Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South | Page 8

look at the orange blossoms in the box, turned quickly and glanced at
the door as the pounding sounded again.
"I wonder who that can be," said Mother Brown, pausing with the box
cover in her hand.
"I'll go and see," offered Mr. Brown. "It's queer they didn't go to the
front door."
"Maybe it's somebody from the post-office come to take our orange
blossoms away," suggested Bunny.
"What would they do that for?" Sue wanted to know.
"'Cause," answered Bunny, "maybe the orange blossoms came to the
wrong place and have to go to somebody else, like that letter one day."
He was speaking of a time when the letter carrier left a wrong missive
at Mr. Brown's home, and came later to get it.
"Oh, these are daddy's orange blossoms all right!" said Mrs. Brown, as
she looked at the address on the box. "They came to him at his office
on the dock."
"Then who can it be?" asked Bunny, as the knock sounded again.
There came the sound of a bark as Mr. Brown opened the door, and
next the children heard their father exclaim:
"Well, you poor half-frozen fellow! Come in and get warm! Go on
away, dog!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "Let Wango alone!"
"Oh, it's Wango!" cried Sue, running to the door.
"Mr. Winkler's monkey!" added Bunny. "Did he bring him over to play

with us?"
"No, Wango seems to have come by himself," answered Mr. Brown,
and as soon as the door was opened wider in scrambled the monkey, a
stick of wood in one paw probably being what he had been pounding
on the door with. From the light of the lamp, which streamed out on the
side porch, the children could see a big black dog that, very likely, had
been chasing and barking at poor Wango.
"Go on away, dog!" cried Mr. Brown, and, stooping, he gathered up a
handful of snow from a corner of the side porch and threw it at the
barking animal, which then ran away.
Meanwhile Wango, the pet monkey that was a great favorite with
Bunny and Sue, came shivering into the room to get warm.
"Oh, you poor thing!" cried Sue. "I'll get you my coat to put on! You're
all shivery!" She started for the hall to get her garment, while Bunny
petted the wet head of the long-tailed animal.
"No, Sue! Don't take your coat," called her mother. "You'll get it
covered with monkey hairs. Wrap a floor rug around Wango if you
like."
"I'll do that!" cried Bunny, taking a small carpet rug up from the floor.
This he draped around Wango's shoulders, and the cold, shivering
monkey seemed to like it.
"Well, Wango, what made you come out this kind of weather?" asked
Mr. Brown, coming back to the table on which was standing the box of
orange blossoms.
"Maybe Mr. Winkler left the window open and he got out," said Sue.
"Don't monkeys like cold, Daddy?" asked Bunny.
"No, they come from warm, tropical countries," answered his father.
"They cannot stand the cold."

"Florida is warm, isn't it, Daddy?" asked Sue, as she helped wrap the
rug about Wango.
"Oh, yes, Florida, especially the southern part where oranges grow, is
quite warm," Mr. Brown answered. "There is no snow there."
"Then maybe we can find some monkeys when we go down!" Sue said.
"Won't that be nice, Bunny? We'll each have a monkey of our own."
"I'm going to teach mine to do circus tricks!" cried Bunny.
"Hold on! Hold on!" laughed Mr. Brown. "In the first place, there aren't
any monkeys in Florida--at least none running around wild as there are
in the South American jungles. And in the second place, what makes
you children so sure you are going to Florida?"
"You said you'd take us!" replied Bunny.
"I said I'd see," remarked his father. "Anyway, I have to go on business
to Georgia, not Florida, though your mother and I may take a trip to the
orange country later on."
"But if you went you'd take us, wouldn't you?" pleaded Sue.
"Oh, of course he would! Don't tease the children so!" exclaimed Mrs.
Brown. "And what are we going to do with Wango?" she asked, for the
monkey seemed quite contented now that he was in a warm, light room
with his two special friends, Bunny and Sue.
"I think Jed will be after him as soon as he finds his monkey is
missing," said Mr. Brown. "But let's get those orange blossoms in water,
to freshen them up. Mr. Halliday said he would send me some packed
in damp moss, so they would keep pretty well, but he told me to put
them in a bathtub full of water as soon as I got them and