Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue and Their Shetland Pony | Page 2

brother to speak first, since he was a year older than she.
"Not this time, messmates," answered Bunker Blue with a laugh,
calling the children the name one sailor sometimes gives to another.
"Not this time messmates. I've come up to get the ark."
"Oh, the ark!" cried Bunny. "Did you hear that, Sue? Bunker has come
up to get the ark!"
"Oh! Oh!" and Sue fairly squealed in delight. "Then we'll have a nice
ride in that. Wait, Bunker, till I put my doll away, and I'll come with
you. Wait for me!"
"And I'll come, too," added Bunny. "I can bring my boat with me.
'Tisn't all done yet," he added, "but I can whittle on it when we ride
along, and then I can sail it when we get to the dock."
"Now avast there and belay, messmates!" cried Bunker Blue with a
laugh, using some more of the kind of talk he heard among the sailors
that came to Mr. Brown's dock with boats of fish. "Wait a minute! I
didn't say I had come to give you a ride in the ark. I just came to get it."
"But you will let us ride, won't you, Bunker?" asked Bunny, smiling at
the tall boy.
"'Cause we'll sit just as still as anything," added Sue.

"And I won't touch the steering wheel--not once!" promised Bunny.
"I guess you'd better not--not after you once got almost run away with
in the big ark," said Bunker. "I should say not!"
"Oh, please let us come with you!" begged Sue. "We want awful much
to ride in the ark, Bunker!"
While the two children were talking to the tall boy another little girl
had crawled under the fence from the street, and was now standing near
Bunny and his sister. She was Sadie West, one of Sue's chums, and
when she heard Bunny's sister begging for a ride in the "ark" Sadie
said:
"Oh, Sue! is he going to take your Noah's ark away? I wouldn't let him
if I were you!"
"It isn't Noah's ark at all," Sue explained. "We call the big automobile,
that we had such a long ride in, the ark. It looks a little like a Noah's ark,
but it's bigger, and we can all get in it," she added.
"Oh!" exclaimed Sadie. "I thought Bunker meant he was going to take
your little ark, and all the wooden animals, away," she added.
"Not this time," said Bunker Blue. "Your father sent me up, Bunny, to
get the big auto--the ark, as you call it. It's got to be fixed, and I'm to
drive it to the shop over at East Milford. That's why I came up. Where's
your mother? I want to tell her I'm taking away the ark, so she won't
think some tramps or some gypsies have run off with it."
"I'll call her," Sue said, while Bunny kept on brushing the tiny
whittlings from his jacket and short trousers. And there was a queer
look on the face of Bunny Brown.
"What are you making, Bunny?" asked Bunker, as he waited for Sue to
go into the house and give her mother the message.
"Boat," Bunny answered.

"Pretty small one, isn't it?" inquired Bunker, who knew a lot about
boats and fish, from having worked at Mr. Brown's dock a number of
years. "Awful small boat."
"It's a lifeboat that I'm going to put on my big sailboat," explained
Bunny, for he had a large boat, with a real sail on it that could be raised
and lowered. It was not a boat large enough for him and Sue to ride on,
though Sue sometimes gave one of her dolls a trip on it. "I have to have
a lifeboat on my sailboat," Bunny went on, "'cause maybe a
scrumbarine might sink my big ship."
"That's so," agreed Bunker. "Well, Bunny, you go in and tell your
mother I'm going to take the ark, will you? I'm in a hurry, and I guess
Sue forgot what she went after. You go in and tell your mother."
"Yes, I'll do that," Bunny promised. "But can't we have a ride in the ark
with you, Bunker?"
"Not this time, Bunny!"
"Please, Bunker!"
"No, your father didn't say anything about taking you over to the East
Milford auto shop with me, and I don't dare do it unless he says so."
"Well, we can ask him," went on Bunny eagerly.
"No, I haven't time to run down to the dock again, and your father is
busy there. A big load of fish came in, and he has to see that they get
iced, so they won't spoil. Hurry and tell your mother--Oh, here she
comes now!" exclaimed Bunker Blue, as Mrs. Brown came to the