rubbing away at the numbers morning after morning. + +From his post at the head of the stairs he could see a man on a +step-ladder, working and whistling. He was hammering in nails over the +door. Dimly Sunny Boy made out another pair of doors standing in the +hall. + +"Goodness, Sunny Boy, I nearly fell over you!" Aunt Bessie kissed him on +the back of his neck before he could turn round. That was a trick Aunt +Bessie had, and Sunny Boy was used to it. "Are you watching them put up +the screens and awnings?" + +"Are they?" asked Sunny interestedly. "Could I hold the awning? Maybe the +man would like my tool-chest--it's all there but the hammer. I lost that +in the park. Can I help, Auntie?" + +Aunt Bessie was going downtown, and she was in a hurry. "If you don't get +in the way, I daresay they'll be glad to have you," she said kindly, and +brushed by him, on down the stairs. She stopped to speak to some one in +the parlor, and then Sunny Boy saw her go out and down the steps. + +Sunny Boy sat down on the top stair and took his drum in his lap. +Presently he would go down and help the awning man, but it was very +pleasant where he was. The softest little May breeze came wandering +through the open door up to him, and the canary in the dining room was +singing his cheerful loudest. Sunny Boy leaned his curly head against the +bannister to listen. + +His real name, of course, was not Sunny Boy--oh, no, he was named for his +grandpa, and when the postman brought him an invitation to a birthday +party you might see it written out--Arthur Bradford Horton. + +But birthday parties happen only once in a while, and Daddy and Mother +called him Sunny Boy because he was nearly always cheerful. As Mother +explained, you can't depend on a party happening to cheer you up, so to +know a little boy who is sure to smile every day--well, that is worth +while. And often Sunny forgot that he had any other name. + +Bump--bang--bumpty, bang! Down the stairs suddenly rolled the drum, +making a fearful racket on the steps as it bounded from side to side. +Down the stairs it rolled, across the narrow strip of hall, past Harriet, +now on her knees scrubbing the green and white tiles, under the ladder of +the awning man, down the steps, and right out into the street! After it +scrambled Sunny Boy, as fast as his tan sandals would take him. He was +just in time to see his drum roll to the middle of the street and stop in +the center of the heavy traffic. A big furniture van, drawn by three +horses, was headed right for it. + +"It'll be smashed! Oh, oh!" Sunny Boy wailed, hopping up and down on the +curb, but remembering even in his excitement that he had promised not to +go off the pavement when alone. "They'll ride right over my drum!" + +"I guess not!" cried a tall man, and darted out from behind Sunny. He +rushed to where the drum lay and snatched it up, almost from under the +horses' feet. + +The colored man driving the furniture van grinned. + +"Most busted dat drum for sure!" he shouted. "If this off horse, Billy, +ever put his foot through it, good-by drum!" + +"And there you are!" The tall man gave Sunny Boy back his drum with a +flourish. "Just as good as new, except for a little hole that I'm willing +to bet a cookie your mother can mend for you. Isn't she waving for you to +come in? I thought so. You run along now, and see if she doesn't mend +it." + +Mother was on the front steps watching for him. Sunny thanked the tall +man, who said that it was nothing, nothing at all: he'd never rescued a +drum before, but he was glad to have the experience, and that things +always turned out well for small boys who stayed on the sidewalks and +didn't dash out into the streets to get run over. Then Sunny climbed up +the steps and held out his drum for Mother to see. + +"The man said you could mend it," he said wistfully. "Can you, Mother? +'Cause when things break, I miss 'em." + +Mrs. Horton managed to hug her son, drum and all, though there really +wasn't much space where they stood. She was under the awning man's +ladder, and he was shaking and moving the large awning about. Inside the +door stood Harriet and her brush and bucket. + +"So, 'twas the drum!" smiled Harriet. "I couldn't see what it was went +rolling by me like lightning, and Sunny Boy tearing after it. All I heard +was a noise like thunder." + +"We'll go up to my room and mend the drum," declared Mrs. Horton. "Tell +Mr. Bray I'll telephone him about the slip-covers, please, Harriet. I +left him in the parlor when I ran out to see what was happening to Sunny +Boy." + +"What," demanded Sunny Boy, carrying his drum upstairs--and you may be +sure that he gripped it tightly this time--"What are slip-covers, +Mother?" + +Mrs. Horton laughed. + +"Why, slip-covers are--" She thought a minute. "They are covers for the +chairs and sofas to wear in summer," she explained. "Nice, cool, linen +covers, you know, for the furniture, just as you have summer suits." + +Sunny Boy understood. He usually did when Mother answered his questions. +And he was very sure that she could mend his drum. + +"Do you know," said Mrs. Horton, when she had looked at the hole, "I +think, Sunny Boy, we can mend this nicely with court-plaster?" + +"Court-plaster?" echoed Sunny Boy. + +"I have some in the medicine closet in the bathroom," went on Mrs. +Horton, drawing the edges of the hole together as she talked. "I'll get +it, dear." + +"It's like mending fingers, isn't it, Mother?" Sunny Boy was so anxious +to watch how Mother mended the drum that he nearly put his own pink nose +in the hole. "When Daddy cut his finger he put court-plaster on it. He +said the skin would grow together, and it did--when he took it off, there +wasn't any cut there. Just nothing. Will my drum be like that?" + +"No, precious," answered Mother, snipping around the edges of the +court-plaster with the fascinating sharp shears Sunny Boy was forbidden +to touch. "A drum, you know, isn't like a person's skin. It can't grow. +But I think that if you remember to be careful the drum will last a long +time. There you are. My goodness! it makes as much noise as ever, doesn't +it?" and Mrs. Horton covered her ears and laughed as Sunny Boy beat +merrily on his mended drum. + +"Letters!" he cried a minute later as a shrill whistle sounded. "I'll get +'em for you, Mother," and downstairs again he tumbled. Only he left the +drum safely on Mother's bed. + +"Two--three--ever so many," he announced proudly when he came back. "Are +there any for me, Mother?" + +Like some other little folk, Sunny Boy was always expecting letters, +though he almost never wrote any. But he meant to write a great many as +soon as he learned to write with ink, and he was even now learning to +print nicely. + +"None for you," answered Mrs. Horton, glancing at the envelopes. +"However, here is one with something in it for you, I suspect. Grandpa +Horton has written to us." + +As Mother opened this letter, a little note fell out. That was from +Grandpa Horton to Sunny Boy. He liked to put a little letter inside his +large one, just for his grandson. Sunny waited quietly while Mother read +her letter. When she had read it through, she folded it and put it back +in the envelope. + +"Sunny Boy," she said, and her voice made him think of the "laughing +piece" she sometimes played for him on the piano. He looked at her and +her eyes were dancing. "Sunny Boy," she said again, "what do you think? +We're going to visit Grandpa Horton on his farm--going to make him a nice +long visit and see the real country." + +"Oh, goody!" cried Sunny Boy. "Is Daddy going?" + +"He'll come to see us," promised Mother. "Let me read you what Grandpa +has written you, dear." + +Grandpa Horton's note to Sunny told him he was depending on him to help +him with the early haying. + +"Wasn't it lucky Harriet rubbed the numbers on the front door this +morning?" chuckled Sunny Boy. "S'posing we didn't get this letter? +Where's Brookside, Mother?" + +Brookside was the name of Grandpa's farm. Mrs. Horton explained that it +was many miles away from the city, and that it would take them nearly a +day on the train to get there. + +"And if Daddy cannot go with us, you'll have to take care of me," she +said seriously. + +"All right, I will," promised Sunny Boy. "I'll have to go and tell +Harriet an' show her my letter. I'll tell the awning man, too. I was +going to help him, but I don't feel helping, somehow. I feel wiggled up, +you know, Mother." + +"You're excited," said Mrs. Horton. "Well, we don't go for two weeks, +dear, so you'll have plenty of time to talk about it. I must write to +Grandpa as soon as Daddy comes home." + +Dashing out of the room went Sunny Boy, crying the good news at the top +of his lungs--"We're going to the country! We're going to my Grandpa's +farm! Hurrah!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SPREADING THE NEWS + + +"So you're going off to the country?" said Daddy, as he came whistling +down to the dining room, where Mother and Sunny Boy were waiting for him. +"Well, I see that I'll have to come up and teach you how to catch a brook +trout." + +"Did Mother tell you?" asked Sunny Boy, as Daddy swung him into his chair +and Harriet brought in the soup to Mrs. Horton. "When did you find out, +Daddy? I was watching for you so's I could tell." + +"I didn't see any little chap in the hall, so I went right upstairs and +found Mother. She said you were going to Brookside, and that the awnings +were up, and the screens in, and she hoped to go downtown to-morrow and +buy your best shoes," and Daddy looked at Mother and laughed. + +"Daddy is teasing me," smiled Mrs. Horton. "We have to tell him our news +all in one breath because we see so little of him, don't we, Sunny Boy? I +do hope, Harry, that you'll be able to come up this summer and spend a +real vacation at your father's." + +Mr. Horton was making a little well in the mashed potato on Sunny's +plate, and flooding it with the rich brown gravy. That was the way _his_ +father had fixed his mashed potato for him when he was a little boy, and +Sunny Boy liked his that way, too. + +"Oh, I'll come up," promised Mr. Horton, passing the potato to Sunny Boy. +"I'll have to come and show you both where I had my garden and teach +Sunny how to fool the wise fish." + +Sunny Boy put down his fork. He had to wait a minute because his mouth +was full and Mother had her own opinion of a little boy who spoke without +chewing his food properly and swallowing it. Having swallowed his potato, +Sunny Boy was ready to speak. + +"Oh, Daddy!" he began eagerly, "were you ever at Brookside? Where was +your garden? Could I drive horses?" + +Then Daddy and Mother said the same thing together, both at once, just as +if they were thinking the same thing, as they probably were: + +"Why, Sunny Boy!" said Daddy and Mother. + +"You can't have forgotten," urged Mrs. Horton, then. "Brookside, you +know, dear, is where Daddy lived when he was a little boy. When he was +just as old as you are now he used to play there were Indians in the +woods. I've told you ever so many times, and now you are going to see the +place yourself where Daddy was a little lad like you." + +"Oh!" said Sunny Boy again. + +All during the rest of the dinner he was very busy, thinking. He had +forgotten that Daddy had lived at Brookside, or, to be more exact, he had +not understood that Grandpa's farm was the same farm on which Daddy had +been a little boy. Sunny Boy was only five years old, and he had already +moved three times. One lived a long time on a farm it seemed. + +Soon after dinner came bed for Sunny Boy, and he dreamed that he had +fallen head-first into his drum and that it was very hot and dark inside. +He was kicking madly to get out, when Mother came in and found him all +wrapped up in the bed-clothes with his head buried in the pillows. When +she drew down the covers he woke up, and after she had tucked him in +smoothly again and brought him a drink of cool water, he went to sleep. +And the next thing that happened was the morning. + +After breakfast, Sunny Boy went out into the back yard to play. It wasn't +a very large back yard, but it was pretty. There were ferns along one +side, and gay spring flowers on the other. At one end were Sunny Boy's +swing and sand-box, and the center was in thick, green grass. Mondays the +grass belonged to Harriet, who used it to walk on when she hung out the +clean clothes, but other days Sunny had the whole yard pretty much to +himself. + +There was a little gate cut in the fence on one side of the yard. Daddy +Horton had made the gate for Sunny Boy and Nelson and Ruth. Nelson and +Ruth were a little boy and girl who lived next door, at least Ruth was a +little girl--she was only four years old--but Nelson was seven and went +to school. Their last name was Baker, and they and Sunny Boy had very +good times playing together. + +As soon as Sunny Boy came out into his yard this morning, the little gate +opened, and in came Ruth, dragging Paulina, her largest doll, by one +arm. + +"Don't be cross," begged Sunny Boy. "I want to tell you something." + +"I'm not cross," said Ruth with dignity. "What made you think I was going +to be?" + +"'Cause you're dragging Paulina and you always treat her like that when +you're cross," answered Sunny more frankly than tactfully. "Listen, +Ruth--we're going to the country to see Grandpa Horton, and I'm going to +drive horses and go fishing, an' help hay, and oh, everything!" + +Ruth was interested. + +"Can I go fishing?" she wanted to know. + +Sunny Boy was troubled. Evidently Ruth thought she was going to the +country, too, and it surely wouldn't be very kind to tell her plainly +that Grandpa Horton hadn't invited her. To his relief Mrs. Baker called +Ruth just then and she went into her own yard, still dragging the +unfortunate Paulina by one arm. + +"Sunny Boy," called his own mother from an upstairs window, "Harriet is +going to the store for me--wouldn't you like to go with her?" + +Sunny Boy liked to go with Harriet, and he hurried indoors to get his hat +and roller skates. Now Sunny Boy was just learning to skate, and if he +didn't have Harriet to hold on to he never could be quite sure what was +going to happen to him. He could go much faster on his own two feet, but, +as he explained to Harriet, it was most important that he should learn +how to skate because when he could skate well he would be able to go to +the store much more quickly than he could walk. And Harriet said yes, she +understood, and that everybody had to learn how to skate before they +could become really expert. + +"Did you ever live on a farm, Harriet?" asked Sunny Boy, as they started +for the store. His mind was full of the coming visit. + +"No," admitted Harriet. "I never lived on a farm. But I've often visited +people who did. You'll like it. There'll be brooks to wade in, and little +calves and lambs to play with, and chickens and ducks. And you can play +outdoors all day long." + +"When it rains?" asked Sunny Boy. + +"When it rains there'll be the barn and the haymow," answered Harriet. +"And now here's Mr. Gray's. You'd better wait out here for me and not try +to clatter in with those skates." + +Sunny Boy saw a basket of apples in the window. + +"Will you bring me an apple, Harriet?" he teased. "Mother won't mind. +Apples don't hurt you." + +Harriet was half way through the door, but she turned. + +"It's too early for good apples yet," she said. "You wait till you get to +Brookside, Sunny. You'll have more apples then than you can possibly +eat." + +"Millions and dozens?" called Sunny Boy after Harriet. + +"Yes, 'millions and dozens,'" she echoed, laughing, and closed the +grocery store door. + +The grocer's boy was coming down the steps, and he laughed, too. + +"Millions and dozens of what?" he demanded, stopping before Sunny Boy. + +"Apples, at my grandpa's farm." + +The grocer boy had a basket on his arm and he wore a white coat. He +looked very clean and cheerful. Sunny Boy had a sudden idea. + +"If you're going up to our house, could I hang on back of your wheel?" he +said. "I can skate pretty well if I have some one to steer with." + +"I don't think Harriet would like it," was the grocer boy's reply. He +knew Sunny Boy and Harriet because he often came to their house to bring +good things to eat. "I'll tell you, Sunny Boy--you wait till you come +back from this visit, and then I'll take you. Or perhaps after you've +eaten the millions and dozens of apples you won't have to hang on to any +one--you'll be big and strong and able to skate by yourself." + +Sunny Boy watched him ride merrily off on his bicycle. Still Harriet +didn't come. Sunny suspected there must be a good many people waiting in +the store. He might skate down to the corner and back before she had +bought all the things on Mother's list. + +It was all very well for the first few yards, because there was a +convenient iron railing to cling to, and Sunny Boy found himself skating +very easily. But the iron railing ended in a stone stoop, and after that +there seemed to be nothing but miles and miles of pavement without even a +friendly tree to cling to. Sunny Boy's feet began to behave queerly. One +went much faster than the other and in an entirely different direction, +and he had an idea he'd have to wear those skates the rest of his life +because he didn't see how he was ever going to stop to take them off. + +Suddenly he found himself headed for an area-way and a flight of stone +steps. He clutched desperately at the cellar window, shot past, and down +the steps--bing! into a huge basket of clothes a fat colored woman was +bringing up. She was as wide as the basket and the basket took up about +all the area-way. + +"Land sakes, chile!" she said, as Sunny Boy landed on top of her basket. +"Where you goin'?" + +"Skating," said Sunny Boy concisely, glad to find that he wasn't hurt. + +The colored woman laughed, a deep, rich, happy laugh. + +"You doan seem to be jest sure," she told him. "Stay where you is an' +I'll carry you on up." + +She did, too, and started him on his uncertain way down the street. In a +few minutes his feet began to act strangely again, this time sending him +in the general direction of the gutter. + +"I spect I'd better go back," said Sunny Boy to himself. But he couldn't +turn around. + +Then up the street came a familiar gray-uniformed figure. It was the +postman, the same merry, kind postman who brought letters to Sunny Boy's +house and for whom Harriet was careful to have the number on the front +door bright and shining. + +"Stop me!" cried Sunny Boy, wobbling more wildly. + +"Right--O!" agreed the postman, and proceeded to stop him by letting +Sunny Boy skate right into him and his mail bag. + +"And that's all right," said the cheerful postman, blowing his whistle +and slipping some letters into a mail-box in a doorway as if nothing had +happened. "Don't you want to skate back with me?" + +Sunny Boy, seated on a handy doorstep, was unbuckling the skate straps. +He looked up and smiled. + +"Thank you very much, but Harriet's waiting for me," he answered +politely. "An' I have to carry my skates, 'cause she won't let me hold +the eggs 'less I walk." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PACKING THE TRUNK + + +Aunt Bessie sat on the floor of Mother's room, with pencil and paper in +her lap. She was Mrs. Horton's sister, and though she did not live with +them, Sunny Boy and Mother saw her nearly every day. + +"I wonder if you will need that extra coat?" Aunt Bessie was saying, as +Sunny Boy came into the room. + +For the two weeks were nearly gone and it was time to get ready to go to +see Grandpa Horton. Early that morning Daddy had brought down the big +trunk from the storeroom, and ever since breakfast Mother and Aunt Bessie +had been busy packing clothes into it. Aunt Bessie kept a list of the +things they put in so that Mother would be able to tell when the trunk +was full whether she had left out anything she needed. + +"I'll go and get my things," announced Sunny Boy, and Aunt Bessie blew +him a kiss and went on with her work. + +Upstairs Sunny Boy looked a long time at his toys before he could decide +what to do about them. He couldn't leave his kiddie-car, that was +certain. And there was the woolly black dog he took to bed with him at +night, and a Teddy Bear that he was almost too old to play with, but not +quite, and the wooden blocks. Then he would be sure to need his +fire-engine and the roller skates. He must take all those with him. He +made three trips down to Mother's door with the toys, and then, going +down for the third time, he remembered the wind-mill out in the sand-box +and ran out after that and brought it in. + +"Bless the child, what is all this?" cried Aunt Bessie, as he came into +Mother's room, bringing as many of the treasures as he could carry at one +time. + +"I'm helping," explained Sunny Boy. "There's more out in the hall." + +He put down his load and ran out to bring in the rest. + +"But, precious," said Mrs. Horton, looking from the kiddie-car to her +little son, "we can't take all these things with us. Why, Mother wouldn't +have a place to put your socks and blouses, to say nothing of the cunning +bathing-suit we bought yesterday." + +"You won't need them, you know," urged Aunt Bessie. "You'll be so busy +playing with the new things you'll find up at Grandpa Horton's that +you'll probably never remember the toys at home. Then when you come back +they will seem like new ones." + +Sunny Boy was disappointed. His kiddie-car was the hardest to give up. +The woolly dog, too, was very dear to him. Mrs. Horton understood, and +she sat down in her low rocking chair and took her little boy on her +lap. + +"The kiddie-car wouldn't be any fun in the country," she said. "There are +no stone pavements, you see, dear, and it wouldn't run on the grass. As +for the woolly dog, why you will have a real dog to play with--a collie +dog that will run after sticks and bring them to you and take walks with +you. That will be fun, won't it?" + +Sunny Boy slid to the floor and stood up. He was excited. + +"I am simply crazy to have a real dog," he declared. + +Mrs. Horton stared at him, but Aunt Bessie, bending over the trunk, sat +down on the edge and laughed. + +"Where in the world did you hear that, Sunny Boy?" asked Mother. "Who +talks like that?" + +Aunt Bessie swooped down upon her nephew. + +"I do," she told her sister. "But I'll have to be more careful when +little pitchers with big ears are about. Why don't you copy the nice +things I say, Sunny?" + +"Isn't that nice?" puzzled Sunny. "Shouldn't I say it? Why not, Mother?" + +"It isn't wrong, dear," Mrs. Horton assured him. "Aunt Bessie only means +that speaking that way is rather a bad habit to get into. We call it +exaggeration. Let me see, how shall I make you understand? Well, if I say +'I'm starving to death,' when I mean that I am hungrier than usual for +dinner, that's exaggeration. I couldn't be starving, unless I had had +nothing to eat for several days." + +"And though some people think I'm crazy, I'm really not," concluded Aunt +Bessie gayly. "You think I'm rather nice, don't you, Sunny? And now I +wonder if there's a young man about who would be kind enough to take this +skirt down to Harriet and ask her to please press the hem?" + +"I will," offered Sunny Boy. "And then I'll come back and put my things +away." + +"While you are down in the kitchen, I wish you'd ask Harriet if the oven +is ready for me to make some biscuits for lunch," said Mrs. Horton. "And +tell her I said you might have a glass of milk and one of the sponge +cakes without any pink icing." + +Harriet pressed the skirt while Sunny Boy sat at one end of the ironing +board and watched her and ate his sponge cake--which was almost as good +as the kind with pink icing which were only for dessert--and drank his +milk. Then Harriet gave him the skirt to carry back to Aunt Bessie and he +remembered to ask about the oven. Harriet said to tell Mother that it was +just right for baking biscuits. + +"That means I must go down right away," said Mrs. Horton, when Sunny Boy +told her. "We've about finished anyway, haven't we, Bessie? The man is to +come at three this afternoon for the trunk." + +"I've left a few chinks and corners, in case you want to tuck in some +little trifles at the last minute," replied Aunt Bessie, "but otherwise +it's ready to be strapped and locked." + +"Let me lock it," said Sunny Boy eagerly. "I can stand on the top, too. I +did for Cousin Lola when hers wouldn't shut." + +Mrs. Horton was tying on a nice clean white apron. + +"Thank you, dearest," she said. "Mother isn't quite ready to have the +trunk locked. If we've packed it so full it won't close, why of course +I'll call on you to stand on the top and make it shut." + +Sunny Boy hoped the trunk wouldn't close, for he wanted to dance on the +top. Then Mrs. Horton went down to Harriet's kitchen to make puffy white +biscuits for lunch and Aunt Bessie went off to give a music lesson. + +Sunny Boy, left to put away his toys, explained matters to the woolly dog +as he carried him upstairs. + +"There will be a real dog for me to play with at Grandpa's," he said. +"And little calves and lambs--Harriet said so. Maybe you might get broken +in the trunk, anyway. But I won't like the real dog one bit more than I +do you, and when we come back you can sleep with me every single night." + +The woolly dog seemed to think this was all right, and he took it so +cheerfully that Sunny Boy felt better immediately. + +Mr. Horton came home to lunch, which was unusual, and after lunch he and +Mrs. Horton had to go downtown to see about the tickets and the parlor +car seats for the trip the next day. Sunny Boy was to take his nap and be +wide awake again by three o'clock, when the man was coming to take their +trunk to the station. + +Sunny Boy did not see how they were to find the trunk again if they once +let it go, for surely no trunk could go all alone to Brookside. He +resolved to ask Daddy. While he was wondering if there would be a piano +in the parlor car--and he rather hoped there would and that he might be +allowed to play on it--Sunny Boy fell asleep. Harriet, coming upstairs +with a pile of clean clothes, woke him. + +"Is it three o'clock?" he asked, afraid that he had missed the trunk +man. + +"Only half-past two," answered Harriet. "Your mother will be back any +minute now to lock the trunk. You can dress yourself, can't you? I've +another tablecloth to iron yet." + +Sunny Boy could dress himself, of course. Wandering into Mother's room to +borrow her hairbrush, he saw the little nickel alarm clock on the table. +Mother must have meant to pack that, and in her hurry had forgotten. +Sunny Boy remembered that Daddy had told him all country folk "rose with +the chickens," and upon inquiry he had learned that the chickens rose +very early indeed--almost as soon as the sun. Sunny Boy thought it would +be dreadful if he and Mother should oversleep their first morning at the +farm and come downstairs to find the chickens up and the farmer people +laughing at them. Yes, the alarm clock certainly must go. + +He had not a very clear idea of how one went about it to set an alarm +clock, but Daddy, he remembered, always wound the little pegs in the +back. So Sunny Boy trustingly wound all the pegs he saw, as tight as they +would turn, and tucked the clock away down deep in one of the corner +holes Aunt Bessie had left in the trunk. + +[Illustration: And tucked the clock away down deep in one of the corner +holes Aunt Bessie had left in the trunk.] + +He had hardly packed it in when Mother came running breathlessly up the +stairs crying that the express wagon was at the door. Hurriedly she put +down the trunk lid, locked it, and tied on the tag that Daddy had written +for her. + +"That tells the train folks what to do with it," explained the trunk man +to Sunny, swinging the heavy trunk to his shoulder as though it weighed +no more than the kiddie-car and trotting downstairs with it. + +Sunny Boy watched him put it in the wagon and drive away. + +"Now we're almost ready," said Mrs. Horton smilingly. "We have to pack +our bag and go to bed early, and then, in the morning, we really will be +on our way to Grandpa Horton's." + +"But there's the canary," Sunny Boy reminded her hesitatingly. "Can I +carry him?" + +"The train would frighten him so he might never sing any more," said Mrs. +Horton. "No, Aunt Bessie is going to keep him for us till we come back." + +"Well, let's go now," urged Sunny. "Why can't we go this minute? Let's, +Mother." + +"And have Daddy come home to dinner to-night and find us gone?" said +Mother reproachfully. "Why, Sunny!" + +"Well--then perhaps we'd better wait," admitted Sunny Boy. "But one whole +night's an awful long time, isn't it?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OFF FOR BROOKSIDE + + +Perhaps the most fun of going on a journey is the fun of starting. + +Sunny Boy began to get excited the moment he opened his eyes the next +morning, and if he had had his way, they wouldn't have bothered with such +an every-day affair as breakfast. One could eat breakfast any morning, +but a trip on the train to one's grandfather's farm was much more +important. + +However, Daddy explained that all experienced travelers ate a good +breakfast before they set out, and as Sunny Boy wanted above all things +to do as real travelers did, he consented to sit down and be interested +for a few moments in his blue oatmeal bowl and its contents. + +"You look so nice, Mother," he told Mrs. Horton suddenly. + +"So do you," she assured him, smiling. "I think it must be because we are +both wearing our new blue serge suits." + +"Remember, you're going to take care of my girl," warned Daddy. "Don't +let her get too tired, and try to make her comfortable, and don't let any +one or anything bother her." + +Sunny Boy gravely promised to look after Mother. He felt very proud that +Daddy trusted him to take care of her on their first long journey +together, and he resolved to wait on her all he could and to save her +every possible step. + +Harriet, who was not going with them, but who was going to help Aunt +Bessie keep house until they came back, was bustling about, pulling down +shades and closing and locking doors. The canary had gone, and Sunny Boy +had a funny feeling that their house was going on a journey, too. In his +trotting around after Harriet, while Mother was telephoning a last +good-by to some friend, he found a square white box on the parlor table, +neatly tied with red string--one of that mysterious kind that makes your +fingers fairly itch to untie the string and look inside. Sunny Boy went +in search of Mother. + +"Could I open it?" he asked coaxingly. "I'll tie it right up again, +Mother. Maybe you have forgotten what is in it." + +"'Deed I haven't!" laughed Mrs. Horton. "Give it to me, dear. It's a +surprise for you--we'll open it on the train." + +Sunny Boy obediently handed her the package, and in a few minutes he had +forgotten all about it. + +At last the house was ready to leave, and Harriet kissed him and said +good-by. Sunny Boy watched her down the street until she turned the +corner. He had a little ache in his throat, but he was too big a boy to +cry. + +"Precious," said Mother who knew perhaps how he was feeling, "I'm afraid +I've left my little coin purse on my bureau. Would you mind going up and +getting it for me?" + +The house upstairs was very still and hot. Sunny Boy tiptoed softly as he +hurried into Mother's room. There on the bureau lay the little silver +purse and a clean handkerchief that smelled like a bunch of violets. + +"You left your hanky, Mother," he cried, running downstairs. "And you +said folks should never, never, begin to go anywhere without a clean +hanky, you know." + +Mr. Horton, standing on the front step, opened the screen door and put in +his head. + +"Taxi's coming!" he announced. "Ready, Olive? I have the bag right here. +Come, son." + +Sunny Boy was thrilled at the thought of riding in that orange dragon of +an automobile. Mother and Daddy had friends who often took them motoring +pleasant afternoons, and sometimes Sunny Boy went with them. But every +one knows that is different from having a gay colored car roll up to your +front door and wait especially for you. + +The young man who drove the car opened the door with a flourish and +helped Mrs. Horton in. Then he turned to lift Sunny Boy, but that young +person hung back. + +"I could ride with you--up front," he suggested. + +"Oh, you might tumble out, going around the corner," cried Mrs. Horton. + +Daddy, who had been locking the front door, came down to them, carrying +the black leather bag that was to go with Sunny Boy and Mother. + +"Do you know," said Daddy slowly, "I think the bag will have to go in the +front seat, Sunny? I wouldn't like to put it down on Mother's pretty new +patent leather pumps. Sometime when we have no baggage you shall ride +with the chauffeur." + +So Sunny Boy climbed in and sat between Mother and Daddy, and the +chauffeur just touched his wheel and they shot off up the street. Indeed +they started so suddenly that Sunny Boy went over backward and laughed so +hard that he quite forgot to be disappointed because he could not sit on +the front seat. + +"What's in the bag, Mother?" he asked, as they rolled along through the +streets. + +"Hair-brushes and combs and towels and soap, and your tooth-brush and +mine, and the tooth-paste," answered Mrs. Horton. "And pajamas for you +and a nightie for me, in case we can't get the trunk to-night." + +"But it is going on the train just like us," urged Sunny Boy. "Daddy said +so." + +"But it will be nearly night before we reach Brookside," explained Mrs. +Horton, "and Grandpa will meet us with a horse and surrey most likely. We +will have to leave the trunk at the station till some one can go and get +it for us in the morning. I have a play suit in the bag for you, though, +so trunk or no trunk, you can be real country boy." + +Presently the taxi rolled up under a stone arch, and Mr. Horton said they +were at the station. They all got out and went into a great space filled +with people. Porters were rushing about with suitcases and bags, crowds +of men and women were going in several directions at once, and a man +running for his train nearly ran right over Sunny Boy. + +"I'll get the trunk checked and then give you the tickets," Mr. Horton +said to his wife. "You sit down over there by the door where I can find +you, and I'll be back in five minutes. We have plenty of time." + +Sunny Boy and Mother sat down by the door and watched the people. +Opposite them sat a short, fat woman with a baby in her arms and five +little children, two girls and three boys, in the seats nearest her. They +were each sucking a lolly-pop and took turns giving the baby a taste. +Although they were very sticky and not exactly tidy, they seemed to love +one another very much and to be having a very good time. + +"Where do you suppose they're going?" Sunny Boy asked. + +Mrs. Horton did not know. Perhaps, if they watched them, they might see +them take the train. + +Then Sunny Boy wanted to know where they kept the trains. He could hear +them, and nearly every minute a man with a big trumpet--which Mother said +was a megaphone--would call out something, and from all over the station +people would come rushing to get on the train. But though Sunny Boy +watched carefully, he could not see a single smokestack. + +"The trains are downstairs--you'll see when we go out," said Mrs. Horton. +"I wonder what can be keeping your father? He has been gone almost +fifteen minutes." + +"Will there be a piano in the parlor car?" Sunny Boy wanted to know +next. + +Mrs. Horton laughed merrily. + +"A parlor car is like the rest of the cars in a train, except that the +seats are more comfortable," she explained. "Anyway, we have to go in an +ordinary coach, because Daddy and I couldn't get a single parlor car seat +yesterday. They had all been taken. I don't see what can have happened to +Daddy!" + +Just then Mr. Horton came up to them. There was a baggage man with him +and they both looked rather excited. + +"I guess you'll have to come over to the baggage room, Olive," said Mr. +Horton in a low voice, "and see what you can do about straightening out +this mess. They want to know what you've packed in the trunk." + +Sunny Boy clung tightly to Mother's hand while they walked over to a low, +broad window on one side of the station wall. This opened into the +baggage room, and a perfect ocean of trunks was being tossed about in +there. The pink came into Mother's cheeks as she saw the crowd gathered +about the window. + +"You see, Ma'am," said the big, tall man at the window in a gruff voice +that was somehow kind and friendly, too, "it's like this--we figure out +something blew up in that trunk of yours about ten o'clock last night, +and naturally we want to know something about it. In fact, we can't check +the trunk for you until we do. A dozen men heard it, and--" + +"But I don't understand," protested Mrs. Horton. "I packed nothing that +could possibly blow up, as you say. My sister and I put everything in +with our own hands. I even have a list. I can show you that--" she +fumbled in her velvet handbag with fingers that trembled. + +"Probably an infernal machine," declared a shrill voice in the crowd that +was now growing too large for comfort. "With the country in the unsettled +state it is now, you can look for anything." + +"What's a 'fernal 'chine?" asked Sunny Boy boldly. + +"Like a bomb--it goes off with a whang," answered a freckle-faced boy +standing near. He reminded Sunny of his friend, the grocery boy. + +The words, "Goes off with a whang," reminded Sunny Boy of something, +though. He looked up into the friendly blue eyes of the baggage-window +man. + +"Maybe--" began Sunny Boy, "Maybe, I guess it was the alarm clock I +packed!" he finished bravely. + +"Well, I'll be hanged!" said the baggage-window man. His blue eyes +crinkled. + +The crowd had heard, and a ripple of laughter ran through them. As +suddenly as they had gathered, they melted away. + +"Let me have your tickets," said the baggage-window man. "I guess you can +still make the ten-forty-five." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ON THE TRAIN + + +Well, though, as Mr. Horton expressed it, they "had to hustle," they did +make the ten-forty-five. They went down in an elevator to board the train +and the ticket man at the gate would not let Mr. Horton through. + +Daddy hugged his little boy tight before he let him go, and Mother had +diamonds in her pretty brown eyes as she turned from saying good-by to +him. But when they looked back to wave to him, there was Daddy smiling +gayly at them and waving his hat. + +"Have a fine time," he called. "Take care of Mother, Sunny Boy. And look +for me exactly three weeks from to-day." + +Sunny Boy and Mother found a seat after they had walked through a number +of cars that were filled, and, though it was rather dark, Sunny Boy could +make out the people near them. + +"Look, Mother," he whispered, "there's the woman with the baby and the +other children we saw in the station. Isn't it funny they took our +train?" + +Sure enough, there they were, a little further down the aisle on the +other side of the car, lolly-pops and all. + +Mrs. Horton took off her hat and Sunny Boy's and put them in a large +paper bag she took from her bag. + +"That will keep them clean," she said, "and we shall be cooler and more +comfortable without them. We may have to shut the window when we get out +of the tunnel, but we need the air now. Now we're off! Hear the conductor +calling?" + +"All a-bo-ard," Sunny Boy heard some one crying. "All a-bo-ard!" and soon +the train began to move. + +Slowly they rumbled out of the dark gray of the train shed, past so many +snorting, sniffing black iron engines that Sunny Boy did not see why they +did not run into each other, past a crew of men working on the railroad +tracks, past red and green lights, into a tunnel without a roof, but +walled high on either side with smooth concrete walls. Just as Sunny Boy +grew tired of looking at this wall, it stopped, and the train was merrily +rushing along through open streets. Sunny Boy looked at Mother and +smiled. + +"Isn't it fun?" she said. + +For a long time Sunny Boy amused himself by watching the country through +which they were riding. They passed one or two little stations without +stopping, and at the crossings Sunny Boy saw children waving to the +train. He waved to them and hoped that they saw him. + +"Tickets!" The conductor had reached their car. + +Mrs. Horton took a ticket from her bag and gave it to her son. He held it +out and the conductor punched it and passed on. + +"Do you want me to keep it?" he asked. + +"I'll put it in my purse so it can't be lost," Mother answered. "But when +the conductor asks for it again you may give it to him. He won't come +again for ever so long." + +As Sunny Boy was watching an automobile racing with the train on a road +that ran alongside the tracks, a white-aproned colored man came into +their car. + +"First call for lunch!" he shouted. "First call for lunch!" + +Sunny Boy felt suddenly hungry. Down the aisle the woman with all the +children had opened a pasteboard box and they were having a picnic right +there. Other people were eating sandwiches. + +"We'll go and get our lunch," decided Mrs. Horton. "Be careful going down +the aisle, dear, and don't bump into people any more than you can help." + +They had to go through a parlor car to reach the dining car, and Sunny +Boy saw for himself that there was no piano, nothing but chairs on either +side of the aisle. A colored waiter helped him into his seat at a little +table in the dining car, and he thought it great fun to eat chicken broth +while looking out of the window at the telegraph poles galloping by. The +poles seemed to be moving instead of the train, but Sunny Boy knew the +train really moved. + +"Will there be another call for lunch?" he asked, remembering what the +man had shouted, as he ate his mashed potato and peas. + +"Oh yes, but we won't come," said Mrs. Horton. "That will be for the +people who weren't hungry when we were." + +A man at the table across from theirs picked up the menu card. + +"Now what on earth shall I order for dessert?" he frowned. "If the doctor +won't let me have meat, I suppose I have to eat something." + +"Chocolate ice-cream," suggested Sunny Boy helpfully, feeling sorry for +any one who did not know that it was the finest dessert in the world. + +The frown slid away from the man's face and he grinned cheerfully at the +small boy. + +"Is that what you are going to have?" he demanded. "All right then, I +will, too." + +And when it came, a neat little mountain of it, he and Sunny smiled again +at each other before they buried their silver spoons in the beautiful +dark iciness of it. + +Back in their seat in their car, Sunny was restless. To Mother's +suggestion that he take a nap, he said that he didn't feel sleepy. He +wished he had something to do--he was tired of looking at trees and +things. + +"I hoped you would take a little nap, but I suppose there is too much +excitement," said Mrs. Horton. "Well, then, how would you like to see the +surprise now?" + +"The surprise?" repeated Sunny Boy. "Oh, Mother--is that the box?" + +For answer Mrs. Horton opened the leather bag and took out the box neatly +wrapped in white paper that Sunny Boy had seen on the parlor table at +home. She put it in his lap and then took up the magazine she was +reading. + +"Oh my!" said Sunny Boy, when he had pulled off string and paper and +lifted the lid. + +Inside the box were six little packages, each wrapped in white paper and +tied with pink string. It was like Christmas. Sunny Boy unwrapped them +all, one after another, and underneath he found two long thin boxes, also +wrapped and tied. + +In the first package he found a box of colored crayons; in another, a +little pad of drawing paper; another held an envelope stamped and +addressed and a sheet of writing paper. In another was a lead pencil; the +fifth was a cake of sweet chocolate, and the sixth package was a little +lump of modeling wax. The two long thin packages proved to be boxes of +animal crackers. + +Sunny Boy was chiefly interested in the envelope, because he could not +read the writing on it. + +"Who's it to, Mother?" he urged. "Your writing runs into letters so I +can't read it." + +Mrs. Horton explained that the envelope was addressed to Daddy, and that +she thought she and Sunny Boy might write a little note to him and that +he would have it in the morning. + +"Is there a mail-box on the train?" asked Sunny, in surprise. + +"No, dear. But we will give it to the conductor and he will see that it +is mailed at the next station where we stop. You print on one side of the +sheet, and I will write a little message on the other." + +So, taking great pains and holding the pencil very tightly because the +motion of the train made it wobble in his fingers, Sunny Boy printed +this: + + DEER DADDY: I LOV YOU. + WE ARE HAVING A NICE TIME + ON THE TRANE. I AM TAKING + CARE OF MOTHER. YOUR + LOVING SUN, SUNNY BOY. + +Then Mother wrote her note, and they folded it up and sealed the letter +and Sunny gave it to the conductor when he next came through. + +After that he drew pictures and colored them with the crayons and nibbled +at his chocolate and modeled dogs and cats and horses with the wax. He +opened the cracker boxes, too, and played Noah's ark with them. The +children down the aisle watched him and nudged each other. Their mother +would not let them out into the aisle, or very likely they would have +come closer to see what that boy was doing with so many nice things. + +"I'd like, Mother," announced Sunny Boy suddenly, "to pass my crackers to +the little boy with the green tie--he looks like Nelson Baker. Would that +be all right?" + +"Why, of course," agreed Mrs. Horton. "Ask their mother if she is willing +for them to have some, and give some to each child, dear. And don't stay +too long, because I shall miss you." + +Sunny Boy went down the aisle to the seats where the children were. The +lolly-pops had disappeared long ago, and so had the picnic sandwiches. +They were all stickier than ever, were those children. The heavy baby was +asleep in his mother's lap, and she smiled when Sunny asked her if she +were willing he should pass his crackers. + +"Thank you, they'd like 'em first-rate," she said, speaking low so as not +to wake the baby. "Mamie, Ellen, Jamie, Fred, George--say thank you, and +don't grab." + +Sunny Boy stayed a little while, talking to them all, and they told him +they were going to another state far away. They would be all night on the +train. Sunny Boy was a bit disappointed that he must get off at +Cloverways, the nearest station to Grandpa's farm, for he had never +stayed all night on a train in his life. He hurried back to Mother to +tell her of the fortunate family who were to spend the night on the +train. + +"That poor woman!" Mother, to his astonishment, exclaimed. "She'll be +worn out before she gets all those children safely somewhere. Think of +sitting up all night with that fretful baby! I'll tell you, Sunny Boy--we +get off in about half an hour now; wouldn't you like to leave your +surprise package to amuse those children who are going farther than we +are? I'll help you tie them up again, and I have two more cakes of +chocolate in the bag. You are so careful with your things they are not +hurt at all, and it will keep them busy for an hour or two, playing with +them." + +Sunny Boy thought this a fine plan, and he hardly had all the packages +tied up and in the box again when Mrs. Horton pinned on her hat and gave +him his, saying that the next station was theirs. She went down the aisle +with him and they gave the surprise box to the five youngsters who were +delighted to have something new to look at. And then the train stopped, +and the brakeman lifted Sunny Boy down, and he found an old gentleman was +kissing Mother. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BROOKSIDE + + +Sunny Boy found himself looking into two dark eyes so much like Daddy's +that he almost jumped. But the rest of the old gentleman was not like +Daddy--no indeed. He was short and round instead of tall, and he had the +curliest white hair and beard Sunny Boy had ever seen. Sunny Boy knew +this must be Grandpa Horton, and when he was lifted up in a pair of +strong arms and given a tremendous hug before being gently set down, he +decided that he loved him very much. + +"Grandma couldn't come," explained Grandpa, leading the way to an +old-fashioned carriage and pair of horses drawn up at the other end of +the station. "There's only Araminta to help her with the supper, and +Grandma's heart was set on having the biscuits just right. In you go, +Olive. Wait a minute, though, what about your trunk?" + +"I have the check, Father," Mrs. Horton answered. "I thought Jimmie would +be coming down in the morning to the creamery. He can get it then." + +"An' Mother brought her nightie in the bag an' my pajamas," contributed +Sunny Boy, waiting while Mother and the bag were stowed away on the back +seat. + +"Want to ride up with me and help drive?" said Grandpa, turning to him +suddenly. + +Poor Sunny Boy was sorely tempted, but he decided quickly. + +"I have to take care of Mother," he said. "She might be lonesome all +alone in the back." + +"No, indeed," cried Mother instantly. "You ride up there with Grandpa, +precious. You were so good not to tease about the taxi. I'll lean over +the seat and talk to you both." + +So Sunny Boy and Grandpa got into the front seat, and Sunny learned that +the horses' names were Paul and Peter, and that they were not afraid of +automobiles, and that he could drive them whenever some older person was +with him. Paul and Peter trotted briskly along, and Grandpa said they +knew they were going home to supper. + +They drove through the town, and Sunny Boy thought it looked very cool, +and clean, and pretty, after the warm and dusty train. The grass was +bright green, and, as Sunny Boy wrote Harriet, "millions and dozens" of +robins were singing among the trees. A great red sun was going to bed +back of a high dark hill, and Sunny Boy, sitting beside Grandpa and +holding the reins while Paul and Peter trotted steadily, thought that the +country was the nicest place he had ever been in. + +Then, where the road divided, Grandpa took the reins and turned the team +to the left. They entered a lane with white-washed fences on either side +and tall waving trees like soldiers, which Mrs. Horton said were elms. + +"Now, Sunny Boy," she told him softly, "here's Brookside." + +Sunny Boy saw an old red brick house with a great white porch across the +front and a green lawn all about it. A white picket fence went all around +the lawn, and as Grandpa stopped the horses before the gate, three people +came out. There was a tall, thin young man who went to the horses' heads, +a little girl with flaming red hair who looked about fourteen years old, +and a tall, thin old lady with hair as white and curly as Grandpa's, who +came out to the carriage and took Mother and Sunny Boy both in her arms +at once. + +"You're Grandma," said Sunny Boy. + +It was Grandma Horton, and she remembered Sunny Boy without a bit of +trouble; though, as he had been only two weeks old the last time she had +seen him, he could not be expected to remember her. + +"And this is Araminta," said Grandma, drawing the little red-haired girl +forward. "She is my right hand in the house. You recall Jimmie, Olive?" + +Jimmie was the young man holding the horses. He came and shook hands with +Mrs. Horton, blushing a little, and chucked Sunny under the chin. Then he +took the team away to the barn, and Mother and Sunny Boy and Grandpa and +Grandma Horton and Araminta went in to supper. + +They had wonderful fresh foamy milk to drink, and hot biscuits and cold +ham for the grown-ups. Sunny Boy was not expected to eat those--not at +night. There were baked apples, too, and honey and cookies. Sunny, seated +before a bowl of bread and milk, held a cookie in his hand and wondered +what was the matter with the hanging lamp with the pretty red shade. It +swung up and down like a train lantern. + +"He's sleepy," he heard some one say. It sounded like Araminta. + +He opened his eyes as wide as he could make them go, tried to take +another bite of cookie and made one last desperate effort to smile. The +smile ran into a yawn, and Sunny Boy gave up and tumbled, a tired little +ball of weariness, into Mother's lap. + +He never knew who carried him upstairs, or when he was undressed. So, +waking in the morning to find the sun shining in four windows at once, +and Mother in her blue dressing gown brushing her hair, he was a bit +surprised. + +"Hello!" said Mother gayly. "How do you think you are going to like the +country?" + +"Are the chickens up?" asked Sunny Boy. + +"Hours ago. Mr. Rooster crowing under our window woke me up at five +o'clock," replied Mrs. Horton. "I heard Jimmie bring in the milk a few +minutes before you sat up. And if you want to ride into town with him +after the trunk--" + +Sunny Boy jumped out of bed and fairly galloped with his dressing. He +insisted on using the wash bowl and pitcher, though there was a nice +white bathroom down the hall, because a wash bowl and pitcher were new to +him. Just as he had finished brushing his hair, Araminta rapped at the +door to tell them breakfast was ready. + +In the dining room Sunny Boy met another member of the family. Lying on a +rug in the corner was a shaggy brown and white collie that rose as they +came in and, coming over to Mrs. Horton, laid a beautiful pointed nose in +her lap. + +"We shut him in the barn last night, because we thought you'd be too +tired to stand his barking," said Grandma. "His name is Bruce, and he is +very gentle. Don't be afraid of him, Sunny Boy." + +The collie went back to his rug while they were at breakfast, but when +Jimmie and Sunny Boy started for the door he got up to follow them. + +"Is he going, too?" asked Sunny Boy. + +"He never goes off the farm," answered Jimmie. "He'll follow us to the +end of the lane and then go back. Hop in lively, now, for we're late as +it is." + +Jimmie had harnessed Peter to a wagon that had only one high seat. In +back of this were two cans of milk which Jimmie explained, in answer to +Sunny's questions, would be made into butter at the creamery in +Cloverways. + +"Is Araminta your sister?" Sunny Boy asked him as they jogged along. + +"No, she's the tenant farmer's daughter--the man who does the farming for +your Grandpa, you know. I work Spring and Summer for him and in Winter I +go to the agricultural school. That's where they teach you to be a +farmer." + +After they left the milk at the creamery they drove down to the station +and got the trunk. Sunny Boy told Jimmie about the alarm clock, and he +laughed. Then, after stopping at a yellow store with high white steps, +where Jimmie bought some groceries for Grandma, they turned Peter's head +toward home. + +"What are you going to do first?" asked Jimmie, smiling down at his small +companion. + +"I don't know--what are you?" + +"Oh, I have work to do--have to weed the garden this morning. But you +have the whole farm to get acquainted with. I'll tell you--if I were you, +I'd go down to the brook and play." + +"I guess I will," decided Sunny Boy. + +Mrs. Horton wanted to unpack the trunk, and when Grandma assured her that +the brook was not deep and Sunny Boy promised not to go wading until she +should be there, she kissed him and told him to run along and have a good +time. + +On his way to the brook, Sunny Boy passed Grandpa and Jimmie in wide +straw hats working in the garden. Grandpa pointed out the brook to him. +It ran through a meadow that came right up to the garden. + +"I'll be down and play with you myself as soon as we get this lettuce +transplanted," said Grandpa. + +Sunny had never had a brook to play in before, and he thought it fine. It +was not a very wide brook, but it was very clear, and Sunny Boy could see +the pebbles on the bottom. Little darting fish went in and out, hiding +under the long grasses that leaned over the edge. Bruce came panting down +as Sunny Boy looked at the water, and took a long drink. Then he lay down +in the grass, his brown doggie eyes fixed watchfully on his new friend. + +"Wonder what that is?" said Sunny Boy to himself. + +"That" was a wooden wheel that turned in the water with slow, even jerks, +sending out a little spray of rainbow drops that fell back into the +water. Sunny Boy got down on his knees to watch it. Quite suddenly, +without warning, the wheel stopped turning. + +Sunny Boy waited, but it did not turn again. He blew on it gently, and +still it did not move. Then he ran over to the big tree nearest him and +picked up a stick. + +"I'll fix it," he said aloud. "Grandpa'll be surprised if I get it mended +'fore he comes." + +Well, as it turned out, Grandpa was surprised, but not as much as Sunny +Boy. He leaned over, and jabbed the obstinate wheel with his stick; the +dry end of the stake snapped, and Sunny Boy, stick and all, tumbled +head-first into the water. In after him leaped a flash of brown and +white--good old Bruce! + +The water was very cold, and when Sunny had swallowed some of it and +shaken some from his eyes, he scrambled to his feet crying bitterly. He +thought he was freezing to death. Bruce pulled at his coat and tried to +drag him back, and it was his frantic barking that attracted Jimmie's +notice. He came tearing across the meadow, followed by Grandpa. + +"There--there--you're all right," said Jimmie, as he pulled the little +boy out in a jiffy. "Don't cry so, Brother, you're only frightened. How'd +it happen?" + +"The wheel stopped!" sobbed Sunny Boy. "An' I tried to fix it. I was +going to s'prise Grandpa." + +"So you did," admitted Jimmie, while Bruce circled around them, barking +madly. "Now we'll have to look out that you don't surprise us more by +catching cold from this ducking." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ADVENTURES BEGIN + + +Grandpa hurried up to them, his kind face filled with anxiety. + +"I brought my coat," he gasped, for he was out of breath from running. +"Wrap him in that, Jimmie. Then hustle for the house." + +Jimmie carrying Sunny Boy and Grandpa and Bruce following made quite a +little procession. Mrs. Horton, who was down at the gate with Grandma +inspecting the garden, was startled. + +"Sunny Boy!" she cried, and came running toward them. "What happened? Are +you hurt?" + +"He's all right," Grandpa assured her cheerfully. "Just fell into the +brook and got a little damp, that's all. Mercy, Olive, don't look like +that--brooks were made for boys to fall into. Why I'd dragged Harry out a +dozen times before he was Arthur's age." + +Of course Mother and Grandma were relieved and thankful to find it was +nothing more serious than a ducking. But they decided that it was safer +to rub Sunny Boy briskly with towels and put him to bed to rest. + +"You might take cold and be sick a long time, precious," explained Mrs. +Horton, as she popped him between the sheets. "You would miss all the +Summer fun then. Now close your eyes and Mother will read to you." + +And while listening to the adventures of a little Italian boy, Sunny's +blue eyes grew heavier and heavier, till he went to sleep. + +When he awoke, Mrs. Horton had gone, and the room was empty and quiet. +Sunny Boy lay for a time, studying the walls and furniture, for he had +been asleep when put to bed the night before and had dressed for +breakfast in such a hurry that he had not noticed much of anything. It +was a very different room from his blue and white bedroom at home, but a +very pleasant, pretty room, too. The wall-paper had gay little pink roses +scattered thickly over it, and the furniture was all very large and dark +and brightly polished. Sunny Boy did not know it, but the four-posted bed +in which he was lying had belonged to his great-grandmother, and would be +his own some day. + +Presently Sunny Boy tired of lying still and began to be conscious of a +funny sensation somewhere down in his ribs. At least he thought it must +be his ribs. He remembered that he had had no lunch. Did his grandma +expect him to starve at her house? + +Sunny Boy got up and found his slippers. The ''fernal 'chine' of an alarm +clock was ticking steadily away on the bureau where Mrs. Horton had +placed it after unpacking, and with a great deal of trouble and much +tracing with a wet forefinger, he made out that it was three o'clock--or +was it five o'clock? Three o'clock in the afternoon and no lunch! Sunny +Boy felt so sorry for himself that he sat down on the floor and wept a +little. He was not quite awake yet, you see, and our troubles often look +rather large when we first wake up. In just a minute Sunny Boy stopped +crying--he had thought what to do. + +Naturally his grandmother would not wish him to go without eating all +day, so why not go down and try to find a little chocolate cake, or some +of those cookies left from last night's supper? Sunny Boy had not the +slightest idea where the pantry was, but he was sure there must be +one--every house had a pantry with a cake box in it. So, in his slippers +and pink pajamas, he crept out into the hall intent on locating the +pantry in Grandma Horton's house. + +He met no one on his way downstairs, and the first floor of the house +seemed deserted, too. He couldn't know that his mother and Grandma had +peeped in at him several times and found him fast asleep, or that now +they were on the side porch entertaining a caller. Jimmie and Grandpa +were working in the garden again, and Araminta had gone home until it +should be time to start supper. This was why Sunny Boy found no one on +his path to the pantry. He found it without great trouble, because he +kept going until he came to the kitchen, and a kitchen and the pantry are +never very far apart. + +Grandma's pantry was a beautiful place, shelves and walls and floor a +snowy white, and boxes and jars in apple-pie order. There was a large +window with a table under it, and there Grandma rolled her cookies and +made her pies, but Sunny Boy did not know that yet. He spied a round box +that, to his experienced eyes, looked as though it might hold cake. + +"I'll get a chair," he said aloud, talking to himself, as he often did. +"An' I won't take only a little piece. I wish I was bigger." + +He meant taller. + +He carried in a kitchen chair and scrambled up on it. His eyes were on a +level with the shelf, and there sat two beautiful brown pies beside the +cake box. Sunny poked a small, fat finger into the nearest one to taste +it. It was very good, though he did not "remember" the taste. My, how +soury it was! Grandma had baked two rhubarb pies. But no pie could hold +Sunny's attention very long--his heart was set on cake. Standing on his +tiptoes, he managed to lift the tin lid of the box when a voice at the +door startled him. + +"My land of Goshen!" ejaculated Araminta. + +Sunny Boy's hand slipped, the lid came down sharply on his fingers, and +his other hand swept across the shelf to knock over a brown bowl from +which some sticky yellow stuff began to stream. + +"Now you've done it!" Araminta told him. "That's the custard pudding for +to-morrow's dinner. What in the world are you trying to do, anyway?" + +Araminta was not accustomed to finding small boys in pale pink pajamas +standing on chairs in her pantry, so no wonder she was surprised. But she +was kind, was Araminta, and she helped Sunny Boy down, and did not scold. +She got a basin of clean water and a clean cloth and wiped up the pudding +and washed Sunny's hands for him. + +"I came back an hour earlier than I had to," she told him, "'cause I +thought maybe you'd be up and might like to see the chicken yard. No +wonder you're hungry if you didn't have any lunch. Your Grandma has some +saved for you on a big plate. I guess they don't know you're up. You go +and get dressed, and I'll warm it up for you. And don't say anything +about knocking over the custard--let 'em think it was the cat." + +Sunny Boy was washed and dressed by the time Mother came up again to see +if he was awake. She helped him a bit with his hair and straightened his +collar and kissed him three or four times and then went down with him to +see him eat. Grandma did not call it lunch--they had dinner and supper on +the farm. + +Sunny Boy had a queer little feeling all the while he was eating and he +was so quiet that his mother thought perhaps he was still tired from his +tumble into the brook. He went out with Araminta afterward to see the +chicken yard, and he almost, but not quite, forgot the queer feeling in +watching the hundreds of white chickens and white ducks busily scratching +in the yard and drinking water "upside down," as he told Grandpa that +night. A chicken, you know, doesn't drink water as you do, but +differently. Araminta gave Sunny Boy a handful of cracked corn to throw +to the biddies, and they came flocking about his feet, pushing and +scrambling so that he was glad when Araminta shooed them away from him. +She showed him the nests, too, and in many of them were pretty white +eggs. He could gather them some morning, all himself, Araminta told him. + +Coming out of the chicken yard they met Jimmie, whistling merrily. He was +glad to find Sunny Boy all right after his wetting, and asked him if he +did not want to come out to the stable to see Peter and Paul and "the +prettiest little fellows you ever saw." Sunny Boy went gladly, but the +queer little feeling went, too. + +Peter and Paul, it seemed, lived in a house that was called a barn, and +were very comfortable. They had each a little room, "box stalls" Jimmie +called them, and all the hay they could eat. For breakfast and dinner and +supper they usually had corn and now and then some oats. The barn was a +delightful place, and Jimmie pointed out the hay mow when Sunny Boy +mentioned that Harriet had said that was the place to play on rainy +days. + +"Not much hay in it now," announced Jimmie, leading the way into another +little room. "We start cutting this year's crop next week. Ever seen any +one hay?" + +Sunny Boy had not, but he forgot to say so, because he found himself +looking down on a gentle-eyed collie dog mother with three of the dearest +little blind baby puppies you could wish to see. Jimmie explained that +Lassie was Mrs. Bruce, and that the puppies would have their eyes open in +a day or two. + +"And one of them's to be yours--your Grandpa said so," Jimmie went on. + +And in spite of that--and what child would not be pleased to have a puppy +for his very own?--the queer little feeling still stayed with Sunny Boy. +It was like a small lump of lead right down at the end of his throat. + +"I'm going up to the house now for the milk pails," announced Jimmie, +when they had finished looking at the puppies. "You can come out and +watch me milk if you want to." + +In the kitchen they found Mother and Grandma. + +"Don't let Topaz in," said Grandma, as Jimmie opened the door. "That +wretched cat has eaten half my egg custard, and I won't have him in the +house again to-night." + +Araminta was setting the table in the dining room and did not hear. Sunny +Boy gulped a little, but spoke up bravely. + +"'Twasn't Topaz, Grandma. I knocked the custard over, looking for cake. I +didn't mean to, but my hand slipped." + +Then how he did cry! + +But when the whole story had come out, and Grandma had hugged him, and +had said not to mind, that she could make another pudding in a minute; +after Mother had whispered to him that while it was naughty to help +oneself to cake without asking, it was much worse to let the kitty-cat be +blamed, and had kissed him and assured him she was sure he would not do +it again; after Araminta had given him a pink peppermint--after all this, +and Sunny Boy was on his way to the barn with Jimmie to watch the +milking, do you know, that queer little feeling had entirely +disappeared! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A LETTER FROM DADDY + + +"My land of Goshen!" + +Sunny Boy sat on the fence post waiting for the postman. He was great +friends now with the postman who came to the farm, almost as great +friends as with the cheerful, gray-uniformed letter-carrier in the city, +the one who brought letters to the house with the shining numbers that +Harriet faithfully polished. + +This postman in the country did not wear a uniform, and he came in a +little red automobile that one could hear chug-chugging half a mile away. +He did not whistle either, as the city postman did, but he put the +letters and parcels into a tin box nailed to a post; then he turned up a +little tin flag to say that he had been there, and the farm folk came +down to the end of the lane and got the mail. The country postman came +only once a day, instead of the three times Sunny Boy was used to seeing +the city postman, but that really made it more exciting. + +"My land of Goshen!" said Sunny Boy again. He was rather proud of that +expression, and used it as often as he could. + +"I don't think you ought to say that," Araminta had reproved him the +first time she heard him. + +"But you say it," argued Sunny Boy. + +"Well, that's no reason why you should," retorted Araminta, who, like +many grown-ups, did not always practice what she preached. "Anyway, I'm +going to stop saying it when I'm fifteen." + +"Maybe I will, too," promised Sunny Boy blithely. And that was the best +Araminta could hope from him. + +"My land--" began Sunny for the third time, but the red automobile of the +postman came to a sliding stop beside the box, and fortunately +interrupted him. + +"Hello Blue Jeans!" called the postman, who found a new name for Sunny +Boy every day. "How do you like farming now? Am I to give the mail to +you, or put it in the box?" + +This was an every day question. The postman pretended to be very much +surprised when Sunny Boy said he would take the mail, and he always +handed it out a piece at a time, so that Sunny never knew how much was +coming. + +"There's two for your grandfather," counted the postman, handing them to +his small friend standing on the running board. "And that's for your +grandmother. Here's the Cloverways' weekly paper for the whole family. +My, my, one--two--three--five seven letters, all for your mother. And a +box, too. Is that all? Yep, guess that's all to-day." + +Sunny Boy got down from the running board and the postman started his car +slowly. + +"Oh, Mr. Corntassel!" the postman called suddenly. "Here's another. I +declare, I must be getting old, or need glasses, or something. If there +isn't a letter addressed to you and I came within one of taking it back +to the post-office with me!" + +He gave Sunny Boy another letter, and this time drove off without +stopping. + +"My land of Goshen!" said Sunny Boy, who was using Araminta's pet +expression far more often than she did. "Such a heap of letters. Maybe +mine's from Daddy." + +He found Mrs. Horton in the porch swing, sewing. She had to kiss the +seven new freckles on his nose before she could read her mail, and then +Sunny Boy had to trudge about and find Grandpa and Grandma and deliver +their letters to them. He felt quite like a postman himself, though it is +doubtful if real postmen have sugar cookies and peppermints paid to them +for each letter they bring. So by the time Sunny Boy got around to having +his own letter read to him, Mother had finished hers and had opened her +box. + +"See what Daddy sent us," she said, holding up the package for him to +see. In the box were two balls of pink wool and four of dark blue. + +"Now I can make you a sweater," explained Mrs. Horton. "The pink is for a +scarf I am finishing for Aunt Bessie. By the way, I had a letter from +her, dear, and she sends her love, and so does Harriet." + +"All right," agreed Sunny Boy briefly. "Could you read this now, +Mother?" + +"Why, it's from Daddy!" cried Mother, taking the crumpled envelope Sunny +Boy drew from his pocket. "Did you wait till you gave every one else his +mail, precious? Well, listen--" + + "Dear Sunny Boy," said Daddy's letter. "So you fell into the brook! + Don't tell Jimmie, but I did the same when I was just about as tall + as you are. Grandma fished me out--only she wasn't Grandma then. + + "Don't go fishing till I come up, for you might catch them all and + leave none for me. One week from the day you're reading this I'll + be at Brookside. Hope you and Jimmie and Peter and Paul will come + to meet me. Mother, too, if she likes, and Grandpa and Grandma and + Araminta and Bruce, if they're going to be real glad to see me. You + seem to have a lot of friends. Brookside always was a mighty fine + place for small boys--like you and me. + + "Can't write more now because a man wants to talk to me--at least + he is ringing my telephone bell and won't stop. Love to you and + Mother from--DADDY." + +Whenever Sunny Boy was pleased he made a little song to sing. He did so +now, skipping out to the garden where Grandpa was generally to be found. + +"Daddy's coming! Daddy's coming! Next week! Pretty soon," sang Sunny Boy +to a tune of his own. "Jimmie, where's Grandpa? Daddy's coming next week, +pretty soon!" + +"Well don't walk all over the cabbage plants if he is," said Jimmie, who +was busy and did not like to be interrupted. "I think your grandfather is +down with Mr. Sites looking at the mowing machine. They're down in the +south meadow." + +Sunny Boy knew his way about the farm as well as Jimmie by this time. He +knew the pretty brown cow, Mrs. Butterball and her long legged calf, +Butterette; and he was fast friends with Peter and Paul and the dogs. +Sunny had named his puppy Brownie. He knew most of the chickens and ducks +by names of his own, and he had held a little squirmy lamb in his arms +for a minute, with Jimmie helping. He was going fishing, when Daddy came; +and he was going up into the woods the first time some one had a moment +to take him. Then he would have been all over the farm. + +Still singing to himself, he trotted down to the south meadow and found +Grandpa and a strange man talking earnestly together. + +"Look out! Stay where you are!" called the strange man suddenly. "Back, +Bruce, back!" + +Sunny Boy stopped instantly. So did Bruce, who had followed him. Neither +the little boy nor the dog could see why they should be shouted at, but +they obeyed without question. And in a minute they saw a very good reason +why. The stranger talking to Grandpa bent down and lifted a handle on a +queer looking machine, and right out of the grass--where no one could +have seen it--rose a long ugly thing that looked like a big saw. + +"All right, Sunny Boy!" called Grandpa. + +"What is it?" asked Sunny, eyeing the long saw curiously. + +"It's the mowing machine. We're going to cut hay with it presently," +answered Grandpa. "Sites, this is Harry's son." + +Mr. Sites shook hands with Sunny Boy, smiling down at him cheerfully. + +"You don't say!" he drawled. "Well, youngster, your father and I went to +school together. When's he coming up? I'd like to see him again." + +"Daddy's coming next week, pretty soon," sang Sunny Boy, capering about +the mowing machine joyously. "He wrote me a letter. May I sit on it, +Grandpa?" + +Sunny meant the seat of the mowing machine, and Grandpa lifted him in and +held him while Mr. Sites harnessed up a pair of fat white horses and Mr. +Hatch appeared from somewhere. Sunny Boy was acquainted with Mr. Hatch. +He was Araminta's father and did most of the farming for Grandpa. The +Hatches lived in a yellow house down the road, and Araminta had six +little brothers and sisters with whom Sunny sometimes played. So you see +he was not lonely. + +"Now we'll go over to the fence," said Grandpa, lifting him down, "and +watch how the grass is cut. That saw-thing is the knife, and you must +never go near a mowing machine unless you can see the knife sticking up. +Little boys and dogs, and even men, can be very easily hurt if they are +careless and don't watch the knife." + +So Grandpa and Mr. Sites and Sunny Boy sat on the fence and Bruce lay +down at their feet, while Mr. Hatch rode on the mowing machine round and +round the field. The fat white horses did not hurry in the least, but a +wide light green path marked where the grass was being cut. Grandpa +explained that when the sun had dried this grass it was called hay, and +that Peter and Paul liked it to eat and to make their beds of in the +winter. He promised Sunny Boy that he should help rake the hay the next +afternoon. + +Whr-rr! purred the mowing machine as Mr. Hatch turned and the fat white +horses came toward them. + +"Whoa!" the horses stopped suddenly. + +Up came the long saw-knife, and Mr. Hatch jumped down from his seat and +bent over, looking at something on the ground. + +"He's found something," said Mr. Sites to Grandpa. "Wonder if it is--" + +"Hey, Sunny! Sunny Boy! Oh, Sunny Boy!" Mr. Hatch waved his big straw hat +wildly. "Come and see what I've got. Make Bruce stay there." + +"I'll hold Bruce," said Mr. Sites. "You two go on over. I'll bet a cookie +I know what he's found." + +Sunny Boy raced over the meadow, dragging Grandpa by the hand. Mr. Hatch +had looked very near, but it was a very wide meadow if you tried to run +across it. + +"Hurry," sputtered Sunny Boy, red in the face with the excitement and +heat. + +"Am hurrying," grunted Grandpa. "You seem to forget about the bone in my +leg!" + +But Sunny Boy was too eager to see what Mr. Hatch had found to be sorry +even for a grandfather with a bone in his leg. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SUNNY BOY FORGETS + + +When they reached the horses and the machine, the Something was around on +the other side. + +"Here, Sunny Boy, here's a sight for you," said Mr. Hatch mysteriously. +"What do you think of this?" + +Sunny Boy bent down to look. There, in a hole in the ground, half-hidden +by the tall grass all about it, were four little furry baby rabbits! + +"Bunnies!" and Sunny plunged his two hands down into the middle of that +furry bunch. + +They snuggled closer, and their soft eyes looked frightened, but they did +not try to run away. + +[Illustration: He lifted one of the baby rabbits and placed it in +Sunny's hands.] + +"Where's their mamma?" demanded Sunny Boy. + +"The mower scared her off," said Mr. Hatch. "Pick one up--you won't hurt +it--see, like this." + +He lifted one of the baby rabbits and placed it in Sunny's hands. It +wriggled uneasily, and he let it fall back into the nest. Mr. Hatch and +Grandpa laughed. + +"We'll leave them right here," declared Mr. Hatch kindly. "I'll mow +around the nest, but not very near, and I guess the mother rabbit will +come back to-night. Funny creatures, aren't they? Every year they have a +nest in a grass field, and every year I come within an ace of cutting off +their noses." + +Sunny Boy and Bruce wandered back to the house alone. Grandpa was busy +overhauling more machinery with Mr. Sites, and Jimmie was still busy with +cabbages. Sunny was used to so much attention that he felt rather put out +when Araminta, sweeping the front porch, told him that Mother and Grandma +had taken Peter and the buggy and had driven to Cloverways. + +"They said I could go next time," grumbled Sunny Boy, not a bit sunnily. +"Mother said so. 'Tain't fair." + +"Don't say 'tain't," corrected Araminta, who was very careful of Sunny's +grammar. "Say it isn't fair. Only it is--how could you go when you were +down in the field with your grandpa?" + +Sunny Boy felt that if Araminta had deserted him, there was no friend +left. He went on into the house and wept a little, curled up in the big +leather chair in the sitting room. He felt very sorry for himself. + +But even a little boy whose mother and grandmother have gone away and +left him can not feel sorry very long when a June breeze is ruffling the +white curtains at the window and there is a whole farm ready and waiting +for him to come out and play. After a few big raindrop tears and a sniff +or two, Sunny Boy wiped his eyes on his "hanky," and decided that he +would be brave and cheerful and then perhaps his family would be sorry to +think how they had treated him. + +He decided to make a kite and go out and fly it, the wind at the window +making him think of kite-flying and the sight of a mass of papers on +Grandpa's desk in one corner of the room suggesting what to make the kite +of. He went over to the desk and climbed upon the chair standing before +it. + +Ordinarily Sunny Boy had a good memory. He could remember things for +Mother and he seldom forgot where he had left his toys, but this morning +a strange thing happened--his memory did not work at all. He forgot +completely that Mother had told him not to touch other people's things +without permission and that books and papers were not to be opened or +even unfolded unless one first asked. + +Sunny Boy thrust a hand down among the papers on Grandpa's desk and +pulled out two nice smooth brown pieces of paper that seemed strong and +just exactly right for a kite. For good measure he took a letter or two, +and then scurried out to the kitchen for string. + +He had never made a kite, but he had often watched the boys in the park +at home flying them, and he had a very good idea of how they were made. +He had his own bottle of paste Mother had brought for him and he found +the kind of sticks he wanted out in the yard. In half an hour he had the +papers pasted smoothly over the sticks, a wiggly tail of crumpled papers +from the waste-basket tied on, and yards and yards of string wound on a +piece of wood. Sunny Boy was ready to sail his kite. + +Araminta gave him a cookie and advised him to go down by the brook. + +"There's more breeze there," she said. "But for mercy's sake don't fall +in again. And come in when you hear me ring the bell." + +Sunny Boy trudged down to the brook and started running with his kite as +he had seen the boys do, to give it a good start. Up, up, it went, +sailing high over his head, the crumpled paper tail wiggling in the +wind. + +"Jus' as good," said Sunny Boy to himself, "jus' as good." + +He meant to say "Just as good as Archie Johnson's," Archie being one of +the older boys who played in the park and who sailed elaborate kites. But +Sunny had not tied the knots in his string tightly enough, and a strong +puff of wind coming by, the cord parted and away sailed the kite, over +the brook and into the woods! + +"Ding-ling! Ding-ling! Ding-a-ling!" rang Araminta's bell. + +It is often a good thing to be too busy to cry. Sunny Boy might have felt +bad over the loss of his kite--indeed he watched it out of sight--but if +he meant to cry the sound of the bell changed his mind. Instead, he ran +up to the house as fast as he could go, and found Mother and Grandma +waiting for him. + +"Did you miss us?" asked his mother. "We knew you were having a good +time, dear. Grandma has brought you a lolly-pop. What have you been doing +to get so sun-burned?" + +"Flying kites," stated Sunny Boy. "Thank you, Grandma. We found bunnies +down in the field." + +Grandpa came on the porch then, his glasses pushed up on his forehead. + +"Mary, Olive, have either of you seen anything of those two five hundred +dollar bonds I had on my desk?" he said anxiously. "They were there this +morning, and when I came in from the mowing I couldn't find them. Have +either of you used my desk?" + +"No, Father," said Mrs. Horton. + +"No, Arthur," said Grandma. "I'm sure Araminta hasn't been near the desk, +either. Sunny, you weren't in the sitting room this morning, were you?" + +"Yes, I was," chirped Sunny Boy. + +"But you didn't see anything of Grandpa's bonds--his nice beautiful, +Liberty Bonds, did you, dear?" asked Mrs. Horton. + +"No, Mother." + +"Well," Grandpa sighed, and turned to go in, "I'll look more thoroughly, +of course. But they're gone--I'm sure of it. I had no business to be so +careless. They should have been in the bank a week ago. They might have +blown out of the window--I'll see that a screen goes in that window +to-night." + +Sunny Boy put down his lolly-pop and followed Grandpa into the house. He +found him seated at the desk, the papers in great confusion all about +him. + +"Well, Sunny, did you come to help me hunt?" asked Grandpa. "Don't bother +your yellow head about it. When you grow up, try to be more careful than +your grandfather." + +Sunny Boy slipped a warm little hand into Grandpa's. + +"I made a kite--with papers," he confessed bravely. "Not Lib'ty Bonds, +Grandpa, just papers on top of your desk. I was 'musing myself, and I had +to have a kite." + +"I see," said Grandpa slowly, and not a bit crossly. "What color paper, +dear? White?" + +"No, brown," replied Sunny Boy eagerly, sure now that he had not taken +the missing bonds. "Just brown, Grandpa, and two old letters." + +"Yes, I've copies of those--they don't matter," said Grandpa. "But we'd +better get that kite, Namesake, because you've pasted my bonds on it, and +a thousand dollars is a bit too expensive a kite even for my one and only +grandson." + +"But it flew off!" Sunny Boy began to cry. "The string broke, an' it went +over the brook into the woods." + +Mrs. Horton, coming into the sitting room to remind Sunny Boy to wash his +face and hands before dinner, found her little boy crying as though his +heart would break in Grandpa's arms. + +"What in the world--" she began. + +"There--there--it's all right," soothed Grandpa. "We're in a peck of +trouble, Olive, because we took some papers from Grandpa's desk to make a +kite with and now they turn out to be two Liberty Bonds. And the +kite--like the pesky contrivance it is--got away and is hiding somewhere +in the woods. But we're going out right after dinner and hunt for it, +aren't we, Sunny Boy?" + +Sunny Boy felt Mother's kind hand smoothing his hair. + +"Oh, my dear little boy!" said Mother's voice. "My dear little son! How +could you? Didn't you know how wrong it was to touch a single thing on +Grandpa's desk?" + +"I forgot," said Sunny Boy in a very little voice. + +"Why I wouldn't have believed that my Sunny Boy could forget," grieved +Mother. "And now Grandpa's money is lost! And Daddy coming next week! +What will he say?" + +"We're going to find it long before Daddy comes," said Grandpa stoutly. +"Right after dinner we're going over to the woods. Sunny can remember +about where he thinks the kite fell. Cheer up, Olive--we're sorry we +didn't remember about 'hands off' when other people's property is about, +but every one forgets once in a while. And I was careless--I'm as great a +sinner as Sunny. And now forgive us both before we're quite drowned in +our tears." + +Mother and Sunny Boy had another little cry all to themselves upstairs +and he told her that never, _never_ would he touch anything that did not +belong to him again without first asking. Then they both bathed their +faces in clear cold water and felt better. No one mentioned bonds at +dinner, and there was strawberry short-cake which Sunny Boy declared was +as good as his favorite chocolate ice cream. And right after dinner he +and Grandpa went out to hunt for the lost kite. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +GOING FISHING + + +But though Grandpa and Sunny Boy hunted and hunted and hunted, till it +seemed as though they must have covered every inch of the big woods; +though they searched the tangled thickets where the briery blackberry +bushes grew along the edge of the brook; though they looked up at the +trees till their necks ached, hoping perhaps to find the kite caught in +the branches; still they had to come home without the precious Liberty +Bonds. + +"Never mind," said Grandpa, as they made their way toward home over a +little pathway of stones tumbled together in the brook to make a bridge, +"Never mind, Sunny. If we can't find them, we can't, and there is no use +in feeling bad about it any longer. You didn't mean to lose the bonds, we +all know that, so we'll just stop crying over spilled milk and cheer up +and be happy again." + +But it was a very unhappy little boy who went to bed early that +night--for the long tramp had tired him--and for several days after the +loss of the kite Sunny Boy kept rather closely to the house. + +He liked to be in the kitchen with Araminta or on the side porch with +Grandma and Mother. Jimmie and Bruce tried to coax him to go with them, +but he said politely that he didn't feel like it. + +However, as the time drew near for his father's visit Sunny Boy cheered +up, and by the morning that Daddy was expected he felt quite like his +usually sunny self. + +"Are you going to meet Daddy?" he asked Mother that morning, as he +brushed his hair after she had parted it for him. + +"I don't believe I'll go down," answered Mrs. Horton. "If you and Grandpa +go, that will be enough and I'll be at the gate waiting for you." + +"Daddy's coming!" Sunny Boy pounded his spoon against his bread and milk +bowl. + +"Sunny!" said Mother warningly. + +"He's most here now!" and Sunny's feet hammered against the table so that +the coffee pot danced a jig. + +"Sunny Boy!" implored Grandma. + +"I'm going to meet him!" This time Sunny Boy upset his glass of water +with a wild sweep of his arm. + +Grandpa pushed back his chair. + +"I think we'd better start," he observed, "before a certain young man +goes out of the window. If you're as glad as all this to think that +Daddy's coming, what are you going to do when you really see him?" + +But Sunny Boy was already out of the room and down at the gate where +Jimmie stood holding Peter and Paul already harnessed to the carryall. + +"Let me feed 'em sugar," teased Sunny Boy. "Hold me up, Jimmie, I'm not +'fraid of their teeth now." + +"You pile in," said Jimmie good-naturedly. "If you're going to meet that +train, you want to start in a few minutes. Say, Sunny, what ails you this +morning?" for Sunny Boy had gone around to the back of the carriage, +scrambled up over the top of the second seat, and was now tumbling head +first into the cushions of the front seat. + +Grandpa came out in a more leisurely fashion and took the reins. + +"All right, Jimmie, we're off. In case anything happens to the team, +Sunny has enough push in him this morning to pull the carriage there and +back." + +Peter and Paul trotted briskly, and Sunny's tongue kept pace with their +heels. His shrill little voice was the first thing Mr. Horton heard, for +the train had beaten them to the station after all, and as the carriage +turned the corner of the street a familiar figure stood on the platform +waving to them. Grandpa had to keep one hand on his grandson to prevent +him from falling out over the wheels. + +"Well, well, Son, isn't this fine!" Daddy had him in his arms almost +before the horses stopped. "How brown you are! and yes, you've grown, +too. I'll put the suitcase in--don't try to lift it." + +Daddy put Sunny Boy down and turned and kissed Grandpa. + +"You're his little boy!" Sunny thought out loud. It was the first time he +had thought about it at all. + +"I'm his daddy," said Grandpa proudly. "Pretty fine boy, all things +considered, isn't he?" + +Sunny Boy laughed because this was probably a joke. Anyway, Grandpa +laughed and so did Daddy. Then they all got into the carriage and Daddy +drove Peter and Paul. How Mrs. Horton laughed when she saw them drive up +to the gate, all three of them crowded together on the front seat. + +"You three big boys!" she teased them. "I suppose you had so much to talk +about that you had to be together." + +Daddy put one arm around Mother and the other about Grandma. + +"Make the most of me," he said gayly. "I can stay only three days." + +Then there was a great to-do. Mother and Grandma had counted on having +him for three weeks. Three days, as Mother said, was "no vacation at +all." + +"But better than nothing," Mr. Horton pointed out. "We can do a great +deal in three days. And if I can't get up again, at least I'll come up to +get you and Sunny when you're ready to go home." + +Well, being sensible people and not given to "crying over spilled milk" +(which was Grandpa's favorite proverb) they soon decided to enjoy every +minute of Daddy's stay and to begin right away. + +"Sunny and I are going fishing," announced Daddy firmly. "We'll go +to-day--if Araminta can give us a lunch--and Mother is coming with us, if +she wants to. Then to-morrow she and I are going for a long drive, and +the last day I'm going to be a farmer and help Father with the work. Come +on, Sunny, upstairs with you and get on high shoes. We don't go fishing +in sandals and socks." + +Araminta made them sandwiches and packed a box of lunch, putting in a +whole apple pie. Daddy had brought his fishing rod with him, and he +promised to make Sunny one as soon as they found a place to fish. Mother +thought she would not go, for she was already tired from a long walk the +day before. So Sunny Boy and Daddy set off alone for the brook in the +woods where the speckled trout lived. + +"Shall I catch one?" asked Sunny Boy, scuffling along. He did like to +scuffle his feet and Daddy did not seem to care how much noise he made. +"Shall I fish?" + +"Sure you'll fish," Daddy assured him. "Likely, you'll catch one, though +you never can tell. A good sportsman doesn't growl even if he spends a +whole day and doesn't catch one fish. We'll be good sports, shan't we?" + +"Yes," agreed Sunny Boy. "But I would rather catch a fish." + +Daddy laughed and began to whistle. + +"Do you know Jimmie?" said Sunny Boy, running to keep up with him. "Do +you know Jimmie and Mr. Sites and Araminta and David and Raymond and +Juddy and Fred and Sarah and Dorabelle? Do you, Daddy?" + +"I went to school with a boy named Jaspar Sites," Daddy stopped whistling +to answer. "Guess he's the same. Araminta helps Grandma--I know her, and +Jimmie I've met before. But I must say the others haven't the pleasure of +my acquaintance--who is Dorabelle, may I ask?" + +"They're Araminta's brothers and sisters," explained Sunny Boy. "They +live down the road. Let's fish now, Daddy." + +"We will," agreed Mr. Horton. "You've picked out a good place. Now first +I'll start you in, and then I'll try my luck." + +He found a nice long branch for Sunny, and tied a fish-line to it. At the +end of the line he fastened a bent pin with a bit of cracker on the +point. + +"There you are," he told him. "Now you sit out here on the dead roots of +this tree that hangs over the bank, and you dangle the cracker in the +water and keep very, very still. And perhaps a little fish on his way to +the grocery store for his mother will see the cracker and want a bite of +lunch. Then you'll catch him." + +Sunny Boy sat very still while Daddy baited a sharp thin hook with real +bait and threw his line into the water, too. He sat down beside Sunny and +together they waited. + +"Daddy!" said Sunny Boy after a long while. + +Mr. Horton raised a warning finger. + +"But Daddy?" this after Sunny Boy had waited a longer time. + +"You'll scare the fish," Mr. Horton whispered. "What is it?" + +"My foot prickles!" + +Mr. Horton took his line and whispered to him to get up and run about. + +Sunny Boy's foot felt too funny for words, and at first he was sure it +had dropped off while he had been sitting on it. He could not feel it at +all. After stamping up and down a few minutes the funny feeling went +away, and he came back to his father and took his line. + +"Your foot was asleep," said Mr. Horton in a low tone. "Don't sit on it +again. Feel a nibble?" + +Sunny Boy drew his line up and looked at it. There was nothing at all on +the pin. + +"Percy Perch must have taken that cracker when you weren't looking," said +Mr. Horton, putting another cracker on. "Now watch out that Tommy Trout +doesn't run off with this." + +Sunny Boy waited and waited. A yellow butterfly came and sat down on a +blade of grass near him. Sunny looked at it more closely--it was a funny +butterfly--a funny butter-- + +Splash went his rod and line, but he never heard it. Sunny Boy was fast +asleep, and Tommy Trout must have run away with the pin and the cracker +because they were never heard of again. When Sunny Boy opened his eyes +again, his father was folding up his fishing tackle. + +"Hello! You're a great fisherman!" Daddy greeted him. "See what we're +going to take home to Mother to surprise her." + +Sunny Boy rubbed his sleepy eyes. There on the grass lay four pretty +little fish. + +"Did you catch them?" he asked Daddy, who nodded. + +"My land of Goshen!" said Sunny Boy. + +"Where'd you pick that up?" demanded Daddy. "Do you think apple pie might +help you to feel spryer?" + +Sunny Boy was interested in pie, and he helped Daddy to spread the little +white cloth on the ground. He had not known a picnic was part of the fun +of fishing! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HAY SLIDE + + +"Daddy," said Sunny Boy, as he munched a sandwich, lying on his stomach +and looking down into the brook from the safe height of the bank, "how +much is five hundred dollars?" + +"A large sum of money," answered Mr. Horton, surprised. "Why, Son? What +do you know about such things? Little boys shouldn't be bothering about +money for years and years to come." + +So Sunny told him about Grandpa's bonds and how he had lost them by +pasting them on his kite. Mr. Horton was very sorry, but he said little. + +"Only remember this, Sunny Boy," he insisted gravely. "I would rather you +told me yourself than to have heard it from any one else--even from +Mother. When you've done anything good or bad that you think I should +know, you tell me yourself, always. And now how about going wading?" + +That was great fun. Sunny Boy rolled his trousers up as far as they would +go and took off his shoes and stockings. The water was not deep, but, my! +wasn't it cold? Little baby fish darted in and out, and ever so many +times Sunny thought he had a handful of them. But when he unclosed his +hands there was never anything in them but water, and not much of that. + +"If I did catch a fish, could I keep him, Daddy?" Sunny asked. "I could +carry home some brook for him to live in." + +Sunny meant some of the brook water. Daddy explained that the baby fish, +minnows they are called, would not be happy living in a bowl as the +goldfish Sunny once had were. + +"And you wouldn't want a fish to be unhappy, would you?" questioned +Daddy. "Of course you wouldn't. But I'll tell you something better to do +than trying to catch fish that only want to be left alone." + +"Something to do with my shoes and stockings off?" stipulated Sunny +anxiously. "I haven't been wading hardly a minute yet, Daddy." + +Daddy laughed a little. He was lying flat on his stomach as Sunny had +done, peering over the bank down at the water. He seemed to be having a +very good time, did Daddy. + +"This is something you can do without your shoes and stockings," he +assured the small figure standing in the middle of the brook. "Indeed, I +thought of it because you are all fixed for doing it. You know Mother was +talking about her Christmas presents last night?" + +Sunny nodded. + +"She's sewing a bag for Aunt Bessie," he confided, "and Grandma is +getting ready, too. But I think Christmas is about a year off, Daddy." + +"Not a year--about five months," corrected Daddy. "That seems like a long +time to you. But Mother likes to start early and make many of her +presents. And a very good way it is, too. Well, Sunny Boy, I once heard +Mother say that she would like to try making an indoor garden for some of +her friends who live in apartments and have no gardens of their own. +Only, Mother said, she must experiment first and find out what would grow +best." + +"What's an indoor garden?" + +"Oh, there are different kinds," answered Daddy. "But I think the kind +Mother is anxious to try is very simple. Just damp moss and a vine or two +put into a glass bowl. They will grow and keep green all Winter and be +pretty to look at." + +"I could get her some moss," said Sunny quickly. "See, those stones are +all covered, Daddy." + +"That's just what I want you to do," agreed Daddy. "We'll take plenty +home to Mother and she can experiment with indoor gardens to her heart's +content. See, Son, here's my knife. You must cut the moss very carefully +in square pieces, and try not to break it. I'll be digging up some of +these healthy little ground vines." + +Sunny Boy was proud to be allowed to handle Daddy's big jack knife, and +he was glad Daddy hadn't told him not to cut himself. Daddy, somehow, +always trusted Sunny not to be heedless. + +"Mother'll like it, won't she?" he called to Daddy, who was digging up a +pretty, creeping green vine that grew in the grass near him. "Won't she +be s'prised, Daddy?" + +They worked busily, and soon Sunny had a neat little pile of green moss +ready to take home to Mother. After that he waded about in the brook, +splashing the water with his bare feet. + +"There--you've been in long enough," called Mr. Horton presently. "The +water is too cold to play in it long. Come, Son, and put on your shoes +and stockings." + +Sunny Boy dabbled his feet in a little hole made by a stone he had pushed +away. + +"Sunny Boy!" called Mr. Horton once again. + +Still Sunny Boy continued to play in the water. To tell the truth every +one had been so anxious to make him happy at Brookside that he was the +least little bit in the world spoiled. The more you have your own way, +you know, the harder it is to do other people's way, and if you can do as +you please day after day, by and by you want to do as you please all the +time. Sunny Boy felt like that now. + +"Sunny!" said Daddy a third time, very quietly. + +Sunny Boy looked at him--and came marching out of the water. He was not +very pleasant while Daddy helped him dry his feet and get into the +despised shoes and stockings, but, when they were ready to start for home +and Daddy tilted up his chin to look at him squarely, Sunny Boy's own +smile came out. + +"All right!" announced Daddy cheerfully. "Let's go home a different way +and perhaps we'll find wild strawberries." + +They did, too, a patch of them down at one end of the apple orchard, and +Mr. Horton showed Sunny Boy how he used to string them on grass stems to +take home to his mother when he was a little boy. + +He certainly was a dear Daddy, and when he went back to the city Mother +and Sunny had to be nicer to each other than ever because they missed him +so very much. + +"It's raining!" Sunny Boy stood at the window after breakfast, the +morning after Mr. Horton had gone back to the city. "Does it rain in the +summer?" + +Grandma laughed, and told him that indeed it did rain in the summer. + +"We haven't had a drop of rain since you've been here, and you must have +brought fair weather with you," she said. "Now that the hay is all in the +barn, we're glad to see it rain, for the garden needs it badly. Think how +thirsty the flowers and vegetables must be." + +"Harriet said to play in the barn on rainy days," said Sunny Boy sadly, +"but I think I'm lonesome." + +"Well, you go out to the barn and you won't be lonesome," Araminta, who +was clearing the breakfast table, laughed at his long face. "I'll bet all +the children are there, even the baby. He can go, can't he, Mrs. +Horton?" + +Grandma said yes, of course he could, and Mother brought his rubbers and +raincoat downstairs when she came, for he met her on the stairs and there +she had them all ready. + +"Run along and have a good time," she told him, kissing him. "I was going +to suggest that you play in the barn this morning. Help Jimmie if he's +working, won't you, and don't hinder him?" + +Paddling out to the barn in the pouring rain was fun. But the barn was +the most fun of all. Grandpa and Jimmie were on the first floor mending +harness, and the doors were open so that they could see right out into +the orchard and yet not get a bit wet. Just as Araminta had said, all the +Hatch children were there, even the baby, who lay asleep on the hay in a +nice, quiet corner. + +"Hurrah!" cried Juddy Hatch. "We're going to play robbers, and you can be +in my cave." + +"Be in my cave," urged David, his brother. "Our side has the best +slide." + +"I'll come up there and settle you youngsters if you're going to +quarrel," threatened Jimmie, switching a buggy whip and looking very +fierce. "You'd better start playing and stop arguing." + +The children knew Jimmie had small patience with little bickerings, +though he had never been known to do anything more severe than scold. So +they took him at his word and began to play. + +"You be on Juddy's side, then," agreed David. "See, we each have a cave +here in the hay--that's mine in this corner. The way we do is to all go +into our caves and take turns creeping up. When you hear us on the roof +of your cave, you have to get out and run over to ours, climb up to the +top and slide down the other side. If you're caught you have to b'long to +our robber tribe." + +The hay was very smooth and slippery, and the children had many a tumble +as the two robber tribes chased each other across the haymow. Such +shrieks of laughter, such howls as the robbers in their excitement +sometimes forgot and pulled a braid of Sarah's or Dorabelle's! The baby +continued to sleep placidly through all the noise, and Jimmie told +Grandpa that he thought perhaps "the poor little kid was deaf!" Jimmie +was only fooling, of course, for the Hatch baby was not deaf at all. + +It was Sunny Boy's turn to be chased, and as he heard David's robber +tribe beginning to climb up on the roof of his cave he dashed out and ran +for the other cave at the end of the haymow. Up the side he went, and +down. Dorabelle was captured in that raid and had to go over to David's +side. + +"Now I've got four in my tribe," crowed the robber chief. "Get your men +together, Jud, and we'll do it again." + +"Where's Sunny Boy?" demanded Juddy, counting his tribe. "He was here--I +saw him climb up the top of the cave. Sunny Boy! Sun-ny!" + +No Sunny Boy answered. + +"Jimmie, is Sunny Boy down there with you?" Juddy peered over the edge of +the haymow where Jimmie sat mending the harness. Grandpa had gone to the +house, declaring that there was a little too much noise in the barn for +his rheumatism. + +"Haven't seen him," answered Jimmie. "Isn't he up there with you?" + +Juddy's lip began to quiver. He was only eight years old. + +"Then he's lost," he said. "He isn't here at all, Jimmie." + +Jimmie dropped his harness and ran up the little ladder that led to the +haymow. + +"Nonsense!" he declared sharply. "A boy can't get lost with a roof over +him. Likely enough he's hiding for fun. Sunny! Sunny Boy, where are +you?" + +But no Sunny Boy answered. And though Jimmie and the Hatch children +turned over the hay and looked in every corner of the haymow, they could +not find him. + +"Shall I go and tell Mr. Horton?" suggested David, who was the oldest of +the Hatch boys. + +"Not till we have something to tell," was Jimmie's answer. "Where was he +when you saw him last?" + +"Right over in that corner," said Juddy, pointing. "I saw him going over +the top of the cave, an' then I ducked under, and when David got +Dorabelle he just wasn't here." + +"He must be here--somewhere," retorted Jimmie impatiently. "I'm going to +look once more--and if he's just hiding, won't I shake him!" + +Jimmie climbed over the top of the "robber's cave," as Sunny Boy had +done, and down on the other side. The children heard him scuffling about, +kicking the hay with his feet, and then suddenly he gave a shout. + +"You stay where you are till I come back," he called. "You David, and +Juddy, keep the others where they are. I'll bet I've found him." + +The Hatch children were fairly dancing to follow Jimmie, but they knew he +meant what he said. They sat down in the hay to wait. + +One--two--three--four--five minutes passed. Then Jimmie stepped out on +the barn floor and grinned cheerfully up at the anxious group perched on +the edge of the haymow. + +"It's all right," he said. "I've found him. He's out in the old dairy. +Now don't all come down at once--Jud, let the girls come first. Easy +there!" + +The Hatch children came tumbling down, eager to see Sunny Boy. Sarah +stopped to pick up the baby, who had slept through all the excitement and +now merely opened two dark eyes, smiled, and went to sleep again. The +Hatch baby was used to being taken about and had the steady habits of an +old traveler. + +They found Sunny absorbed in watching a mother duck and her ten little +ducklings who were swimming daintily about in a trough in the dairy. + +"Well, where were you?" Juddy pounced on Sunny Boy. "You gave us an awful +scare." + +"I've been right here all the time." Sunny was a bit aggrieved to find +such a fuss made over him. First Jimmie and now Juddy. "I haven't been +anywhere," he insisted. + +"We thought you were lost!" David frowned at him severely. + +"Well, I wasn't," retorted Sunny Boy briefly. "I was watching ducks. +Jimmie, do they sleep in water?" + +"What, ducks?" said Jimmie. "Oh, no, they sleep under their mother just +like chickens at night, some place where it is warm and dry. Your +grandmother will be glad you found this duck--she's missed her for two +days. Guess she never thought of looking in the dairy." + +This part of the barn had been used for the cows, you see, years before, +when Sunny's father was a little boy and a big herd of fine cows were +kept at Brookside. Now Mrs. Butterball and Butterette were the only cows, +and they lived in a box stall near Peter and Paul. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +APPLE PIES + + +Sunny Boy continued to look at the ducks till David could stand it no +longer. + +"What happened to you?" he asked, jogging Sunny's elbow to make him look +at him. "How'd you get down here?" + +"Fell down," said Sunny calmly. "Could I have a duck to play with, +Jimmie?" + +"How'd you fall down?" persisted David, who usually got what he started +after. + +Sunny Boy was exceedingly bored by these numerous questions, and he +wanted to be allowed to watch the ducks in peace. So he decided the +easiest way to get rid of David and the others would be to tell them what +they wanted to know. + +"I'll show you," he said. "Come on." + +He led them out of the dairy into a little cobwebby room, and pointed up +to a square opening. + +"I slid through that--see?" he demanded. + +"Did it hurt?" + +"Course not--I fell on the hay." + +The floor was thickly covered with old, dusty hay. + +"It's the room where we used to throw down hay to feed the cows," +explained Jimmie. "They covered it over with loose boards when they put +in the hay three or four years ago. But I suppose you youngsters when +romping around kicked the boards to one side and the hay with it. Sunny, +coasting down the side of the cave, just coasted right on through the +hole and landed down here. Lucky there was hay enough on the floor to +save him a bump." + +"But why didn't you come and tell us?" asked David. "Here we've been +looking all over for you. Why didn't you sing out?" + +"I was going to," admitted Sunny Boy apologetically. "But when I was +hunting for the way into the barn, I found the ducks. Let's go and tell +Grandma we saw 'em." + +It was noon by this time, so the Hatch children went home and Sunny Boy +and Jimmie walked together to the house. It had stopped raining, and the +sun felt warm and delightful. + +"Of course you may have a duck," said Grandma, when Sunny Boy told her of +his find. "That foolish old mother duck marched off with her children one +morning and I couldn't for the life of me discover where she had gone. +And Grandpa must board over that hole if you are going to play in the +haymow. Another time you might hurt yourself, falling like that." + +"Where's Mother?" asked Sunny Boy, eager to tell her about the morning's +fun. + +"I believe she is up in the attic," returned Grandma. "She's been up +there for an hour or so. I wish, lambie, you'd run and find her and say +dinner will be on the table in half an hour." + +Sunny climbed the crooked, steep stairs that led to Grandma's attic, and +found Mother bending over an old trunk dragged out to the middle of the +floor. + +"Mother," he began as soon as he saw her, "we've been sliding on the hay, +and I found a duck mother, an' Grandma gave me a duck for my own. What +are you doing, Mother?" + +Mrs. Horton was sitting on the floor, her lap filled with a bundle of old +letters. + +"I've been having a delightful morning, too," she said. "Grandma started +to go over these old trunks with me, and then some one called her on the +telephone and she had to go down. See, precious, here is a picture of +Daddy when he was a little boy." + +Sunny looked over her shoulder and saw a photograph of a stiff little boy +in stiff velvet skirt and jacket, standing by a table, one small hand +resting solemnly on a book. + +"He doesn't look comfy," objected Sunny. "Is it really Daddy? And did +little boys wear petticoats then, Mother?" + +"That isn't a petticoat, it is a kilt," explained Mother. "You know what +kilts are, dear--you've seen the Scotch soldiers wear them. Well, when +Daddy was a little boy they wore kilts, and trousers underneath. And +Grandma was telling me this morning that as soon as Daddy was out of her +sight he would take off his kilt and go about in his blouse and trousers. +So probably he considered the kilt a petticoat just as you do." + +Sunny wandered over to another trunk that stood open and poked an +inquiring hand down into its depths. + +"What's this, Mother?" he asked, holding up a queer, square little cap. + +"Be careful, precious, that is Grandpa's Civil War trunk," warned Mother, +coming over to him. "Grandmother meant to put the things out to air +to-day and then it rained. See, dear, this is the cap he wore, and the +old blue coat, and this is his knapsack. Some day you must ask Grandpa to +come up here with you and tell you war stories." + +"Where's his sword?" asked Sunny, fingering the cap with interest. "Where +was Daddy then? Was Grandpa shot?" + +"Grandpa didn't have a sword, because he wasn't an officer," explained +Mother. "He was only a boy when he enlisted, and it was long before there +was any Daddy, dear. And Grandpa was wounded--I'm sure I've told you that +before--don't you remember? That's how he met Grandma. She was a little +girl and met him in the hospital where her father, who was a physician, +was attending Grandpa." + +"Olive! Sunny! Dinner's ready!" It was Grandma standing at the foot of +the stairs and calling them. + +"I forgot to tell you," said Sunny hastily. "Dinner will be on the table +in half an hour, Grandma said." + +Mrs. Horton smiled. + +"I think the half hour has gone by," she declared, closing the lid of +Grandpa's trunk. "Come, dear, we must go right down and not keep them +waiting." + +"Are you going to eat your duck?" asked Grandpa, when they were seated at +the dinner table. + +"My, no!" answered Sunny Boy, shocked. + +He never believed that the chickens and ducks they had for Sunday dinners +were the same pretty feathered creatures he saw walking about the farm. +Chickens and ducks one ate, thought Sunny Boy, were always the kind he +remembered hanging up in the markets at home--without any feathers or +heads. He was sure they grew that way, somewhere. + +"He doesn't have to eat his duck," comforted Grandma. "I'm going to make +something he likes this afternoon. If you and Olive are going to drive +over to town, Sunny and I will be busy in the kitchen." + +"Saucer pies!" cried Sunny Boy. "I can help, can't I, Grandma?" + +If there was one thing Sunny Boy loved to do, it was to be allowed to +watch his grandma bake pies. He could ask a hundred questions and always +be sure of an answer, he could taste the contents of every one of the row +of little brown spice boxes, and, best of all, there was a special little +pie baked for him in a saucer that he could eat the minute it was baked +and cool. No wonder Sunny Boy kissed Mother contentedly and watched her +drive away with Grandpa for a little shopping in town. He, Sunny Boy, was +going to help Grandma bake apple pies. + +"Here's your chair, and here's a pound Sweeting for you," Araminta +greeted him as he trotted into the kitchen. + +Sunny Boy scrambled into his place opposite Grandma at the white table. + +"Now this won't be a very good pie," said Grandma, as she began to mix +the pie crust. + +Dear Grandma always said that about her pies, even the one that won the +prize at the big fair. + +"These apples are too sweet. But your grandfather can never wait. He has +to have an apple pie the minute the first apple ripens." + +"So do I," announced Sunny Boy. "What's in this little can, Grandma?" + +"Cinnamon, lambie," answered Grandma. "Don't sniff it like that--you'll +sneeze." + +Sunny Boy munched his apple and watched her as she rolled out the crust. + +"How many, Grandma?" he asked. + +Araminta, peeling apples over by the window, laughed. + +"He's just like his grandfather," she said. "Mr. Horton always says, 'How +many pies are you going to make, Mother?' doesn't he?" + +"Why does Grandpa call you Mother?" inquired Sunny Boy of Grandma. +"You're not his mamma." + +"No. But you see I suppose when your daddy was a little chap around the +house, and calling me and calling me 'Mother' sixty times a day, as you +do your mamma, Grandpa got in the habit of saying 'Mother,' too. And +habits, you know, Sunny Boy, are the funny little things that stay with +us." + +"Yes, I know--we had 'em in Sunday school," agreed Sunny absently. "Is +that my pie?" + +"That's your pie, lambie," declared Grandma, smiling. "One, two, three +large ones, and a saucer pie for my own laddie. How much sugar shall I +put in for you, Sunny Boy?" + +"A bushel," replied Sunny Boy confidently. "Let me shake the brown +powder, Grandma." + +So Sunny Boy sprinkled in the cinnamon, and Grandma added dots of butter +and put on the crust. Then she cut little slits in it "so the apples can +breathe" and then that pie was ready for the oven. + +"Now I'm going up to change my dress while they're baking," said Grandma, +taking off her apron. "If you want to stay here with Araminta, all right, +Sunny. I'll be back in time to take the pies out." + +Araminta bustled about, washing the table top and putting away the salt +and sugar and spice box and all the things Grandma had used for her +baking. Sunny Boy ate his apple quietly and waited for Grandma to come +back. + +"My land of Goshen!" Araminta stopped to peer out of the window over the +sink. "Here's company driving in. If it isn't Mrs. Lawyer Allen, and she +always stays till supper time! And your Grandma's pies not out of the +oven!" + +Grandma, too, had seen the gray horse and buggy, and she hurried down in +her pretty black and white dress. + +"Hook my collar, please, Araminta," she whispered. "And I am sure the +pies are done. You can take them out very carefully and set them where +they'll cool. You'll be good, won't you, lambie? There goes the +door-bell." + +Grandma rustled away to meet her company, and Araminta opened the oven +door importantly. She was seldom trusted to take the pies from the oven +alone, and she felt very grown-up indeed to have Sunny Boy see her do it. +She got the three pies out nicely, and the little saucer pie, too, and +carried them into the pantry to cool. She set them on a shelf over the +flour barrel. + +"Grandma puts them on the table," suggested Sunny Boy. + +"Well, I put them on the shelf," said Araminta shortly. "I don't believe +in leaving pies around where any one can get 'em." + +Now Araminta was in a hurry to go home, for it was three o'clock, and +every afternoon from three to five she was allowed to spend as she +pleased. So, though she made the kitchen nice and neat before she left, +in her hurry she forgot to put the lid on the flour barrel, something +Grandma always did. + +"I'm going," said Araminta, putting on her hat with a jerk. "Mind you +don't get into any mischief, and don't go bothering your grandma. Mrs. +Lawyer Allen is nervous, and she doesn't like children." + +Araminta, you see, had so many brothers and sisters younger than herself +that she gave advice to every child she met. + +Sunny Boy was perfectly willing to be good, but he was equally determined +to have his saucer pie. It was his own pie, made and intended for him, +and Araminta had no business to put it on a shelf out of his reach. As +soon as the kitchen door closed he got a chair and dragged it into the +pantry. + +"It's mine," he told himself, as he stood on the chair. + +He pushed a white bowl out of the way, for he remembered the yellow +custard he had knocked over on his first adventure in Grandma's pantry. +He put his hand on his pie and had it safe when Bruce began to bark +suddenly outside the window. Sunny Boy leaned over to see out the window, +the chair tipped, and with a crash a frightened little boy fell into the +flour barrel which the careless Araminta had left uncovered directly +under the shelf. + +The noise of the falling chair brought Grandma and her visitor to the +pantry. + +"What in the world!" cried Mrs. Allen, as a small white-faced figure +stared at her over the edge of the barrel. "What is it?" + +"It's me," said Sunny Boy forlornly. "There's flour all in me, Grandma!" + +Grandma had to laugh. + +"All over you," she corrected. "My dear child, are you hurt? And what +were you doing to get in the barrel?" + +Grandma lifted Sunny Boy out and carried him to the back porch and told +him to shake himself as Bruce did after swimming in the brook. Only, +instead of water, clouds of flour came out of Sunny Boy's clothes as he +tried to shake like a dog. + +"I was getting my saucer pie, Grandma," he explained when she came back +with a whisk-broom and began to brush him vigorously. "If I had some +cinnamon I'd be a pie, wouldn't I?" + +[Illustration: With a crash a frightened little boy fell into the +flour barrel.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MORE MISCHIEF + + +When Grandma finally had Sunny Boy all dusted free from flour, she asked +him if he thought he could keep out of mischief till supper time. + +He was sure he could, and ran off to find Jimmie while Grandma and Mrs. +Allen went back to finish their interrupted visit. + +"Hello, Sunny," Jimmie greeted him. Jimmie was mending a piece of the +orchard fence. "What are you eating--pie?" + +For Grandma had seen to it that Sunny had his saucer pie--grandmas are +like that, you know. + +"Want a bite?" asked Sunny. + +But Jimmie, it seemed, had been eating apples all the afternoon and he +did not care for apple pie. + +"Let me help," urged Sunny. "I can hold the fence up, Jimmie." + +"You can stay around and talk, if you want to," conceded Jimmie. "It's +kind of lonesome working all alone. But, Sunny, honestly I can't mend +this fence if you are going to sit on it and wiggle." + +Sunny slid down hastily. + +"I didn't know I was wiggling," he apologized. "Do you learn to mend +fence at agri--agri--" + +"Agricultural college?" supplied Jimmie. "No, I guess that comes natural. +Will you hand me one of those long nails, please?" + +Sunny handed the nail absently. He was thinking of other things. + +"Are you a farmer like Grandpa, Jimmie?" he asked. + +Jimmie finished pounding in his nail before he answered. + +"Seems like I tinker up this section of fence every other week," he +confided. "Am I a farmer like your grandpa? Well, no, not yet, but I aim +to be. You thinking of farming, too?" + +Sunny considered this gravely. + +"I might be a farmer," he admitted. "Only I think I would rather be a +postman. Could I, Jimmie?" + +"Of course," encouraged Jimmie. "Nothing to stop you. And if, when you +grow up, you find you would rather be something else, why, there's no +harm done. I've heard that your father wanted to drive a hansom cab for a +life job when he was your age. And now, instead, he drives his own +automobile." + +"I think," announced Sunny thoughtfully, "it's a good plan to think about +what you want to be when you grow up and then you won't be s'prised when +you find out what you are." + +Jimmie's mouth was too full of nails for him to answer, but he nodded. + +"You'll swallow a nail," worried Sunny. "Our dressmaker did, once. Only +it was a pin. What is this for, Jimmie?" + +"Wire clippers," explained Jimmie briefly. "Cut wires with 'em, you know. +Leave them right there, Sunny." + +Jimmie was wrestling with a bit of wire that was hard to stretch into +place. Sunny picked up the wire clippers and studied them carefully. + +"I wonder how they work?" he said to himself. "Like Mother's scissors? If +I only had a piece of wire I could see." + +Now the only wires, as Sunny very well knew, were those stretched between +the posts. He did so wonder if the wire clippers really could cut that +thick wire! Jimmie's back was toward him. Sunny rested the clippers on +the top wire. He wouldn't really press them, just pretend to. + +Snip! the heavy strand of wire parted as though it had been a string. + +"Give me those clippers!" Jimmie bore down upon him crossly. "I told you +to leave 'em alone. Now see what you've done! Look here, Sunny, can't you +keep out of trouble long enough for me to finish this fence?" + +Sunny yielded the clippers reluctantly. He had not known they were so +sharp. Jimmie need not have been so cross, he thought. + +"I want to do something different," Sunny complained. + +Jimmie wisely decided to give him something to do. + +"Couldn't you drive that mother duck and her ducklings up to the chicken +yard?" he asked, pointing to the same ducks Sunny had discovered in the +dairy. "I know your grandmother wants to shut them up to-night and that +mother duck is just working her way down to the brook. I want to finish +this fence before I call it a day, so if you want to be useful, here's +your chance." + +Of course Sunny Boy wanted to be useful, and he started after Mother Duck +and her family. If you have ever tried to argue with a duck you will know +that it does no good to tell her where she should go--ducks are like some +people, they like to have their own way. This mother duck had made up her +mind that she was going to take her family down to the brook, and Sunny +Boy had to race up and down the orchard and "shoo" her from behind trees +and be patient a long time before he could get her started in the +direction of the chicken yard. Then, once out of the orchard, she caught +a glimpse of Araminta, who had come back--for it was five o'clock--and +was scattering cracked corn for the chickens. The duck mother was hungry, +and she started to run toward the chicken yard. Sunny Boy could scarcely +keep up with her, and the poor little baby ducks were left away behind. + +"Let 'em be--they'll follow her!" cried Araminta, and she scattered a +little corn in an empty coop. + +The duck mother waddled right inside, and Araminta put up a bar that +fastened her in. + +"I think she has too many duck babies," said Sunny Boy, watching as the +ducklings came up to the coop and began to hunt for corn. + +"Yes, she has," agreed Araminta. "But she can keep them all warm, I +guess." + +"I know what I can do," suggested Sunny Boy, but Araminta was hurrying to +the house after bread and milk to feed the duck babies and she did not +ask him what he could do. + +Mrs. Allen stayed to supper, and very soon after Mrs. Horton said that +Sunny Boy looked sleepy and must go to bed. He seldom took a nap any +more, and as he woke up early in the mornings, his mother said it was +certain that he must go to bed earlier to make up for it. + +All the time Mother was helping him undress, Sunny Boy was very quiet, +and after she had kissed him and tucked him in bed he did not ask her for +a story as he usually did. + +"You've been playing too hard, I think," said Mrs. Horton. "Good night +and pleasant dreams, dearest." + +Sunny Boy waited till she had closed the door. Then he hopped out of bed +and pattered over to another door that led into Grandma's room. When he +came back he had two baby ducks in his hands. + +"There now, you can sleep in my bed," he told them, putting them down +under the sheet. + +But the baby ducks did not like the soft, clean bed. They made funny +little peeping noises, and as soon as Sunny Boy climbed into bed, one of +them fell out and ran across the floor. Sunny Boy chased it under the +bureau, and then he heard Mother calling. + +"Sunny!" + +He opened the door a crack. + +"Yes, Mother?" + +"I hear you running around up there. You don't want Mother to have to +come up and punish you, do you? Go back to bed and go to sleep like a +good boy." + +"Yes'm," said Sunny. + +He might have explained that he was good, but the ducks were certainly as +bad as they could be. It was still light enough in the room for him to +see the furniture, but try as he might he could not get that foolish, +obstinate frightened little duck to come out from behind the bureau. +Finally he gave it up and went to bed to take care of the other one, and +that fell or jumped out on the other side of the bed and poor Sunny had +to get up again and try to find it. The foolish thing let him chase it +under the bed, and he was half way under and half way out when Grandpa +opened the bedroom door. + +"Look here, Sunny, what are you up to now?" began Grandpa. "Your mother +is tired and she sent me up to settle you. My soul, boy! what are you +doing under the bed?" + +Sunny Boy wriggled out and turned a flushed face to Grandpa. + +"Nothing," he said, beginning to climb into bed. + +Grandpa was helping him smooth the tangled covers when one of the ducks +began to peep. + +"What's that?" said he sharply. "Sunny, what have you got in here? What's +that noise?" + +"It's a duck," confessed Sunny Boy reluctantly. + +Grandpa sat down on the bed. + +"A duck? Up here?" he gasped. "Why, how on earth did a duck get in the +house?" + +"I did it," admitted Sunny. "The duck mother had too many children, and I +was going to take care of some of 'em for her. But they wouldn't stay in +bed. I could sail 'em in the bath-tub in the mornings." + +Grandpa began to laugh, and then he could not stop. He laughed till the +tears came, and Mrs. Horton heard him and came up to scold them both. +Grandma followed, and there they all sat on the bed, Grandpa and Mother +and Grandma, all laughing as hard as they could. + +Sunny Boy did not think it was funny a bit, and when he found that +Grandpa was going to take his ducks back to their own mother that night +he began to cry. + +"By and by they would like it here," he sobbed. "I haven't my woolly dog, +and I need a duck. Can't I have one, Grandpa?" + +Sunny Boy was far from being a cry-baby, but he was sleepy and that made +him feel unhappy, though he thought it was the ducks. That's a trick of +the sandman's--making you cry easily when you're sleepy. However this +time Grandpa was firm, and he managed to get the duck under the bed and +the one back of the bureau and carry them down to their mother. And very +glad they were to get there, we may believe. Sunny Boy went to sleep in +five minutes, and long before morning had forgotten he ever wanted baby +ducks to spend the night with him. + +One morning, a week or more later, he was playing on the shady side porch +when he heard Grandpa saying something to Mother about bonds. Ever since +Sunny Boy had lost his kite and Grandpa's bonds with it, he always +noticed when any one used that word. No one ever spoke to him about the +lost money, and he often forgot about it, with so many wonderful things +to do every day. And then, a word or two would make him remember again. + +"I lie awake at night worrying over those bonds, Father," Mrs. Horton was +saying. "Harry may be able to make it up to you some day, but he's having +a hard time this summer. I've been out and looked and looked--some one +must have picked them up." + +"Yes, I suppose they have," said Grandpa. "I advertised, and the Bonds +were numbered. Still, as you say, some one must have found them. Don't +let it spoil your Summer, Olive, I've only myself to blame. At my age +carelessness is nothing short of a crime." + +"But at your age a thousand dollars is a great deal to lose," protested +Mrs. Horton. "And I know you meant to take a trip South this Winter, and +Harry tells me you've given that up." + +Sunny Boy could hear tears in Mother's soft voice, and he was sure she +had tears in her lovely brown eyes. He made up his mind what to do. + +He trotted through the wide hall, into the sitting-room. There sat +Grandpa figuring at his desk and close beside him was Mother with her +knitting. There were bright drops on the dark blue wool. She had been +crying, though she smiled at Sunny as he stood in the doorway. + +"Grandpa, listen!" Sunny Boy cried. "You can have all the money in my +bank at home. I've been saving it for, oh, ever so long. There's a +thousand dollars, I guess. An' you can have it all--every bit. Daddy will +send it to you if I ask him. An' then you won't care 'bout the Lib'ty +Bonds!" + +Sunny Boy was surprised at the way his offer was received. He had thought +Grandpa would be pleased and his mother, too. And here sat Grandpa +blowing his nose, and as for his mother--Sunny Boy looked at her and her +eyes were quite brimming over. + +"Don't you like me to?" he cried. "I was going to buy another drum, but +Grandpa can have the money. It's a pink pig, Grandpa, and you shake it +an' the pennies drop out. Harriet gave it to me." Sunny Boy's lip began +to quiver. + +"My dear little son!" Mother held out her arms and Sunny Boy ran to her. +"My generous little man!" she whispered. "Your pennies wouldn't be +enough, precious. But I'm proud to have you offer them to Grandpa to try +to make up his loss. That's like your father." + +Sunny Boy sat up and stopped crying. To be like his father was the +highest praise his mother could give him. + +"Thank you very much, Sunny," said Grandpa gravely. "I couldn't take your +bank. For one reason, we're not sure yet the bonds are really lost. But I +tell you what I will do--if I ever get out of cash, entirely out, mind +you, and have to borrow from my friends, I'll come to you. There are very +few I'd bring myself to borrow from, but perhaps it's different with a +grandson. You save your pennies, and maybe some day I'll ask you to lend +me some. Shall we shake hands on it?" + +And Sunny Boy and Grandpa shook hands solemnly, like two business men. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ANOTHER HUNT + + +"And now," declared Grandpa, putting on his wide-brimmed hat and reaching +for his cane, "it's high time I was out looking after Mr. Hatch. Where +are you going, Sunny Boy?" + +Sunny Boy was darting off as though a new idea had seized him. + +"Out," he answered vaguely. His mind was intent on his plan. + +"Well, Grandma and I have the picnic to plan," cried Mrs. Horton gayly. +"If we are going to have that long-promised picnic before we go home, I +for one think it is high time we set a day." + +Sunny Boy, lingering in the doorway, heard Grandpa grumble a little as he +always did if anything was said about their going home. + +"No reason why you shouldn't stay here all Summer," he scolded. "Or if +you want to be nearer Harry, Olive, leave the boy with us. You know we'd +take good care of him." + +"I know you would; but I couldn't leave my baby," Mrs. Horton said +quickly. "Bessie, my sister, you know, has a plan--" + +But Araminta called Sunny just then and he ran off without hearing about +Aunt Bessie's plan. + +Sunny Boy had a plan of his own, and he was determined to carry it +through. This was nothing less than to go and hunt for Grandpa's lost +Liberty Bonds. + +"For I know that kite fell down right by the old walnut tree," said Sunny +Boy to himself for the twentieth time. "I saw it go down--swish! I'll bet +Grandpa didn't look under the right tree." + +Without much trouble he coaxed a big piece of gingerbread from +Araminta--who was very curious to learn where he was going--which he +crowded into his pocket. Expecting to be gone a long time, he took an +apple from the basket on the dining-room table and two bananas. Bruce, +lying on the back door mat, decided to go with him, but Bruce was +beginning to get the least little bit fat and old, and when he had +followed Sunny as far as the brook pasture and saw that he had no +intention of stopping to rest under the trees, that wise collie dog +turned and went back to the house. + +"Hey, there! Where are you going this hot day?" Jimmie, setting out +tomato plants in a side field, shouted to him. + +Sunny Boy waved his hand and plodded on. He was a silent child when he +had his mind fixed on a certain thing, and he was intent on finding those +bonds this morning. + +The sun was hot, and when he reached the pretty brook the water looked so +clear and cool that Sunny was tempted to go wading. Only he had promised +his mother not to go in the water unless some one was with him, and then, +too, wading would delay the hunt for the bonds. He walked along the bank +until he came to the uneven line of stones piled together to make a +crossing. + +"I spect it wabbles," said Sunny Boy aloud, putting one foot on a stone, +which certainly did "teeter." + +He started to cross slowly, and in the middle of the stream his right +foot slipped--splash!--into the icy cold water. + +"My land sakes!" gasped poor Sunny Boy, who was certainly acquiring a +number of new words, much to his mother's worry. "I guess that water's as +cold as--as our icebox at home." + +With one wet foot and one dry foot he finished his journey and landed +safely on the other side of the brook. He was hungry by then, and so sat +down to eat the gingerbread under a large tree whose roots had grown far +out over the water. + +"Tick-tack! Tick-tack! Tick--t-a-c-k!" scolded some one directly over his +head. + +"Don't be cross, Mr. Squirrel!" said Sunny Boy politely. "Grandpa says +when you make a noise like that you're either frightened or want folks to +go away and not bother you. I'm going in a minute." + +Throwing the crumbs of the gingerbread into the brook for the little fish +to enjoy, Sunny Boy marched straight for the woods. He had never been +there alone, and somehow they seemed darker and deeper than he remembered +them when Grandpa or Daddy had been with him. + +"I'll begin to look now," said Sunny, talking to himself for company. And +how small his voice sounded, and thin, under those tall, silent trees! + +"Maybe I'll see a Brownie," Sunny continued. "I think Bruce might have +come all the way. What was that?" + +A twig snapped under his foot with a sharp noise. Noises are always +creepy when one is alone in a strange place. Sunny sat down to rest a +minute, on a half-buried tree-stump. + +A black beetle came out, ran along a weed-stalk, climbed up to the top +and sat there, regarding Sunny steadily. + +"Do you like living here?" asked Sunny politely. "I wish you could talk, +Mr. Beetle. Maybe you've seen the Lib'ty Bonds somewhere an' you'd tell +me just where to look." + +The beetle winked his beady eyes rapidly, but of course he didn't say a +word. + +Presently a striped chipmunk appeared on a stump opposite the one where +Sunny sat, and he, too, stared at Sunny intently. + +"I'm going! I'm going right away!" Sunny assured the chipmunk hastily. +"Daddy says you wood folks like to be alone. I wouldn't hurt you, but I +s'pose you don't know that." + +He trotted along, eating the bananas as he went. There were so many +things to look at and think about that sometimes he almost forgot the +Liberty Bonds. Almost, but not quite. + +"'Cause I just have to find 'em," he told a blue jay that sat up in a +tree and listened sympathetically. "I'm mose sure Grandpa didn't look in +the right place. An' won't he like it when I come home with them in my +pocket!" + +Sunny was so pleased with this idea that he gave a little shout and threw +his cap up into the air, which so alarmed the blue jay that it quickly +flew away. + +Sunny Boy was marching steadily, hands in his pockets, when he saw +something near a stone that made him stop to look. It was a turtle. + +"Why didn't you run?" Sunny demanded, picking up the turtle carefully, as +he had seen Jimmie do. "Maybe you're the one Grandpa carved his initials +and the date on when he came here to live. Are you?" + +The turtle kept his head obstinately in. Very likely he objected to being +picked up and looked at so closely. Sunny brushed him off neatly with his +clean handkerchief, and, sure enough, on the shell he found a date +carved. + +"I can't read it," mourned Sunny aloud. "But I guess you're not Grandpa's +turtle, 'cause you haven't any initials on you. I wish you'd put your +head out, just once." + +But, though he put the turtle gently on the ground again and kept very +still for at least five minutes, the queer, narrow little head stayed +safely in its shell house. The turtle did not run away. + +"Guess he thinks I'll catch him if he runs," thought Sunny. "I'd like to +keep him if he was little. Jimmie says little turtles are nice to keep in +the garden. Maybe I can find one on the way back, and build him a little +house under Grandma's rose bushes." + +Sunny went on, and soon he was sure that he was coming to the place where +he had seen his kite fall. To be sure, the inside of the woods looked +very different from the outside, and Sunny began to understand why he and +Grandfather had not found the bonds as easily as they had hoped to. +Still, he felt he was "getting warm" as they say in the games of seeking, +and he began to look about him closely. + +"It was right here--" His apple fell out of his blouse and he stooped to +pick it up. He sprang up with a shriek and ran screaming toward an +opening in the woods. + +"It was a snake--a great, big, nasty, bitey snake!" he sobbed. "I put my +hand right on it--all slippy and cold!" + +He looked back--was it a snake after all? What was that curved black +thing that lay there so quietly at the foot of a tree? + +Then Sunny Boy did a very brave thing indeed. He was all alone, remember, +and there was no one to laugh at him had he gone on home believing that +he had touched a snake. But he liked to be very sure in his own mind, and +he went back, cautiously and ready to run if a twig snapped, but back, +nevertheless, to the place where he thought he had seen the snake. Any +one, you know, may be frightened, but to face the fear and see if it is +an afraid thought, or something really scary--that takes a truly brave +person. And always afterward Sunny Boy was to be glad that he had had the +courage to go back and see. + +For his snake was only an old twisted tree root, after all! + +"But I guess it's dinner time, an' I can come again an' look for the +bonds," he told a chipmunk. "Maybe Jimmie will come to-morrow and help +hunt." + +This time Sunny Boy crossed the stone crossing without getting either +foot wet and he was half way up to the house when he saw Peter and Paul +standing hitched to the fence. They had been hauling the tomato plants +for Jimmie and Grandpa, who was always kind to the farm animals, had +ordered them to be unharnessed and tied in the shade while the plants +were being set out. + +"No horse likes to be anchored to a wagon when 'tisn't necessary," said +kind Grandpa. + +"Jimmie's always saying he will let me ride Peter," grumbled Sunny Boy, +looking very little as he stood by the fence, fumbling with the strap +that tied Peter fast. "Pretty soon we'll be going home, Mother says, and +I won't ever learn to ride." + +Sunny's busy, mischievous fingers had untied the strap as he talked, and +now Peter could have walked away to the barn and his dinner, had he only +known it. He didn't though, and so he was very much surprised to feel +little feet digging into him as Sunny Boy scrambled desperately to get on +his back. Peter and Paul were fat and slow or they never would have stood +the antics of Sunny as that small person, clinging to Peter's mane, and +using Paul as a kind of step-ladder, pushed and pulled and climbed till +he found himself where he wished to be--on Peter's broad back. + +"Gee, you're a tall horse!" he observed, gathering the halter strap in +one hand as he had seen Jimmie take the reins. "Oh, there's what you +ought to have on--I didn't see it." + +The bridles and reins lay on the ground where Jimmie had dropped them +when he had unharnessed the horses from the wagon. But Sunny Boy was not +minded to get down after such a trifle--he had had too much trouble to +secure his present seat. + +"Gid-ap!" he said loudly, and jerked the halter strap. + +Over in the field, Jimmie straightened an aching young back and gazed in +amazement. + +"Say--hey, Sunny--Sunny Horton! Get off that horse--do you hear me?" he +shouted. + +Sunny Boy heard. He turned and grinned impishly. He delighted to plague +Jimmie, and he was having fun guiding Peter. + +Then Jimmie rather lost his head. Had he kept still, Peter would probably +have ambled gently about the meadow, perhaps turned into the road that +led to the house and barn, and Sunny's adventure might have been a very +mild one. But Jimmie was frightened, and in his fear he did the one thing +that could have brought about what he feared. He leaped the fence and +came running toward the horse. + +"Gid-ap, Peter! Go 'long! Hurry!" Sunny slapped the strap smartly across +old Peter's neck. + +That easy-going horse was not used to such treatment, and he broke into a +trot. Jimmie began to shout and wave his arms. Then Peter broke into a +gallop, taking great, long easy strides that seemed to cover miles of +ground to Sunny's excited eyes. + +"You kind of bump!" he gasped, as the horse galloped on. "I +wonder--will--I--fall off!" + +Peter snorted. He had forgotten how it felt to be running free, and +perhaps he was pretending he was a young colt again. He paid no more +attention to the small boy on his back than if Sunny Boy had been a fly. + +Around and around the field they tore. Jimmie's shouts had brought +Grandpa, and together the two watched in terrible anxiety. + +"I'd get on Paul and chase 'em, but Peter can outrun him any day!" Jimmie +almost sobbed. "Say! I know what will do it. You wait, sir." + +He ran up to the barn and came back with a peck measure of corn. Paul saw +the long yellow ears and whinnied with pleasure. + +"You don't get any," Jimmie informed him. "Lucky they hadn't had their +dinner," he said to Grandpa. He stood out from the fence and rattled the +measure invitingly, and whistled. + +Now Peter was not a colt, however much he might enjoy pretending, and he +was getting tired of his gallop. Also he was hungry, and he had heard +Paul whinny. So when Jimmie whistled, the old, familiar whistle he always +gave when he came in the barn at feeding time, Peter turned and stared. +Yes, there he stood, down at the other end of the field, and yes, he had +corn with him. + +Peter slowed down to a gentle run, then to a half trot, and finally came +walking at his usual gentle gait straight up to Jimmie and Grandpa. + +"Sunny, Sunny, what will you do next?" groaned Grandpa, lifting him down. +"I hope your mother didn't see this--she would be frightened to death." + +"It didn't hurt me," urged Sunny Boy, beginning to wonder if he had done +wrong. "I is bumped a little, but I wasn't afraid, Grandpa. Was Jimmie?" + +"You young imp!" Jimmie swooped down upon him and hugged him so hard +Sunny squirmed uneasily. "You bet I was scared! I thought every minute +you'd tumble off. And now do you want to ride up to the barn with me, or +have you had enough?" + +"I'll ride with you," said Sunny firmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SUNNY'S GOOD LUCK + + +"There!" Grandma, a pretty picture in her white dress that matched her +white hair, closed the side door. "Now we're really started." + +She and Grandpa and Mother and Sunny Boy were going for their +long-talked-of picnic in the woods. Araminta had the day for a holiday +and had gone merrily off to town to buy herself a new frock. Sunny had +wanted Jimmie to come to the picnic, but Jimmie, too, was away. He had +gone down to the city to sell hay for Grandpa. So it happened that just +the four were to spend the day in the woods. + +"What we'll do without you, Sunny," said Grandpa, as they walked ahead, +"I'm sure I don't know." + +"But I'll send you some of the sand," urged Sunny cheerfully. "And a +seashell, Grandpa." + +For this was Aunt Bessie's plan. She had written Mrs. Horton that she and +a friend, a teacher, had taken a cottage at the seashore for the month of +August, and they wanted Sunny Boy and his mother to come and spend that +month with them. The cottage was near enough to the city for Mr. Horton +to go down every night and stay with them. + +"And two weeks from to-day," Mrs. Horton had told Sunny Boy as he brushed +his hair that morning, "you will be going down to the beach with a tin +pail and shovel, I expect, to play in the sand." + +Grandpa, carrying two boxes of lunch and a little camp chair that folded +up--because Grandma had aches in her joints if she tried to sit on the +ground--smiled down at his grandson. + +"Oh, well, we shall just have to have as much fun as we can while you're +here," he said firmly. "Let's have a perfectly fine picnic with all the +sandwiches we can eat to-day." + +"Yes," agreed Sunny enthusiastically. "Let's." + +"Sunny, what have you found there?" asked Grandpa after a while. + +"It's a bird," said Sunny pitifully. "A poor, little dead bird, Grandpa. +See?" + +He brought back the little feathered body he had found at the foot of a +tall oak tree, and showed them. + +"It's a baby robin," said Grandma, touching the little thing gently. "It +must have fallen out of the nest. Don't grieve, lambie, nothing can hurt +the little bird now." + +"I want to bury it," insisted Sunny, tears running down his face. "I +don't want to leave it on the ground, Grandma." + +"All right, you shall bury it," said Grandpa soothingly. "I'll help you. +Mother, you and Olive walk along slowly and we'll catch up to you." + +So Grandma and Sunny's mother walked ahead, and Grandpa began to help +Sunny bury the baby robin. + +First, they found a wide, smooth green leaf that grew in the woods and +wrapped this about the dead bird and fastened it with the sharp little +thorns that grew on another plant and which were every bit as good as +pins. + +"Now you gather the prettiest fern leaves you can find," directed +Grandpa. "And I'll dig him a little grave." + +When Sunny Boy came back with his hands full of soft fern leaves, Grandpa +had a little square hollowed out in the earth, under a Jack in the Pulpit +plant. + +"We'll line it with ferns, so," he said, arranging the leaves Sunny Boy +brought him, "and then we'll put the bird in so, and cover him up +carefully. There! Now we'll leave him in his nice, green bed, dear, and +not be sorry for him any more. + +"I see Bruce just ahead. Grandma and Mother must be near." + +They came up to them in a minute, and Sunny Boy suddenly discovered that +he was hungry. + +"But it isn't time for lunch yet, precious. Take this apple and try to +wait a little longer, do," said his mother. + +"Feels like a thunderstorm," declared Grandma, sitting down on her +camp-stool to get her breath after the walk. "Well, Bruce will tell us in +time, won't you, old fellow?" + +"How?" asked Sunny curiously. + +"He's afraid of thunder," explained Grandma. "Years ago when he was a +young dog he was out hunting rabbits or squirrels one summer night and a +big thunderstorm came up. We always think he must have seen a tree +struck, or been stunned by a flash, for he came home dripping and +shivering. And ever since--though that was a long time ago--he begins to +shake and wants to hide whenever he hears thunder." + +The woods did not seem dark and still, now that Sunny had company with +him, and he took Grandpa over to the place where he and Daddy had gone +fishing. They decided not to try to catch any fish that day, but Sunny +took off his shoes and stockings and went wading. + +When he came out, and had his shoes and stockings on again, Mrs. Horton +spread a white cloth on a flat rock and she and Grandma began to get the +lunch ready. + +"Sunny, which would you rather have," Grandpa asked him, "white cake or +black cake?" + +"White, I guess," said Sunny. "Or no--chocolate, I think." + +"Well, well, if that isn't lucky!" cried Grandpa, pretending to be much +relieved. "Grandma has put in both kinds!" + +Indeed there were all kinds of goodies in those boxes--chicken and ham +sandwiches, eggs, potato salad, white cake and black, a vacuum bottle of +cold milk for Sunny and one of hot coffee for the others. + +"There's a spider!" shouted Sunny Boy as they sat down to eat. "Look, +Grandpa, he going right into the cake." + +"Oh, spiders and ants and little creatures like that like to come to a +picnic," answered Grandpa, scooping up the spider on a bit of cardboard +and putting him down carefully on a bush near by. "Mr. Spider'll go home +to-night and tell the folks all about the little boy he saw in the woods +to-day with his mother and his grandmother and his grandfather having a +picnic. And little Sallie Spider will say, 'What were they eating, Daddy? +Did you bring me any?'" + +"I'll sprinkle crumbs for him to get afterward," planned Sunny. "The +fishes had them last time, and now it is Mr. Spider's turn." + +Presently, when no one could eat another bite, Mother and Grandmother +folded up the cloth and put the sandwiches left over in one box. All the +odds and ends were put down on a paper plate for Bruce to eat, and then +Grandpa dug a hole in the ground and he and Sunny Boy buried the papers +out of sight. + +"For I won't let any one build a fire in my woods in July when we're +needing rain so badly and every stick is like tinder," said Grandpa +sturdily. "And we won't leave a messy picnic ground, even if it is our +own, shall we?" + +Mrs. Horton had her knitting, and she and Grandma sat and worked and +talked quietly while Grandpa and Sunny Boy went off together to try to +find a sassafras bush. Just as they had found one and Grandpa had taken +out his knife to cut a twig for Sunny to taste, Bruce ran into him and +nearly knocked him down. + +"Grandpa! Grandpa! Something's the matter with Bruce! Is he sick?" Sunny +Boy was a little frightened at the strange way the dog acted. "Look at +him! He's trying to walk on me." + +"He hears thunder," said Grandpa quietly. "He's trying to get you to hide +him. Funny, I haven't heard a rumble. But you can trust Bruce. He never +fails to tell us. We must hurry and get Mother and Grandma back to the +house before it rains." + +They walked back as fast as they could to where they had left the others, +and found Mrs. Horton folding up her knitting. + +"We thought we heard thunder," she said, as they came up to her. "I think +it is clouding up, too. Why how funny Bruce acts! Is he sick?" + +"He's trying to tell us a storm is coming," replied Grandpa. "There, +there, Bruce, don't be so silly. We're going home, and you can hide under +the barn floor and never even see the lightning." + +The sun, which had been shining down through the trees, had gone under a +cloud, and the branches about them began to rustle as the wind swayed +them. + +"I'm afraid we'll have a heavy storm," said Grandma anxiously. "We have +had such a long dry spell and it's been so hot. I'd hate to be caught +among these trees in a heavy wind." + +"Don't worry, Mother," replied Grandpa. "We'll be home before the first +drops come. Shall I carry you, Sunny?" + +Sunny, who was running to keep up with them, shook his head. He did not +want to be carried like a baby. Soon it grew darker and darker and the +wind began to blow in earnest. He pressed closer to Grandpa. + +"Don't be afraid," said Grandpa kindly. "We'll be out of the woods in +another minute and then we'll scoot across the brook and be home." + +He put out a hand to help Grandmother, when with a tremendous blast a +gust of wind made them all stop to catch their breath. They saw it bend a +tree at the edge of the clearing and heard the tree snap loudly as it +broke and fell across the path. Bruce howled--he was nervous, poor +animal. + +"Mercy!" gasped Grandma. "I said we'd have a bad storm. There! I felt a +raindrop. My father always said the worst was over when the rain began." + +They hurried on, anxious not to get wet, and Sunny Boy was the first to +reach the fallen tree. + +"We have to go over it," he shouted back, and began to scramble up, +holding on to the branches. + +"Grandpa," they heard him scream a moment later. "Hurry! Come quick! +Here's my kite! The Lib'ty Bonds kite!" + +Sure enough, there it was, just as it had caught in the tree--the missing +kite. And still pasted to the strips of wood were Grandpa's two +five-hundred-dollar Liberty Bonds! + +"No wonder we couldn't find 'em!" cried Sunny Boy, dancing with +excitement. "I knew I saw it fall in a tree! Won't Daddy be glad!" + +"We're all glad," declared Mother, kissing him warmly. "Isn't it just +wonderful to think that the same little boy who lost the bonds should +also find them?" + +"It's been a lucky picnic, surely," said Grandpa. "After a hard rain +those bonds wouldn't have been worth much to any one." + +"Well, they won't be worth much now if we all stand here and get soaked," +announced Grandma practically. + +At that they all took hold of hands and ran across the meadow, over the +bridge of stones, and up to the porch. And the moment they were safely +under shelter, how the rain did pour down! Just as if, Sunny said, it had +been waiting for them to get home before it showed what it really could +do. + +"Mother," asked Sunny Boy that night, as he sat on the foot-board of the +bed in his blue pajamas and watched her brush her hair. They were all +tired after the excitement of the picnic and the finding of the bonds, +and every one was going to bed at Sunny's bed time, even Grandpa. +"Mother, will I take my sand-box to the seashore?" + +"Oh, no, precious," she assured him. "Why, you'll have a whole beach of +sand to play in. And the bathing suit I bought for you to wear here and +which you haven't had on because the brook water is so cold! Perhaps +Daddy will teach you to swim." + +"Yes," agreed Sunny Boy absently. And he tumbled back on the pillows, +thinking about the seashore and the ocean which he had never seen. + +It was not very long after the picnic that Mother and Sunny Boy left +Brookside and went to visit Aunt Bessie in her white cottage that faced +the ocean. And if you want to hear about the good times Sunny Boy had +there and what he thought the waves were saying to him when he got up in +the night to listen, you'll have to read "Sunny Boy at the Seashore." + +THE END + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE SUNNY BOY SERIES +By Ramy Allison White + +Children, meet Sunny Boy, a little fellow with big eyes and an inquiring +disposition, who finds the world a large and wonderful thing indeed. And +somehow there is lots going on, when Sunny Boy is around. Perhaps he +helps push! In the first book of this new series he has the finest time +ever, with his Grandpa out in the country. He learns a lot and he helps a +lot, in his small way. Then he has a glorious visit to the seashore, but +this is in the next story. And there are still more adventures in the +other books. You will like Sunny Boy. + +1. SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY +2. SUNNY BOY AT THE SEASHORE +3. SUNNY BOY IN THE BIG CITY +4. SUNNY BOY IN SCHOOL AND OUT +5. SUNNY BOY AND HIS PLAYMATES +6. SUNNY BOY AND HIS GAMES +7. SUNNY BOY IN THE FAR WEST +8. SUNNY BOY ON THE OCEAN +9. SUNNY BOY WITH THE CIRCUS +10. SUNNY BOY AND HIS BIG DOG + +BARSE & HOPKINS +Publishers +New York, N. Y.--Newark, N. J. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE BOY SCOUT LIFE SERIES +Published with the approval of +The Boy Scouts of America + +In the boys' world of story books, none better than those about boy +scouts arrest and grip attention. In a most alluring way, the stories in +the BOY SCOUT LIFE SERIES tell of the glorious good times and wonderful +adventures of boy scouts. + +All the books were written by authors possessed of an intimate knowledge +of this greatest of all movements organized for the welfare of boys, and +are published with the approval of the National Headquarters of the Boy +Scouts of America. + +The Chief Scout Librarian, Mr. F. K. Mathiews, writes concerning them: +"It is a bully bunch of books. I hope you will sell 100,000 copies of +each one, for these stories are the sort that will help instead of hurt +our movement." + +THE BOY SCOUT FIRE FIGHTERS--CRUMP +THE BOY SCOUTS OF THE LIGHTHOUSE TROOP--McCLANE +THE BOY SCOUT TRAIL BLAZERS--CHELEY +THE BOY SCOUT TREASURE HUNTERS--LERRIGO +BOY SCOUTS AFLOAT--WALDEN +BOY SCOUTS COURAGEOUS--MATHIEWS +BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE--LERRIGO +BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL--GARTH +THE BOY SCOUTS IN AFRICA--CORCORAN + +BARSE & HOPKINS +Publishers +New York, N. Y.--Newark, N. J. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS SERIES +By OLIVER LEE CLIFTON +For Boys from 8 to 14 + +A group of resourceful boys living in a small town form a camping and +hiking club, which brings them all sorts of outdoor adventures. In the +first story, "At Log Cabin Bend," they solve a series of mysteries but +not until after some lively thrills which will cause other boys to sit on +the edge of their chairs. The next story telling of their search for a +lost army aviator in "Muskrat Swamp" is just as lively. The boys are all +likable and manly--just the sort of fellows that every other wide-awake +boy would be glad to go hiking with. + +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS AT LOG CABIN BEND +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS IN MUSKRAT SWAMP +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS AT SILVER FOX FARM +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS' CANOE CRUISE +THE CAMP FIRE BOYS' TRACKING SQUAD + +BARSE & HOPKINS +Publishers +New York, N. Y.--Newark, N. J. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS SERIES +By JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE +For Boys and Girls from 5 to 9 +Cloth Large 12 Mo. Illustrated + +The neighbors say "the two little Fellows" when they speak of Martin and +Jean. That is because this small brother and sister are always together. +You just have to think of them as a pair. + +The Fellows family live in Garnet, a busy city, but the two little +Fellows have a yard all their own in which to play, and a wonderful dog, +who is very wise indeed, for a playmate. Pleasantly exciting things +happen to Martin and Jean: sometimes little troubles ruffle them, but in +the main, this growing up day by day is very interesting and busy work. +The two little Fellows think so and as you read about them in these +books, you'll find you have made two new friends. + +1. THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS. +2. THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS START SCHOOL. +3. THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS GO VISITING. + +BARSE & HOPKINS +Publishers +New York, N. Y.--Newark, N. J. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sunny Boy in the Country, by Ramy Allison White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 26232.txt or 26232.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/3/26232/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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