Sunny Boy and His Playmates | Page 7

that crowd so easily. That was
what was worrying me all the time--I was afraid that a little chap like
you would be knocked down by that struggling crowd."
"I wish I could see the boy," said Mrs. Horton wistfully. "I would like
so much to thank him, and Daddy would, too. Don't you even know his
name, Sunny?"
Sunny Boy shook his head.
"I forgot to ask him," he admitted.
"Well, never mind," said Grandpa cheerily. He did not believe, he often
said, in feeling sad over things you could not help. "Perhaps we will see
him again. You would know him, wouldn't you, Sunny Boy, if you
should see him on the street?"
"Ye-s, I guess I would," answered Sunny Boy. "His coat was ripped in
the back and where it didn't button, and he wore a blue sweater with
green buttons. I would know the green buttons, Grandpa."
Grandpa Horton laughed, but Mrs. Horton and Grandma looked grave.
"I'd like to knit him a good sweater," said Grandma. "Like as not the
child needs warm things to wear."

"Boys wear old clothes to skate in, of course," Mrs. Horton said. "But
last night when Sunny Boy told me how rough and red his hands were
and that his skate straps were tied with string, I wondered if he wasn't a
boy from the River Section. He may need more than our thanks for
taking care of Sunny Boy."
"We'll go out and try to find him after lunch," promised Grandpa.
"Shall we, Sunny Boy?"
"Oh, yes, let's!" cried Sunny Boy joyfully. "Let's go skating again,
Grandpa."
And after lunch they put on their mufflers and overcoats and caps and
Sunny Boy hung his skates on his arm and they set out for Wilkins Park
and the skating pond.
But first Mother had to kiss Sunny Boy and Harriet had to kiss him and
they all waved their hands to him till he and Grandpa turned the corner
and could not be seen from the house any more.
"We have to find the big boy, don't we?" said Sunny Boy, trying not to
gasp as the wind blew down the avenue and almost took his breath
away.
"Yes, we must be on the look-out for him," Grandpa Horton replied. "I
have an idea he may be at the pond."
But, though they looked carefully when they came to the skating pond,
they could not find a boy who looked like the one Sunny remembered.
The pond was crowded again with skaters and they were laughing and
singing as though they had never heard of the ice cracking.
Sunny Boy put on his skates, and this time he had better luck with his
lesson. Grandpa said he was doing finely. And, indeed, he did not fall
down more than twice, and one of those times, as he explained, was a
mistake. Another boy skated into him and "tipped him over," Sunny
Boy said. Just as Grandpa said it was time to stop, Sunny Boy looked
up and saw his friend, the tall policeman, standing on the shore.

"Hello!" called the policeman, as Sunny Boy and Grandpa Horton came
close to the shore. "Thought you'd try it again, did you? Where were
you yesterday during the big excitement?"
Sunny Boy sat down on the bank to take off his skates and Grandpa
Horton told the policeman what had happened to them.
"Do you know, I thought about the little chap," said the policeman
kindly. "I knew you were with him; but I said, suppose the crowd tears
'em apart from each other? I know what a crowd can do when it loses
its head, you see. All the time I was telling girls they were not drowned,
I kept one eye open for the little boy, but I didn't catch a glimpse of him.
You say an older lad pulled him ashore?"
"Yes, and he ran away when I said I was going to try to find you," said
Sunny Boy, standing up, now that the skates were off. "He was just as
nice, but he is afraid of policemen."
"Then he is a silly boy, and you tell him I said so," answered the tall
policeman promptly. "Of course a bad boy might not want to see me;
but this was a mighty good lad, to my way of thinking. He has an old
head on young shoulders, to get you out of such a mix-up without a
scratch."
But the policeman could not tell them who the big boy was, of course;
and after they went home, and found that Mother and Grandma had a
bowl of good, hot, buttered popcorn for them, Sunny Boy and Grandpa
continued to talk about the lad in the poor, torn coat and to