Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store | Page 5

you about--the grand crash in the make-believe hardware store.
With the help of Mary and Mrs. Brown, Bunny was pulled from beneath the wreckage. At first the little boy could hardly speak, and his mother, no less than Mary and Sue, was beginning to get frightened. But suddenly with a gasp Bunny found his voice, and his first question was:
"Did you get hurt, Sue?"
"No," she answered. "But I guess you did."
"Only a little crack on the head," Bunny replied, rubbing the place that hurt. "But who knocked down my high shelf? Did Splash get in and wag his tail?"
Sometimes the big dog did this with funny results.
"I guess I knocked down your shelf, Bunny," said Mary. "I'm sorry, but I didn't know you had a board on top of the doors."
"Did you have that, Bunny?" asked his mother.
"Yes'm, I--I guess I did," Bunny had to admit. "It was a high shelf for our hardware store. I had the washboiler up there!"
"No wonder there was a crash!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "It's a wonder you weren't hurt!"
"I guess the big ironing board fell on the stepladder first, and stayed there, and the rest of the things didn't hit Bunny because he was under the board," explained Mary.
And that is about how it happened. Bunny was under a sort of arch formed by the stepladder and the two ironing boards, and so was saved from being hit on the head by the heavy things. One of the overturned chairs, however, had struck him in the stomach, and this had rather knocked his breath out, which made him unable to talk for a little while.
"Well, I'm glad it was no worse than this," said Mrs. Brown. "Mercy sakes, though, the kitchen is a sight!"
"I don't mind! I'll clean it up," offered good-natured Mary. "The children have to play something in the house when it rains out of doors."
"Yes," agreed Mrs. Brown. "But they could have kept on playing grocery store. They didn't need to make a high shelf and put the big washboiler up on it to fall down when the door was moved the least bit!"
"I did that," confessed Bunny, anxious that Sue should not be blamed for what was not her fault. "I didn't know anybody would push the door."
"Well, it's a mercy it was no worse," remarked his mother. "And now, after you have helped Mary pick up the things, go on with your playing. Can't you play grocery instead of hardware store, Bunny, my dear?"
"Oh, hardware store is nicer, and we have all the things now," Bunny replied. "But I won't make any more high shelves."
The washboiler, the pans, and the scattered knives and forks were picked up, and then Bunny and Sue went on playing, using only the low ironing board shelf, which was made over the seats of two chairs. They took turns keeping store and doing the buying, and had a great deal of fun.
But even making believe keep a hardware store gets tiresome after a while, especially if there are only two playing, and after a while Bunny Brown and his sister Sue wanted something else to interest them.
"'Tisn't raining quite so hard now," Sue observed, after a look from the window.
"That's right!" cried Bunny. "Oh, say! Maybe we can go out in the barn and feed our alligators!"
"That'll be fun," agreed Sue. "And I guess they're hungry; don't you, Bunny?"
"Yes, I guess so. Let's go ask mother if we can feed 'em."
"I know she'll say yes, so I'll get some scraps of meat from Mary," said Sue.
As the rain was slackening and as Mrs. Brown knew that the alligators might need food, she told the children they could go out to the barn if they put on their rubber boots and coats.
"Aren't you afraid the alligators will bite you?" asked Mary, as she cut up some bits of meat for the children.
"Course not; we aren't afraid!" boasted Bunny. "They're only little alligators, and they're real tame."
One of the long-tailed, scaly pets given to the children by Mr. Bunn had been brought from the South where the Browns spent part of the winter, and later Mr. Brown had gotten some others. The alligators were kept in a tank of water in the barn. Bunny and Sue wanted the alligators kept in the house, but Mrs. Brown insisted that the barn was the place for pets of that sort.
Out into the rain storm, which was now almost over, went Bunny Brown and his sister Sue to feed the alligators. There were three or four of the scaly creatures, and as the children drew near the tank the alligators came crawling out of the water up on some bits of wood and stone that made a resting place for them. For alligators cannot stay under water all the while,